Still have this device somewhere
and 2 HTC Diamonds ( Windows CE ) - lol
BRING BACK PHYSICAL KEYBOARDS WITH BUTTONS!
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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Good old times. My first Smartphone was the HTC Desire Z. Loved it :)
I really would like a modern phone similar to a Danger Hiptop (aka the Sidekick) just for the actual buttons and scroll wheel and the coolness of flipping the screen open.
The Droid and later Droid 2 will forever be some of my favorite phones.
That was my first smartphone, and I absolutely loved it! Shame nothing like it ever came out again.
I still have my droid 2 somewhere. I'd still buy a phone with a physical keyboard. Worst part about that phone was the random reboots and the loud "DROID" sound effect it played when it boots. Happened several times during college lectures and I got yelled at for it at least once.
Had the OG Droid but mine was a weird offshoot that had the rubberized keyboard that became standard in Droid 2.
Travelled from US to Europe and during the trip the keys started falling out 1 by 1. Made it darn near unusable.
Still... Loved that phone and would get a modern day version of it still. Miss those physical keyboard days!
Back when Google wasn't evil, had barely killed any products and we were all optimistic about the future of tech.
I had one of these! Qwerty keyboard on a phone is a thing I sorely miss.
Everyone seems to, except major phone manufacturers. 😡
I don't know how anyone used those things. I could never hit any specific key, I would push like 3 at a time. I was able to type much faster and more accurately just using T9.
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I did as well and I just remember the keyboard being so awful to use hah
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I had this guy (Motorola Cliq) and loved it:
I loved my slider as well. They made texting so much easier. I went from one of those to a blackberry bold.
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I had a couple Windows Mobile/Pocket PCs. They were flawed, yet awesome in their own way. Early Android was clearly better, but sadly it's become a locked down spy fest. I'd love a new real "Pocket PC".
Found memories: and the memories are French.
Oui
Not just the hardware. I far prefer icons from that time as well. I hate the modern trend of flat icons with no details. They look like someone mashed them out after 5 minutes in Krita and then drugged their management into believing that it was a recreation of the Mona Lisa.
Early iOs and Android icons were one of the last offshoot of the style called "Frutiger Aero"
Flat icons don't necessarily bad and undetailed, it's just harder to create something more recogniseable with less tools, but I actually like the order, that they look like they are related to each other. Back in the day I created icon packs for the programs I used on pc, so my desktop would look clean and uniform.
Design styles are in a cycle, just wait some years and they will show up again, I'm sure. There is already some connection with the new style of windows 11.
At least icons are easy to customize! I should do a windows 95 theme on my phone
The modern flat icons are actually… A little insidious in their conception. They're based on industrial psychology and mid-century modern propaganda. They make your phone just that bit more addictive. It's not someone convincing management it's a recreation of the Mona Lisa, it's management coming down to the graphics department and saying “You need to make it more addictive”
This reminds me of a Youtube series a guy did called When Phones Were Fun.
“A guy” Give Mr Mobile his due! The man’s a legend!
I blame Apple (and then Samsung for copying Apple) for stealing this form factor from us.
Didn't have that one, but I did have the HTC TouchPro2 that came with Windows Mobile but was able to shoehorn a functional version of Android "Froyo" on it. Peak smartphone form factor limited by the technology of its time. Shame.
Samsung had my favorite version of the slide phone with the Samsung Epic 4G Touch Galaxy 2.
I had a "T-Mobile MDA Vario II" (HTC TyTN 300) which was similar, and also had a collapsible stylus which lived in a little hole on the bottom. It was Windows Mobile, but it was great having the keyboard fully accessible (without that extra bottom bit the G1 had).
It looked like this, just less German:
My most fondly remembered phone is easily the Galaxy S Relay 4G I had for ages:
In its time, this motherfucker was pimp. It was essentially a Galaxy S5, but with a slightly smaller footprint and a sliding five row QWERTY keyboard -- with arrow keys and dedicated number row. It was the bossest thing ever for remoting into systems via SSH or RDP to administer servers at work and so forth. It supported NFC, MHL video out, USB on the go (which was not necessarily a given at the time), and I wedged one of those wireless charging stickers into it under its battery cover. Of course it had a memory card slot, a headphone jack, and a swappable battery.
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A friend of mine had the Droid.
At that point I was rocking the T Mobile Vario, which I believe was an HTC. It was, sadly, dog shit. Windows Mobile was not a fun time.
Windows Mobile did everything wrong. regarding the "mobile" aspect - lol
I had such a hard time with the HTC Diamond - it was super expensive at the time, so i really wanted to work with it.
Yeah, after this I had the Vario III, which was an HTC Kaiser. The phone was great (if somewhat underpowered), but WinMob was still clunky and shit.
My next phone after that was an iPhone 3GS, and I’ve been iPhone ever since.
I would love a Bluetooth keyboard cover like that for my s22
I miss my N900 with Debian.
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