Top 10 Worst Smartphones Ever

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These smartphones sucked. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the worst of the worst in the world of smartphones.

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00:00 I was actually just sitting at my desk at work and then it pretty much exploded.
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the worst of the worst
00:07 in the world of smartphones.
00:09 We're all going to be wondering exactly what the manufacturers were thinking when
00:12 these came out.
00:13 The handset adjusts my view of the screen to give an impressive 3D effect.
00:18 Number 10.
00:19 Toshiba G450
00:20 Let's face it, in the early aughts, phone manufacturers were still trying to figure
00:24 out exactly what people wanted from their devices.
00:26 One such contraption was the Toshiba G450.
00:30 Is it an MP3 player, a phone, or a USB stick?
00:33 Apparently it was all three, but with one of the most peculiar designs ever seen.
00:37 One look at this gadget and you'd likely never guess it was ever intended to be a phone
00:41 at all.
00:42 With a ridiculous circular dial pad, even just trying to put a number in was tedious,
00:45 and the fact that some buttons arbitrarily changed functions depending on what screen
00:49 you were on made things worse.
00:51 No thanks Toshiba, stick to laptops.
00:53 Number 9.
00:55 Asus Garmin Phone
01:04 Today many vehicles leverage the power of their own mapping tech or apps like Google
01:08 Maps for navigation.
01:09 But Garmin made quite a name for themselves as a supplier of high quality outdoor GPS
01:13 systems, as well as in-car navigation.
01:16 Garmin released the Asus Garmin Phone, followed by several other attempts to capture their
01:19 slice of the smartphone market.
01:21 Unfortunately, their lack of experience in this space was clearly evident in their devices.
01:29 Poor battery life, a clunky interface, and a subpar camera were contributing factors
01:33 to this phone's failure.
01:35 Garmin bailed on their smartphone attempts by mid-2010.
01:43 Number 8.
01:44 Pantech Jest
01:45 If Apple and Samsung are the Gucci and Louis Vuitton of smartphones, then Pantech is probably
01:49 closer to a Walmart or Target.
01:51 That's not to say there's anything wrong with their devices, but they don't always
01:54 measure up to many others in today's market.
01:57 One such device was the Jest.
01:59 Aside from its slide-out keyboard, the most remarkable thing about this option is how
02:03 truly generic it is.
02:04 There's nothing inherently bad about the phone, it just comes off as more of an electronic
02:08 version of "meh".
02:10 As of today, Pantech no longer makes cell phones, and perhaps that's for the better.
02:16 Number 7.
02:17 HTC Evo 3D
02:19 Do you remember when 3D was all the rave?
02:21 Movies, TV, and even game systems were trying to cash in on the 3D trend.
02:26 We can look back now and see how short-sighted much of this was, but at the time, everyone
02:30 thought it was going to be the next big thing.
02:33 HTC, a fairly reputable cell phone manufacturer, tried to introduce 3D tech into their phones
02:38 with the HTC Evo 3D.
02:40 Its camera was supposed to be able to take 3D photos you could see without glasses.
02:44 The camera simultaneously grabbed images from different angles and produced stunning…
02:48 "I can't believe I'm seeing this on my phone" type moments.
02:51 Yet, much like the 3D TV experience, much of what customers got was underwhelming.
02:56 Aside from the gimmick, the phones themselves lacked anything notable, proving that a single
03:00 feature does not make a phone great.
03:02 The HTC Evo 3D is a phone that takes your mobile life into another dimension.
03:07 Number 6.
03:08 Microsoft Kin One
03:10 No one will ever argue that Microsoft has put out some stinkers over the years, but
03:14 their Kin line of phones brings failure to a whole new level.
03:17 To call them "smartphones" is a bit of a misnomer, given that all it really was intended
03:21 for was messaging on apps like Facebook and Twitter.
03:24 Sorry, X.
03:26 A small screen with a limited slide-out keyboard failed to impress anyone.
03:29 Apparently, even internal focus groups said the devices were terrible, but the company
03:34 pushed ahead anyway.
03:35 Clearly, those groups were right as it only took a couple of months for Microsoft to pull
03:39 the plug on the whole thing.
03:47 Number 5.
03:48 HTC First
03:49 For a time, it seemed that one popular social network was obsessed with creating the "Facebook
03:54 phone."
03:55 One such attempt was the HTC First.
03:57 It was the first – heh, get it?
04:00 – device to make use of Facebook Home.
04:02 Essentially, it was a re-skinned version of the Android Home and lock screen, made to
04:06 integrate with much of Facebook's features.
04:11 This was supposed to be the hook to get users to buy the device, but instead, all it did
04:15 was irritate them.
04:16 The lackluster hardware, combined with the excessive bloatware apps, pushed the phone
04:20 out of the market and forced Facebook to look elsewhere.
04:24 Number 4.
04:25 BlackBerry Storm
04:26 Years from now, business students will learn how even companies at the top of their game
04:29 can crumble for a lack of insight.
04:32 BlackBerry was the mobile device of choice with business users for years, but the release
04:36 of the iPhone in 2007 changed everything.
04:39 Research and Motion, the company behind BlackBerry, scrambled to come up with a viable competitor
04:44 and gave us the BlackBerry Storm.
04:48 Dumping their fan-favorite physical keyboard for a virtual one, it became overwhelmingly
04:52 clear BlackBerry was not great at software development.
04:56 Between the buggy touchscreen and a terrible app experience, the phone was hated by everyone.
05:04 They tried to fix their issues with the Z10, but it was too late.
05:07 Apple and Android had won this market.
05:10 Number 3.
05:11 Amazon Fire Phone
05:12 Will companies ever learn that sometimes you should just stay in your own lane?
05:16 The Amazon Fire Phone was another example of a company trying to release a mobile device
05:20 aimed exclusively at promoting its other services.
05:26 Facebook had failed the year before, and in 2014, Amazon found themselves in a similar
05:30 situation.
05:31 Perhaps the biggest mistake they made with this Android device was forcing users to go
05:35 through Amazon's own app store.
05:41 Google Play was purposely locked out of the devices, forcing users to find little to nothing
05:45 in the way of the apps they wanted.
05:47 A year later, production ceased on the device, and no one has missed it since.
05:51 But this is an arena where many more established tech players have fallen, and only two, Apple
05:56 and Samsung, make any real money.
05:59 Number 2.
06:00 Samsung Galaxy Note 7
06:01 We're pretty sure that Samsung should have used Amazon's naming for this device.
06:06 The Samsung Galaxy Fire Phone would have been a far more adept description of the smartphone.
06:10 So we went on a mission to create not just a big phone, but a phone that helps you do
06:14 big things.
06:15 Typically known for their high-quality devices, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was by all accounts
06:20 a fantastic smartphone, except for one small problem.
06:24 It was prone to spontaneously bursting into flames.
06:31 You know it has to be bad when the US Department of Transportation officially bans a phone
06:35 from being brought onto an aircraft.
06:37 Once news broke of how dangerous these could be, Samsung pulled the plug and managed to
06:41 recover, continuing to produce great products since.
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07:05 Number 1.
07:06 Nokia 7280 Nokia might have given us the unkillable
07:09 model 3310, but they certainly had their share of misses over the years.
07:14 Exactly what were they thinking when they tried to combine gaming and smartphone tech
07:17 with the N-Gage?
07:18 The real question mark, though, comes from their 7280 model released in 2004.
07:23 Nicknamed the "lipstick phone" from its shape, it looked more like an MP3 player than a phone.
07:28 More notably, it had no dial pad.
07:30 Instead, it featured a circular control that was some sort of hybrid child between a rotary
07:34 dial telephone and an iPod controller.
07:37 Although featured in a few music videos, the phone's poor interface killed any chance it
07:41 had.
07:42 Have you ever owned a terrible smartphone?
07:44 Did we miss it on this list?
07:45 Let us know how terrible it was down in the comments.
07:59 Thanks for watching!