What were you using 10 years ago?

[kdarling]

Ten years ago I don't know what phone I had, but I was constantly surfing the web remotely using a Jornada 720 clamshell Handheld PC running HPC 2000 (Win CE).

I had a CF card with a CDPD air modem talking to Verizon at ~19Kbps, which was state of the art. Data was charged by the minute instead of by bytes, and don't you ever wish that data is charged that way. Just sitting reading a web page while connected, could cost you like hell. Fortunately, work paid for all my comms.

The best part was its huge 640x240 display, which, along with its IE4 compatible browser... the most popular website type at the time... meant you could very nicely surf the web with hardly any horizontal scrolling. Not even the iPhone many years later could be as nice an experience.

I also sometimes used a ViewSonic WinCE slate, which beat the iPad to market by a decade, but which never caught on with the public. I still have the Jornada... it's charging on a shelf nearby.

 

[james92se]

Had a Motorola Flip Brick in 95 then on to Nokia in 98-99:

Then in 2000, went to Sprint PCS and had a Samsung flip

This.

I'd say this was likely one of the more ubiquitous phones of the time. I remember everyone and their mom had this phone, kind of like the iPhone now. I remember text messaging like crazy on this phone in high school, which makes it kind of funny to hear the media talking about text messaging as if it's a recent invention (as I've been texting heavily for 10 years now). I still have this phone but can't get it to work.

Then I went to a series of sweet SE phones, starting with the T616, which was one of my favorite phones of all time. I remember how gorgeous it was for its time. I still use this phone in between iPhones

 

[Ca$hflow]

I believe this was 1998 or so. Same phone they used on the X-Files: (still have it)

Was my second and probably had it for 5 years. Indestructible and I was in construction at the time. I can't remember how many times I dropped it. Can't do that with the iphone.

Startac was my 1st. The battery was terrible.

 

[boss.king]

I didnt have a cellphone 10 years ago. I think I first got one in 2005 (crappy Motorola)

 

[dumb terminal]

I believe this was 1998 or so. Same phone they used on the X-Files: (still have it)

I had this phone for a little more than a year, bought it used in the summer of 2000. Great phone, lost it during the 9/11 attacks (left it on my desk on the 79th floor of 1WTC during the evacuation).

I went without a cell phone until 2005, then got a Motorola Razr V3M, which I used until 2008. Went to an LG Chocolate, and had that until I got the ViPhone last month.

 

[Bugeyeblue]

I believe this was 1998 or so. Same phone they used on the X-Files: (still have it)

What was the model or name of this phone? It was my first cell phone.

 

[M-5]

I didn't get my first cell phone until my sophomore year of high school in '06/'07. It was some cheap phone from Nextel made by Motorola I believe. It didn't have a camera nor a texting plan, and all I used it for was to make calls if I needed to be picked up from school or needed to find my parents. I didn't use it much except when I missed the bus and was glad I finally had a cell phone. The battery would die out really fast though.

Before that I just borrowed my mom's candybar style Nokia phone with a black and white screen, and this was in 2005-2006. I primarily borrowed it if I went on a school trip and needed to call her to pick me up afterwords. I loved carrying it around and felt nice having a phone without needing to borrow someone else's.

Finally for my second phone, and the very first one I purchased, I bought the original iPhone 8GB phone in June/July of 2007. It was very expensive too, at around $600, but it meant a whole lot. It was an amazing device especially at the time.

Then in December '08, my parents bought me the 3G for Christmas.

I bought the iPhone 4 myself on launch last year summer 2010.

 

[splashnader]

Yep old Nokia phone for me as well. I think I still have it somewhere in a box in my garage. Those were definitely the primitive days looking back, yet 10 years ago it seemed like the height on innovation.

 

[11colmil]

I had the really old nokia with snake and the pull out antenna. I swear that thing was the most durable phone ever. Back then, if i dropped it, big whoop. If i drop my iPhone, WITH an otterbox, I just about crap myself.

 

[Blueline29]

Had a Motorola Flip Brick in 95 then on to Nokia in 98-99:

Same here, with both of those; both were hand-me-downs. I can't find anywhere the make/model of the 1st phone I bought myself, which is driving me friggin' crazy. It weighed next to nothing, was very skinny (in both width and depth-- it couldn't have been more than an inch and a half wide), let you change the LCD backlight color to one of 6 different ones, and had a ringtone composer built in. Candy bar style, & I was with AT&T (or Cingular) at the time (May 2002). I loved that phone, & if anybody has an educated guess as to what it was, I'd love to hear it. God, I'm a dork for caring that much.

The next ones were as follows:

ca. mid-2003. Motorola v60t.

I loved how you could customize the sequence and color of lights that lit up around the Motorola logo for various callers. Got this one in early 2004. Motorola v600. Very cool phone.

Got this one ca. July 2005. Still have it. Motorola v551.

April 2006. Still have it. RAZR v3xx.

June-ish 2008. BB Curve 8310.

Nov. 2008. BB Bold 9000. I really dug this phone, but liked the 3GS more.

Launch Day 2009

Launch Day 2010.


Evidently, I'm a bit of a phone whore.

 

[jwingfie]

10 years ago I was 14 and didn't have a cell phone yet, but at around 16 I got the same Nokia 5120 that has been posted and quoted multiple times on this page. I miss playing snake on that bad boy.

 

[maliu]

Dating myself big time.......

Why stop at ten years? In 1980 something, my now husband had one of the first car phones. Hard wired into the vehicle. If you wanted to make a call you had to wait until the line was open. Anyone remember a party line? You could listen to anyone's conversation while waiting. My first cell phone was a Motorola bag phone. It weighed about 3 pounds but was 3 watts! That was way cool back then.........Ten years ago I can't remember what I used. Nothing stands out like the pioneer days.

 

[AndrewR23]

Blueline, your july 2005 phone is the same one I had although it wont get off this code thing when i turn it on. It says it wants something like PPP or idk something weird.

 

[Blueline29]

Why stop at ten years? In 1980 something, my now husband had one of the first car phones. Hard wired into the vehicle. If you wanted to make a call you had to wait until the line was open. Anyone remember a party line? You could listen to anyone's conversation while waiting. My first cell phone was a Motorola bag phone. It weighed about 3 pounds but was 3 watts! That was way cool back then.........Ten years ago I can't remember what I used. Nothing stands out like the pioneer days.

My mom & dad also had a huge bag phone, though I think theirs was a Panasonic, maybe--that one was my very first phone (though obviously I didn't brandish it in public! It stayed in the trunk, usually, and was only for emergencies.) Good times.

Just for nostalgia's sake, I'm charging up my RAZR now...funny to see some of the photos I have stored on it from 2007. And all of my ringtones are still there as well, and some of them were--the horror--more than 29 seconds long! I wish I still had a charger for the v551--I know I had a boatload of pics on that thing (and that was pre-external memory cards, I believe. I don't think it had a slot for one.) I'd like to see some of those again.

 

[dontworry]

Had a Nokia 5160 after using my dad's Moto bagphone on the weekends. Loved the nokia, really good phone and snake! You could replace the front easily and they really took a beating.

 

[SilvorX]

Landline for me. Got my very first cellphone in 2003, a Motorola C350 on Rogers AT&T

 

[mikeabbz]

motorola vader

 

[Phil A.]

Ten years ago I don't know what phone I had, but I was constantly surfing the web remotely using a Jornada 720 clamshell Handheld PC running HPC 2000 (Win CE).

I had a CF card with a CDPD air modem talking to Verizon at ~19Kbps, which was state of the art. Data was charged by the minute instead of by bytes, and don't you ever wish that data is charged that way. Just sitting reading a web page while connected, could cost you like hell. Fortunately, work paid for all my comms.

The best part was its huge 640x240 display, which, along with its IE4 compatible browser... the most popular website type at the time... meant you could very nicely surf the web with hardly any horizontal scrolling. Not even the iPhone many years later could be as nice an experience.

I also sometimes used a ViewSonic WinCE slate, which beat the iPad to market by a decade, but which never caught on with the public. I still have the Jornada... it's charging on a shelf nearby.

I've still got one of those too. In fact, your post has persuaded me to dig it out and it's also now charging up again
They were a brilliant bit of kit and it's a real shame the form factor never really took off...

 

[arkitect]

Sony CMD Z1

I loved this phone. Had it for 3 years… replaced it later with a Nokia (can't remember the model).

 

[-aggie-]

A landline. I got my first cell phone in 2002.

 

[heisenberg123]

A landline. I got my first cell phone in 2002.

2002 is pretty dang close to 10 years ago, what did you have?

 

[Namji]

Fun thread!

My first cell phone was in 1996 starting with this.

Out of all these phones.. The Nextel i1000, Startac was my favorite phones..
Especially back then we were able to switch out the OEM antenna and put on light-up antennas and also customize the faceplates easier.

 

[Savor]

My first ever cell phone was one of these way back in 1989

EPIC!

That wasn't my first phone, but I remember those! That looked like one of my mom's first cell phones back in 1990-1991.

And people didn't always call them cell phones like today but were sometimes just called "car phones."

I knew alot of people using Air Touch before it became Verizon.

 

[Savor]

Back in March 2001, my phone was a Qualcomm QCP-1960. It was a replacement phone after I lost my first phone in a rave club the previous year. I hardly went out that year in 2001, so when I misplaced my Qualcomm hidden in my bag, I didn't even care to look for it. Rarely used it. Not until my next phone did I start using my cell phone more.

Later that year for my 21st birthday, I would switch to Cingular which was my first GSM carrier and got a navy blue Nokia 3360 which was free with contract . This was the phone that introduced me to texting after seeing how big it was when I went on an Asia trip a week earlier. That was a solid performer no matter how many times I dropped it. But my favorite dumb phone was the Sanyo SCP-5500 on Sprint that I got in 2004.

There is another thread where I posted my phone history. I will repost it here with a link just in case I ever need to go back for reference.

What was your favorite "dumb phone?"[/B]

My Cell Phone History

1. Audiovox 9155GPX, Verizon (December 1999 - September 2000)
My first cell phone that I got on Christmas of 1999. I was already 19 when I got my first phone which is OLD for today's standards, but remember I came from the pager era. It was for Verizon. Decent phone with solid reception. Lost it in a rave club. Slipped out of my pocket while on XTC. A kid picked it up and used my minutes. Luckily, I was insured and would get a replacement phone.

2. Qualcomm QCP-1960, Verizon (September 2000 - December 2001)
The replacement phone from Verizon. I hardly used it. I actually thought I lost it, but it was hidden in m backpack for months. I liked that it was thin, but I never cared for it. It was during this time when I didn't use or have a cell phone at all.

3. Nokia 3360, Cingular (December 2001 - September 2003)
My first GSM phone. This phone was ROCK SOLID. Dropped it so many times and it still chugged along. I got this for my 21st birthday as a free phone for signing up to Cingular. Served me well. Had a wallpaper of boobs and Linkin Park's "One Step Closer" as my ringtone. This was the phone that got me into text messaging with the "envelope with wings" flying away animation and that popular Snake game!

4. Nokia 3595, Cingular (September 2003 - January 2004)
My first phone with a color screen. I got it for free when I sent my old 3360 back to Cingular. I dropped this several times and it sucked. Cheap quality where the rubber padding would peel off. Hated the keypad. Eventually, it got submerged into liquid and stopped working. Had to buy another phone without contract. My dad did fix it, but I just gave it away to my aunt who needed a phone because she lost her's. Didn't care too much with this phone. My trusty 3360 was better and regret sending it back.

5. Sony Ericsson T616, Cingular (January 2004 - May 2004)
My first cameraphone. This was a sexy phone when I first saw it. My mother actually got it a month prior when her contract was up. As for my experience with it, I didn't really have time to enjoy it because I would eventually get a Sanyo and Motorola in the upcoming months. The T616 was quickly demoted as a third wheel and GSM back-up phone once I got my V600. The reception sounded softer compared to my Nokias. This phone would introduce me to Bluetooth and gave me a taste of being a phone junkie.

6. Sanyo SCP-5500/VM4500, Sprint (February 2004 - February 2006)
Like mentioned in the first page, this was my favorite dumb phone of all-time. This CES Award-winning phone was the best phone on Sprint at the time of purchase. Sanyo > Samsung back in those Sprint days. It was a $400 phone, but my GF at the time and I got it for $279 with contract. Had the cool LED rainbow flash when I talked on the phone. Had Natasha Yi wallpaper and all these cool ringstones for it. The UI was cleaner than my V600. Had the external screen that showed the person's pic when they called. Had 15fps at 15 seconds max. Epic! lol Good times! This phone and my T616 I still have in my drawer somewhere. I became a full-blown cell phone enthusiast after this one.

7. Motorola V600, Cingular (May 2004 - April 2007)
I got this phone for the no contract price of $399 after I won $400+ playing nickel slots. My third phone in four months to fulfill that phone addiction. This is probably the sexiest flip phone I ever owned, but it had a design flaw where the bezel would scratch up every time you flip it open. I had the rubber strip and it still didn't help out. I anticipated for this phone for months. Unfortunately, it wasn't my favorite. Just a sexy phone with mediocre features. Didn't even have video recording. I eventually lost in an airplane. Must have slipped out of my pocket after my trip from NYC. that's why I carry a holster case for my phones now.

8. Motorola RAZR V3, Cingular/AT&T (February 2006 - January 2008)
Ah, yes. The infamous RAZR phone. To tell you the truth, I wasn't the biggest fan of this phone. More like my V600, but in a thinner casing. The OS was buggy. I owned two of these. The first one I thought I lost. But after two years, it was found in the home theater of my parent's house. I gave that to my GF who became an ex and never gave it back. My second RAZR was given from my mom. I gave that one eventually to my uncle. This phone held me back another two years when I could have got better versions of it like the V3i with a music player. Thin phone, but BORING compared to my Sanyo phone.

9. Nokia N82, T-Mobile prepaid/AT&T (January 2008 - June 2010)
My first smartphone. This was the COMPLETE phone for a non-touchscreen when it came to features. Bought it unlocked. Won multiple awards for photography among cameraphones. I sold it a month ago on Craigslist and I'm already starting to miss it so much. Basically, the candybar cousin of the N95 with Xenon. Took wonderful pictures. A great phone to have in bars. This was what the SE K850 should have been. WiFi and a stronger Xenon flash. Even had the same Crash racing game I downloaded for FREE that iTunes sold for $5. So many cool wallpapers and I could turn any mp3 into a ringtone. I believe this is my second favorite phone of all-time just nosing out the original iPhone. I have a soft spot for this one because it worked better as a phone and I bought it online. The iPhone 2G was already used up and was given to me as a hand me down. When I sold my N82, the buyer was such a nice guy and mentioned how great the condition was. Always in a holster and no scratches. Only negative was the battery was getting far worse after 24 months and the software updates stopped coming after a year. But overall, long live the N82 and I hope the Nokia N8 carries on its legacy in cameraphone photography...

10. Apple iPhone, AT&T (November 2008 - June 2010)
The most revolutionary phone I have ever owned. The game changer. Still, this was still Episode 1. Still rough around the edges like the Batmobile in Batman Begins. When I got it, it gave me constant crashes. But I still have to say this was the most durable of all the iPhones. Had mines jailbroken and all. I miss some of the things on it including my MxTube videos that no longer exist on YouTube. I probably could have enjoyed it more had I got a new one and never got an iPod touch to spoil me from the JB goodness. But it was no doubt one of the biggest leaps in cell phone software we have ever seen and deserves its place among my Top 3 fav phones ever.

11. Apple iPhone 4, AT&T (June 2010 - Present)
Take the best features of the Nokia N95 and marry it with the iPhone aesthetics and software, and we have close to cell phone perfection for 2010. This is what the iPhone should have been a few years ago. It carries my lucky number of "4" and the first phone I bought on launch day. My experiences with it have been top notch from the day I got it until right now. Easily has become my favorite phone of all-time. The battery will die out as years go by and it will eventually get dead pixels like what happened to my 5-year old PSP, but this one is still a keeper even years after I plan to retire it as a main phone by 2012.

 

[gibbynd]

I had the good ole nokia 8210 on the old att wireless, before it was cingular. I remember how cool it was that I had a "regional plan." Ha ha.