Smartphone Facebook tracker Galaxy Note 7

The history of terrible phones, however, is pockmarked with models that were genuinely unique. Maybe they even offer some lessons for the companies designing new models even as we speak. Herewith, our picks for the 20 most memorably bad phones introduced since —plus another five that came oh-so-close to making our list.

The problem was that they were ugly, sluggish, rife with troubling design decisions social posts went out only periodically, not as you created them , and generally unappealing. Upshot: A Verizon exclusive, the Kins lasted only two months on the market before the carrier pulled the plug. The Storm ditched the iconic BlackBerry physical keyboard for a touchscreen—and when you pressed it, the entire display clicked, as if it were one giant key. Upshot: For years, RIM had built exceptional smartphones.

But there was nothing iPod-like about the phone, which was limited to a dinky total of songs and forced you to download them from a computer via a archaic, woefully slow USB 1. Mitigating factor: If all you wanted to do was make phone calls, the Rokr E1 was apparently competent enough. Upshot: After collaborating on the E1, Motorola and Apple went their separate ways and designed music phones on their own.

And Apple … well, you know. The N-Gage was optimized for gaming—in theory. Nokia tried to revive the N-Gage brand for a mobile gaming service in , but that effort only lasted a couple of years. The likely killer? And just in case any Note 7 diehards got any ideas about ignoring the recall, Samsung bricked their phones with a software update. Mitigating factor: If not for its battery hazards, the Note 7 would have been a hit, with a gorgeous curved display, long battery life, and a camera that could rival the iPhone.

That makes the Note 7 the rare bad phone that led to something good. The Microsoft CEO was there to help announce that Palm would release a Treo smartphone running Windows Mobile , an intermingling of two platforms meant to result in a phone with appeal for corporate buyers. The phone, when it arrived early in , was missing most of the software touches that made other Treos delightful.

It also felt like it lacked a soul. Upshot: The Treo w was followed by a marginally improved version, the wx, later in But the arrival of the first iPhone in January instantly turned all Windows Mobile devices into dinosaurs.

Palm went on to bet the company on an all-new phone called the Pre —and ended up being swallowed, and then destroyed, by HP. The Z10 was the first phone that ran on the BlackBerry 10 operating system, a belated and oft-delayed attempt to modernize BlackBerry phones for the touchscreen era. For all but the most serious BlackBerry devotees, there was no reason to even consider the Z10, and even those fans were better off waiting for the keyboard-equipped Q10 that launched later in the year.

Upshot: BlackBerry put on a brave face and kept loading BlackBerry 10 on new phones until , when the company finally gave up and started making Android phones instead. And the goal behind its Firefox OS—to provide an operating system for use in super-low-cost devices for emerging markets where even a cheap Android phone might be unobtainable—was laudable.

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And Firefox OS, which was supposed to be streamlined and simple, felt downright rudimentary. The platform never caught on, and Mozilla officially terminated it in A decade ago, two of the hottest applications for wireless phones were taking photographs and surfing the web. Like Vertu, Moto was fixated on the idea of building a phone that felt like a fancy hand-crafted wristwatch; the Aura even had a window that let you see the gears that rotated as you swiveled it open.

Mitigating factor: In , Moto released a special edition of the Aura to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

It presented the first unit to Neil Armstrong, who certainly deserved a free phone. Upshot: Companies such as Motorola saw luxe phones as a market unto themselves, with pricetags that put them out of the reach of mere mortals. It was as dumb as the dumbest low-end burner phone, with no internet access or apps. But the company gilded its lily with had high-end features like a ceramic case and discrete buttons. Even the metal screws were an upgrade from the plastic norm.

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Vertu, a spin-off from Nokia, was the brainchild of a prolific Nokia designer who proposed the idea of an ultra-luxury phone division in How much did it cost? Mitigating factor: The Constellation Blue featured an exclusive ringtone recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, which sounds pretentious but neat. Offenses: Given the rough shape of Windows Phone 7 at launch, Microsoft really needed some standout phones to put its new mobile operating system on the map. To take a screenshot on most Android phones, you simply press the down volume button and power button at the same time.

On Samsung's Galaxy phones, things are different: Instead of pressing the volume button, you press the power button and the home button at the same time. The downside is it requires two hands. But there's actually an easier way: Swipe your entire palm — I find holding my hand like in a chopping position to work best — from left to right on the screen.

If it's not already turned on by default, you'll need to turn it on. Samsung's TouchWiz UI and its myriad buttons and settings can be a daunting experience for less tech-savvy users. If, for some reason, you find the entire UI too convoluted, you can switch to an "Easy mode," view which includes larger icons and access to only basic apps like the phone, Internet browser, email and any apps that you approve.

It's great for your parents, grandparents and little children who freak out when they hit the wrong button and think they broke their phones. Fingerprints are the most secure way to protect your phone since no two fingerprints are the same. As futuristic as biometric security is, I'm always surprised when I see people still using a passcode or pattern lock on their fingerprint scanner-equipped smartphones. There are two different kinds of fingerprint locks on Samsung's flagship phones. The Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge use the older, less accurate swipe sensor where you have to swipe down from the display onto the home button.

The new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have an embedded fingerprint sensor just like the iPhone's TouchID, where you only have to place your finger over the home button. In addition to keeping your phone locked from prying eyes, your fingerprint s can be used to log into your Samsung account, sign in on web sites and verify PayPal purchases. One thing I really hate when the weather is cold is that I can't use my iPhone without 1 taking my gloves off and freezing my fingers off or 2 buying special gloves with touchscreen-friendly tips.

Galaxy users have no such problem; the phone's display sensitivity can be increased to work with regular, non-touchscreen gloves.

Performing a two-finger swipe down from the notification bar will also open up the quick settings menu where "Touch sensitivity" can be switched on and off. There is no glove-mode on the GS3. There's no greater fear than losing your phone and worrying about some thief accessing all of its contents. If you're smart, you'll have secured your phone with a passcode, pattern lock or even a fingerprint. Just like the iPhone's "Find my iPhone" feature, which lets you track and remote erase its data from a computer, Galaxy phones have a "Find My Mobile" feature.

To activate the feature you will need to create and log in with a Samsung account. If your device doesn't have the "Find My Mobile" feature, you can turn on its "Android Device Manager" feature and log into its companion website to do the same thing. It's a common misconception that the Galaxy Note phones are the only ones that can run two apps at the same time.