What do cell phones look like in the year 2144?
Obviously they won't have a screen anymore. They'll be pop-up displays. So if you're sitting on a train and your romantic partner sends you a steamy selfie...guess who has an audience?
Has this annoyed anyone else?
If they're tactical screens, that makes sense. But I still don't think transparent displays on personal devices will be a thing in the future.
Shown in what? Movies and series? In those holograms and transparent screens are used because it allows the audience to see what's happening, trading realism for improved visual story telling.
As for realistic where mobile tech is going, my guess it will be pretty much what we have now, just more compact and foldable.
Eventually advances in AR and brain interfaces might make the "rectangular slabs" be replaced by something more discrete which no longer requires physical inputs. Doubt they'd be called a mobile phone though.
I really liked what was used in The Expanse series.
You mean the transparent rectangle screens? I love The Expanse but did not like those. In order to view things on the screen the background needs to be opaque! I did like how the file transfer worked between devices though, with the swiping and all.