'My First Phone': CNET editors look back on their first phones
'My First Phone': CNET editors look back on their first phones
2017-12-04
ya see so it's like do the Fonzie thing
this wasn't my first phone but it was
like the second or third phone I got and
it's my favorite phone in the world I
got it in college and it was the Nokia
73-70 my first friend was the Motorola
talk about T 180 yo yeah look at this
baby oh yeah I only just realized this
is called candy vadas ein I had no idea
that that's what this brain was called
so this is the Kyocera qcp 6035 this was
my first phone and one of the first
smartphones of the United States my
first phone was this teeny tiny Samsung
and I think it was an s GH s 300 before
you had fancy names for your phone's
armor walking to the store thinking man
does RadioShack really cellphones
doesn't make any sense when I told the
guy was interested in a phone I mean he
his eyes lit up I was very I was like
fit 16 so I didn't decide anything so I
think this was like my parents saying
you need a phone so this is the phone
you're getting I did not buy my phone my
parents bought it for me I think I
decided on this phone because it was
cool I could do the cool flip thing lit
up I think I was in a t-mobile store and
this was my very first smartphone I held
out for a really long time getting any
kind of cell phone but this thing I was
so excited about cuz it was the first
Google phone the first Android phone
back then the fact that I could get this
in five different colors was pretty
amazing and because there were known
cases this was sort of your personality
right it was the color that you chose so
I had friends who do theater and
apparently they had this exact model and
legend had it that they were able to use
this phone with in store inside an
elevator and the basement of a casinos
my favorite part of the phone is the
fact that it puts so many phone charms
on it um like this one actually wiped
the screen but you know come on like you
can't talk to an Asian girl about her
phone during her teenage years without
phone charms coming up
it's got the whole Palm Pilot thing
going on where there's a built-in
handwriting system so you can do
handwriting right on the phone itself
one feature snake that's all that
mattered back then was snake my favorite
thing about this phone was the Android
operating system the fact that I could
use it to get you know a whole bunch of
different apps on the store at the time
the the the store was kind of the Wild
West you could get emulators for games
for example of course being able to
browse the internet and text and
everything on this thing you could
program your contacts using your voice I
just went into this weird voice for all
of my contacts so I'd have to go call
mom my favorite features maybe a feature
but it's like part of it has like this
antenna that comes out it was like so
satisfying my favorite feature about
this phone was that it had a like an
indicator light on the back of it and
you could flip it upside down like this
and it would like blink green to say hey
you're important man and everyone else
around could see that the worst thing
about it was the battery life I remember
at the time I would seem to die in the
middle of the day when I was using it a
lot so what I did was I bought this
special battery case extension on it so
he just slapped this new battery on the
back of the phone and actually made it
even thicker and more difficult to carry
but it was totally worth it for the
extra battery life it didn't like that
my parents could call me on it that was
the worst feature of the phone this
antenna would just fell off after a
couple months and for awhile I just wrap
it in tape I put it in my pocket and
would just get stuck in my pocket cuz it
was just covered in gross ratty tape I
guess I could say the only thing I don't
like about it was that I don't know it's
just perfect oh yeah this thing had a
camera in it and at the time it was
great you know it seemed like it took
really good pictures you know it but you
know now looking at phones it's
ridiculous that you can't even see
anything and the screen itself has
really low resolutions oh no camera man
man I'm surprised it even had like sound
this phone had a 1.3 megapixel camera as
you can see very advanced and there was
like a little bubble here for this
selfie guess it gives you like some
modicum idea of where your face is oh
well you don't about this phone because
it doesn't even have a camera if I could
switch back to this phone and not lose
my job I would do it in a heartbeat
because it's tiny it's not too
complicated I could text under my desk
like oh well I have to silence it of
course they missed us how like kind of
indestructible was it's just pure
plastic and fit drop the battery came
out and they need this pop the battery
back in just the nostalgia factor is the
coolest thing about this thing and you
know back then it's really simple you
know that's one difference it might be
better it's just it's really simple to
have what I like about this phone
compared to the phones of today is I
just like that it's really small I
wasn't constantly thinking about it and
thinking that I should just have to be
absorbing information on my phone at all
times
it was a phone and I liked it for that
purpose and served me well
even if you flip it over you soon
ridiculous so that's like clicking like
noises sonar
this was my ringtone this is holy my
ringtone
so my ringtone was ringtone 26 I guess
it's like the Beatles like number 9 but
welcome 26
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