SlashGear Spotlights 10 Non-iPhone Phones That Shaped 2010s Smartphone History

1 articles · Updated · SlashGear · May 17

SlashGear reviewed 10 phones outside the iPhone-mainstream Android duopoly, arguing they helped define 2010s smartphone history despite their platforms largely disappearing.
The list highlights devices that introduced or popularized key ideas, including Nokia’s 41-megapixel 808 PureView camera and Samsung’s Wave S8500, the first phone with Super AMOLED.
Several picks show how alternative ecosystems tried to compete: the $199 Amazon Fire Phone quickly flopped, while Palm’s webOS Pre 2 and BlackBerry’s all-touch Torch 9850 reflected failed pivots.
Nokia’s Lumia line dominates the retrospective, from the $180 Lumia 520 budget hit to the camera-centric Lumia 1020 and larger-screen 1520, underscoring Windows Phone’s hardware strengths despite weak app support.
The roundup frames the 2010s as a more experimental smartphone era, when now-standard features often emerged from platforms that ultimately lost out to iPhone and Android.

A decade after the Fire Phone's flop, can Amazon's new AI smartphone truly challenge the Apple and Google duopoly?

As chip shortages make budget phones extinct, will affordable smartphones become a thing of the past for good?