You know that we had to lead this one, but the :), aka the Smiley (our preferred name), really broke us. In fact, it even prompted this entire photo gallery. Really, Samsung, an emoticon for a cell phone? We realize that it must be difficult to come up with so many names, but this one is just unacceptable, even for a texting handset.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Josh Miller/CNET
1
of 10
Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
An early music handset, the Fusic looked vaguely like an iPod and it offered one of the first FM transmitters on a cell phone. We expect that the name is a combination of "fun" and "music," though even that is a stretch. In the end, it wasn't a bad phone, but its name wasn't music to our ears.
Why you'd want to name a phone after something that causes smog is beyond us. True, ozone is beneficial when it's higher in the atmosphere, but that takes far too much thought to conceptualize.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Corrine Schulze/CNET
3
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Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
Perhaps Pantech's designers had just watched "Chicago" when they named the Razzle. Though the handset offered an interesting design, does it give us that razzle dazzle? Not so much.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Josh Miller/CNET
4
of 10
Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
It seems a bit presumptuous to determine that a gadget has a soul, but apparently Samsung thought so when it named the Soul.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Corinne Schulze/CNET
5
of 10
Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
Kapow! The TNT is so explosive it might just blow up in your hands! Run for your life! In reality, however, the TNT is just another basic handset for Virgin Mobile. And we don't like its other name, the Kyocera Adreno, either.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Corinne Schulze/CNET
6
of 10
Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
Samsung tried a similar move in 2008 when it named a phone the Innov8. Though that made some sense considering the phone had an 8-megapixel camera, Cricket fails to capture our attention with the MsgM8. Why not just use "mate" at the end and really, what's with the second capital M?
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Josh Miller/CNET
7
of 10
Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
Of course, we always think of dancing when we think of cell phones. That must be why Samsung chose TwoStep for this U.S. Cellular handset.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Josh Miller/CNET
8
of 10
Samsung :)
LG Fusic
HTC Ozone
Verizon Wireless Razzle
Samsung Soul
Virgin Mobile TNT
Cricket MsgM8
Samsung TwoStep
Nokia Supernova
Samsung Messager
Get ready for another bang! This time it's Nokia with an explosion so big, it wipes out an entire solar system! Blam...it's a supernova!
We had to close with the Messager since it really grinds the gears of CNET's copy editors. For the record, Samsung, the word is messenger. Somewhere in your quest to be creative for a texting phone, you made a big typo.
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Caption:Kent German
/ Photo: Corinne Schulze/CNET
