So you thought flip phones were cool? Then you definitely missed the “LIPSTICK PHONE”! And this crazy lipstick-like phone was manufactured by none other than the mighty Nokia. I mean, Nokia was legit crazy. The company had so many weird looking smartphones back then and these were not prototypes, they were actual products which you could purchase! The Nokia 7280 dubbed the Lipstick Phone was one such masterpiece.
The phone has one of the coolest designs we have ever seen. Yes, even today, there is hardly any phone that can beat the “lipstick phone” when it comes to making a style statement. The Nokia 7280 was designed to look like a lipstick and it does a tremendous job in standing out when you use it as a phone. Imagine, it was so cool that the display acted as a mirror when it wasn’t turned on! Even better than a second screen right?
The phone had a mix of plastic, metal, leather, and even a piece of fabric. In fact, the Nokia logo stuck out of the phone on a piece of fabric, something similar to what we see on T-Shirts! It was legit crazy. It even had fur-like leather covering certain parts. Basically, the phone was designed to stand out and stand out it did!
Unsurprisingly, based on how small the phone is and its unusual design, it didn’t have a physical keypad, instead, you had to use a physical scroll button which is similar to the Apple iPod’s Click Wheel to navigate an on-screen keypad to type in phone numbers or texts. It also supported voice-input. Now imagine typing in this day and age with a scroll button! Explains why users of the lipstick phone had a really genuine reason for late replies.
The Nokia 7280 had a camera too! And you had to slide up the phone to reveal the VGA camera. Again, really cool! While the outside of the phone was all black with white stripes, when you slide up the device, you were welcomed with red interiors. Now you know why it got the “Lipstick Phone” moniker! Sliding the phone open or close also serves as answering and rejecting calls respectively.
Despite its flashy profile, the phone wasn’t a slouch when it came to key features. It supported GPRS edge along with Bluetooth which was a big deal in its time. Not to mention you could make calls, listen to music (media player included), and even capture and transfer photos on the device. It had a 700mAh battery which offered 3 hours of talk time.
So you must be thinking, if it was so cool, why didn’t it become famous and sell in millions? Well, you had to shell out 600 Euros for this baby! And even back then, that was a LOT for a phone! Clearly, this wasn’t a phone for the masses.
Now you know why the Nokia 7280 “Lipstick Phone” deserves a mention in our throwback series. When we see today’s manufacturers trying out sliders, pop-ups, and even port-less phones, we have to remember that Nokia was bolder, crazier, and more open to experimenting well before its first demise! Clearly, the Finnish brand is a real inspiration to the smartphone world!
I managed to find a decent overview of the device down below. Do watch it to see how cool the phone is in real life!
