This window into the phone's soul – its back – is seeing a resurgence of design inspiration of late and, after receiving the
by less important measures, we would be wrong not to rank all the beautiful phone backs by which people judge our net worth and our worth as a person.
We joke, but if for its owner a phone is mainly the screen he stares at all day, for strangers who we need to impress with the latest and greatest, it's the back that brings immediate recognition, much to our chagrin or satisfaction. Let's classify all this trash in the trunk that made us think before putting a suitcase on it!
A quick scroll through our PhoneArena 2023 Awards reveals
exciting rear looks of phones that are not only packed with tech, but are also design inspirations. From transparent cases to DSLR
camera lookalikes, the days of boring flat glass monochrome phone backs are over. A good back should exude either style or a bit of eccentricity, but either way it should attract attention and immediate recognition of the model, so what are the highlights?
Oppo Find X6 Pro
Style AND substance
If you don't want to go too Marina Abramovich with the styling of your flagship phone, but still stay on the artistic, head-turning side, you can't do much better than Oppo's 2023 Find X6
Pro flagship .
Its giant round Hasselblad-branded camera island is finally centered and ticks all the right boxes for flagship, head-turning camera phone recognition. Oppo, however, added a rather unorthodox and beautiful two-tone style and made its original case match the rear design of the leather letter.
It doesn't matter whether the case is on or off, the two-tone faux leather and aluminum back looks equally stylish for everyone to look at and marvel at. A rather brilliant idea and a look at the back of the phone attracts attention to the point where people exclaimed “now that looks like a phone with a capable camera!” Yes,
Oppo ticked so many good boxes with the X6 Pro that we wonder what it has in store for us when it comes to the X7 Pro!
Nothing phone 2
LEDs and guts
There aren't many phone backs as visually striking as those in Carl Pei's Nothing Phone line these days. The OnePlus co-founder decided to go it alone and redefine phone usage with his Nothing brand.
Unlike the somewhat quixotic efforts of “Father of Android” Andy Rubin and his company Essential Phone who had similar ambitions and made titanium designs before they were cool, the Nothing Phone 2 is nothing less than looks and brains for the money.
Instead of using sophisticated and expensive building materials, Carl Pei came up with it to turn heads in a more ingenious way, by simply making the back plate of the phone mimic transparency. A quick glance at the back of the Nothing Phone 2 immediately reveals the make and model. A second glance gives a glimpse of the neatly laid out internals, not to mention the cool set of LEDs that have a translucent back running throughout. Congratulations on creating a one-of-a-kind phone line, Carl!
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
When the cover screen is all screen
We'd be remiss not to peg Samsung's 2023 foldable display clamshell as one of the best entrants into this year's pantheon of head-turning designs. Not to be outdone by Oppo and Motorola who made large, actually usable cover screens cool,
Samsung decided to go all out and splash organic light-emitting diodes all over the entire top half of the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
While this ushered it into the era of widgets, notification interaction, and the main camera viewfinder on flip phone backs, it also prevented it from installing device sensors larger photos like Oppo did with the Find N3 Flip which still offers a large cover screen on the back. Better enjoy the view before Samsung changes its mind yet again on what its clamshell backs should look like!
The iPhone 15 Pro Max
Demonstration of wealth or deprivation of zoom?
Who is this person holding a big iPhone with three cameras in the corners? Richy Rich has managed to make his way in the world, but is this the latest with the square periscope? No, I'm still not dating that wannabe who wears a 13 Pro Max!
Apple remains relatively boring with its phone backs and hardly deserves a ranking here on design alone. However, he avoids frequent changes simply because his designs quickly become an element of recognition and a symbol of social status. He's just pushing and prodding here and there just to distinguish one generation from the next enough to transfer all that recognition to the owner of his latest and greatest.
That, or he wants to sell cases. Whatever the reason, it works, so the iPhone 15 Pro Max back with a transparent MagSafe case is the ultimate symbol of… whatever its owner decides… to take over from the 14 Pro Max who preceded him. What do you think, why isn't the iPhone back as exciting as the other models listed here, but still doesn't have street cred?
