We are seeing a revolution in apps and games, thanks to new development tools that have made it possible for people with basic programming skills to get into app development. As a result, smartphones get obsolete within a span of 2-3 years as they are unable to support the heavier processing requirements of newer apps. This results in people discarding their fully functional phones which causes a lot of electronic waste.
To counter this problem, Dutch Designer, Dave Hakkens has come up with an innovative new smartphone concept which he calls PhoneBloks. The phone consists of detachable blocks that are plugged in together on a common base just like you make something from Lego.According to Hakkens, this ‘LEGO-like’ phone will allow users to customize and assemble a phone to cater for their individual needs, as well as reduce wastage from discarding old phones. Each of the components of the smartphone, i.e Battery, Camera, Processor, Memory, Bluetooth, WIFI etc are all made into separate removable blocks. Hence, to make any configuration for your smartphone, you can buy the blocks of your choice and build your customized smartphone.
However, the biggest advantage of such a design is that the smartphone can always be upgraded over the years by buying heavier processors and memory blocks and replacing them on your phone. This would prevent the phone from getting out-dated or obsolete and reduce the overall electronic waste from the world.
PhoneBloks concept also makes it easy for you to repair your smartphone if any of its component malfunctions or if there is some sort of breakage. Hakkens also gave the concept of a “Block Store”, a hardware store where users will be able to purchase upgrades and spare blocks of their choice and keep their phones running. This is currently not possible in case of traditional smartphone designs where you might have to trash your phone if a critical components, such as the screen, breaks. Hence, the advantages and the possibilities with this new design are endless.
The phone is still a concept though and the designer is looking for support through crowd-speaking. He is hopeful that if a lot of people show their interest in such a concept, companies will get interested to work on something like this and this phone might become a reality in near future. So head up to their website and show your support!
Check out more pictures and video of this interesting concept below and tell us your views in the comments section.
Here is the video of PhoneBloks
Lovely good job
errrrrr……….. just two words ‘PROJECT ARA’ …….
once we replace the blocks we have to change the screen always cuz all the blocks may vary in size…
thanks for your great content and your effort keep on
Lol..
..would be a great innovation though!
Nice but can this be called new idea or concept? It’s just like PC. U can change ram, monitor, hdd, proc, mobo… But in smaller size. And like PC, we’ll face problem like new socket type, new ram port, 1 component may damage others when they fault, etc. By the end people moving toward laptop…
I completely suppport this as this concept will be helpful in many ways – this is becoz we can change rom, ram, cameras , speakers and all other hardware components this makes a phone completely perfect & unique for each and every person . This will only need upgradation after very long time so for which expence on phone per year will decrease but it will only come true if mobile companies support it as it is most probably that they won’t support it becoz it is not preferrable for them as they want us the latest sets with higher prices as it will fetch them more profit. So lets hope for the best.
Yea all we need is sophisticated life big up to technological advancers
Not practical! Good concept though.
Won’t happen due to :
1) companies WANT you to have to buy the whole thing all over again – at as high a cost (to you) as possible. Those in charge don’t give a rats ass if the resulting pollution kills your grand-kids (or theirs – or their current spouse). Them them all objects OUGHT to break very rapidly to get you to rush out a buy a new one. They have done the same with cars, which USED to have heads that lasted 50 years and now last 5 before they begin to disintegrate
2) In engineering there is a very strong tendency to rely on old ideas that are just dumb. Just out of habbit and ease of access to parts. Things are done AS they are done because it is easier (which is why APPLE tends to force the hands of others to improve). Sas you need an opamp You haver a circuit with a certain space left on the board and a ship of close to the right size for that entire space – so what if it has 16 pins and you need 3 (and the big one runs on 10 times the power). Besides which, when you can run a chip for 40 years on on .1V, it lasts – but you can instead run the thing on 6V because you did that last time – – – and besides it will wear out faster and that makes the boss happier. Computers USED to rely more on ‘daughter boards’ tht you could put in as upgrades, and that made them last a lot longer and get faster and more adaptable life spans. That is just not done much anymore. You are supposed to buy the ‘consumer grade’ model, run the thing in New Mexico (where for 4 months the hose i hotter than the running spcs for the laptop)_ and then throw it out…where it ends up killing kids in some tiny nation out of your own vision..
Incidentally – we have no new computers in the house. They are all (aside form one android for $65 on sale) 10 or more years old and run on old OS’s
Its really a cool idea… l support this concept…
90% of the so called supporters will never actually buy it.
this is awesome. i am ready to use it asap. now the world is going to be a cloud world and we are the grains of that cloud.
this will never be a reality because of all the greedy businessmen!!!!!
thats a great idea… this gona blow a new direction to the world.
As a mechanical engineer and industrial designer, I have seen a lot of design concepts that look good until you examine the details of implementation. Unfortunately, his is one of those.
First let’s examine the impact of the modules.
1) Assuming each has a housing to protect it, there are two addition wall thickness of plastic or such, not to mention the additional space required by a connector. Since this happens for each module, the volume and infrastructure material adds up fast.
2) Next we must consider that any product as densely packaged as a smart phone is essentially a three dimensional jig saw puzzle. Each component will be positioned, if not redesigned, to fit into the space left by adjacent components. Squaring components to fit in the modules will add considerable volume.
3) There is no way to be sure that the next generation components will fit in the same space as the current ones. Upgrading could, and likely will, be a problem. Adding room for growth is also problematical, first for the wasted volume and second because there is no guarantee that the allowed volume would match the newer component.
4) There will also be a substantial impact on performance. Component in computers and devices like smart phones are places as close as possible to reduce latency… The lag of signals caused by them moving though the system. Adding wires and connectors between components that want to be as close as possible will severely impact performance.
In summary, the packaging cost will be much more than that of a conventional design. More plastic, more connectors, more pieces to handle and assemble. The volume and weight will be substantially larger. The performance will be compromised. And, due to the increased number of connection, reliability will be substantially worse.
great idea and i support this idea because some time i use two phones one for making pics and other one for listening music
WoW! What a great IDEA! I was always thinking about how to make cellphone assembling like PCs. This is one of the ways! The thing is that it would be better working with a thin but full cover on the different parts, like PC case. With this case they would not be worry about how to update the screen to larger one! If it is not just a joke, I like to wait to update my cellphone to one of these. Hope they wold care about the price, too.
Hats of to the designer
this is a great idea i support it
and think Sony should try this new innovation of smart fones
awsome go on
it is a very good idea and i support it
Great!!!I love it…this is really a good idea ,a very good product.It is eco-friendly too.
its really wwwwoooooooowwwwwwww……..!
absolutly mind blowing
Nice idea, but not practical for people who know little about phone components who would have to do their own fault finding. Which in turn will lead to phone shops ripping people off who don’t know which component is broken. I fear manufacture, shipping and distribution of individual components (probably produced all over the world) will drive up the prices to the point it would be cheaper to buy a regular smart phone.
Nice happy little concept for the moment though.
great technology as there are more advantages with this new smart phone generation ,and we can simply repair or replace the broken or damaged part which is not possible in present SMART PHONE GENERATION
This is a consumer favor concept and must be encouraged to get rid of pocket picker like big names.
its awsum go ahead !:)
I think that this is a great idea but the smartphone companies will have to work a lot on this to make it possible. Morever, either it will be total FLOP or a total SUCCESS !! lets see what happens !!
I am interested with this technology & also I am willing to use this. Can I Know when it will be available………………….
Very good concept,i would like to use this phone….
Hi !
This idea is good. I suggest that all the hardware blocks to be commonised and made to be available permanently in a hand phone but the up-gradation as per our requirement can be done in software through I-Net facility.
Change hardware blocks whenever required will not be feasible.
I mean instead of detachable hardware phone blocks it could be detachable or attachable software blocks.
All the best
This seems initially like a very cool concept. But it’s definitely not taking into account that the product being so easy to take apart will make the build quality absolute shit. Having it break down or disconnect every so often. Also if components were segregated into neat little compartments it would be enormous. And finally, this does not take into consideration that upgrades to components also bring up compatibility issues with other components and that when you thought you could just replace the processor, you’ll have to replace the whole circuit board and RAM.
This article is appealing as a concept, but for anyone remotely knowledgeable about computer/phone components, it will seem utterly unfeasible.
The reason why iPhones and other premium smart phones are so good, is because all of those multiple components are jam packed in a tiny air tight package with no wasted space.
Good luck carrying a brick phone that is an inch thick in your pocket that will come apart when you knock it over.
I do like the concept, but…
I have seen items broken down to their smaller individual components, such as lamp bases and lamp shades being sold separately, only now it costs me twice as much as a whole lamp.
I’d be seriously concerned about the cost of individual phone componenets.
This is wow.. good one.. this should be given the patent or should be called innovation.. and not something like what Apple or Steve Jobs did.. where they got patent for round edges.. I wish if this phone were to be in production on large scale..
I like this! I also remember another brand proposed this some years ago… Anyway! I like it! You can reduce the wate because if you want to upgrade the blocks, you can trade/exchange/sell/borrow/whatevs your old block! “Dude, I need a bigger battery. Would you like a better camera while I use the battery?” I dunno. It sounds like possibilities here.
good concept but it is not going to work. If you break the device into so many components the phone will either be extremely big in size or malfunctioning all the time. This is also not going to be cost friendly
They say its a phone worth keeping and that we will have less waste. But what about all the Bloks. You update your phone by replacing a block so the old Blok is waste isn’t it?
Yes but that’s small compare to the whole phone replaced
What if I forget battery block or sim block some where or is lost then the whole phone is of no use. So just to put in a simpler way if the battery or any important part of the phone becomes loose and falls down then what.. I agree this as a very creative thought but has it own flaws.
You have to buy a memory reminder gadget so that you wont forget it and it is even better to forget or lost 1 or 2 blocks than loosing the whole phone which is more expensive that’s cheaper than you thought.
Totally stunning……looking forward to use phonebloks..
this is really a creative and innovative concept…totally support it….
Very innovative, buglabs have the same idea only 7 years ago !!!
http://buglabs.net/products/blocks
Hey that is an awesome concept. And i support for such a an awesome concept.
I bet the big smartphone companies will be doing anything to get in the way of this, such as suing it for false suits, ‘cuz they know they will go bankrupt if they let this on the loose.