A hand held mobile terminal includes at least one torque cell for facilitating a torsionally stiff housing structure. The torque cell includes a plurality of first locking members located around a perimeter of a first housing and a plurality of second locking members located around a perimeter of a second housing. The first and second locking members are slidably engageable with each other so as to create a plurality of interlocking joints around the perimeter of the torque cell. Accordingly, the torque cell structure provides several advantages over the conventional mobile terminal housing, such as: better torsional rigidity, simplified assembly, improved volumetric efficiency, reduced need for shock absorbing materials, lighter overall weight, decoupling of impact loads, and mitigation of stress concentrations.