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| The iconic Motorola RAZR V3, brandished by Dr. Wilson ('All In', Season 2, House M.D.). ©Fox. |
Mobile phones are much like computers for me in the sense that they conjure up a level of nostalgia unlike almost anything else. But that's me and technology all over: reading articles on Engadget about the latest slabs of technology, spending my hard-earned cash and picking up (or, more recently, having delivered) a shiny box with all sorts of goodies inside - ah, the unboxing experience! Phones have had this down for decades now.
After watching the aforementioned episode, I trawled eBay for at least thirty minutes looking to establish a collection of all my previous phones. I still possess a few but even those that are missing could be acquired for between £10-£20 in acceptable condition. Considering that the first phone I acquired was in 1998, my experiences represent 'a brief history of mobile phones', as I've upgraded almost every single year since then, and pored over every option available on an annual basis. I only ever bought the newest, most exciting shit.
Something that will make this exercise particularly interesting is that I kept a diary from 2005 until about 2010. During that time, I recorded my impressions of each new phone the day I upgraded, so I'll be able to include these insights.
Where It Started
Owning a mobile phone in 1998 was no mean feat. They were very much still considered a business tool rather than a consumer necessity, mostly because the use of one required a credit agreement. This came at a cost of around £40 a month for the most basic call plan, which covered instalments for the phone hardware and line rental, and usually included free weekend and evening calls to local landlines. The need to be a legal adult (18-years-old in the UK) to sign this contract put 'mobiles' out of many people's reach, unless you could talk mummy and daddy into getting one for you.
I had just left school after A-Levels and started working full-time in a local computer store - the Upminster branch of catalogue computer retailer Special Reserve (another story for another time). For the first year or two that I possessed a mobile, only one of my mates had one - the rest of the numbers I had on my SIM were land lines. Yes, this was a time when even those with a mobile had to endure the humbling experience of speaking to a girl's parents when they answered the phone instead. Texting (or SMSing as it was clumsily called by most people at the time) was also something of a novelty: one- or two-line screens on phones and a numerical keypad weren't well-suited for typing messages and, as it was no more convenient or expensive than making a phone call, why would you bother with the faff? How things have changed...
It was the introduction of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) that caused the explosion in mobile phone popularity. Suddenly anyone, anywhere could get a mobile phone. You bought yourself a phone (usually a bad, cheap one), and you bought 'credit' that enabled you to make calls and send messages, usually at a higher rate than contract phones. Mobiles were no longer targeted at just business. The limitless customer base led to increased sales, which led to more investment in the network meaning increased coverage, reliability and quality of service. This also made more money available for R&D budgets and handsets improved rapidly almost overnight. Just look at the difference between my first and second phones to see what I mean.
Almost as soon as I started the aforementioned job I was straight down the one2one store (formerly Muercury) in Romford. Having chosen my first phone, I was able to choose my mobile number and, amazingly, I've had the same one ever since!
Almost as soon as I started the aforementioned job I was straight down the one2one store (formerly Muercury) in Romford. Having chosen my first phone, I was able to choose my mobile number and, amazingly, I've had the same one ever since!
Ericsson PF768
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| Source: Wikimedia |
Year: 1998. I don't even remember what the other phone choices were at the time and, to be honest, I don't think I cared - I was just happy to have a mobile phone! It's also the only phone I've owned that had an antenna.
Advantages: small, lightweight.
Best feature: the 'flip', which covered the keys. It had a spring, making the action looked quite flash at the time.
Worst feature: the 'flip', which eventually broke as it was so flimsy. Without it, the phone had a habit of turning itself off in your pocket.
Fate: it broke. I binned it when I upgraded. I don't think I was even curious enough to bother with dismantling it.
Nokia 3210
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| Source: Wikimedia |
Advantages: bigger screen for texting, and changeable covers! I had a bunch of different covers for mine, ending up with translucent blue. It looked amazing with the case all lit up and was a very cool phone at the time. I think everyone had one.
Best feature: the legendary game; Snake!
Worst feature: it was a bit big.
Fate: was stolen from my jacket pocket in a club. Remains the only phone I've owned to be nicked.
Nokia 8210
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| Source: author |
Year: 2000. Although it was upgrade time I seem to remember this phone costing me something like £200 as it wasn't free with the contract. This is easily the most I've ever paid for a phone, but that's how desirable it was at the time.
Advantages: did everything the 3210 did but was much smaller and incredibly light. It remains the smallest, lightest phone I've ever owned. I think it's also the first phone I used as a modem with a laptop in order to connect to the Internet, thanks to its infrared port. I also used this to sync my contacts with my Psion Revo. GPRS didn't exist yet, however, so it was like dial-up but mobile.
Best feature: aside from its form it would be the changeable covers again, so I never got bored of it. Black looked quite good.
Worst feature: towards the end of its life the screen started to fail which made it pretty useless.
Fate: I've still got it and it works pretty well, surprisingly.
Ericsson T68
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| Source: coolsmartphone |
Year: 2001: I remember that the choice of phones at the time was pretty poor - nothing stood out in terms of looks or features. I think this was the first time I went to get a new phone not knowing which one to get. This one turned out to be a nice surprise.
Advantages: very gadgety. Could do MMS, had a colour screen and bluetooth for contacts sync and GPRS Internet, and could send and receive photos. There was also a camera add-on you could get but it was expensive and hard to find. Plus the quality was appalling. Still, it was a technological first.
Best feature: the WAP browser. London Underground had a WAP page - living in London and being able to look up train times and sports results on the move was a Godsend.
Worst feature: it was a pretty ugly phone, I thought, and when the vibration failed it became annoying.
Fate: I've still got this one too, but the back of it is turning to goo.
Sony Ericsson T610
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| Source: snupps |
Advantages: did everything the T68 could, plus had a bigger, better screen and built-in camera. In fact I believe it was the first consumer mobile phone to have this feature and at the time it raised many questions over privacy. It was therefore the first phone you could take a pic of yourself doing something and send it to a friend immediately (if their phone was compatible).
Best feature: definitely the camera. I've still got all the photos I took with it (sorry, no nudes). This is the genesis of modern mobile phones.
Worst feature: nothing springs to mind. I could gripe about the passive-matrix display but that wouldn't even make sense to most people.
Fate: I fell asleep on the train one night coming back from London and overshot my station by a few stops. woke up with a jolt, jumped off the train, forgot my phone.
Sony Ericsson T630
Advantages: it was essentially a (slightly) improved version of the T610, and still seemed to be the best thing going at the time. I continued taking photos and it was pretty much the peak of the consumer phone experience at the time.
Best feature: the improved active matrix LCD.
Worst feature: didn't improve much on its predecessor so it was actually quite boring as upgrades go. I dearly wanted the P900 at the time, but I'd just bought a house, so I was limited to a free upgrade.
Fate: I left this one in a taxi. Oops.
Motorola RAZR V3
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| Source: spiria |
Advantages: big, pretty screen; second, smaller screen to identify callers; very thin and very stylish; could record video; had a (relatively) high resolution camera. It was also the first phone I was able to load videos and music on from elsewhere (mp3 ringtones).
Best feature: recording video. It was a brand new feature for a phone as far as I remember, but it didn't support it initially. I had to hack the damn thing (another first) to enable it but that was fun in itself.
Worst feature: can't think of one - I liked this phone A LOT.
Fate: I dropped it and the glass protecting the secondary screen cracked. Fortunately this was toward the end of its tenure.
Sony Ericsson W810i
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| Source: author |
Advantages: memory stick storage, 2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, it's a walkman, FM radio, web browser, changeable themes, email - just such an amazing gadget!
Best feature: undoubtedly the camera. Having such a good quality camera in your pocket is great when you've got kids because it's easy to get high quality pics anytime, anywhere. Prior to this I would have to carry a separate camera with me for even basic shots but this thing was so good I really didn't need to. I've taken some of my best photos on this.
Worst feature: really I can't think of one this phone rocked. I was even able to upgrade the software and unlock it so it could be used on other networks.
Fate: I've still got it. dropped it a million times but the build quality is great.
T-Mobile MDA Compact III
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| Source: GSM Arena |
Advantages: touchscreen, albeit resistive so nearly impossible to use with finger touch. Lots of apps.
Best feature: actually I don't know. It was a good personal organiser but I actually hated this as a phone.
Worst feature: the full-fat HTC version of this had GPS and WiFi but the T-Mobile version had these disabled for some maddening reason. Also the camera is really quite woeful to the point of being unusable. Plus it's a brick. I cracked the screen once when it was in my pocket, but it was easy and cheap to repair.
Fate: I've still got this and recently hacked it, upgrading it to Windows Mobile 6.5 which is supposed to be better geared towards finger use. Unfortunately the screen has such a low resolution and lacks sensitivity that it doesn't in any way enhance the user experience on this hardware. Worst 'phone' I've ever had.
Blackberry Curve 8320
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| Source: Amazon |
Advantages: built-in camera (of passable quality) with flash; expandable memory via MMC; Wi-Fi; 'proper' Internet browser; SMS, email and MMS delivered to the same inbox; instant messaging; customisable themes; app store; Apple iTunes synchronisation; updatable operating system.
Best feature: push email was the big innovation that owning a Blackberry brought i.e. email that arrives immediately rather than only when a send & receive happens. Oh, and Wi-Fi Internet access on the move - fantastic.
Worst feature: the web browser. While the browsing experience was much better than on the W810i, it still couldn't render any site as was intended - it was very much 'mobile internet' rather than 'desktop internet'. Disappointing. It also came with an 18 month contract so I got really bored of it towards the end.
Fate: its plasticky build quality resulted in it eventually disintegrating. Good riddance. 2nd worst phone.
Nokia N900
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| Source: author |
Year: 2009. This phone (and I use the term loosely) piqued my interest during September when I still had 3 months to run on my contract. I saw it on Engadget in a video that demonstrated the phone's ability to run a Super Nintendo emulator, hook it up to a television to see the action, and use a Wiimote as the controller. Genius. Absolute genius. If there's one thing I like about gadgets it's the ability to make them do stuff they're not supposed to. The N900 is basically a computer in your hand so anything a computer can do, this can. plus a lot more. It's so hacky it can run Android, OSX and whatever else the lunatics that own these things have managed to get working.
Advantages: high resolution screen, physical keyboard, Wi-Fi and 3G for data, infrared, FM receiver and transmitter (listen to your music collection in the car), 32GB internal storage (expandable via MMC), Linux-based operating system (Maemo 5 / MeeGo), many applications, can play music and videos of all formats (I watched Lost on it in glorious 720p while I had my hand stitched up in hospital), GPS, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, front-facing camera for video calls, touchscreen, instant messaging (Yahoo, MSN, Skype, Google Talk, ICQ, etc.), email. Oh and it's a phone.
Best feature: the web browsing experience. This device finally fulfils the promise I was seeking when I bought the Blackberry. It comes with a proper desktop Web browser. It could watch YouTube videos, listen to radio stations (FM and Internet), watch TV via iPlayer and such, access my bank account, play Flash games, everything. best of all though is that because it's 'open source' anyone can write programs for it and it came with the pledge of being improved on a regular basis via software updates.
Worst feature: it doesn't do MMS, oddly, which is absurd for a phone and, okay, it's a bit of a brick but when you consider it's an mp3 player, games console, radio, laptop, phone and camera all rolled into one it was a price worth paying imho.
Fate: I used this phone passionately for 2 years until I was bought a Samsung Galaxy SII, my first Android phone (I'm actually in the process of writing a dedicated article about the N900 because of its historical significance to Nokia's downfall).
2011 Onwards
That's it. That's the history of my phones. Of course I continued with the upgrades after the N900 but it's all very boring after this point. Once you've gone Android or iOS you're simply upgrading to the best available phone at the upgrade point. Sure you get a shiner screen, more storage, a faster CPU, the newest version of Android and a better camera but it's all quite uneventful. Unboxing is still great in its own way, but phones are boring now and very little research needs to be done. They can all do the same things with very little variation. The N900 maintains its crown as the best phone I ever owned.
Currently I'm rocking a Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which has the most incredible camera I've ever used. The super macro mode is fantastic and I make all my YouTube videos with it. I'm never without it and it's the digital umbilicus that keeps me connected to social media. If you wanna get in touch you'll find me on Twitter @brassicGamer. Thanks for reading.