Candy Bar Phone

What Does Candy Bar Phone Mean?

A candy bar phone is one of several cell phone form factors in the mobile phone industry. A candy bar mobile phone is rectangular in shape with no lid or hinged enclosure, resembling a traditional candy bar.

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This term is also known as a slab, block or bar phone.

Techopedia Explains Candy Bar Phone

The screen and keypad of a candy bar mobile handset are usually found on one face of the unit. With the keypad exposed, a bar phone is susceptible to accidental dialing. Therefore, most of them are equipped with electronic keypad locks. A candy bar phone is a smaller and more modern version of the bulky brick phone, which was the earliest cell phone form.

Candy bar phones with monochrome screens dominated cell phone screens in the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. The Nokia 1100, a monochrome bar phone, is reported to be the best selling phone ever, having sold over 250 million units since its release in 2003.

Although candy bar phones now come with more advanced features such as colored displays, cameras, digital music players and Web browsing capabilities, these units share the market with other mobile phone factors such as the flip or clamshell, slate, slider and swivel phones.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…