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If Smartphones Were Designed Like Power Tools

Jungha Lee's Hilti phone concept

By Rain Noe - September 23, 2015

in Object Culture

As I've said time and again, I hate that talented smartphone designers produce beautiful glass rectangles that we have to bury inside bulky protective cases, obscuring the design details they slaved over. I'd much rather the protection was built in from the start. I take no joy in "individualizing" my phone with a protective case; I just want the darn thing to work, and to not break whenever it flies out of my butterfingers.

For the phone not to break is more important to me than slimness. Which is why the following concept design from Sweden-based industrial designer Jungha Lee is looking pretty good to me. Lee asked himself: "Can we make a better mobile phone for use on construction sites?" He then set about conceiving what a Hilti-branded smartphone would look like:

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I'm digging the physical slide button and the big-ass, presumably loud speaker on the back. The curved shape of the body looks like it would fit better in a pocket on the body. And this looks like something I could drop down a staircase with no ill effects.

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If the screen size looks dated, that's because it is: Lee conceived of the project back in 2010, when he was an ID student at Sweden's University College of Art. I wish his design had gone into production back then, and that the style had taken root; can you imagine how cool the ruggedized phones we'd have now would be?

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jared french

9 years ago

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This phone actually looks like a case a phone can fit into....While the effort is there, and it could sell in the thousands - and great you could throw it across a room - it looks chunky and not compelling at all. Good design in a smartphone shouldn't compromise, even for those of us who get dirty & work with our hands everyday. Owning an Apple Watch actually keeps your iPhone in better physical condition. Coupled with Gorilla Glass 4, the 8000 aluminum in the 6S has proven worthy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=EPGzLd8Xwx4

Your phone is more than a phone - and shouldn't match your job site radio. I spend all day & night in shops and job sites, but there's no way I'd appreciat a Hasbro-looking plastic phone.

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- jared french
  
  jared french
  
  9 years ago
  
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  ...and get a nice handmade leather sleeve made for your beautiful glass rectangle, buy some bluetooth work ear muffs, an Apple Watch and you're good to go; won't need to take that chunky stud finder to the bar after a hard day's work
  
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  - Sean Horita
    
    jared french
    
    9 years ago
    
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    I think the fact that this concept was designed in 2010 makes it sort of irrelevant for appraisal in 2015, especially in a fast-moving category like mobile devices. Its totally a stud-finder...we might have thought it was awesome five years ago, but the mental models for high-tech + ruggedized I think have evolved during that time.
    
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  - Matthew Regonini
    
    jared french
    
    9 years ago
    
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    I agree with Sean. I have similar portfolio pieces from my college days that I wouldn't want anyone to see because they are dated and irrelevant to todays standards.
    
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Scott Brown

9 years ago

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Years ago I loved my nextel/motorola phone - built to military spec. Construction crews used them for their extreme durability and off-network, mile range walkie talkie capability. The phone was built like a tank- shock & water resistant, grippy, anti-slip, rubberized everything. The ear-speaker could be turned up so loud that you could have a conversation anywhere - jobsites & workshops over tool & machinery noise, in a vehicle on the highway with the windows down, etc.

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