Remember When Phones Were Cool?

13 Sep 2022 | ~2 minute read

I’m sick of the black mirrors we have today – remember back in the day when the phone designs were cool and unique? I do, and I miss it.

I was having a conversation on the fediverse about this the other day and it got me to thinking about how cool the design of phones used to be back in the day.

In the late early to mid 00’s phones didn’t do a great deal, so manufacturers had to make them look cool. If you look at some of Nokia’s lineup from that time, the designs were mental.

Nokia N-Gage
Nokia N-Gage

Look at that thing! It’s so cool looking, isn’t it? Granted, it may not be the most accessible of devices, but damn they were cool.

It got to point where you looked forward to the latest phone being released, because you literally had no idea what you would be getting.

My favourite phone

The best phone I ever owned was the Sony Ericsson K850i. This was the last “dumb phone” I had before I got my first smartphone – the original Samsung Galaxy S – around 2010, I think.

Sony K850i
Sony K850i

Just look at the difference between the Sony and Nokia above. They’re vastly different from one another, but they’re both cool.

I seriously loved this phone. It was bulletproof, worked great and actually made phone calls without the audio failing every five minutes!

Now all we have is black rectangle, after black rectangle. If we’re lucky, there might be a new notch shape to get all in a tizzy about.

Phones have become boring, utilitarian, expensive, case-ridden things that actually aren’t that good at making calls. It’s crap. I wish manufacturers could make them cool again…somehow.

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