It feels really nice in the hand. It arrives in different colors. It might be shiny or matte. It might have curved glass or beveled metal edges.

What makes a smartphone “desirable”?

I’m in the rare position of getting to play with numerous smartphones throughout the year. I don’t need to speculate on phone design, or rely on press photos. I really get to hold them in my hand and use them.

I often criticize reviews that focus too much on aesthetic conversations about a phone’s “feel”, and I still highly recommend people put a case on their phone to protect their main communication gadget.

Even for those points though, I can’t deny that I still get an emotional thrill out of handling a new phone.

It’s a purely emotional reaction.

The rational part of my brain totally understands the realities of industrial design, the incredible amount of work and collaboration that goes into engineering a lifestyle consumer gadget. A designer can deliver an outlandish concept, but it still needs to be practical to construct, and easy for customers to use.

Recently there’s been a somewhat common refrain in tech circles, that the slate style smartphone is mature. The form factor is so well worn that it’s not “exciting” anymore. Smartphones are no longer novel experiences. They’re commodities people NEED to have for covering daily communication and passive entertainment.

Yet, for the incredible number of phones I get to handle, each one still manages to deliver a unique emotional reaction. I LIKE some phones better than others. I still enjoy flipping phones around my fingers and feeling the differences. I still find it somewhat disappointing that I really can’t use a phone out and about without covering that phone in a case.

I honestly can’t perfectly describe my feelings.

The more I try to THINK about my emotional reactions, the more it feels like I’m just re-writing my own history. Maybe I liked a color more than a material. Maybe I have a fondness for a brand over a design. When I try to dissect those feelings, I don’t completely trust the answers I come up with.

When I try though, there are some general trends I enjoy.

I realize, about myself, I tend to veer more towards tactile reactions.

The LOOK of a phone is important. However, I think it matters a little more to me that I enjoy the material choices, and I prefer phones that don’t wobble when put flat on a table.

I genuinely miss the era of phones where we played more with different material choices. Picking up my OLD Moto X2 or an LG G4, with real leather backplates, feels exotic compared to most glass designs today.

It would be fun to try another round of devices built out of higher quality polycarb or Kevlar or carbon fiber again.

It’s difficult expressing the difference to consumers, but ceramics could play a larger role in premium phones.

When it comes to glass, I prefer matte and textured surfaces to mirror finish. I’ve always felt mirror reflective backs start looking “cheap glitzy”.

After choosing a rear material, tiny decisions in corners, edges, and sides weigh in. I use my phones HEAVY as cameras, so I prefer the practicality of phones with flat sides. I RATIONALLY know this is better for MY kind of use, but I ENJOY the novelty of playing with rounded sides and curved glass. I know it’s less practical and less durable, but it’s fun.

I’ve said it before in videos. Phones with curved edges deserve to be set on a Lazy Susan, and rotated around, in an exhibit under museum lighting.

I completely understand some of the obsessive reactions to machining and assembling phones, a seam running the edge of a phone might catch your finger in exactly the wrong way, and sour the experience. Like a chip in a fingernail, you can’t stop picking at, an edge on a phone can become a fixation point for your fingertips.

Happily, the notion of “nice design” isn’t exclusive to the most expensive devices.

I like the LOOK of the Pixel 6 better, but I prefer the FEEL of the materials better on the Pixel 5A. Truly inexpensive devices like Poco phones have a distinctly unique feel this year, pairing flatter sides with wider camera modules.

We need these products to be practical communication devices. Smartphones need to survive daily lifestyle abuse. They’re ubiquitous products, but they can still light us up.

They can still excite.

What gets YOU excited about a new phone? Drop a comment below!