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Remember the days when phones were more about cool designs, quirky features, and unforgettable personalities? From the ultra-slim Sony Ericsson w880i to the legendary Motorola Razr V3, these classic phones defined an era before touchscreens took over. Join us as we revisit these nostalgic devices that blended style and function, reminding us why we still miss their charm and innovation today.
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00:00What's great about the iPhone is that if you want to check snow conditions on the mountain,
00:05there's an app for that.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most fondly remembered
00:10phones, which are now sadly more than a little outdated.
00:14Like this unique cellular portable made by Motorola, which weighs only 30 ounces.
00:20Number 20, Nokia 7600. You've never seen a phone like this before, or since for that matter.
00:26With its unorthodox shape and secretive development process, this phone hit the fashionable era
00:31of phones like a train, crashing through the conventions and leaving a real impression.
00:35The Nokia 7600's ringtones were composed by Markus Kastren, who was known for using new
00:41technology to create cutting-edge tunes in the demo scene movement.
00:44If that wasn't enough for its users, it did feature MP3 and AAC support for up to 29 megabytes
00:56of songs transferable through its proprietary pop port.
00:59Unfortunately, actually using the phone would often require both hands for texting due to
01:04its large size and awkward shape, which isn't exactly chic.
01:15Number 19, LG Shine.
01:17Debuting initially in Asia in 2006, this hit the rest of the world in 2007.
01:22Available in both sliding and clamshell varieties, the Shine stuck to button and scroll bar controls
01:28at a time when other phones were embracing the emerging touchscreen technology.
01:38Reviews at the time noted its high-quality color screen, which doubled as a mirror when
01:42not in use.
01:43But the phone was also notable for featuring a variety of colorful casing designs.
01:48Gold, titanium, black, even an extremely limited Iron Man red version was made, and some countries
01:54even had a hot pink model.
01:56Good luck keeping track of all of that.
02:00Number 18, Nokia 7280.
02:03Phones of the mid-2000s were moving from pure utility item to fashion piece, and this slim
02:09stick of a thing was no exception.
02:10Once again, the screen was advertised as being like a mirror.
02:14This was before we had all accepted the ever-present black mirror in our pockets, after all.
02:18And its unusual form was featured in music videos for both the Pussycat Dolls and Jennifer
02:23Lopez.
02:34Not bad for something with as unappealing a name as the Nokia 7280, but that was of course
02:39made up for by the very appealing nickname of the Lipstick Phone, and David LaChapelle's
02:44commercials for the line.
02:56Number 17, Samsung S-C-H U-470 Juke.
03:00Obviously the Juke is, you know, is shaped differently than other phones, but, like,
03:04see that?
03:05What else makes it different besides the ads?
03:06Well, that's it right there.
03:07I mean, the swivel fate.
03:08You know a phone is iconic when it has its own theme song.
03:12Jukebox Hero by Foreigner was chosen to advertise Samsung's swiveling stick, itself nicknamed
03:17the Juke, which is far catchier than the string of letters and numbers it's otherwise known
03:21as.
03:21When closed, the phone can still be used as a music player, and it has an in-case-of-emergency
03:27function that allows certain contacts to be dialed when it's locked.
03:30Introducing the Samsung Juke.
03:33Hey!
03:34Samsung, leading the music phone revolution.
03:37Users had access to the mobile instant messaging service, which allowed them to contact each
03:42other through AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo Messenger as they pleased.
03:45These were charged as regular texts, but the novelty itself makes it worth mentioning here.
03:50Introducing the Juke by Samsung, exclusively from Verizon Wireless, an Ultra Sleek MP3 player
03:55that flips into a phone, because music phones have more moves on America's most reliable
04:00wireless network.
04:01Number 16, Nokia 6260.
04:03The late 2000s were all about experimentation, it seems.
04:07In hindsight, touchscreens were inevitable, but at the time, anything was possible.
04:12That's why Nokia 6260 could be used in five different ways, thanks to it being a flip phone
04:17with a twistable hinge.
04:19One of these may have required a Bluetooth keyboard, a peripheral device that doesn't
04:23see much use with phones nowadays, but the ambition is what is to be admired here.
04:28The legacy Portable Computing Wiki page for the phone shows two different images of Pokemon
04:32on its display, if you needed a reminder of what it was like to live in 2008.
04:37And if you're wondering if it played Snake, the answer is yes.
04:40It is a Nokia after all.
04:42Number 15, HTC Universal.
04:45In the days before phones were everything devices, such as HTC's very own Incredible,
04:50which ran on early Android OS, we had PDAs.
04:54Short for Personal Digital Assistant, these gadgets allowed us to keep track of our lives
04:59on the go, almost like miniature laptops.
05:01Naturally, these were eventually integrated with phones, with one of those being the Universal,
05:06a device designed to do everything you might need.
05:09HTC.
05:12It's anything you want it to be.
05:14With a swivel screen, which allowed for both portrait and landscape use, this pocket-sized
05:19wonder was able to run both Windows and Linux, and had the capacity for several modifications,
05:23such as an SD card reader, VGA graphics, or even the emulation of keys not found on
05:29its keyboard.
05:29Now that's what we call personalized.
05:32We saw the potential of 3G early on, and introduced the world's first 3G Windows mobile smartphone.
05:38Number 14, Samsung Serenata.
05:40Here's another entry in the phones that are actually fashion statements category.
05:45The follow-up to the Seren was designed by innovative Danish company Bang & Olufsen, and
05:50made use of a slick scroll wheel and touchscreen interface, ditching a keypad entirely.
05:55It's small.
05:56It's a very interesting, unique design.
06:00And of course, it plays beautiful music.
06:04Reviews at the time praised it for its capabilities as a music player, especially due to its long
06:09battery life, but did have criticisms regarding its functionality for, well, texting.
06:14Wallpaper, the British design magazine, had a design award in 2008 in which the Serenata
06:19came second.
06:20You know a phone is a thing of beauty when the only competition it has is the original
06:25iPhone.
06:26And this is what it looks like, an upside-down iPod or a Star Trek communicator.
06:31It's got a touch wheel, just like the iPod.
06:33It's also got a little stand at the back.
06:35Number 13, Motorola Dynatac 8000X.
06:39Going way back in time with this one, Motorola's Dynatac series was the first cellular phone
06:44people could get their hands on commercially.
06:46Developed by Bell Labs, yes, named after Alexander Graham himself, this is about as stripped back
06:52as you imagine it would be.
06:53Seems like this are becoming commonplace in US cities where cellular is available today.
06:58This revolution in communications could make it possible for more and more people to have
07:03a phone in their car, or even one that travels with you.
07:06With a height of 10 inches and a not inconsiderable weight of 2.5 pounds, we would not exactly
07:12call this one pocket-sized, but it is certainly portable.
07:15You could talk on it for a whole 30 minutes after only 10 hours of charge time, and the
07:20privilege would cost $3,995, the equivalent of almost $13,000 at the time of writing.
07:29For most of us, learning to do even the simplest task is made easier if we see it demonstrated
07:34first.
07:34So, for the next 10 minutes, we'll show you what you need to know for daily phone use.
07:40Number 12.
07:41Sony Ericsson W880i
07:43From something overwhelmingly chunky to something unbelievably slim, the W880i was less than a
07:49centimeter thick and weighed 2.5 ounces.
07:52This phone belonged to the Walkman series, and could play basically any audio file you
07:57could ever need, as well as a variety of video files too.
08:00For the fashion-focused, it came in two different kinds of black, as well as silver and gold
08:05models, although the gold version was limited to Vodafone's network.
08:09If you wanted, you could connect it to the internet and make use of its front-facing camera for
08:133G video calls, or simply upload some of the photos you had taken and edited on it onto your blog.
08:18You know, just 2007 things.
08:21The new W880i Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson.
08:25Number 11.
08:26Apple iPhone 3G
08:27Today, the new iPhone is only available in eight countries, but will be released in other regions
08:32next week and in July.
08:34But one thing's for certain, the iPhone phenomena continues, and the customers leaving here today
08:39are in geek heaven.
08:40Any list of phones would be incomplete without at least a mention of this beast.
08:45The original iPhone may have been revolutionary, but 3G connection took it to the next level.
08:51It's hard to overstate the impact that Apple has had on the history of phones, but let's
08:56give it a go.
08:56The war between Apples and Blackberries was a brutal one, and if you would live through
09:01it, you'll remember how everyone picked a side.
09:03Across corporate America today, the Blackberry is about as common as the ballpoint pen, but
09:08with the introduction of this new iPhone, Apple wants to change that.
09:12Keypads versus touchscreens, BBM versus apps, professional use versus everyday utility.
09:18We know now that the iPhone would win, decisively killing off the competition.
09:22But at the time, Apple seemed like an underdog we could all root for.
09:26For half the price, introducing the new iPhone 3G.
09:35Number 10, the LG Envy VX9900.
09:39This unusual hybrid phone pushed boundaries when it was released in 2007.
09:44On the surface, the LG Envy looks like just another small phone with a basic keyboard,
09:49but the whole front flips open sideways on a set of hinges.
09:52This reveals a second screen, a full keyboard, and a set of pretty impressive speakers for
09:57a cell.
09:58The strange formula endured for a few more years, with subsequent Envy models all retaining
10:02the core gimmick of another screen and a full keyboard.
10:05But unfortunately, this novelty couldn't outlast the looming wave of touchscreen smartphones,
10:10despite later models opting for a touchscreen as well.
10:13Number 9, the Motorola StarTAC.
10:16This phone will go down as having one of the most influential designs in history,
10:20as the first ever flip phone.
10:22Don't touch that!
10:23You're liable to call my mom.
10:25That's the smart button for easy, one-handed use.
10:27After the release of the StarTAC, clamshell phones became the norm.
10:30After all, you just can't beat the satisfaction of flipping one open and closed to accept and
10:35end calls.
10:35Push the button, and it'll dial it automatically.
10:38And ring or vibrate.
10:40Do you want to see it?
10:41It was also one of the first phones to prioritize aesthetics as well as functionality, which rival
10:46brands like Nokia weren't too bothered with, and was even the first phone to have a vibrate
10:50feature.
10:51So small, you may forget you got it.
10:53At the time, though, a StarTAC set consumers back $1,000, making it about as pricey as
10:58a brand-new iPhone today.
11:00So high-tech, it could only come from Motorola.
11:03Motorola!
11:04But you never thought possible.
11:05Number 8, the HTC Dream.
11:07After the release of the first iPhone took the world by storm, rivals were left scrambling
11:12to come up with something to challenge it, and this was what they came up with.
11:16The HTC Dream, or T-Mobile G1, didn't have the large touchscreen the iPhone did, still
11:22relying on a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but it did have something else, the Android operating
11:27system.
11:28Today, all the major competitors to Apple run on Android systems, and this phone is responsible.
11:34While the first version of Android certainly wasn't as sleek as we're used to, it did
11:38have the huge customizability and versatility that the system is still known for.
11:43Number 7, Nokia 3310.
11:45This iconic device proves that many people would still rather have reliability over flashy
11:51graphics, the former being a quality the Nokia 3310 had in droves.
11:55It might not have had a big keyboard or a screen with a lot of colors, but it did have
11:59a battery
12:00that could last for days, if not weeks, and it was basically unbreakable.
12:04It was also very customizable, with a seemingly infinite number of snap-on cases, making no two
12:10phones the same, and its affordability meant it sold well over 100 million units globally.
12:16Its contribution to texting culture, and of course, the popularization of Snake, cannot
12:21be understated.
12:22It even got a re-release in 2017.
12:25Number 6, the Sony Ericsson W800.
12:28The cell phone was certainly a game-changing device in so many ways, but before it, we had
12:33the iconic Walkman, a tape deck you could take anywhere.
12:37Launched in 1979, it was only a matter of time before Sony combined their devices, and
12:42so in 2005, they gave us the Sony Ericsson W800, the first phone to use the Walkman brand.
12:48Sony Ericsson was ahead of the curve by combining phones and MP3 players, and the impact of having
12:53a device that also stored your music efficiently and made it available on the go was huge.
12:58Granted, the phone's bright orange color scheme does date it quite a bit.
13:02Number 5, Nokia N-Gage.
13:05Portable gaming was in full stride in 2003, with the release of the PlayStation Portable
13:10and Nintendo DS still a bit on the horizon.
13:13Bridging this gap was the pricey and unusual Nokia N-Gage, which featured a whole lot of
13:18buttons with quite a small screen sandwiched in the center between them.
13:21It was a handheld games console that could also make calls, send texts, and play music.
13:27Nowadays, mobile gaming is even bigger business, making the N-Gage ahead of its time in a lot
13:32of ways.
13:32It was weird, expensive, and the games were limited, but its boldness and quirky design
13:37definitely made it memorable.
13:39Number 4, the BlackBerry Curve 8900.
13:42For a long time, BlackBerry dominated the market of professionals who needed a phone to replace
13:47absent PDAs, but the Curve 8900 iteration really brought this distinct brand to the masses.
13:53With its small, full physical keyboard on the front rather than sliding out to the side,
13:57it was certainly impactful.
13:59And this style of keyboard placement persists even on touchscreen smartphones today.
14:03As phones slowly started to stop being just phones and take on more and more media features,
14:08BlackBerry was there at the beginning, offering a multimedia device that could briefly hold its
14:13own against the iPhone.
14:14Number 3, the LG Chocolate.
14:17This handset was already tapping into the nostalgia market in 2006 when touchscreens were just
14:22beginning to get popular.
14:26A stylish sliding phone, the North American version of the chocolate, the VX8500, had some
14:32great branding, making it much more memorable than rival devices titled simply with long numbers.
14:36The chocolate was appealing with punchy aesthetics, sold in a variety of colors with variant names
14:41like Cherry Chocolate, White Chocolate, and Strawberry Chocolate.
14:45We sense a theme.
14:46Small and sleek, the chocolate did pretty much everything you could expect from a phone of
14:50the era, and you could upgrade its memory significantly to store all the music it could play.
14:55Everybody loves chocolate by LG.
14:58Number 2, the Danger Hip Top.
15:00Also known as the T-Mobile Sidekick, this phone was innovative in more ways than most.
15:04In a time when smaller was better where phones were concerned, it broke the mold by being
15:09larger than most, packing in plenty of cool features in the additional space, including
15:13a big keyboard and a large slide-out screen.
15:16Distinct appearance aside, it was also the first phone to popularize mobile internet, integrating
15:21things like instant messaging, email, and even an early version of cloud storage.
15:26The Sidekick made cell phones for everybody, and pushed the boundaries of what they could
15:30do.
15:30Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
15:35Samsung Galaxy S.
15:36Super fast and super thin, this phone was a superstar.
15:45Siemens Accelibri 6.
15:47Like a compact mirror, this slips right into your purse.
15:55Nokia N90.
15:56From phone to camera with one simple twist.
16:13Before we continue, check out this single from SoundMojo's album Balance.
16:17Classical music reimagined as rock, hard rock, and metal.
16:21Check out the full track and album below.
16:23Gold buys silence, guilt buys prayer.
16:29I am the echo, you can't outrun the jokes on you.
16:34The blade's begun.
16:39Number 1.
16:40The Motorola Razr V3
16:41Relatively affordable after its initial price was dropped, functional yet infinitely stylish,
16:47everybody had a Motorola Razr at one point or another.
16:50Over the lifespan of the original Razr line, it sold roughly 130 million units, and came
16:56in so many variations that even though everybody had one, yours still didn't feel too samey.
17:01After all, the clamshell came in classic colors like silver, black, and blue, but also red,
17:06hot pink, and even gold.
17:08Its dual display also made it popular, as you could check the time and if you had any
17:12messages on a miniature screen on the outside of the lid.
17:15The Razr is so iconic, and its appeal so enduring, that in 2019, a modernized smartphone relaunch
17:22was announced for 2020, that you will also be able to flip open and shut.
17:27Perfect for fidgeting.
17:29Do you miss the days before touchscreens?
17:31Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
17:33Thanks, guys.
17:33Thanks.
17:35.