Your First Cellphone - All The Juicy Details

[AsherO]

What was your first cellphone?

When did you get it? How long did it last? What did you like/dislike about it? (any other questions I should add?)

My first cellphone was a Samsung a460, I got it back in 2001 and I loved it dearly. The battery lasted for quite a while, I could drop it on concrete and it would survive just fine, IIRC I had it for over a year and it was the first of many Samsungs I was happy with. It was one of the few flip-phones in its day that had an outside screen for callerID.

Here's what the phone looked like:

[Dan]

The a460 was a great phone, but it came out in 2002
I had its predecessor, the a400, which I enjoyed even more than the a460.

[Chaikel]

The a460 was a great phone, but it came out in 2002
I had its predecessor, the a400, which I enjoyed even more than the a460.

Busted!

[Dan]

Gosh, I think my first phone was the Motorola Talkabout which I got in 2001 after finishing high school in PIT and before going away to zal in LA.  I think the plan was 350 anytime and 2,150 N&W for $39.99  Got Sprint to give me free data and used to use the text only browser to read 2 lines at a time...



I used to spend hours on hold with Sprint.  Eventually I figured out how to keep upgrading my phone for free and switched to the Samsung a400 and then the Samsung a500.  I think I also had a Sanyo SCP6000 for a week or so. The a500 was the first pcs vision phone (1xrtt) and one of the first color phones.  Also got a VGA camera that plugged into it, but MMS was a bear in those pre-SMS days.





In early 2003 I joined the very small crowd of smartphone users and got the Samsung i330. Great smartphone.  FSOD (flashing screen of death) was its main downfall.  I became the Palm OS mod on pdaphone.com, which was the main online forum for Samsung Palm phones.

Then came out the great Samsung i500, a wonder of a smartphone in a compact flip-phone.  It was awesome.


Samsung was about to release the i550, also a flip Palm phone with an OLED screen way ahead of its time, but Sprint killed it as they wanted to focus on the Treo line.  As the Samsung mod, an insider sent me a few i550s to test out that I still have, amazing phones, way ahead of their time.
After Sprint killed it the insider told me that Samsung disbanded their Palm division.

From there I took a brief detour to a non-smartphone (Samsung a900) it was off to Treo land (700p, 755p, Black gen 1 Centro, Green gen 2 Centro) where I've been stuck in neutral ever since 2007 when Sprint decided that my plan wasn't good enough for their cool phones.  Then my plan wasn't good enough for them at all so it was off to VZW.  Didn't want to pay for a data plan yet so I got a Centro with them as well, but when they announced the end of data I added the unlimited data and hope to get the Galaxy Nexus within the next couple of weeks!

[sky121]

NOKIA 3395

I had about 3 of these since around 2001. They were great and had amazing battery life. I remember using AIM on these Nokias and it was the "coolest" thing ever. Crazy how far technology has come in so short a period of time.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

[Chaikel]

I think my first was a Nextel i1000

[Dan]

I think my first was a Nextel i1000

That reminds me, in 2004 I also had a Nextel phone, the i830, that I used in Brazil solely for its free walkie-talkie feature that worked flawlessly between Sao Paulo and the US.

[AsherO]

The a460 was a great phone, but it came out in 2002

Busted!

And here I was all this time telling myself I had a cellphone for 10 years, I guess it hasn't been 10 years yet. 

I don't remember getting the a460 when it was just launched, but I do remember having reception issues in the summer of '02.

I think I had Samsungs a460 > a500 > a680 > a900* > BB 8830 > BB 8330 (Curve) > BB 9630 (Tour).

Using Sprint's 'warranty' service I've had several replacements for many of these phones. Those were the good 'ol days.

[Dan]

And here I was all this time telling myself I had a cellphone for 10 years, I guess it hasn't been 10 years yet. 

I don't remember getting the a460 when it was just launched, but I do remember having reception issues in the summer of '02.

For some reason the a400 had much better reception that the a460 and it was smaller.
The a460 did have a pretty blue screen though .
It was a short-lived phone as the a500 came out shortly thereafter with 1xrtt.

[AsherO]

For some reason the a400 had much better reception that the a460 and it was smaller.
The a460 did have a pretty blue screen though .
It was a short-lived phone as the a500 came out shortly thereafter with 1xrtt.

I definitely had the a460 for  while, it took me some time until I got around to upgrading.

[moish]

i had a sprint pcs phone i got in 1998. at the time it was the coolest phone around. it was like a small box, and a stick flipped down to talk into. i forgot the make and model

[YudiG]

I started back in 2003 with the first Sprint Palm flip phone - forget the model # was it Sanyo? - then kept getting upgraded to the newer model...once I got the Centro I haven't switched as, A - I dont spend all that much time in the US, B - I have an old grandfather plan and don't seem to have much wiggle room..I do have several new in box Samsung Reclaim for Sprint so maybe I'll just open one up one of these days and treat myself to a new phone...

I did have a Sprint Blackberry 8830 w/ service in Israel but it crashed so often I gave it up...

[elikay]

BTW the reclaim has reception issues, so if you will be in an area with spotty coverage, stay far away from it.

[Cholentfresser]

My first phone was the centro. i had the SERO plan. i got it around 4 years ago, and it lasted me till i got my new phone a couple months ago. it still worked, but i just wanted to get a new phone.

[YudiG]

BTW the reclaim has reception issues, so if you will be in an area with spotty coverage, stay far away from it.

never had an sprint issues in the la or among my travels across the usa

[elikay]

I guess you've  never been to the catskills

[BAHayman]

• 2005 - Nokia 6620 - loved the phone had Opera Mini for full web browsing and it wasn't classified as a smartphone by cingular so data was only $10
• 2006 - Nokia 6682 -  pretty much same as the 6620 except smaller, lighter, faster, better battery, etc.
• 2007 - Palm Treo 700p - switched to Sprint on the SERO 500 plan. Great phone, huge jump from symbian
• 2007 - Palm Treo 755p - couldn't stand the antenna on the 700p so I managed to get Sprint to give me the 755p for free
• 2008 - HTC Touch Pro - initially loved the phone but the touch pro had a ton of problems, mainly overheating so it wouldn't charge
• 2009 - HTC Touch Pro2 - now this was a beautiful phone, super powerful and super durable. got sprint to replace my overheating touch pro with this after a technician burnt his hand on the battery from the touch pro :p
• 2010 - HTC Evo 4G - my current phone. android is just amazing. way better then windows mobile or palm os.
  

[Dan]

I started back in 2003 with the first Sprint Palm flip phone - forget the model # was it Sanyo?

Not the Samsung i500 (pictured above)?

[YudiG]

Not the Samsung i500 (pictured above)?

no, it had a flip up part but the screen didn't flip up it was just the ear/hearing part that did...wasnt the greatest phone

[Dan]

no, it had a flip up part but the screen didn't flip up it was just the ear/hearing part that did...wasnt the greatest phone

Running Palm OS?
The Kyocera 6035?