The Coolest, Futuristic Phone Concepts

We can already do a million and one things with the smart phones in our pockets, but who knows what phones will be able to do in the future. Contact lens phones, gold tooth phones, earring phones – the possibilities are endless. Here at Digital Trends, we’re personally rooting for the eye patch phone because if you want to be cool, you gotta wear an eye patch, mahn. Below are 10 cool concept phones that we came across while we were wakeboarding the Internet.

Tron phone

This phone will never be made, because it doesn’t work, but we think it’s pretty cool. This phone was designed by Andrew D. Morgan with inspiration from the Tron Legacy film. They essentially felt that the programs in the grid would need a way to communicate. Stay tuned for AT&T’s manufacturing of this phone once the grid becomes a real thing.

Likelihood of existing: Lower than grandpa’s … life expectancy?

Nokia 2030

This phone was designed by Jim Chan and it’s pretty cool looking. It would be made of titanium and glass, and you could attach colored film to the glass to customize it. The Nokia 2030 would be scratch-resistant and small, at only 2 x 4.75 x 0.25 inches and have a touchscreen. Oddly, it still has a physical phone number pad. Even with a super thin glass screen, it can’t hide its age.

Likelihood of existing: Somewhat low

Modai

This has to be our personal favorite among the concepts. It’s almost obnoxiously playful, but we like the functions they’ve created and the creativity. This isn’t the old smiley face on the Android text message icon, it’s a phone designed to express a more personal relationship with the cold, hard piece of technology that you so frequently communicate with. This phone would have facial-based icons based on what you’re doing, day/night themes, and a really cool alarm clock that lifts the phone to face you when it goes off. To turn the alarm off you simply press the phone back down to a horizontal position. The “peeling” function can also act as a notification, in lieu of a vibration. This phone is said to have the capability of responding to your emotions. This phone was designed by Julius Tarng.

Likelihood of existing: Pretty low

EmoPulse

Image used with permission by copyright holder

This phone is actually coming out. Whoa! This wristwatch phone is much sleeker than many other concepts that have floated through the market. There are plenty of smartwatches out there, but this watch has a bigger screen and seemingly more versatility. Not only will it have cool features, it will be using one of the fastest processors on the market. Using the OMAP 5, this phone will let you simultaneously display three HD videos or display one on a 3D screen. This phone will have 4G, of course, and USB 3.0. It will also have 128 – 256GB of internal flash storage for storing your files, most likely music. The battery will last you about two days. It’s also waterproof! So far, it looks like you’ll be spending about $550.00 on this little guy when it comes out at the end of the year.

Likelihood of existing: It’s actually coming.

iPhone PRO concept

iphone 5 pro — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The iPhone PRO concept by Jinyoung Choi is a phone for photographers. This phone concept might not be the most practical, but it is a really interesting concept. With camera phones going the way they are, it seems almost criminal that they don’t have better lenses. It looks as if you’d even be able to create a small projection from the lens, somehow, judging from the photos above. It’s an interesting concept, but most iPhone users probably don’t want to carry the lens around very often.

Sony has a similar phone concept that is actually coming out, for real. We are serious. You can read an article about it here.

Likelihood of existing: It’s already happening at Sony.

Next Page: Five more futuristic concept phones

Philips Fluid

This phone would be an OLED that can bend into something that fits on your wrist. It’s like the EmoPulse in that way, but it is not meant to be used while on the wrist and can be laid out flat. This is certainly one of the more high-fashion designs on this list, created by Brazillian designer Dinard da Mata. We’re pretty sure you could cuff someone in the face with it, if you had to, as well.

Likelihood of existing: Moderate, eventually.

Kambala

This is a phone that is designed to fit straight into your ear, like some kind of phone-bluetooth-headset-Frankenstein-monster. The really cool thing about this concept is the idea of the phone camouflaging with your ear once it’s on there. It seems as if the entire phone would have to be equipped with some kind of image sensor layer that could identify the colors of your skin/hair. It doesn’t look like it would be very comfortable, but since it’s not a real phone, it’s hard to tell. Designed by Ilshat Garipov.

Likelihood of existing: Pretty low

iPhone Next G

iphone concept — Image used with permission by copyright holder

“Ermahgerd, it’s like Star Wars or something!!!1” Yes, this is is a hologram phone. Actually, no, it’s a projector phone, but it looks kind of like a hologram. This phone is much like the projecting keyboards that currently exist, except it’s a wristwatch phone that projects onto your palm. This is a cool idea aesthetically and in working concept. We’re not exactly sure how this phone would account for hand size, but we’re pretty sure any would-be developers could make some way for it to calibrate that. Designed by Samuel Lee Kwon.

Likelihood of existing: Moderate, eventually.

Two-Sided, Transparent Touch Screen

docomo fujitsu — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This phone doesn’t look like much, but it could be a breakthrough in touch screen technology. This phone has a see-through touchscreen that can be operated from both sides. This concept was presented by Fujitsu and NTT DoCoMo last year and is pretty unique. Say what you will about the interface, which looks a little shoddy, but it is a kind of technology that we have not often come across as a possibility for the future. We are under the impression that this kind of technology could make a serious impact in the future.

Likelihood of existing: Pretty high, in some redesigned incarnation.

ZTE Eco-Mobius

ZTE phone — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This phone could change the world as we know it. The iPhone 5s is out, do you have it? Do you stand in line to get every new iPhone right when it comes out? That’s fine; however, it’s not great for the environment if you’re just throwing away the old one. Not to mention, it’s really inconvenient to find places where you can properly dispose of phones. This concept was designed to combat this problem. In order to keep up with the quickly changing world of phones, ZTE has developed a phone that you could easily upgrade piece-by-piece. The phone would be divvied up into: LCD, core, camera, and battery sections. Is your phone not fast enough anymore? Well, you can just switch out the RAM. Certainly you can only take part-upgrading so far before you need a new device, but this piece of equipment could conceivable last you a few more years than how long you are currently keeping your phones.

Phonebloks, which you can read about here, publicized the idea earlier this year and sought to raise money to make it happen, and it looks like it might. Motorola (owned by Google) is now involved in the project.

Likelihood of existing: Pretty high

If you liked this, you can also check out our article: The 9 Weirdest and Strangest Phones We’ve Ever Seen. That list includes a “brick of weed phone.”

The coolest futuristic phone concepts