Looking back on the 1966-69 Star Trek television series it becomes clear that Gene Roddenberry’s imagination was light years ahead of his time. Alright, well maybe a little closer to 40 years. We still might not be able to beam our sexy selves from one location to another or to regenerate our kidneys with a blue pill, but the cell phones we use today have far surpassed his predictions for the 23^rd century.

Despite the clunky, primitive look of his communicator, no one flips open a phone like Captain James T. Kirk. Not only did it allow Kirk to keep in touch with his ship and crew, but whenever he suffered from inter-galactic snack attack he could use the flip top to grate cheese.

Notice the circular display screen at the center. Once in motion, the spider-esque pattern spirals outward, generating endless circles which could easily hypnotize the untrained eye. Always one step ahead, Captain Kirk never stared directly into the communicator when he used it.

We laugh at Star Trek’s attempt to create futuristic gadgets, but have we really come that far? Are cell phones today that different? It’s easy to trace the inspiration for many of today’s models.

Sure they’re sleeker, sexier, more colourful and certainly more versatile, but they share many similarities with the 1966 Roddenberry version. The display screen is now where the cheese grater used to be and the old hypno-circle has been replaced with the OK button and its surrounding navigational pad. But cell phone designers should take note: Kirk never had to clumsily dial no numbers.

You’ll never get a date flipping open your phone like this:

He may not have been able to take planetary pictures, watch Romulan music videos or send nasty text messages to the Klingons, but Kirk knew his way around a phone. He kept his flips simple, and the results speak for themselves:

Even though in Asia, this Nokia 5300 has been already launched for a while, the model was only available in North America last year. This product is targeting the cellphone users who are trendy music lovers.

It can store up to 1000 tracks with the MicroSD card slot. The Nokia 5300 is an enjoyable phone, your eyes will love the 2″ TFT display with QVGA resolution. The 1.3 megapixel camera also brings landscape picture format.

The smooth slider with spring mechanism brings a classy touch, but is often mistaken for a fold cellphone by non-savvy persons. Indeed, many of my friends, at the sight of my phone, grabbed it and tried to open it. At first, my heart stopped, afraid to see my phone lying in pieces in their hands, but fortunately for me, the slider is strongly built.

Furthermore, the keys around the phone offer a quick access for the multimedia, where comes their tag line “XpressMusic”.