this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2026
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They don't make them small like they used to...

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[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My old Motorola Razr. I used to like flipping it open like a Star Trek communicator, but it was also just a cool little phone.

[–] Dialectical_Specialist@quokk.au 11 points 1 month ago

The aesthetic on top of the fact that a whole phone could be made so thin was such a lasting iconic (fun) era

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago (2 children)

When I was a little 1980s kid, my family got rid of a malfunctioning wall-mounted rotary phone which had been installed there since time immemorial. I asked if I could keep it and my mom said no, but she did let me exercise my curiosity by taking it apart to see what the innards were like.

I kept the dial, and it still lives on a shelf of mildly-interesting things in my house. It still spins, though the recoil speed is way slower than it should be

Photo of a rotary phone dial held in my hand.

(I also grew up to be a phone phreak.)

[–] monotremata@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

I didn't take apart a phone to get it, but I managed to buy a rotary dial mechanism from a surplus store near where I grew up when I was a teen (maybe thirty years ago?). I think I've still got it in a drawer. It's honestly a very clever design, and the sound is kind of weirdly soothing.

[–] dil@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

Man casually shows off his h dial

[–] thymos@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sony W810

It was such a simple yet fun device. It had really good sound and an equaliser, which was special at the time. Played loads of music on it. Great battery life too. No WiFi, but honestly, that might be a plus nowadays.

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[–] missingno@fedia.io 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Motorola Droid 2. I just miss keyboard sliders.

[–] tomatoely@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

The sony ericsson xperia pro was my dream phone because of how it looked with the keyboard slider. Timeless design imo

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[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I had the original Droid and Droid 3, both great phones for the first year then rapidly declined into junk. That first year was great, though!

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[–] EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app 25 points 1 month ago (11 children)

I actually do kind of miss my windows phone LOL

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My nokia windows phone was the best. Stylish, great battery, great camera.

Windows phone with the tiles remains the best phone interface by far. Since then i've had to make my own custom interface because i can't go back to ugly ass icons.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 6 points 1 month ago

I love the concept of that launcher, so much I've tried it numerous times.

In the end, a launcher just doesn't work for me. But that tiled UI is definitely the best approach I've seen.

[–] tomatoely@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Nokia Lumias were really interesting

[–] EmilieEasie@fedinsfw.app 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

i wish they'd bring those back, i totally missed that era

[–] diablicja@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My Lumia is still the best phone I've ever had. It still works, to an extent, despite having fallen out of my pocket at biking speed multiple times. Unfortunately everyone and their dog uses WhatsApp now so when WhatsApp decided to stop supporting my model, it became nearly useless. I'm still angry about it.

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[–] WolfmanEightySix@piefed.social 20 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Yes, all my various BlackBerrys.

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[–] churrodestroyer@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Occasionally I miss my old Nexus 5. The screen felt so big at the time and I loved it's sharp edges

[–] epyon22@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

Nexus 5 peak android customization, I had cyanogen mod dual booted with stock android.

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[–] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

1961 Bell System Model 554 Rotary Dial Wall Telephone

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[–] Dantheta@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nokia n900 for me, circa 2010. It ran Linux (real Linux!), had a pretty good camera, headphone jack, sd card slot, slide out keyboard, 4or 5 day battery life, xmpp instant messaging natively. It was perfect. It was a little bit chunky, but would fit in a jeans pocket perfectly and didn’t weigh too much.

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[–] DigDoug@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (5 children)

LG used to put really good DACs in their phones. So for somebody who uses his phone as an MP3 player that can also take calls, my LG V30 was perfect.

[–] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I loved my V50... until it got baaaad screen burn-in. Older OLED screens were kinda crappy tbh

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[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 14 points 1 month ago

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

Palm Centro

Palm Pre

Motorola Droid

Motorola RAZR V3M

[–] proudblond@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

My purse got stolen once and my Sony Ericsson T300 (and my favorite lipstick) were in it, and nothing will ever emotionally live up to that phone. I loved it and I probably love it more because it was taken from me before I got tired of it.

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

HTC m8 and m9. Those were such good phones...

[–] fermuch@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Oh boy how I miss using this bad boy:

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[–] Kennystillalive@feddit.org 10 points 1 month ago

HTC Windows Phone 8S. The Windows Phone was actually really nice and it's kinda sad it was discontinued.

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

My Nokia 6800

[–] CCMan1701A@startrek.website 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I miss the promise of WebOS and the palm Pre series. The 2 and 3 were in the right direction, and then HP 🔥

[–] emilmuzz@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

+1 For the Palm Pre series. My wife still misses her Pixi and I went as far as making a FrankenPre 3 to keep using one.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Palm Pre the undisputed goat for me. Good keyboard, most comfortable shape, next level software.

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 9 points 1 month ago (5 children)

OG Moto Droid with the sliding keyboard.

Brilliant design, would love that again.

[–] Mobiuthuselah@mander.xyz 7 points 1 month ago

Loved the physical keyboard. I could write out entire paragraphs without looking at the screen. I think I replaced that keyboard two or three times before I finally retired it.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] ace_garp@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

6210

20833

Perfect size and shape, good button response, no distracting apps, could provide mobile-internet over IR to a laptop (eg Satellite Pro 4200)(speed was in between 33.6kbps and 56 kbps) .

WAP was a nonsense gimmick.

Solid phone.

[–] ulkesh@piefed.social 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Sidekick II. Bought it for $350 and sold it a year later for $300. Was a fun phone for a year and well worth the $50.

[–] huquad@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

God I miss the sidekick, or really any physical keyboard phones. Touchpads just don't do it for me

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 8 points 1 month ago

HTC Desire, my first Android and smartphone ever. I made a lot of Java applications on that thing. Maybe I should learn Kotlin to do the same on my current phone.

[–] red_tomato@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Nexus 5 is still my favorite phone I’ve owned. Affordable, no-nonsense, and lightweight.

[–] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

iPhone 4S was one of my favorite phones. It was around the golden age of jailbreaking in my opinion. So much fun.

If we are going back before smartphones, then the RAZR V3i was a fun phone. SEEM editing was pretty sweet. Like, why was rhythm lights even a thing?

The Nokia 6820 will always have a special place in my heart as well. It was such a perfect little texting machine.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

God I miss having flagship phone that would fit into my hand.

Also I miss windows phones. Fuck Microsoft, but they tried something different and imo it worked if you went in with an open mind.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The Sidekick 4G. I miss physical keyboards on mobile devices.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 1 month ago

I hella want a modern Sidekick. Mostly for the physical keyboard.

[–] gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

My Nexus 6P with the finger print sensor on the back. It supported gestures on the fingerprint sensor too, so you could unlock it and then swipe up or down to do an action. I had down swipe as pull down the notification shade, so could check notifications without even touching the screen.

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[–] Zier@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago
[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

So many lol

The T-Mobile G1 was incredible. I wish they would remake it for today. A slide out keyboard, and a little mouse ball. It was fucking fantastic.

Blackberry 7230, I think. I looked up the timeline, and that looks like the right one, but the article says it was color. Mine was black and white. My mom got it for me because I loved to read, and could use it to read books outside.

Blackberry 7100t was peak. First time I watched Internet porn was on that phone lol

And at one point between the blackberry and my first android, my mom got me this phone with a built in MP3 player. It was so friggin thick, but it could hold so much music, and had an awesome camera. Around the same time, my buddy had a phone with a camera with a telescopic lense that looked more like a traditional camera than a phone.

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I miss having my Motorola Z2 Play, with the Moto-Mods platform, as a daily phone.

External mods that magnetically attach to the back of the phone. Primarily an extra 3500mah battery, but there were others: 360 camera, a printer, 3" stereo speakers, and even a projector.

I actually still have this phone, but it has become extremely slow, doesn't get security updates, and is incompatible with lots of apps. It now lives on the handle bars of my ebike, with it's extra battery mod; mostly as a gps. Occasionally I'll use it with the projector on the wall of my bedroom; watching movies or youtube.

https://www.androidauthority.com/moto-mods-789689/

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[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

I still have it, but reminisce is all that I can do because I have no landline service to plug it in. It's the Trimline phone that we had when I was growing up. I think it was the one my parents previously rented from Wisconsin Bell, then bought after the breakup of AT&T when they had to let customer-owned devices connect to the network. It sits in the superannuated telephone nook in my kitchen, because, why not?

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I had an odd and rare one: the LG AX490. Most of the phone was unremarkable, other than being somewhat car-shaped when closed, but it had an innovative keyboard system. There was a normal phone keypad, maybe slightly shrunk, but at the corners of each number button was a tiny raised button for each letter of the alphabet. It made anything text-related in the phone a breeze while keeping the normal flip phone shape.

[–] Artaca@lemdro.id 5 points 1 month ago

Palm Pre. Aside from the OS itself, I miss the little paratrooper game that was seemingly, unfortunately, exclusive to WebOS.

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