Much as I’m a total geek for cordless phones, they just haven’t been a thing since the advent of modern smartphone tech. Wish I had more time with them before they got outmoded, but the tech push said no. My first cell phone.. I’m not sure what it was. Will need to think hard on it one of these days. However, I’m gonna chronicle every phone I’ve personally owned that I can actually remember. Years acquired are estimates.
2007: Sony Ericsson – Z310A (?)
This is a lot tougher for me to think of because it was farther in my past, but I do remember the fancy-as-hell appearance. It was a fold phone that had some cool ringtones, along with RNG lighting around the outer trim of the device and around the number pad. You could even choose between many light patterns that looked very cool at the time. Sorta wish I could get my hands on one… Fun fact: This phone let you set a time range for a Dark mode. This was 2006 or so, before Dark mode was mainstream. Or RNG lighting. This phone was way ahead of its time in some ways. Sadly I didn’t get to use it very long. Also, it seems that this brand had a lot of slider phones I probably would’ve loved, but I only ever encountered this next one to date.
2010: Samsung – Flight II
This is the earliest phone I remember clearly. It was my first and only slider phone, with a nice interface for its time (early touchscreen), but very much pre-Android. I had three little pages where I could drag widgets around like a music player, right on the home screen. I would use this little thing just for music a lot of the time – helped me get through a rough job now that I think of it. Traditional texting was never really my “thing,” but when I did send text messages I loved being able to use a physical keyboard despite how tiny it is. Fun fact: I really prefer full-size keyboards to type anything from messages to write-ups. I remember going into a video-editing program to downscale some of my favorite videos so they’d play, such as the entire space battle in Star Wars VI. The Flight II also was from the days when we still had physical call/back/home buttons. Really small form factor, and I still have it to this day. The one big drawback: when the phone was on low battery, it made a recurring noise every X minutes that… wasn’t quite loud, but very much piercing. It massively annoyed everyone I lived with. I blame the developer who decided it should do that infinitely till charged rather than a single alert. All in all, this was a really fun phone in my opinion.
2012-2013: Samsung Galaxy Note II and III
Basically these were my first “phablets.” I was very much interested in larger screen size without actually getting a tablet, and the S-pen was super handy for taking handwritten notes on the fly. I liked them pretty well, but they suffered from the same issue many Samsung phones have had: volume/power buttons that get stuck, as well as spontaneous system restarts. Haven’t been on Samsung phones since because of that, which led me to..
2017: T-Mobile Revvl+
My first phone since moving to Missouri, and still one of my favorites. Big screen, decent camera, mega cheap, and played games well enough at the time. I still use this as a portable video player around the house. It made me really appreciate T-Mobile that extra bit, that I could love one of their branded phones over a history of flagship Samsung Galaxy devices. Almost went for the Revvlry+ because of it, too. I always watch for new T-mobile phones in case they end up being as great as this one. Side note: This was around the time Popsockets first became a thing, as I put my first one on this phone!
2019: LG G7 ThinQ
Despite the ultra-wide form factor, this became one of my favorite phones in record time. I got it around the time the G8 was coming out, so this one was very cheap. It just ran very damn well for the price and never let me down. I loved that I could adjust volume for each app individually, which I don’t have on my current phone (below).
I’d still be using it at the time of writing this post, except that the phone won’t charge anymore. Something happened with the plug circuitry best I can tell. I still have it in the event I can afford to get a custom repair one of these days. I liked this phone a lot. It made me want to choose LG again, but I couldn’t because – of course – LG started tapering off their phone division.
2021: OnePlus Nord N10 5G
Disclaimer: I only have this phone because my G7 stopped charging and was past warranty. Between my avoidance of Samsung, LG ceasing the production of new phones, and T-Mobile’s new offerings being less impressive this time around, OnePlus was my best (only) bet for a new budget/midrange device. This phone is pretty nice, I admit, but it just feels like a downgrade compared to my G7. The N10 is fast and responsive, and I can customize some things to my liking. The screen is marginally larger, and the tech is generally newer, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Can’t do individual volume control, and apparently the community is worried about the future of OnePlus phones after some corporate shifting took place recently. I really do like it well enough, but I constantly miss my G7. I guess I should mount it on the wall near my desk if I idolize the darn thing so much. Still on the N10 for now, but every few months I check for new device listings.
What do I really look for in a phone anyway? I can sum it up pretty well, and I kinda feel sorry for folks who never experienced phones from the late 200s and the 2010s. Since, for me anyway, a lot of what I like in phones just isn’t standard or has been discontinued in favor of the next trend. Most people seem to be focused on design and camera. Those two things do play a fair share for modern swiss-army-knife smartphones, but I think that often gets in the way of other nice-to-haves or even basics.
The volume control per app is an example of a non-standard feature – something I do a lot on my Windows desktop. Also, I want a 16:9 aspect ratio. Revvl+ was my last phone like that, which I now use as a portable video player around the house. I can do 21:9 but I am tired of constantly losing height for extra width to the point that I have to start looking left and right with my eyes to see the full image. Next up? Removable batteries. I loved being able to buy a backup battery and just swap it in if I needed it suddenly and didn’t have time to charge the one currently inside the unit. Especially since max battery life fades with time.
Anywho, that’s a blog about me and my history with cell(ular) phones. RIP Cingular service, goodbye to LG mobile phones, and may new options crop up before 2025.