Usually we avoid concept phones around here, but when we come across a Windows Phone 7 mockup from the same firm that designed the Zenum Opus, it’s worth a mention. Swiss company RareNative has envisioned a unique WP7 device, called simply “Seven,” that draws some inspiration from the Windows Mobile Standard smartphones of old: candybar form factor with a numeric keypad instead of full QWERTY keyboard. While the phone does indeed have a color touchscreen (standby mode makes it look black-and-white in the images), designer Emidio Do Sacramento states that this is meant to be a secondary device, a “weekend smartphone” if you will.

The body is said to be made of carbon fiber, while the metal accents are intended to be platinum-substitute Tantalum. As for actual specs, none were given, but frankly those don’t mean much when it comes to concepts: you can dump all the high-end components you want onto a piece of paper. According to the company, “While we are in love by the iPhone, and for all touch handsets in the market, with this concept we want it to offer an alternative…perhaps following the iPhone touch hysteria or just to respond to a market demand and (re)evolution.”

At the time (2006-07), Zenum’s Windows Mobile 5.0-powered Opus offered a revolutionary design (the squared-off sides are actually reminiscent of an iPhone 4) and a healthy feature set, but likely suffered from a lack of resources, as a mass-market rollout just never happened. Zenum now seems to have closed up shop, while RareNative has gone on to do work for such European brands as Lamborghini and Racespresso.

Source: RareNative