smartphones
Spoot: Spotted Early keeps smartphones in one place: 3 stories so far. The section currently leads with “Infinix Opens Bali Flagship Where You Can Sip Coffee and Test Phones”, “The sofa that fixes itself: five everyday objects quietly refusing to die”, and “Phones with robot arms and keyboard cravings: five designs worth the pocket space”. Beachwalk Shopping Center now holds Infinix's first global flagship store, and it comes with coffee. A sofa that fixes itself. Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every smartphones story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
Infinix Opens Bali Flagship Where You Can Sip Coffee and Test Phones
Beachwalk Shopping Center now holds Infinix's first global flagship store, and it comes with coffee. That's the pitch: sip something, test phones, maybe let a little creativity happen between the two. Bali's a dream destination for travelers, and now it's a stop for people who want to handle a handset before buying it. I like the move. A flagship store should feel like somewhere you'd actually linger, and a coffee bar is a smarter hook than another wall of glowing screens. It's a retail experiment worth watching, though the coffee won't tell you whether the phones are any good. For a different kind of curious launch, Voxel's mustard-yellow chassis wants your mess, not your compliments. Two strange debuts, one island. Stay spooty.
The sofa that fixes itself: five everyday objects quietly refusing to die
A sofa that fixes itself. Not a sofa that looks like it fixes itself, or comes with a branded repair kit that costs more than the couch. A sofa that actually, structurally, refuses to die. That's the razor clam in this Dezeen roundup, and it's a good one. While governments drag their feet on right-to-repair legislation, designers are just… doing it. Reimagining our most-used objects so anyone with a screwdriver and some patience can keep them alive. It's quietly radical. The EU has some of the strictest rules around, but the real momentum is in the workshops. If you like this stubborn streak, you'll love our piece on tiny EVs that dare to be small and sharp. Same energy, fewer seat cushions.
Phones with robot arms and keyboard cravings: five designs worth the pocket space
A phone with a literal robot arm. Not a concept render, not a crowdfunding fever dream, but a design someone actually put together and said, yes, this belongs in a pocket. That's the kind of specific weirdness we live for. This roundup gathers five handsets that put design first, from that mechanical appendage to a keyboard phone clearly built for people who type faster than they talk. It's a refreshing break from the endless glass slabs. The honest take? Some of these will feel like solutions looking for problems. Others might just make you question why every phone looks the same. If you're already circling back for the details, our piece on Dyson's camera-toting toothbrush suggests we're equally intrigued by tech that refuses to play it safe. Stay spooty.