This was a phone I only owned very briefly in 2004. My Father (parents separated) wanted to make sure he could keep in touch with me and that I could call him whenever I wanted (I often ran out of credit on my pay as you go SIM) so he got me this on contract. The reason it didn’t last long with me was that being on contract I was terrified of it running up a massive bill. Ultimately we returned it after a brief period.
Compared to the Nokia 3200 this was a much more advanced phone. For starters it had 3G connectivity, so network speeds were much faster. The screen was a lot bigger and of a higher resolution. I also remember the speaker being much louder and the Polyphonic audio being much better. It also had a front facing camera, not that I ever explored the feature but I imagine it could make video calls.
It was a strange device though. In comparison to other mobiles of the time it was massive, unnecessarily so and felt strangely hollow and light. Similar to the cordless telephones that a few people still have around today. I also remember it consuming battery fast. The Nokia’s I’d become used to could easily go a week between charges with light to moderate use, this one needed charging at best every other day. I assume the early 3G modem was the cause for this.
Overall not a device I was very fond of, partly due to it being a difficult point in my life and the memory of this phone is probably associated with that. However, objectively speaking this was a very advanced device for its time, it took me until around 2010 to get another device that matched the functionality of this one.
The Nokia 3200 was the first phone I owned from new. My timeline is fuzzy going this far back, but the device was released late 2003 so I must’ve got this after around 2 years of using the hand-me-down Nokia 3210. I don’t know if this was a gift or I’d purchased it with my own money, not helped by the fact I can’t find any details online about its original retail price.
By all accounts this was a massive functional upgrade over the 3210 which had been released just 4 years prior to this. It has a colour screen, a camera (albeit basic, however still a big upgrade over nothing!), a GPRS data connection with a rudimentary web browser, polyphonic ringtones, the ability to run Java based applications, infrared connectivity, an FM radio, MMS messaging and a torch.
I have very fond memories of this phone. We didn’t have internet at home at this point, and this had internet access. Unfortunately I was on pay as you go, and data was still very expensive at this point so I had to be very careful how I used it or I would burn through my allowance in no time. I remember being lured into buying poor polyphonic ringtones that mimicked popular songs at the time and java games from various stores online. I can only imagine what a minefield it is today for children to navigate in the world of in app purchases if I was convinced to buy these! I remember using the included headset to listen to the FM radio, and spent a lot of time playing the “Bounce” platformer game that was included with the phone.
Image credits gsmfind.com
This phones party piece however was it’s customization options. The front and rear panel of the phone unclipped easily and the coloured insert of the phone could be removed and replaced. In the box were 3 holographic insert options; blue, green and orange, my favourite being the blue one. Also included in the box (isn’t it a start contrast how many extras manufacturers used to include, considering now we don’t even get a charging block!) was a paper cutter. You could take any card or paper and make your very own insert for this phone. I remember making inserts from magazines and game covers. I don’t think this level of customization has even been exceeded on a phone before or after this one.
It was not all sunshine though, this phone did have two major drawbacks; it’s size and it’s keypad. The size issue was a common one for the time period, as phones still had very limited media functionality smaller was better. It was a competition of who could have the smallest phone, and while this one was nowhere near the smallest it was still minute by todays standards. The low pixel count and small LCD limited usability, any web page would lose any kind of formatting and layout it was intended to have. The size also exaggerated the issues with they keypad as it was harder to hold. The main issue as mentioned was the keypad. A truly dreadful design that really highlights the downsides to manufacturers trying to be different for the sake of it. If you revisit the image at the top of this page you’ll notice that each physical button has 2 numbers on, they were essentially rocker switches. Combined with the fact these buttons were tiny to start with typing was a horrific experience. You could forget typing with fingers, you had to use your fingernail to stand any chance of accurately inputting. Texting was laborious, and as people in my circle started to text more I found myself reverting back to the 3210 which had full sized buttons.
While I’d love to own this device again just to relive the memories they’re now very hard to come by in complete condition and I think the saying of “Never meet your heroes” rings true here. Especially with large adult male hands I think trying to use this device today, even just playing around with it would tarnish the memory I have of it.
This was my introduction into mobile phones and I hold it in very high regard. At first this phone belonged to my Mother, and I have strong memories of getting hold of it from her whenever I could to play a game of Snake while we waited in a doctors waiting room, or being dragged around department stores.
Once my Mother’s contract had ended she replaced the device, and this was handed down to me, with a o2 pay as you go SIM as my very own first mobile phone. At this point in my life, around 2001 I had very little need for a mobile phone, other than being contactable for my parents when I was playing out and I may have sent a couple of text messages.
This didn’t stop me using this phone and exploring every feature it had. I remember the green backlight and backlit keys, which were very similar to a Casio F91-W’s in colour, and actual usefulness. It had an inbuilt ringtone maker, which you could painstakingly type out a sequence of numbers for different notes, and breaks to create your very own song. I think my proudest ringtone was the 007 theme tune, in all it’s Monophonic glory. Aside from Snake and the ringtone maker this phone was very basic, it didn’t have any type of connectivity aside from calls and text messages.
I remember keeping this device around while I had my next couple of devices, but I can’t work out what actually happened to this phone. I don’t think it was every sold but perhaps it was lost in a later house move or maybe it was passed on to another family member.
My relationships with mobile phones, and smartphones has been a somewhat strange one. From my pre-teen, pre-internet years I remember poring through the Argos catalogue comparing the phones they had for sale. As a youngster I didn’t have access to money outside of a trivial weekly pocket money allowance, so this never really amounted to much.
However as I grew older and my disposable income increased this strange desire to keep switching and changing smartphones grew too. I’ve never been able to really get to the bottom of the reason why over the years I’ve bought and sold so many smartphones. For a while I kept swapping cars, but I grew out of that and reached the point that as long as my car is functional I’m perfectly happy with it. Other areas of my life don’t match this behaviour either. I keep my computing devices and other tech items for as long as they’re functional, I don’t obsess over clothing, only really buying more when I need to replace something. It’s just a strange fascination with phones.
This all reached a breaking point a few weeks ago, when I was caving in to the itch of changing phones merely a month after just changing devices. Fortunately this has never cost me much money because I always resold the other device and often purchased them 2nd hand in the first place. In fact I would hazard a guess, this has only cost me the equivalent of what the average person spends on their phone contract each month. However the constant setting up, and potentially losing data, and worrying about resale value was wearing thin on me and I decided to make a change for the better and break the cycle.
Regardless of the above I do still have a passion for mobile phones of all shapes and sizes, and have decided to start a series documenting each of the phones I’ve owned over the years. Below is a list of those devices, in the best chronological order I can remember and I plan on making a post on each of these. These posts won’t be in-depth technical reviews, more an overview of the device and my thoughts about the device at that point in time and how it fit into my life.
