The most intriguing canceled smartphones that were never released

For every great smartphone made available to the public, there are several that never make it off the drawing board. This is a natural consequence as companies develop new designs.

But there are also some select devices that were almost actually released before they were abandoned at the prototype stage. Here are some of the more interesting smartphones that were never officially released.

Essential Phone 2 and Gem

Essential only released one smartphone at a time, known as the Essential Phone, before the company closed. It was far from perfect thanks to barebones software and a disappointing camera experience, but it delivered great hardware, a constant stream of handy software updates, and made the display notch popular.

However, the company had at least two phones in the pipeline before the shutdown. An early prototype of Essential Phone 2 was revealed by Essential designer Kevin Hoffman. This looked like the same from the company, but the company had something strange up its sleeve in the Essential GEM device (see above).

This smartphone has a long design and a large screen that looks more like a smart TV remote control than an actual phone. It’s unclear if the device was running Android or why it took on the peculiar screen ratio, but we’re a little sad that we never had to try out Essential’s elongated phone.

Google Project Macaw

One of the most notable abandoned smartphones was Google’s Project Ara, which promised a bold future of modular smartphones. The 2013 project envisioned a world where you could easily add and remove modules as needed, such as: B. Microphones and speakers, a back wall, a stand, cameras and more.

Continue reading: 50 failed Google products were rated best to worst

Unfortunately, Google canceled this smartphone project in 2016, reportedly due to the company’s desire to “streamline” its hardware efforts. The Ara project was also pretty ambitious, promising that a lot of components could be swapped out. This no doubt added to the complexity of the project and limited its feasibility.

Fortunately, those who longed for a modular phone eventually had some options like the infamous LG G5. One of the better modular experiments was Motorola’s Z series. It wasn’t quite as ambitious, but it did allow users to add a better camera, projector, battery, and more through the Moto Mod system.

HTC Pixel 2 XL

The Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL were manufactured by HTC and LG in 2017, respectively. However, it turns out that HTC should make both phones. In fact, a rumor at the time claimed that the HTC Pixel 2 XL (codenamed Muskie) received some improvements and became the HTC U11 Plus.

In January 2021, however, a prototype of the HTC Pixel 2 XL appeared on YouTube, showing the characteristic pixel back with various zigzag patterns (presumably for identification and leak tracking).

One of the more polarizing features was the pair of thick bezels on the front that would have been a little dated even in 2017. It was a prototype, after all, so it’s possible that this wasn’t representative of the final design.

Microsoft Lumia McLaren

The beginning of 2014 was probably the watermark for the Windows Phone platform. It seemed like a viable third platform in some markets, and we had some great high-end devices like the Lumia Icon / 930 and Lumia 1520. Microsoft and Nokia should codenamed this momentum with a new Lumia flagship McLaren maintained the second half of the year, but the unit was unfortunately canceled.

Then, in 2016, Windows Central and Michael Fisher (aka Mr Mobile) reviewed a near-definitive prototype of the phone and came up with a rather interesting proposal. The phone has a 3D touch or hover touch feature that allows you to slide your finger across the screen to interact with it. This means you can preview messages or mute audio without touching the screen. These sensors can even lock the orientation or leave the screen on when it detects you are grabbing the phone.

Restart the Nokia N95

Another icon from the Finnish brand, the 2007 Nokia N95 featured a two-way slider design that could be slid up or down. When you slide the screen down, you get several handy multimedia buttons for playback controls. Slide the screen up and a physical keyboard will appear. If you put in a variant with 8GB of storage (a massive amount for a phone in 2007), a selfie camera for video calls, and a 5MP main camera, you had a pretty stacked device for the time.

Nokia brand licensee HMD Global investigated restarting the Nokia N95 and played around with it a range of slider designs. It ultimately decided against rebooting, but not before early prototypes were made for internal use.

Mr. Mobile picked up one of these prototypes again, which differed from the original in that it was moved horizontally instead of vertically. The slider hid a pair of selfie cameras and a speaker, so a screen without a hole cutout or notch was possible. It’s a pretty nifty design and we hope similarly innovative designs from the company get some kind of commercial release.

Samsung Project Valley

Some smartphone enthusiasts will no doubt be familiar with the dual-screen ZTE Axon M, which was launched back in 2017. The device lets you flip open the back screen to sit next to the main display, giving you more screen space to work. This seemed like the same approach Samsung was touting with its abandoned Project Valley smartphone.

Project Valley phone images (uploaded to Weibo and shared on Twitter in 2018) show a phone that at first glance looks like any device. A book-like hinge, however, meant you could fold out a secondary display to connect the main screen as well. In any case, this design looked pretty clunky and seems like a stopgap solution before phones with foldable screens arrived in 2019 and 2020.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 2

Sony Ericsson launched the Xperia Play back in 2011, and it’s still considered a great example of a gaming smartphone. It wasn’t a special beast, but its defining feature was the pull-out gamepad with two analog trackpads, the familiar D-pad and button layout, and two shoulder buttons.

See also: The best phones to play with

Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson never released a follow-up, but it turns out that an Xperia Play 2 was in the works and it was actually canceled. In September 2020, images appeared online showing an Xperia Play 2 prototype.

The pictures show a device that is largely similar to the original model, but also with a mysterious “3D” button. In any case, we’d love to see a modern PlayStation phone hit the market.

Xiaomi Mi Mix Alpha

The Mi Mix Alpha is one of the most iconic deleted smartphones on the list that was revealed too much fanfare in late 2019. The Xiaomi phone had a display that also wrapped around the back for a very distinctive design.

The rest of the Mi Mix Alpha was also a high-end device such as a 108-megapixel main camera, a Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC, 512 GB of storage, and 40 W fast charging for the 4,050 mAh battery. So what happened

Unfortunately, CEO Lei Jun confirmed in 2020 that he had abandoned plans to mass-produce the Mi Mix Alpha due to the complexity of manufacturing it. On the one hand, it’s disappointing that such a radical design has never seen a commercial release. On the flip side, the phone’s wraparound display posed some pretty big usability challenges, with false-touch detection and dropping durability being two major issues.

That’s it for our look at some of the most notable canceled smartphones! These are just a few of the phones that have never been around. Let us know in the comments which of the abandoned projects you wanted saw the light of day.