# The Design Blog

> An independent magazine about well-designed objects. Buying guides and single-product reviews rate design on four weighted criteria (form 30%, material 25%, detail 20%, longevity 25%). The archive revisits design concepts first covered between 2008 and 2016 and says what became of them.

Ratings are editorial judgments from materials, construction, specifications, owner reports and cited third-party reviews. Product links are Amazon affiliate links.

Owned by Felix Hesse (https://felixhesse.com/) and operated by Felix Hesse Media (https://felixhessemedia.com/).

## Method
- [How we choose](https://thedesignblog.org/how-we-score/): criteria, weights and the rating scale
- [About](https://thedesignblog.org/about/): who runs the site, how it earns money, corrections
- [Imprint & contact](https://thedesignblog.org/imprint/): publisher, email, phone and postal addresses

## Buying guides
- [The 5 best iPhone 17 Pro cases, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/iphone-17-pro-cases/): The best iPhone 17 Pro cases picked for design: Horween leather, aramid fiber, a clear case that resists yellowing, a rugged pick and a budget pick.
- [The 5 best electric kettles, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/electric-kettles/): The best electric kettles chosen for design: the precise Fellow Stagg EKG Pro, a compact Balmuda, the retro Smeg, Alessi’s Plissé and a budget Bodum.
- [The 5 best MagSafe wallets, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/magsafe-wallets/): The best MagSafe wallets, chosen for design: Nomad leather with Find My, Apple’s slim FineWoven, a Peak Design stand wallet and two budget picks.
- [The 5 best pour-over coffee makers, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/pour-over-coffee-makers/): The best pour-over coffee makers chosen for design: the Chemex Classic, Hario V60, Kalita Wave, Fellow Stagg [X] and a budget Bodum with no paper filters.
- [The 5 best coffee table books, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/coffee-table-books/): The best coffee table books on design: the Dieter Rams catalog, a mid-century house atlas, Braun’s history, Soft Electronics and a compact Taschen.
- [The 5 best sunrise alarm clocks, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/sunrise-alarm-clocks/): The best sunrise alarm clocks judged on design: Hatch Restore 3, Philips SmartSleep, Philips Hue Twilight, Lumie Bodyclock and a budget pick.
- [The 5 best floor lamps, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/floor-lamps/): The best floor lamps judged on design: Artemide Tolomeo, Anglepoise Type 75, Dyson Solarcycle Morph, Brightech Sky and a budget gooseneck lamp.
- [The 5 best desk lamps, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/desk-lamps/): The best desk lamps judged on design: Artemide Tolomeo, Anglepoise 1227, Dyson Solarcycle Morph, BenQ e-Reading and a classic architect lamp.
- [The 5 best wall clocks, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/wall-clocks/): The best wall clocks chosen for design: a silent Braun, the Swiss railway icon, a Japanese engraved dial, a sculptural Nomon and a frameless budget pick.
- [The 5 best laptop stands, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/laptop-stands/): The best laptop stands chosen for design: the one-piece Rain Design mStand, an adjustable Twelve South, a 6 oz travel stand and two space savers.
- [The 5 best portable lamps, by design](https://thedesignblog.org/best/portable-lamps/): The best portable lamps for home and terrace, judged on design: Zafferano Poldina Pro, Fatboy Edison the Petit and Bolleke, Lexon Mina and Bloomingville.

## Reviews with alternatives
- [iPhone 17 review, by design & 5 alternatives](https://thedesignblog.org/review/iphone-17/): iPhone 17 design review: form, material, detail and longevity, based on Apple’s specs and published reviews. Plus 5 alternatives to consider.
- [AirPods Pro 3 review, by design & 5 alternatives](https://thedesignblog.org/review/airpods-pro-3/): AirPods Pro 3 design review: form, material, detail and longevity, based on Apple’s specs and published reviews. Plus 5 alternatives to consider.
- [Oura Ring 4 review, by design & 5 alternatives](https://thedesignblog.org/review/oura-ring-4/): Oura Ring 4 design review: titanium build, flush sensors, battery and wear, plus 5 alternatives from the Oura Ring 5 to the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
- [reMarkable Paper Pro review, by design & 5 alternatives](https://thedesignblog.org/review/remarkable-paper-pro/): reMarkable Paper Pro review by design: form, material and longevity of the 11.8-inch color paper tablet, plus 5 alternatives worth cross-shopping.
- [Apple Watch Series 11 review, by design & 5 alternatives](https://thedesignblog.org/review/apple-watch-series-11/): Apple Watch Series 11 design review: thin case, tougher glass, 24-hour battery, plus 5 alternatives from the Series 12 to the Withings ScanWatch 2.
- [Kindle Paperwhite review, by design & 5 alternatives](https://thedesignblog.org/review/kindle-paperwhite/): Kindle Paperwhite review by design: form, material and longevity of the 12th-gen (2024) e-reader, plus 5 alternatives from Kobo, Boox and Amazon.

## Concept → Reality archive
- [The laptop you could see through](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/samsung-presents-worlds-first-and-largest-transparent-oled-laptop-at-ces/): Samsung’s transparent OLED laptop stayed a prototype and was never sold. Transparent screens did reach a store in 2024, as LG’s $59,999 OLED T television, while no transparent laptop has gone on sale.
- [Philips Fluid and the long wait for a wearable phone](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/philips-fluid-smartphone-with-flexible-oled-display/): The Philips Fluid never left the render stage. Lenovo in 2016 and Motorola in 2023 built working phones that bend around the wrist, but neither went on sale, and flexible OLED reached stores in folding phones instead.
- [The Cobra that never left the station](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/crh-x-cobra-concept-train-is-the-future-of-urban-transportation-in-china/): The CRH-X Cobra was never built; it stayed a 2010 styling proposal by designer Gary Gu. China’s real next steps were the 350 km/h Fuxing trains in 2017 and the 400 km/h CR450 prototypes unveiled in 2024, which had not entered passenger service by August 2026.
- [The Coke-powered Nokia and the sugar battery problem](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/coke-powered-nokia-cellphone-concept-by-daizi-zheng/): The Coke-powered Nokia stayed a design concept and was never produced. Sony and university labs have shown enzyme batteries that run on sugar, but their low power has kept them out of phones.
- [Axixa, the wall urinal that never reached the wall](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/axixa-public-urinal-add-decency-to-pissing-on-walls/): Axixa stayed a concept: the wall-mounted ceramic urinal was published in 2009 and, as far as we could find, never installed on a street. Its premise, designing for street urination instead of against it, was already at work in Dutch pop-up urinals and later returned in the Uritrottoir in Paris.
- [The prosthetic arm that gave up on the hand](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/prosthetic-arm-adjusts-to-allow-different-grips-for-a-variety-of-tasks/): Kaylene Kau’s tentacle arm was built and shown as a class prototype in 2010 but never went into production. Commercial prosthetics were already on the opposite route, toward multi-grip bionic hands such as the i-LIMB and, later, the Open Bionics Hero Arm.
- [The 100-year clock that ends when its arc falls to the floor](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/the-100-year-alarm-clock-lives-every-second/): The 100-year clock was built, shown at NYU’s ITP Spring Show in 2009, and is still listed by its maker as an edition of five. Its core idea, making a long span of time visible, became a product in 2018, when Che-Wei Wang’s studio CW&T crowdfunded Time Since Launch, a clock that counts up for 2,738 years.
- [City Lamp: a night light hiding in a table lamp](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/the-city-lamp-by-anna-neklesa-adds-style-to-your-space/): City Lamp stayed a concept: we found no sign that it was ever manufactured or sold, and it is not among the projects in Anna Neklesa’s portfolio today. Neklesa went on to the Royal College of Art and now works as a color and trim designer in London.
- [When Toyota planted solar flowers in the city](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/solar-wi-fi-flowers-create-harmony-between-man-nature-and-machine/): Toyota’s solar Wi-Fi flowers were built and shown in Boston in July 2009 to launch the third-generation Prius, then toured other US cities, New York among them; they were never sold. The idea behind them, solar-powered public seating where you can charge a phone, did reach streets through the Strawberry Tree in Serbia and Soofa benches in Boston.
- [The bicycle that wanted to be a backpack](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/folding-bike-with-a-vengeance-backpack-bicycle/): The Backpack Bicycle never went into production; it remained a 2008 competition concept by Chang Ting Jen. Its core promise, a bike small enough to carry like luggage, arrived in other forms, from Brompton’s titanium T Line to the carry-on-sized Kwiggle.
- [Mimeo: when the phone wanted to be a pen](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/mimeo-interactive-writable-cellphone-lets-you-pen-down-the-message/): Mimeo stayed a concept and was never produced. Its central idea, writing instead of typing, reached shops in other forms, through Samsung’s S Pen in 2011 and Apple’s Scribble on Apple Watch in 2016 and iPad in 2020.
- [The Infinite Book and the fight over the page turn](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/infinite-book-transforming-paper-into-digital-media/): The Infinite Book stayed a concept and was never produced. Readers that flip physical leaves through digital content never reached shops; e-readers settled on touchscreens, with page-turn buttons surviving on a few models, while book-shaped dual-screen devices came and went.
- [The computer that turned into a writing desk](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/wooden-computer-workstation-brings-real-world-closer-to-the-digital-world/): Marlies Romberg’s wooden workstation, Dear Diary 1.0, was exhibited in 2009 as a one-off and never went into production. Its idea survives in wooden keyboards, monitor stands and wrist rests rather than in wooden computers.
- [Nissyoku: an eclipse you could hang, stand or mount](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/solar-eclipse-inspired-nissyoku-lamp-illuminates-like-the-heavenly-body/): Nissyoku was modeled and photographed, collected design awards in 2010 and 2011, and was promised for the market by Christmas 2012, but we found no evidence that it was ever sold. It remains a well-documented student project.
- [The titanium mouse and the week it was overtaken](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/titanium-made-id-mouse-offers-even-smoother-navigation/): The titanium ID Mouse did go on sale: Intelligent Design launched it at Dutch Design Week 2009 and sold it through its own shop and a few retailers, first at €800. It stayed a luxury curiosity, while design-led mice moved toward touch surfaces and ergonomic shapes.
- [The Hornet, a one-wheel superbike that never rolled](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/hornet-gyroscopically-balanced-superbike-can-turn-on-a-five-cent-coin/): The Hornet stayed a set of renders by Liam Ferguson and was never built or sold. Self-balancing single-wheel vehicles did reach the market, but as stand-up boards and electric unicycles, not as hydrogen motorcycles.
- [The Alien Mouse and the three mice it turned into](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/mouse-that-relieves-stress-and-rsi-in-an-alien-form/): The Alien Mouse stayed a rendered concept; we found no prototype, price or release. Its three main ideas, a pointer you steer without moving the hand, a shape fitted to the wrist and vibration under the palm, are all on sale today, but in separate products.
- [Helix, the phone that wanted to be a slap bracelet](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/helix-cellphone-that-becomes-a-slap-bracelet-for-the-trendy/): Helix stayed a set of renders and was never built. A phone that snaps around the wrist has since appeared only in patent filings from Apple and LG and in prototypes from Lenovo and Motorola, none of which went on sale.
- [The skate-shoe charger and the trouble with walking power](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/cellphone-charger-with-nanogenerator-system-allows-charging-on-the-go/): The charger stayed a concept: the published photos show it strapped to a shoe, but we found no working unit, maker or sale. Later kinetic chargers from startups used other technology, and the best known either drew complaints from backers or turned to industrial work boots.
- [Motoworkr, the phone that wanted to be a doctor’s bag](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/motoworkr-cellphone-includes-bluetooth-thermometer-for-medical-professionals/): Motoworkr stayed a set of renders; we found no prototype and no sign that Motorola, whose logo the renders carry, was involved. Its idea reached the market in another form, as FDA-cleared heart monitors, thermometers and stethoscopes that connect to an ordinary smartphone.
- [The solar party pontoon and the boats that tried it for real](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/pontoon-solar-powered-party-boat-is-inexpensive-yet-luxurious/): The Pontoon was never built; it remains a portfolio project that Christopher Williams first posted in February 2010. Solar and electric pontoon boats were built by other companies, with mixed commercial results.
- [Samsung Jot: the rotary phone designed for 2015](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/samsung-jot-allows-mobile-communication-in-a-fun-and-intuitive-way/): The Jot stayed a set of renders and was never built. Samsung shipped a stylus phone in 2011 and a watch with a physical rotating ring in 2015, and an independent engineer built a working rotary cellphone in 2020.
- [The Ostoure, a muscle bike that only existed on screen](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/super-naked-bike-ostoure-offers-a-muscular-ride/): The Ostoure was never built; it stayed a set of computer renderings by Mohammad Reza Shojaie. In 2018 Shojaie and his brothers launched the Nireeka carbon e-bike, which Electrek later reported had been delivered to backers in more than 50 countries.
- [The all mountain wheelchair that borrowed from the bike trail](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/all-mountain-wheelchair-brings-sporty-spirit-to-the-physically-impaired/): Francisco Lupin built a full-size prototype of his all mountain wheelchair in 2009 and showed the project in Milan in 2010, but it never went into production. Off-road wheelchairs built on mountain bike technology went on sale from other makers, starting with the Mountain Trike in 2011.
- [The Flex Display Phone and the screen in three sizes](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/flex-display-phone-alters-its-size-to-work-in-three-different-modes/): The Flex Display Phone stayed a mock-up made to promote a flexible screen and was never produced. Flexible screens reached stores in phones that fold instead of slide, and Huawei’s Mate XT of 2024 put three screen sizes into one device.
- [Multitoe, the floor you could type on with your feet](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/multi-touch-floor-display-allows-wide-potential-without-sacrificing-the-direct-touch/): Multitoe was a working research prototype, built at the Hasso Plattner Institute and published at ACM UIST 2010; it was never sold. The lab grew it into a room-sized sensing floor by 2013, while the floors that reached care homes and play areas use simpler technology.
- [Nokia Unik and the phone back you could rearrange](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/nokia-unik-cellphone-changes-texture-with-your-mood/): The Unik stayed a concept and Nokia never made it. Swappable phone backs did ship, from Nokia in 2012 and from Nothing’s CMF brand in 2024, but as single covers and not as a mosaic of tiles.
- [The Relexer phone and the wrist that reports to the doctor](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/relexer-cellphone-doubles-as-body-vital-signs-updater/): The Relexer stayed a set of renders and was never built or sold. Its main promises, body readings taken at the wrist and shared with a doctor, arrived separately in smartwatches between 2014 and 2022.
- [The wheelchair that would charge its own lights](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/self-powered-wheelchair-produces-electricity-for-night-outing/): Roll.Charge.Light.Protect, the wheelchair concept by Mingoo Kim, Yunjin Chang and Sueun Park, was published in 2009 and, as far as we could find, never built. Lights powered by a turning wheel, with no battery to change, are sold for bicycles and as light-up caster wheels for wheelchairs.
- [The Slegoon, a sled with a roll cage and a sport of its own](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/the-slegoon-for-thrilling-ride-with-minimum-risk/): The Slegoon stayed a concept: we found renders and a competition win, but no production sled and no race. Its designer, Spike Reid, went on to lead expeditions and work as a photographer.
- [Yuxa, the bracelet phone made from plants](https://thedesignblog.org/entry/yuxa-wearable-cellphone-made-in-plant-fibers-and-biodegradable-plastic/): Yuxa stayed a set of renders by Veronica Eugenia Rodriguez Ortiz and was never built. Phones worn on the wrist and phone casings made with plant fiber both reached the market, but as separate products.