I can’t remember where this post idea came from, maybe it was an episode of Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata where they talked about the phones they had in the past? In any event, I’ve had this blog idea languishing on my Notes app for a while, and I’m glad to finally get a chance to write this post! It was fun to think back about all the different phones I’ve had throughout my life. Cell phones became a “thing” in high school for me. I started high school in 2002, graduating in 2006, and by the end of high school, it was something everyone seemed to have. It was really fun to think back on all the different phones I’ve had and the memories they evoked. 🙂
Nokia 3310 (the old-school brick phone)
This was the first phone I ever had, but I shared it with my mom so I don’t know if I can actually consider it my first phone. I think we got this phone in either my sophomore or junior year of high school (2004 or 2005). Probably my junior year because I think my mom wanted me to bring it with me to school, as I was going to be on a college campus. (I attended a collegiate high school for my last two years, where we attended college classes alongside finishing our high school requirements, allowing us to graduate with our high school diploma and Associates of Arts degree simultaneously). I still think fondly of that little brick phone, especially because we had this really fun hard-shell flowery case for it!
Samsung flip phone
In my senior year of high school (2005-2006), I got my own phone! This Samsung flip phone was my pride and joy, but I remember that it didn’t have a camera on it and that was so annoying because all of my other friends with camera phones could upload pictures to their MySpace accounts, haha. I just wanted a photo for social media! I remember my old high school best friend bringing in her mom’s digital camera to take a picture of me so I would have something for MySpace. How old school is that?!
Motorola RAZR
Oh yeahhhh! I was so proud of my Motorola RAZR. I really thought I was hot shit with this phone. Maybe it was because I was never the kid who got the latest and greatest tech products, but damn, I was so happy to have this cool phone that everyone else had. I loved my little RAZR. I can’t exactly remember when I got it—maybe before going off to college in 2006? Probably sometime around then.
Samsung Instinct
Dang, even looking at the photo of this phone brings back so many fond memories. It was my first touchscreen phone and I loved it so, so, so, so much. I loved the camera, the touchscreen elements (a new technology for phones!), and being able to use the Internet so easily! And then, one day while on my college campus, I left the phone in a public bathroom. And someone, of course, stole it. I was so annoyed with myself and a little scared to tell my mom what had happened. (She was very forgiving, as I wasn’t a kid who constantly lost or broke phones.) I was so sad to lose that phone, though.
Blackberry Curve
My next phone was a Blackberry Curve, which I think I got because all of the healthy living bloggers I followed had these phones. (Maybe?) I really liked it! I got it sometime in 2010 or 2011 when I was finishing up my college degree. It served me well, as it was easy to use Twitter and Facebook on it (I don’t think Instagram was around just yet, or if it was, I wasn’t using it). I could check email easily (the only emails I got were blog comments, but I was obsessed with checking them and responding quickly!). And it had a fairly good camera.
iPhone
And here we come to the end of our phone journey, as I went to iPhone in 2012 and never looked back! My first-ever iPhone was the 4S and I’ve steadily upgraded it every 1-2 years. (I’m using the iPhone 11 right now, and will likely upgrade to the 13 soon.) I was so happy to get my first iPhone—it was such a step up from my Blackberry. There were more apps, a better camera, and a more user-friendly interface. The screen was bigger and brighter. It was everything I wanted!
What was your first phone? How old were you when you got it?
We still have the OLD BRICK & my hot pink Razr phone somewhere tucked away… waiting to donate to a museum I guess.. Literally, that Nokia went through EVERYTHING with my husband carrying it & it still survived. those things were amazing!
I got my first phone my senior year in college. It was a Sprint bar phone with an antennae, but I could never do what you did here and name all the phones I’ve ever had! That’s so impressive.
Now I have a Samsung Galaxy and I always feel really smug that I have never fallen victim to the Apple world, although I’m never really sure why I feel that smugness. Ha!
This was so fun to read! My first phone was a little Nokia that my parents bought me for emergencies in 1998. It was… not the smallest! The only other phone I really REMEMBER was my Samsung (?) Chocolate which was red and lovely. I did not text until I got an iPhone in 2013.
This is so fun! I got my first one in high school, I think in 2001 when I was 16, so I could call friends long distance! It was the same Nokia you had. I went from that, to a slider, to an iPhone (but had that Blackberry for work and thought I was hot shit too LOL). I was so happy to make the switch from all that to an iPhone!!!! It’s crazy how we were getting these in HS and now grade school kids sometimes have them!
Such a fun post! I didn’t get my first phone, the Nokia (brick phone), until I was about 20 in the late 90s. Loved that phone and how sturdy it was and I think they were free when you opened an account.
What a walk down memory lane! I got my first phone in 2003 when I graduated from college! I got my sister’s old Nokia phone. I’ve had similar phones over the years. I could not wait to get an Apple iPhone but had to wait until they offered them at Verizon. They were exclusive to AT&T initially I believe and I knew from previous experience that AT&T’s coverage was horrible for me – I had so many dropped calls! So I held out until it was available but probably got it around the same time as you? I think my first was a 4 of 4S. Now I have an 8 which I’ve had for almost 4 years so I am thinking about upgrading but hate the extra cost associated with it!!
I also remember the bag phones people had in their cars. Those were common when I was in HS!
Oh this post was fun… I haven’t thought about my old cell phones in forever. Isn’t it amazing how much they’ve evolved over time. I had a cute red little phone like the Samsung, but I think it wasn’t a touch screen phone yet… I have to go back and see if I can find pictures of all the phones that i had 🙂
Seems like something funky is going on with your site, so I hope this goes through!
1. I cannot believe you remember all of these! I remember my first candy-bar Nokia (what you called the “brick” phone. I also had a flip phone with which I could text! how amazing! 🙂 Other memorable phones include the Blackberry with (I swear) a mini track-ball, and then the phone with the keyboard that slid out because I was scared of the iPhone and its touch screen. LOLOL.
2. In case you want to fall down a related rabbit hole… you’re welcome: https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/
🙂