10 Memorable Android Devices From Brands That Abandoned Android

© LG USA LG V60 Thinq Dual Screen Unlock

The smartphone industry has seen big changes over the past decade due to the massive rise in popularity of Android smartphones. At a time when the popularity of Symbian phones and the Windows operating system is declining, the introduction of Android phones has been a paradigm shift in the industry. Some brands have remained in the game with steady growth, while new ones have come in to make them more competitive.

As Android smartphones became more and more popular, some brands could not understand the nervousness of the buyers and could not accept the changing preferences. This eventually pushed them out of the market and out of people's hearts. Many new brands, especially Chinese ones, are starting to occupy the lower segments of the market, which leads to the gradual death of Android smartphones of long-forgotten brands. Let's take a look at all the popular smartphones from these brands that are no longer found in the Android smartphone segment.

htc dream

HTC Dream Data Phones with Horizontal Scrolling Touch Screen

All great industrial revolutions started small. For Android, it was HTC Dream - Americans know it as T-Mobile G1. After Google's historic acquisition of Android, the challenge was to create a smartphone that could compete with Symbian and the iPhone OS. HTC has become a favorite among all members of the established Open Handset Alliance. The result was the HTC Dream, the first Android smartphone to launch in the US in October 2008 under the name T-Mobile G1.

Despite the start of a new Android revolution, the design of the HTC Dream was far from perfect. It wasn't as sleek as its contemporary counterparts, including the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Bold 9000. However, it showed its ingenuity as a unique modern phone with a 3.2-inch touchscreen that you could swipe horizontally to access. to the entire device to get a qwerty keyboard. under. Unlike today's smartphones, the HTC Dream's touch screen does not have a built-in keyboard. So for typing, a QWERTY keyboard was the only option.

Below the touchscreen are five physical buttons on the HTC Dream: one for answering a call, ending a call, home, back, and menu. This smartphone brings top-notch features such as the notification bar and the Android Market for third-party apps (now known as the Google Play Store). This smartphone runs Android version 1.0, has a 1150mAh removable battery and is powered by Qualcomm MSM7201A SoC. It has 192MB of RAM, 256MB of internal storage (expandable up to 16GB) and a 3.15MP rear camera.

BlackBerry Key One

© Ewald Hoffmann / Shutterstock BlackBerry KeyOne

Released on May 31, 2017, BlackBerry KeyOne will forever be remembered as an attempt at bringing back BlackBerry, the iconic smartphone maker that lost track of the Android/iOS rivalry. Known for its innovative design, KeyOne received mixed reviews.

Let's start with the good ones. Traditional BlackBerry users, or even those who have used a BlackBerry phone at least once, have appreciated the presence of signing keys. Together with the combined design of the 4.5-inch Full HD touchscreen and the main QWERTZ keyboard, they give the BlackBerry KeyOne a unique look and feel. The 3505 mAh battery has phenomenal battery life on a single charge, only enhanced by effective battery-saving tricks running in the background. KeyOne's BlackBerry Hub introduced in Android 7.1.1 for all messaging services and gridview with recently used apps makes it much easier to use.

Now get acquainted with the secrets of BlackBerry KeyOne. The convenient button was annoying, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor was slow compared to the competition. The limited internal storage of 32GB and the lack of a dual SIM option limited its versatility as a business phone. The combination of 12MP rear camera and 8MP front camera performed slightly above average, especially in low light conditions.

Thus, the BlackBerry KeyOne is not a full-fledged business phone. The bright and elegant design was more of a gimmick than a user-friendly design, and its downsides outweigh the benefits it offers. BlackBerry tried to fix this half-hearted attempt with Key2, but the damage has already been done.

htc one x

© SlashGear Using the camera feature of HTC One X

The HTC One X is one of the most memorable smartphones of the last decade, and the HTC One X is the best of three devices released by the Taiwanese company in February 2012 as part of the One series. HTC saw this as an attempt at a restart. It starts to lose ground to other brands with more advanced offerings. And in many ways, the HTC One X has been a revolution in itself.

With its thin curved display and 4.7-inch unibody touchscreen, the HTC One X offered a commendable design for its time, if not groundbreaking. It was one of the first smartphones with a closed case design and a non-removable battery, which surprised many.

The stable battery and 32 pg of non-expandable internal memory were a drawback for many buyers. However, HTC tried to top it with a simplified version of the HTC Sense UI and Nvidia's quad-core processor, which made the phone feel smooth and responsive. However, this smooth experience comes at the cost of mediocre battery life.

The rear 8-megapixel camera, along with a dedicated image processor, contributed to quick and fast photography in the HTC One X. It was one of the few HTC devices that benefited from a partnership with the short-lived and partial acquisition of Beats Audio, the brand bought by Apple at last.

LG V60 Slim Q

© LG USA LG V60 ThinQ Dual Screen Unlock

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LG has gone all out with the LG V60 ThinQ released in March 2020. This device was the brand's last smartphone before it took the smartphone industry by storm in 2021. The LG V60 ThinQ was the brand's flagship phone at the time of its launch. and one of the first 5G on the market. However, LG's declining global popularity meant it was a swansong for the brand.

The LG V60 ThinQ launched with a larger 6.8-inch screen, and an almost identical second screen is offered as an accessory. Adding factors like a 60Hz display and being able to look at things on screen was a royal experience. However, the phone is big and bulky, and folding this dual-screen phone isn't as convenient as other new generation devices released in recent years, such as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.

The LG V60 ThinQ has a 64MP main camera, a 13MP wide-angle rear camera, and a 10MP front camera. The rear camera's 10x digital zoom, while working well, falls short of what the competition has to offer. The performance of this flagship's Snapdragon 865 chipset was surprisingly good, even when running two screens at the same time. However, the main topic of discussion for the V60 ThinQ was its massive 5,000 mAh battery, which served as a benchmark in the smartphone industry during its short lifespan.

LG G3

© SlashGear / Chris Burns LG G3 front view

With the release of the LG G3 in May 2014, LG tried to fix the shortcomings of its predecessor, the LG G2, such as a dead battery and no microSD card slot.

The LG G3 has an elegant metal body on the back, just like its predecessor. The G3 has a 5.5-inch screen with a Full HD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, which, together with narrow bezels, gives it a "full-screen" look. QHD at 538 ppi gave the G3 the best display in the industry at the time.

The LG G3 still has one space for the power and volume down buttons on the back, below the powerful 13MP rear camera. With the industry's first laser autofocus, the G3's performance wasn't exactly top-notch, but it was definitely great.

Along with the G3, LG also released its own version of the LG Health fitness tracker. The G3 also retained previous LG features such as Clip Tray and QuickMemo. However, the Slide Aside feature introduced in the predecessor has been dropped. It was one of the last major releases of smartphones with a removable battery - users could buy a separate charger for the batteries and replace them if necessary.

wish HTC

© Chris Davis / SlashGear Playing videos on HTC Desire

The launch of the HTC Desire in February 2010 marked a turning point for the Taiwanese brand as it was the first of a highly successful line of Desire phones. When HTC Desire was released in 2010, it was running the latest version of Android 2.1. It had to be, because it was the identical twin of the Google Nexus One, the pinnacle of Android smartphones at the time.

HTC Desire features a compact design and a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED capacitive touch screen. The optical trackpad provides even more usability, and there are a number of physical buttons at the bottom of the trackpad. HTC Desire is equipped with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 576MB of built-in memory for superior performance.

The HTC Sense UI in Desire offered multiple customization options and a pinch gesture to display multiple home screens at the same time, invisible and unprecedented for smartphones of the time. Touch screen live wallpapers, Webkit browser, Quickoffice for editing MS Office documents, and HTC Calendar make HTC Desire even more unique. However, these features drained the battery like a lobster guzzling gas on a cheat day.

While the HTC Desire looked almost perfect, a few shortcomings diminished its status as the pinnacle of smartphones. The 5-megapixel rear camera wasn't up to par, and the battery life wasn't enough to keep this phone even half a day long.

mobile

© Chris Burns/SlashGear Handheld

At 3.8 inches long, 0.29 inches wide, and weighing just 2.2 ounces, the Palm Phone was the midget of Android smartphones. Despite its small size, the Palm Phone guarantees it's a high-quality phone, with a high-quality Gorilla Glass 3 body, machined aluminum, and IP68 dust and water resistance. A single button on this phone turns it on and off and also activates Google Assistant. The Life Mode offered on this Android smartphone has been a boon for those who don't want to be constantly bothered by notifications. However, this is where all its pluses end, since the Palm Phone brought more disappointments than joys.

The Palm Phone's 3.3-inch screen was too small for everyday use. Display settings and colors left much to be desired. And given the small screen size, it was difficult for people with poor eyesight to use it. Although it comes with many apps pre-installed, most of them are uninteresting on a small screen. Watching videos and typing on this phone's small screen was also a chore.

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The 12MP rear camera and 8MP front camera are not exactly ideal in real situations. The small 800 mAh battery delivers a disappointing battery life of less than three hours with heavy use. All in all, the Palm Phone was nothing short of a gimmick that fared rather poorly in terms of practicality, but very well in terms of recognizability. While this phone originally launched exclusively with Verizon in November 2018, its features have expanded beyond Verizon and it's still available today if you know where to look.

Dale Strick

© Dell United States Dell Streak Laptop

In June 2010, renowned laptop maker Dell made a splash when it decided to venture into the Android smartphone business, starting with the Dell Streak. The Dell Streak has a large 5-inch screen and is 0.39 inches thick, making it relatively tall and thin by today's standards. While the Dell Streak's shape and size gave it a premium appeal, it wasn't as comfortable to hold in the hand as most other phones on the market at the time.

Dell Streak launched with Android 1.6 and comes with many apps preinstalled, including QuickOffice and Nuance Voice Control. Even the heaviest applications run smoothly thanks to the 1GHz Snapdragon processor. A full charge of the 1530 mAh Streak battery provides 12 hours of use.

The Dell Streak media gallery was not very easy to use and the entire interface was not easy to manage. Also, using the multimedia features wasn't as smooth as one might think, and no part of the phone outperforms the competition. The Dell Streak's camera hardware, which consisted of a 5MP rear camera and a VGA camera, wasn't great. Few people chose this smartphone or other Dell devices released after it, which eventually forced Dell to say goodbye to the smartphone business.

HP Slate 6 sound card

© HP HP Slate 6 voice tabs

Dell wasn't the only laptop maker to make smartphones, HP made a similar effort with the Slate 6 VoiceTab. The HP Slate 6 VoiceTab was one of the first Android smartphones...or tablets...of the brand. Like the Dell Streak, the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab had a massive build (at least for daytime use) with a 6-inch display and a fairly stylish industrial design.

An HP Slate 6 VoiceTab quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM sounded like a good combination on paper, albeit a bit slow for what it had to offer. The 5MP rear and 2MP front cameras also lack the performance of the competition. However, the only aspect of the HP Slate 6 VoiceTab that lives up to its claims is battery performance. The large 3000mAh battery provides great performance when fully charged, allowing you to work even longer than a full day.

The HP Slate 6 VoiceTab may not be a premium smartphone for what it offers for its price, and none of HP's other smartphones have received updates. As the future seemed uncertain, HP decided to shut down its smartphone business.

Nokia X

© Nokia Nokia X

To regain ground lost by Chinese smartphone makers, in February 2014 Nokia decided to take on the Android game with the release of the Nokia X. However, instead of being an Android smartphone, the Nokia X proved to be a flimsy attempt to combine Android features with Microsoft features.

Nokia X was aimed at buyers on a budget, and what's more, its overall design looked cool and attractive. A solid fit and finish, a 4-inch display, dual SIM slots and a lightweight design were the positives of the Nokia X. Unfortunately, that's where the good ends and the negatives begin to show. .

While Nokia offered the option to expand storage up to 32GB via a microSD card slot, the 4GB of onboard storage didn't quite fit that category. While it claimed to be an "Android phone", most of the user interface and features are tied to Nokia apps, with Microsoft providing Bing as the default browser.

Many popular apps were not available from the Nokia Store offered on the Nokia X and had to be downloaded from a third-party store instead. It also has a Windows Phone-like interface, which is confusing for buyers who have tried it as an Android smartphone. A 3MP main rear camera and a weak 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor add to the long list of issues.

While Nokia abandoned Android shortly after Nokia X and Microsoft sold the brand to Foxconn and HMD Global, Nokia has returned to the Android phone market since 2017 with the Nokia 6.

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