Type of Mobile Phone

A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone, cell phone, and a hand phone) is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station.

A bar (also slab, block, or slate) phone takes the shape of a cuboid, usually with rounded corners and/or edges. The name is derived from the rough resemblance to a candy bar in size and shape. This form factor is widely used by a variety of manufacturers, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Bar type mobile phones normally have the screen and keypad all on one face. The Samsung SPH-M620 has a unique bar style, offering different devices on either side of the bar: a phone on one side, and a digital audio player on the other. Sony had a well-known 'Mars Bar' phone model CM-H333.

A touchscreen (or slate) phone is subsets of the bar form that, like a tablet computer, has few physical buttons, instead relying upon a touchscreen and an onscreen QWERTY keyboard. The first commercially available touchscreen phone was the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, released in 1994. Now quite common, well-known touchscreen smartphone manufacturers are Apple, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Mobile, and Sony.

A flip (or clamshell) phone consists of two or more sections that are connected by hinges, allowing the phone to flip open then fold closed in order to become more compact. When flipped open, the phone's speaker and microphone are placed closer to the operator's ear and mouth, improving usability. When flipped shut, the phone becomes much smaller and more portable than when it is opened for use.

A slider or slide phone is composed of usually two, but sometimes more, sections that slide past each other on rails. Most slider phones have a display segment which houses the speaker used for calls and for the phone's screen, while another segment contains the keypad or keyboard and slides out for use. The goal of a sliding form factor is to allow the operator to take advantage of full physical keyboards or keypads, without sacrificing portability, by retracting them into the phone when they are not in use. Many different companies have developed phones that slide. Samsung has the Corby and BlackBerry has the Torch.