There’s no shortage of great Android phones, but I’d argue it’s really hard to buy a truly bad phone today. Sure, some devices might have mediocre cameras, less-than-great performance, or ho-hum battery life, but that’s still a far cry from the worst Android phones of all time.
What are the worst Android devices ever made, though? Well, we put our heads together and came up with a list! We tried to take several factors into account, including critical/commercial reception, defects, and our own opinions.This list is in no particular order, but did we miss any obvious choices? Let us know in the comments!
Red Hydrogen One
Red is renowned for its movie cameras, so people were pretty excited to hear that the company was working on a smartphone. It wasn’t a generic, paint-by-numbers phone, either. It packed a curious 3D display, the ability to shoot 3D photos/videos, and pin connectors for a variety of planned add-ons.
Unfortunately, the Hydrogen One was a major commercial and critical flop upon launch. At the time of its release, we bemoaned the device’s pixelated 3D display, mediocre battery life, high price tag (especially given it used the previous year’s silicon), and underwhelming camera quality. It’s also worth noting that the planned add-on modules never came to fruition. Ouch.
It’s not all bad, as we praised the actual 3D viewing experience, the build quality, and the unique design. But the Hydrogen One served as a cautionary tale for upstart smartphone makers.
Palm Phone
We owe many modern smartphone innovations to Palm, such as wireless charging with magnets, a card-driven multitasking system, and gesture-driven interfaces. Unfortunately, Palm was sold to HP, which then decided to get out of the smartphone game and sold the Palm trademark to a TCL-affiliated company. The first and only device as a result of this arrangement was 2018’s Palm Phone.
The Palm Phone’s only selling point was that it was a tiny Android smartphone. We don’t mean a small or compact phone, but actually tiny thanks to that 3.3-inch display. What’s worse was that you couldn’t initially buy this phone on a separate plan, only being available as an add-on to your existing plan. It also initially required pairing to a separate smartphone, with your texts and calls being forwarded to the smaller device. Just, why?
Amazon Fire Phone
We all think of Amazon as the e-reader, tablet, and streaming gadget company when we think about its consumer tech products. But the company also had a brief but expensive foray into the smartphone world.
The Fire Phone was Amazon’s first smartphone, and it was yet another phone that offered glasses-free 3D. The device even packed a bunch of infrared sensors on the front so it could track your head to change perspective on the screen. This so-called Dynamic Perspective feature was cool for viewing on-screen icons and other UI elements at different angles, but it had no real purpose. So why add it in the first place?
HTC Evo 3D
2011 saw the launch of not one, but two 3D phones from major manufacturers, as both HTC and LG hopped on the bandwagon. However, the HTC Evo 3D was the more poorly received device. That’s largely due to a glasses-free 3D screen that offered a very narrow viewing angle. This means you’re looking at a blurry mess if you weren’t looking at the screen from a very specific angle. What’s the point of a 3D screen on a smartphone when it doesn’t work well?
Cyrcle Phone
Smartphones are rectangular slabs, but I do appreciate it when companies try to change up the form factor. Unfortunately, the Cyrcle Phone wasn’t the change we were looking for. The name implies that we’re looking at a circular phone but the Cyrcle Phone was more of an egg or elliptical shape. In saying so, prototypes in 2020 indeed had a more circular design. Why this shape, though? Well, the company behind the handset didn’t give any good reasons beyond saying, “it’s a non-rectangular phone for non-rectangular people.”