Keypad sliders The
Siemens SL10 was likely the first "conventional" slider cell phone (i.e. a variation of the candybar where the display part slides up to reveal a keypad), released in 1999. The
Nokia 7650 and
Siemens SL55 were some other early slider phones, The
Samsung D500 was one of the first popular sliding mobile phones. Some phones have an automatic slider built in that deploys the keypad. Many phones
pop out their keypad segments as soon as the user begins to slide the phone apart.
QWERTY sliders The side slider or QWERTY slider uses vertical access of the keyboard on the bottom segment. The side slider form factor is primarily used to facilitate faster access to the keyboard with both thumbs. These became trendy during the late 2000s, offering a landscape user interface as well as full keyboard, ideal for texting. This sort of handheld keyboard was pioneered on the (non-slider)
T-Mobile Sidekick/Danger Hiptop and appeared in slider form on the
HTC TyTN, but by 2008 and 2009 had become commonplace on many smartphones and feature phones, examples being
Nokia N97,
T-Mobile G1,
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1,
Motorola Droid,
Nokia E75,
LG GW520,
LG Prada II and
Samsung CorbyPRO/Genio Slide. Some models, such as the already-mentioned N97 as well as the
Nokia E7 released in 2011 and the F(x)tec Pro 1 released in 2019, not only bring out the keyboard from the side but also tilt the display so that they reminisce a
laptop. Portrait sliders with QWERTY keyboards were also around, as seen for instance on the
Palm Pre,
BlackBerry Torch 9800 and Samsung SGH-i620, but these were otherwise rare as opposed to the 'side' ones. In 2015,
BlackBerry Limited released the
BlackBerry Priv, the first mainstream slider phone in several years.
Unconventional types of sliders Unique models are the 2-way slider where sliding up or down provides distinct functions, pioneered by and most notably on the
Nokia N95. Another variation of the keypad sliding design is the kick-slider, a slider with an extra hinge to conform to face like on the
Motorola Rizr Z8. The earliest examples of sliding phones were those that slide down to reveal the keypad, seen in the "banana"-like
Nokia 8110 released in 1996. which slides three ways with a QWERTY keyboard, and the Samsung's Anycall SCH-B550; which is a gaming phone. Today, manufacturers are trying to develop bezel-less smartphones; the greatest difficulty being the presence of front-facing cameras and face recognition sensors. While most brands expand display real-estate, some depart from that approach, returning to a lesser form of the slider form factor; like the
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3,
Huawei Honor Magic 2 and
Lenovo Z5 Pro. == See also ==