Talk:Clamshell design

Better illustration
We should have illustrations of a clamshell design device in both the open and the closed state in order to better illustrate the idea. Also, the current picture is rather dark. Pimlottc 12:53, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Switch it
The merger should be the other way around. The phone is more often called a "flip phone" so that should be the title of the article. mikeaitch 01:24, 10 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Turns out that "flip phone" is a Motorola trademark, so I'll just go ahead and merge them now. Besides, Google turns up more hits for clamshell phone than "flip phone". Vagary 02:33, 10 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Previous comment now outdated. Today: "flip phone" = 4.82m, "clamshell phone" = 4.4m. From anecdotal evidence, "flip phone" is more common term. I believe clamshell phone should redirect to a page called flip phone. --Lpwarner (talk) 16:21, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

Clamshell Packaging
How come there is no information on clamshell packaging and design? It is extremely popular from a retail standpoint. There is practically no information out there on pages like Wikipedia. Could we see maybe some additions. I have found one larger company who seems to have some information maybe we could use. www.impact-mfg.com

Forma Factor the correct term?
The link to Form Factor disambiguates to nothing related to the clamshell Vs. candy bar thing. Is Form Factor the correct term? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.96.176.72 (talk) 13:56, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Poor
This article is very poor. It lacks everything, everything from a correct order, more expansion, sources, wikification, and all you can imagine. Shouldn't the one that created the article try to expand it a little bit?--J.C. (talk) 17:25, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I figure when a thing is small and poor, it needs to become better before it gets bigger. As for the rest, can you make some of the improvements, or will you merely make more specific suggestions?  Jim.henderson (talk) 14:07, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * "The design has since been copied by other mobile phone manufacturers, most notably Samsung" Is this serious? This Samsung comment is silly. Its common knowledge that every major cell mfg has done the flip/clamshell design to death. I am changing this to "virtually all manufacturers". I would link a reference but which would I choose? This info is easily verifiable on any mfg or carrier website. Anachronos (talk) 20:40, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

the device is down
The article says, "When the clamshell is open, the device is up and ready to be used." i think the word "up" is ambiguous in that sentence, but if it means what i think it does, the statement is untrue of flip form phones in my experience. i was about to edit the sentence, but a few things occurred to me:
 * The article draws a minor distinction between "clamshell" and "flip", and the sentence says "clamshell", whereas my intended edit pertains to flips.
 * The sentence refers to "the device", not "the phone", and i do not know if the statement is true for a majority of non-phone devices. Heck, i can't even prove offhand that the flipping phones i've used are representative of the majority of flip phones.

That said, being closed prevents most (not all) of the usability of my flip form phone and my mother's, but opening these phones does not automatically turn them on. (Neither does closing them automatically turn them off.) More detail available if requested, but hey, original research.

Signed, R2-71.121.143.77 (talk) 20:25, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 30 March 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: move the page to Clamshell design, per the discussion below; restoration of the redirect is an editorial decision and outside the scope of this close, so discussion on that front can continue. Dekimasu よ! 18:13, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Flip (form) → Flip phone – per WP:COMMONNAME, WP:NATURAL and WP:WTF. Neither the current title nor the parenthetical refer to what this phone is actually called. —  AjaxSmack 00:56, 30 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Oppose, prefer alternate move & Split - this article seems to have gone through a lot of merging, moves, and focus shift... and I worry that another move will just convolute it even more by largely bringing it full circle as "Flip phone" was already merged here in 2007. I'd like to see the broader topic of electronic device form factors Move to clamshell design (where it can be broadened to cover laptops,, Game Boys, etc. that seem out of place in the article now and would absolutely NOT fit in under the proposed move) and Restore flip phone from redirect and expand to focus just on telephones. Once that's done, incoming links should be reevaluated and directed to the correct topic. -- Netoholic @ 12:36, 30 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Support EITHER requested move OR alternative move/split per reasons listed by both AjaxSmack and Netoholic above. If we split, I'd go with Neto's suggestion. If we don't split, I'd go with Ajax's suggestion. Paintspot Infez (talk) 19:09, 1 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Move to clamshell design per Netoholic, I agree that title is more fitting as well. I don't think flip phone needs a recreation, it was only ever an unsourced stub and this article isn't very developed either.ZXCVBNM (TALK) 19:20, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Do something per WP:WTF. —BarrelProof (talk) 00:56, 5 April 2018 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Star Trek in 1964?
"Also from science fiction, a 1964 episode of Star Trek featured an instrument called the "Communicator", which would become a regular plot device and an influence on future real-world technologies."

Star Trek was first broadcast in 1966, not 1964. According to the Star Trek article the first pilot was filmed in 1965, which included flip-style communicators. Which means the concept was possibly in the script written in 1964, but that's not what the above line says.

Or am I missing something? Cptbutton (talk) 18:17, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Should flip phone be made its own article?
I feel that "flip phone" should be split into its own article. I think many people can agree with me when I say that I have been redirected to this article multiple times when I type in "flip phone". It would also give more space to talk about other topics involving the clamshell design. Sussybaka6000 (talk) 17:51, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

Smart phone focused page
this page is primarily focused on smartphones, which doesn't make much sense, given that clamshell design is universal and not inherently smartphone specific, and describing it more generally would be more useful. the current structure of the page seems to suggest this wasn't important because other devices are not typically called clamshells, which is both not necessarily true in the case of game consoles, and is also not particularly relevant for excluding them from the rest of the page. Lynxano (talk) 00:09, 19 August 2023 (UTC)


 * the history section could also do well to talk about where clamshells came from (inspiration, etc), how they proliferated and why in each context, and what problems they've been used to solve or what goals they've been used to achieve. not a huge fan of the "this are all the clamshell phones ever made" history section. it doesn't say anything about the background or actual history going on, just the outcome of that historical context. Lynxano (talk) 00:16, 19 August 2023 (UTC)