When Phones Were Fun: The QWERTY Phones (2001-2008)
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
- In September 2008, Reuters reported that US mobile users had just reached a milestone: for the first time, they had sent more text messages than phone calls. Some were still laboriously tapping them out on numeric keypads with T9 word prediction; others were texting more easily (but also more expensively) on BlackBerries or Palm Treos.
In the wide gulf between these extreme ends of the mobile phone world, manufacturers saw an opportunity. What if they could cram a full keyboard into a phone … without packing in all the complexity and cost of making a true smartphone? The result was an avalanche of QWERTY messaging phones spanning the spectrum from sliders to dual-sliders to crazy clamshells … to a phone with a physical e-ink keyboard!
It was all par for the course, back When Phones Were Fun. Join MrMobile for the latest episode: The Messaging Phones (2001-2008)!
[SPECIAL THANKS]
Techsponential:
www.techsponential.com/
Avi Greengart, Techsponential President & Lead Analyst:
/ greengart
[SUBSCRIBE TO MRMOBILE]
czcams.com/channels/SOp.html...
[ABOUT WHEN PHONES WERE FUN - THE MESSAGING PHONES]
This is the seventh in a series of MrMobile videos exploring the mobile tech world's most vibrant period in design and experimentation. In “When Phones Were Fun,” Michael Fisher re-reviews cellphones from the golden age of mobile, the decade-long span from the turn of the century to approximately 2009.
When Phones Were Fun: Episode 7 features five devices: A Nokia 5510 and Nokia 6820 on loan from friend of the channel Martin; an LG Rumor and Samsung Alias 2 purchased from eBay; and a Pantech Matrix on loan from Avi Greengart (President & Lead Analyst, Techsponential). No company paid a fee or otherwise offered compensation in exchange for this coverage, nor did any company preview or approve this content before publication.
[TIME CODES]
0:00 Welcome Back To 2008
01:05 Nokia 5510
02:33 Nokia 6820
03:44 LG Rumor
05:41 Pantech Matrix
06:52 Samsung Alias 2
[LINKS]
US mobile phone users text more than they talk [Reuters]:
www.reuters.com/article/wirel...
The Coolest Phone I Ever Owned [JerryRigEverything]:
• The Coolest Phone I Ev...
Pantech Duo C810 [PhoneScoop]:
www.phonescoop.com/phones/pho...
Review: LG Rumor [PhoneScoop]:
www.phonescoop.com/articles/a...
Review: Samsung Alias 2 [PhoneScoop]:
www.phonescoop.com/articles/a...
How Facebook Beats MySpace [The Guardian]:
www.theguardian.com/commentis...
How Mark Zuckerberg Turned Facebook Into The Web's Hottest Platform [Wired]:
www.wired.com/2007/09/ff-face...
[SOCIALIZE]
/ themrmobile
/ themrmobile
/ themrmobile
mrmobile.tech
[DISCLOSURES]
This post may contain affiliate links, which afford MrMobile / Future plc a commission if you make a purchase. See our affiliate link policy for more details: www.mobilenations.com/externa...
Additional information concerning MrMobile’s ethics policy can be found here: mrmobile.tech/ethics
#samsungalias2 #lgrumor #nokia6820 #nokia5510 #pantechmatrix #qwerty #whenphoneswerefun - Věda a technologie
Those of you sad I missed your favorite model: watch till the end! You'll see I already have enough QWERTY phones in the library to do another installment of "Messaging Phones," and more will follow!
Niiice one there, Michael. 😁 You wouldn't happen to have a Sony Ericsson P990i or similar, would ya? 😊 I would really love to see that phone reviewed again if possible. Thanks for the memories, bro... 😊📱🤗👍❤️
@@andromedagodit2492 i had it`s successor the SE P1i :) One of the best phone keyboards ever to be made. 2 keys in 1 allowed for a full qwerty keyboard in a small package. Very powerful device at that time.
they all cost so much when Jordan sneaker only go for 100 buck...
You better have the ENV3
Any chance you'll review a kind of "cross-over" device that Nokia sold. For example the Nokia N93 / N93i. Imagine if are camcorder had an affair with a Symbian phone.... They also made a brief appearance in The Bourne Ultimatum in the London station scenes... although they were used by the bad guys. Maybe that's why they didn't sell LOL
Okay but sliding your phone to text was a whole other level of addictiveness.
I honestly wish some phones nowadays still had slide out keyboards. They felt much better than the keyboards we have now imo.
@@rockl79 you can always just buy one of these phones
dude it made me feel powerful lol
@@rockl79 Its a real shame the closest to this would be the LG Wing but that's not a physical keyboard. I really wish we had some sort of USB C physical keyboard attachment to bring it back smoothly. Maybe in the future someone does, who knows?
HTC Touch Pro whizz-whizz sliding sound made that phone a perfect fidget toy eventually leading to its premature loss of buttons.
God I love this series, such a nostalgic trip.
I somehow knew I would find you here Angus, I guess we industrial designers think alike.
Big fan
it makes me hope we start seeing companies reincorporating their roots, older design languages, and philosophies into their newer lineups...but I also know not to expect as much
@@kikconzuelo Yeah honestly, this era was a big influence on my decision to pursue it...
নোকিয়া এই ফোন টার দাম কত হতে ণারে বাৎলাদেশের কত টাকা মডেল 3660 লাল কালারটা লাগবে কেমন।
When people are more friendly
"The Best Camera is the one you have on you" - no truer words.
I thought this was some hippie bs about your eyes and actually enjoying the moment or what ever.
@@Th3SMS No it’s about capturing moments that matter regardless the quality of the image.
“Cell phone in the streets, texter in the sheets.” 😂
I laughed a little too much on that one.
Me too
Me too lol 😂😂
Haha same :)
This brought me memories of my aunt…not the best way to start this. I remember she got this phone and after getting unlimited text she would almost use it exclusively as a texter while laying down in bed after work while watching home renovation shows. I would go and cuddle up in the sheets with her and make fun of the taste of the people in the show. While at work or out and about she would really not flip it open so yes! Business in the streets and a texter in the sheets.
She gave it to me after getting the razr and it was the best phone I’ve ever had. Even with its tiny early 2000s screen I still got questions about it up until 2010 when I gave it up. I had other phones but I kept that one around because I used it as a planner and to write lyrics on my notes. RIP to that phone, I have no idea what happened to it but I miss it.
Oh my god why can't we have stuff like the Alias 2! Innovation for the sake of it but really fun.
Makes me low low low key want one, but i dont want to give up android
It will be $2000
My favorite phone I've ever owned
It wasn't innovation for the sake of innovation back then. It's just how we feel, after using 5+ inch screens for almost a decade.
I had the original, I loved that phone so much. So much nostalgia.
when you did that at 7:00 i felt like a kid watching a magician bend the laws of space and time.
my eyes widened and my eyebrows disappeared into my hairline when he did that
You're like the LGR for those of us that came of age during the early formative cell phone days. Thank you for all of these videos
6:55 that phone seems normal with no key board
*See how the phones work*
That's the most unique phone I ever see
@name name it is good, but it seems very bulky
@name name I would also use it if I have one
@name name thanks for the info
God, I was caught so off guard by hearing the words “Pantech Matrix” come out of your mouth. That thing was my first EVER cell phone.
I remember always feeling like the coolest kid ever for having figured out how to deploy both the numpad and the qwerty at the same time.
This ended up being useless and eventually led to the phone breaking, but it was COOL dammit!
How old were you when you get it?
SAME!
Glad I wasn’t the only one! Lol
I remember when my dad worked on nokia and he designed those phones so we always got the newest phones and everybody was jealous in school bc i had the best phone at that time.
So lucky.....
I’d have killed to have been you. What a lucky childhood!
"everyone's racist old relatives" 😂 your videos are always so relaxing after work
Lilly 13/50
@@Maru54 please i implore you: get a life
@@ni.ko3869 i'm good.
I got Facebook racist young relatives, sadly...
Now that we absolutely legally (don't question it!) voted out dictator Adolf Trumpler, we can now unify and hea-wait nvm gotta glass the middle east and assault asians again.
Did we accidentally vote for Bush and Cheney somehow?
Hi Michael I love your "When phones were fun" series!
It's an antedote to mordern glass slabs.
9:18 - "The rise of the unremarkable slab smartphone" MrMobile is all of us 90s kids
That's true. Of course, even older smartphones give me a sense of nostalgia.
I had an Alias 2 back in the day! It served me incredibly well for about three years. It was also quite the conversation starter when my friends first saw it. They all marveled at the fact that the keys would change. And we spent many hours trying to trick the phone into putting up the QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode and vise versa. It was quite the fun phone and I occasionally miss it
I can't believe BlackBerry didn't try to get in on that E-ink action with their keyboards...I didn't even know this gem of technology existed until I saw this video.
Samsung might have just as many chops as BB in terms of keyboards after all
I absolutely love your channel, growing up I was obsessed with phones but only got to see pictures in catalogs. Thanks for letting me relive it all! :)
3:25 man I remember playing that red ball game, forgot the name but it's in a lot of Nokia Phones. I think I played it on my Nokia 5200
It's called bounce
@@shvrckzz ah yep that's the name. it has a couple of levels and prob one of my first experience of platformer game.
had an Ngage and Ps2 before that so such a simple game experience kinda stay around in my mind.
BOUNCE!
Bounce!
Remember 787898?
Imagine living in a world where all phones look more or less the same....oh wait
That's why I love the idea of foldable phone. They should become mainstream with different styles and variation.
Savory Gamer agreed
@@migracing8232 perhaps from the outside like how they do for laptops...or do you have other imagination?
I'd actually wondered for some time whether a concept similar to the Samsung Alias 2 E-ink keyboard could be applied to laptops. While it would likely raise costs, it would probably also streamline production a bit and be quite useful for bilingual users, as well as for other use-cases in general.
For some reason every brag you do and everything you show off doesn't look like you are showing off for that clout at all. Everytime I watch you, I just can't help but see how genuine you are as a person. You've lived a wholesome and funny life judging from all your throwback college and high school stories throughout your videos and also a joyful post academic job phase of life as well. You're Classy, genuine and pure at heart and open/affable/fun outside. Love you dude. Keep doing you.
8:30 - holy crap! I think this type of keyboard could make a fortune if it came back as some sort of bluetooth keyboard case for modern phones!
If im being honest, if there was a qwerty phone like that one that released recently I would buy it just because its super cool
You are KILLING ME with these pop culture references! I've never felt so old!- and yet so privileged to have been a teenager in those crazy times!
I personally never owned any of these devices, but I remember seeing some of them on campus at the time. Even then, as it is now, only the rich could enjoy the most adventurous mobile creations.
I do hope you get round to a retro review of feature phone cameras: I have vivid memories of wanting to own the Nokia N93 in the worst way imaginable. And it would be fun to revisit the influential Lumia series at some point. Either way, I can't wait for the next video.
I still love my Lumias, it's just a shame the whole thing got discontinued. For me personally, phones stopped being fun with the launch of the Lumia 950, the last gen of Windows Phones. Like the 930/icon and the other phones of that gen where fun, the Windows 10 mobile devices wheren't anymore. They got boring. Also, it took MS ages to make the 950s Software work properly.
But my 820 and 830 where just amazing
Please do the Lumia, it was one of the first phones I had and I loved it.
@@laexploradoraaaXD and the cameras were great. Like my 2013 Lumia 520 made some great pics whilst i was in the UK and they are just 1440p, but still look relatively good on my 4k PC Monitor. They have good Colours and look great other than the Resolution. Can't say the same thing about the Galaxy S3 mini or even the S3 from that time.
Sorry i couldn't watch this when it first came out, was at the cottage but ive been LOVING this series along with your other reviews, keep being awesome man
The Alias2 was my second phone ever! I loved that thing so much, it was a fantastic phone. The E-Ink keys are still so mesmerizing, it was such an amazing way to design a phone to let you text so easily.
God I love this series. It brings back so much nostalgia from the 2000's growing up with cellphones. I used to love browsing around for the most interesting phones and providers which featured them
3:25
Ahh, Bounce. So many good memories. Also type 080898.
Hackerman
Hahaha...I had to use the code to cross level 8
Unfortunately, there were only 11 levels...
*787898
Remember level 7 where one of the gates was secluded by three insects and a resurrection point.
I had two QWERTY slideout keyboard phones. I loved them. I remember using them to text in college under the table, having memorized the layout and not needing to look. As much as I enjoy a smart phone, I do miss that physical keyboard.
There should be more smartphones with physical keyboards than there currently are
Thank you MrMobilem I loved it! Finally someone does a series on messaging phones.
I love this series, It seriously brings me back.
I have fond memories as a kid of going to my local library and printing out nokia composer key maps for ringtone versions of current pop songs and tv theme tunes, and selling those around my school.
From my own adventures of early nokias and sony erricsons to my palm pilots and treo 650, I agree phones used to be fun.
Next up we need a "when music was fun" and go through a deep dive of the sony era of rediculously shaped "bean" mp3 players, minidiscs and mp3 cd players.
That library recollection is exactly the kind of thing I love hearing when people watch my videos. A priceless memory of a very specific period that'll never come in quite the same way again. Thanks for sharing!
4:27 loved "Until everyone's racist old relatives showed up" I couldn't agree with you more!
Sadly not always old...
Yeah the good old days when social media are genuinely fun and harmless...
As someone who has quite a few racist old relatives, I felt that.
Not sure how I missed this video drop ! Glad to see the series is continuing...can't wait to see where you go next !
You sir, made me feel old and nostalgic with this video.. You made me feel thankful and nostalgic to reminisce about a few of these historic nuggets, and I myself had the chance to experience the thrill and excitement to own a select few of these techs/phones.. Thank you. May you sail the inviting waters ahead of you with steadfast demeanor. Cheers Mr. Fisher.
I still remember my "Samsung BT - something " with slide down keyboard... My first touch phone (circa 2008)
This is by far one of the greatest tech series on this platform. You’ve truly outdone yourself with this video!
Dude, you're my new favorite CZcamsr right now. I, too, had the LG Rumor (and its sequel). The music references had me cracking up. Much love.
I was waiting so long for this video to drop. Growing up in the generation of smartphones, I always had a thing for texting phones and still keep one with me just cause it’s fun.
Remember how badly you wanted one of these? xDD
I still do
I've had one!
That Alias 2: never heard of it. Want one now.
Thanks for this series, Michael. It shows how really hardware can sometimes be much more fun than software.
Try nokia n93.
Same
That music references took me on a trip down memory lane. Thanks for this series!
That Alias 2 was something else! Such a nifty little selling point back in the day... each button having its own little screen underneath for more buttons and functions. Genius ideas!
New sub!
Love this series, Michael. Hoping for more episodes!
This series makes me feel like I'm in middle school again. The joy I got when I bought the LG Voyager Titanium, hands down still the coolest phone I ever owned.
Why do I love these videos so much, man these are so good
The alias 2 was by far my favorite messaging phone of the time, even though I wasn't on Verizon. It's awesome to see you cover it!
LG Rumor 2 was my favorite messaging phone. Perfect feeling keys for texting in class back in high school 😅 Loved the pop culture references too👌
Watching this series is so damn satisfying! Thanks man your great .
6:53
I can never get away from this ship. Its always been a part of my life. Even you have history with it from the splitting RC model years ago with commentary. I forgot what channel that was on but it was a long while ago.
I LOVE this series... I overshare it in my friend circle. And I still have some of the mentioned phones!
Fond memories from simpler times.
For me I dipped my toes into the smartphone world with the visorphone Springboard module for my Handpring pro (16 mb memory baby!) With the attached thumb keyboard (remembers when those were a thing?) it looked like a Frankenstein treo. Loved that thing.
Thanks for spreading the word!
All these music references are *chef’s kiss* so good.
I had a 5510 when I was a teen and I adored it. It was second hand and relatively cheap so it must have been a little old. However, it was a great upgrade from the 3310 because my friend could listen to the FM radio while I played Bantumi at the same time. That multitasking was something we just hadn't experienced before with our phones.
That LG Rumor was my favorite phone. I had one in blue. RIP slider phones. You were amazing in a simplistic way.
Oh man all the memories!!!! I love this segment! I have owned or used most of these phones! Good times!
The song references made me cringe and I loved every second of it
7:00 OH MY GOD FINALLY, THAT'S THE PHONE I SAW IN CIRCUIT CITY IN THE BLUR OF THE MID 2000s. I was born in 2001 so I just have blanks and blots of how tech existed in that era, this is just so excellent!! Small things like this really let me piece together my past, thank you Michael for this special help. My parents had some variation of LG VX10000, and I remember the skeuomorphism all the same. "He's a tech genius" all I did was mess with system settings after all.
Edit: Lol I missed that whole review because I was typing out this hype
The Alias looks like something right out of a game like Perfect Dark or any number of scifi books, and I love it! Thank you for sharing these amazing designs and music references alike. I would seriously adore seeing this sort of idea come back, and I miss the remarkable messaging phones I used to have. Still better than a touch keypad!
7:17
I very distinctly remember lusting after this thing In a Verizon store of the era, what a cool setup that was
3:28 it will be nice to play that game in 120hz refresh rate 🤣
Wish I could get that on any app store or comp.
FlandersNed You can probably get it to work on Android using something like J2MELoader.
Remember level 7 where one of the gates was secluded by three insects and a resurrection point.....spent months on that level.
😄 Watch out.Sometimes dreams come true))
@@NijiDash it's called bounce
There's just something to the physical keyboard that I still like to type on 'em even in 2021!
Wow.. this has been the best video so far. Really love this phones were fun series. 👍👏
The most exciting thing mentioned here is the idea for that Key3 🤩
4:27 is the most relatable thing you've ever said its the whole reason i stopped using social media
I literally laughed out loud when he said that😂
lol exactly
Lol
It's why I STARTED using social media!
I had the Alias 2 from June 2009-July 2010 and absolutely loved it. It did take time to get used to the keys on the phone. The keys reminded me of those tablets you had as a kid to study multiplication.
You brought back some memories I had totally forgotten.
Next level production value Michael. I appreciate this series for the nostalgia but also the deeper layers revolving around wisdom gained as you progress through life. Sometimes (often?) newer isn't always better. Sometimes it is but our attachment to the past obfuscates the positives. Thanks again.
First phone: LG enV
Current phone: LG V30 Dual Screen
Guess some things never change
First phone: Motorola RAZR v3m
Current phone: Google Pixel 4a
Guess my taste changes depending on the technology of the time.
Please give this guy a TV show. 😭 He is awesome and his videos are just amazing.
Such great memories came back from using my Samsung Alias, and now all the songs from this video are on replay in my head.
I never owned any of these, but the way you concluded the video, my eyes teared up as I felt a wave of nostalgia overwhelming me...is that strange?
Old phones still make me want to have buttons that feel like physical inputs of some kind.
That's why I wish that smartphones still had the same design as the T-Mobile G1 or the Motorola Droid A855. But because of Google and the Android Open Source Project, that's pretty much an impossibility as of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which replaces hardware navigation buttons with software. (That feature was actually introduced in Android 3.0 Honeycomb, but that was exclusive to tablets.)
Love the series, keep on going!
I love all the alliteration. It definitely is not a sign of a lack of ideas. Legit love your scripts
The fact that you quoted The Queen JoJo makes me appreciate this even more
I know I felt really old too
Do one on the Palm Centro. I used to LOVE that phone 🙂
I'm so happy you talked about the Alias! I wanted one of those so bad when I was in middle school, and I'm pretty sure that I mentioned it in a comment on one of your previous videos
i love to see new videos from this channel. great voice, great presentation, and i love the excitement and knowledge shown with each phone.
3:30 OMG I REALIZED THAT's MY FAV BALL GAME!
3:40:love those cool album things that match what ur sayin!
The game is named bounce off you want to look it up :)
9:01 the captions say “Owlette” instead of OLED lmao...
lmfao, i think its french *Le Owlette*
I personally hate it that people use to pronounce it as one word just because convienience...... To me it will always be Oh Ell EE Dee. Nobody pronounces LED like ledd......... Or QLED TVs like kledd......
I love your channel! This is the best so far dealing with old gadgets.
Please doa video series for the PDA, Pocket PCs, and Windows Mobile communicators like MPx200, Mpx220, Qtek 9000, S110, Hp4700, Compaq etc.
Very well done, especially with the music and movie reference. Awesome job
I wonder when he's gonna post a "when folding phones were fun" video
7:00 i actually had my jaw drop
Nokia N93 had similar hinge
Motorola MPx as well
What I love about your video is not just the phones but your song references. Hello 2000s kids!!
Thanks for a trip down memory lane. I got a used 5510 in 8th grade and it was very popular in my class because of how quickly I could write messages, while my friends were dealing with T9
My phone history since age 7:
Nokia 3210
Nokia 3310
Nokia 5210i
Motorola flip phone
Nokia 3200
Nokia 6120 classic
Nokia n86 8mpix (sweet camera)
Htc desire (first touchscreen smartphone)
Samsung a3 2013
iPhone 5s
Huawei Nova 3
And now a Oneplus 8 pro, the most expensive (and sweetest) phone I've ever had.
I'm sad that Nokia made bad decisions with the OS of their phones.
First Symbian, then windows phone. Then android one.
They release really average and boring phones now, the budget samsungs and chinese manufacturers like xiaomi, oppo and realme just absolutely steamroll over Nokia's lineup.
When every other tech youtuber is hyping up 1+ nord.....
I think this is the same era I began watching your reviews.. in that 480p glorious quality
I love your episodes of WPWF. Back in the days, almost every phone tried to look unique. Today we mostly have a big glass front on every phone. Your channel in total is very cool and very entertaining. Regards from Berlin/ Germany.
Somebody remember "In days of old when phones were bold" ?
Anybody born before 2005 experienced this amazing era,i really feel sorry for these 2006-current kids tho,they were raised with ipads and advanced stuff.
i actually was born in 2006 and well, i never got an ipad
@@burgeridiot again,most likely your first phone already had a camera and android ya know,mine was a nokia 3310
it did have a camera, but nope, no android.
@@burgeridiot What then, iOS, lol?
The suspense is killing me.
I was born in 2006, but I remember the BlackBerry physical QWERTY keyboard era like it was yesterday. I never even touched a stupid Apple device, either.
I love this series so much!!
Pog
3:41 is that a Jojo reference?
Sorry I had to
Funnily enough, she was my 1st celeb crush. Ahhh, the 00's.
I'm loving this series. I have a total of 17 phones dating back to 1997, need to find that box now
I had both of the first Nokais you showed, and early on. My life's secret is that - despite being of the perfect age - I never learnt to text on a numeric keypad. I stuck with Qwerty phones for as long as possible - even when I made the switch to modern smartphone. In 2010 I got my first smartphone - an
LG Optimus 7Q . A Windows phone 7 phone that had a slide out full qwerty keyboard. I really liked that phone!
“Until everyone’s old racist relatives came”, we that’s a rumor:)
Lotta truth to that rumour.
Ni-...
''So I joined (Facebook), and y'know, until everyone's racist old relatives showed up it was a pretty cool place to be BUT ANYWAYYYY''
i'm laughing but i'm also mourning...hearts and minds to all the people who lost their loved ones to conspiracybook
Yeah Mr. Mobile got a LOL from me !
Thank you for reminding me of a couple of my favorite songs
Love this series!
Please also make an episode for tiny phones of the 00’s like the Panasonic GD55 and samsung E8xx
I Blame you for making me Addicted to Podcast since PocketNow Days, You're amazing Keep Going with these throwback Videos
Man, I love this series so much