LG
GD900 Crystal

The GD900, which was also known as the LG Crystal, was marketed as the “world’s first transparent handset”. LG undoubtedly hoped it might become a design trend that would get adopted more broadly. However, the company produced no further products with this design approach. The only other transparent phone we are aware of is the Sony Ericsson Pureness which was launched later in 2009. LG introduced the GD900 at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona, Spain in 2009. The company had already established a reputation for having stylish phones such as the Prada phone, LG Shine and LG Secret, and stated that it was making “a bold step in the design category by introducing yet another innovative aesthetic concept, transparency.” When closed it looked like a standard slider phone but once opened it revealed a striking glass translucent keypad that LG described as illuminating “a cool glow that reflects the phone’s sleek and polished silver body.” However, this design element was more than just a keypad, as it was also a capacitive touch trackpad that allowed users to navigate around the phone without obscuring the display, something LG stated would allow users to “glide, stroke and navigate with ease”. When using the web browser users could navigate the page using their thumb or finger on the transparent keypad with what LG described as “laptop mousepad-like keypad control”. It was also possible to zoom in and out of content on the screen with a pinch-to-zoom gesture on the transparent keypad. When operating the camera, users could zoom in and out by swiping in a circular motion on the keypad. Additionally, it was possible to do basic handwriting recognition by swiping letter shapes on the surface of the keypad. Gestures were also available to access favourite apps or functions such as the music player or memo pad. All of these capabilities can be seen in the official overview video below. The phone used LG’s proprietary S-Class user interface which had a skeuomorphic design language and included a three-dimensional spinning cube to select items from the menu and support for widgets on the home screen. These could also be interacted with swipe gestures from the keypad. The GD900 also included an accelerometer, which was a relatively novel capability at the time. This meant the user interface could rotate depending on the orientation of the phone and various games and apps were included that used this functionality to help educate owners about how an accelerometer worked.