Example sentences
shǒu手jī机méi没diàn电le了。
The phone is dead.
bǎ把shǒu手jī机jìng静yīn音。
Mute the phone.
About this word
手 is the hand, 机 is a machine, so 手机 is a hand machine, the phone you keep in your palm. Chinese names devices by what they do or where they sit: 电话 is the telephone (electric speech), 座机 is a landline (a machine with a seat), 电视 is television (electric vision). Once 机 reads as "machine", 飞机 (flying machine, airplane) and 洗衣机 (washing machine) open up too.
The story behind the character
手
手 is a hand, drawn from life. The oldest form shows the fingers spread and the arm coming down below. Xu Shen gave it four characters: 手，拳也, a fist. Everything you do with it is in the word: 手表, the watch strapped to it, and 手机, the hand machine in your pocket.
机
机 is 木 (wood) with 几 on the right giving the sound. The traditional form is 機, and its first meaning was the trigger of a crossbow, a small wooden mechanism that releases the shot. Xu Shen wrote 機，主發謂之機: the thing in charge of releasing. Every machine since is a descendant of that trigger.