The Road to the S24 Ultra: The Evolution of Mobile Phones I've Had Over the Years.

[BergerKing]

you need help

Seems he's handling that without help. He'd be in twice the trouble with an assistant...

 

[BergerKing]

That ^^ . . . nor did I keep records or lists of them. Too boring, and no one cares.
Although a few of my favorites were the first ones—even though they were the attached Motorola 'car phones'—probably because of the newness, and ehem, status of having a cellular phone in your vehicle.

First Motorola installed in 1989, and 2nd Motorola upgraded in 1991; both were top-of-the-line Motorola's, the nicest you could get—with the screen on the back (like pics below) and full speaker-phone features—both paid for by the construction company I was working for. I forget the Motorola model #s, and I'm not finding the exact or correct pictures on the net, which seems a bit odd.

Anyhoo, they were similar to these, but nicer, and unlike the one on the right—sitting on a power brick—mine both attached to a very small holder on the driveline hump, under the center dash of my pickup, with the power amp mounted behind the back seat:
View attachment 360493View attachment 360495

. . . and as I recall, most of my monthly cell phone bills were in the $500 to $1000+ range !
While somehow never even coming close to getting in an accident.

I had a communications system called Highway Master back in 93-94 that used a handset like that to send messages back and forth to dispatch, as well as have in-cab phone service, though I had to pay for any calls I made. It had a microphone to voice-type messages while driving.

 

[bettyn100]

I had these back in the day. Can you imagine carrying that brick of a handheld phone?

 

[mlblack16]

I'd love to make a list of mine through the years, but in the early 2000s I was buying all types of phones off eBay, many that were really cool models of Nokia and Motorola that weren't available in the US (back then ours were lame by comparison). I cycled through so many phones that I've lost track of them all.

Depending on my mood or what I was doing, I'd swap the sim card to whichever phone I wanted to use for the day. I knew the settings required to make them fully functional on the Cingular network and rarely had any issues. Those were fun times back then.

 

[Joshua Luther1]

I had these back in the day. Can you imagine carrying that brick of a handheld phone?

Zach Morris would approve.

 

[Bkdodger1]

I've had way too many phones like many of us here.. I can't even remember all of them.. usually when someone starts a conversation and says hey remember that phone.. I'm like hmmm oh yeah I had that phone too! Lol

I always get a kick out of all the old phones with the pull out antenna.. I also had one of those for the car that weighed a ton.. Loved the Motorola star tac and a few of the Blackberry ..Palm Treo 650 was also a favorite for some reason haha..Google Nexus was a fun device bc we were rooting and modding the crap out of it ..Droid X held a special place in my favs ..

 

[bhatech]

I can't even fully remember my list ... It's been 4 to 5 phones minimum every year for the last 15 years at least.

I have owned every iPhone from iPhone 3G, every Galaxy and Fold, every Nexus and Pixel. Add in to the mix most OnePlus, HTC phones. And a sprinkling of LG, Sony and Motorola phones here and there. And multiple windows phones when they were a thing. No I'm not a fan of windows phones and I don't think they were great, just a phone geek owning everything. Interestingly I haven't owned BlackBerry phones

All unlocked never carrier models since I hate them with passion

 

[mlblack16]

It's a shame HTC didn't continue as a front runner in the Android unit market. I remember how innovative they were, starting with their Sense UI that was friggin sweet in comparison to stock Android.

 

[el_mono70]

I enjoy these opportunities to revisit phones I've had the pleasure of using. Initially on Sprint which limited the selection available. They were the last to get iPhones and the Razr if memory serves me. Anyways, I'm partial to Samsung in large part to their amoled screens.
It probably started with the Galaxy S followed by the S2, 3, 4(one of my favorites), 6, 7 edge, 8, 10, 20 and, currently, a 24. Can also add a Note 4, Focus, Ativ SE and Lumia's(950, xl). Currently the S24 and a 14 pro. I've left out a few. The S24 is among my favorite phones. On ATT now. Phone is unlocked.
El mono

 

[BijouVixen]

I saw this on 60 Minutes about cell and thought it'd be an interesting watch for us here on AC

Father of the Cell Phone

Enjoy!

 

[dwboston]

First phone was the big Motorola flip phone on Bell Atlantic Mobile (now Verizon) in 1995. Kept some of the phones below for a few years (V60i, Q9h), but have been averaging a phone a year for the past decade or so.

Favorite phones were the Moto KRZR K1 (it took a microSD card and was great for playing music), Moto Q9h (maybe my favorite phone ever), Moto X (custom color with stock android with a few Motorola custom features), OnePlus 7 Pro (amazing except for the cameras), and now the S24 Ultra.

Worst phones - build quality on HTC (went through three Touch Pro 2's - all replaced under warranty. Loved the form factor but just poorly built); ZTE Axon 7 (loved the phone and features but had the worst RF reception of any phone I've ever owned).

Seen it all since mobile phones went mainstream in the mid-90's. It's funny seeing people complain and vent about today's devices and their capabilities/features, or how the lack of some random feature renders a phone useless to them. Today's mid-range phones are ridiculously capable, and flagship-level devices are supercomputers that can do virtually anything compared to what we've had previously. We're incredibly lucky.

Here's all the phones and tablets I've owned (I've excluded a few that were bought and returned almost immediately):

Motorola: DPC flip phone, V60i, V400, V560, V620, RAZR V3, KRZR K1, Q9h, Moto X
Google: Pixel XL, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7 Pro
OnePlus: 7 Pro, 9 Pro
Samsung: Galaxy Note, Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition, Galaxy S24 Ultra
Palm: Treo Pro
Dell: Streak 7
HTC: Touch Pro 2
Nokia: 5185i
ZTE: Axon 7

Tablets: Motorola Xoom LTE, Google Nexus 7, NVIDIA Shield, Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 10.5, Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra

 

[Ed_Grohl]

I remember my first smartphone. Bought the Samsung Blackjack because my office was cracking down on personal emails and web browsing. I sure showed them how much I wanted to goof off. Loved that phone.