I was thinking, I've had cell phones since 1996, Freshman year of College. Back then nobody knew of OTA updates, much less cared. My first cell phone had no camera, didn't have a color screen, wasn't a touch either. There was no need for flashing or rooting or waiting to "improve" what was then an incredible feature set. Obviously things have changed. So as Vibrant owners today we arguably might be one of the highest end phones on the market. My question is how did we go from 9oz monochromatic pocket weights to phones that connect us to the world at large? What's your progression?
1996 (Freshman Year)
Audiovox MVX480 AT&T
I found it cleaning out my Grandmothers old apartment, don't remember the model and it's impossible to find on the web. Thing to note though, The Motorola StarTAC came outaround that time. I gave it up switching from AT&T to Bell Atlantic. (When AT&T was still originally AT&T and well before Bell Atlantic became Verizon)
1998
Samsung SGH-1910 on Bell Atlantic
I finally got a 9oz flip phone, meaning keypad covered phone. With the battery in, I needed the side holster because this wasn't fitting in my pocket and cargo pants weren't popular yet. Gave it up switching to VoiceStream. Thank you Jaime Lee Curtis.
2001
Nokia 3310 (Grey Brick) on VoiceStream
This thing was top of the the line back just before Nokia went on a spree of designing designer phones (Nokia 8110) . First and only phone I've ever been able to change body plates on. The thing was also one of the sturdiest phones I've ever played catch with. After 2 years I just got bored with it.
2003
Motorola V300 On T-mobile
I wanted a color phone with a camera that could play music. Bonus the rubberized blue exterior. I was also down with getting a small flip phone as people grew tired of my incessant pocket dialing. Got rid of it because I wanted something called bluetooth. (I still have this phone and it works rather well)
2004
Motorola V330 On T-mobile
First phone I ever flashed firmware in, which if memory serves me was a whole lot easier then. Got rid of this one because it fell in a stand up urinal mid stream.
2005
Motorola U6 (AKA PEBL) On T-mobile
This phone just looked cool. It was small, light, played mp3's and was really, really reliable in damn near whatever hole I was calling from. One of the best, if not the best phone I've ever owned. I still have it to this day, and used it recently when I found a sucker to buy my Samsung Behold 2 while I was waiting for the Vibrant to come out. I wanted to buy the ROKR U9, but it's technology is a bit dated. The only reason I stopped using it was because my contract was about up -again- on T-mobile and they gave me another phone just to stay with them, so....
2006
Motorola RIZR Z3
Not an awful phone, but the build quality was crappy. The center dial wore off after while and it had a bad overheating thing going for it. The battery ultimately went on it from overheating and I just gave up the phone, thus supporting my new phone every year practice.
2007
HTC Shadow On T-mobile
It was my first "smart phone" When I went to look at it in the store I was even more blown away by how cool a smartphone was. However after just under 2 weeks, my girlfriend hated it and she routinely used it more than I did so I turned it in. Oh, yeah and windows mobile was REALLY REALLY bad. Turned me off to Windows mobile forever.
2007
Motorola ROKR E8 On T-mobile
One of the worst phones I've ever owned. Sure it was thin and played music. It's not worth it if the UI sucks, and the key lock is buggy as hell. Everything about this phone made me mad. I got rid of it out of frustration. Funny because I loved Motorola. (I still have it, and it still works to some degree if anyone wants it)
2008
HTC-G1 (AKA HTC Dream) On T-mobile
Having been a long time Linux nerd and Google disciple/slave, I knew I wanted an Android phone. I preordered it after seeing one of the T-mobile workers with it in the store next door. Huge screen, fast, full internet. It's only setback was that the damn thing was huge. Small price to pay as it turned out to be the 2nd greatest phone I've ever owned. Sold it to the same guy that bought my......
2009
Samsung Behold 2 On T-mobile
Christ. You know what bothered me most about this phone, it kept unmounting the SD card while it was on and corrupting it. I lost lots of music, data, random files that were kind of important on a 4gb card! The thing was awful. The whole being forever stuck on Android 1.6 was inconsequential because an OS update wouldn't fix an inherent OEM Samsung firmware flaw. I tried to hold out on this thing as long as possible, but one day after it corrupted my SD card and erased my resume I decided to sell it and either go without a phone till the Vibrant came out or use one of my old ones. So the guy that was lusting after that phone, because lets face it the screen was awesome and he only watched movies on his phone, bought it. I went back to 2005 technology and used the PEBL, still an awesome phone.
2010
Samsung Vibrant On T-mobile
Time will tell what this phone is going to be like, but considering where I've come from over the past 14 years this phone is a great improvement. It restored my faith in Samsung to a degree, and I'm sure that I'll have this phone till it either becomes outdated or unusable due to the constraints of its hardware and software. The next phone will probably be a dual core with whatever iteration of 3.xx possibly 4.xx software available.... edit... Took the first best offer I could get on this POS phone. Never again will I ever buy another Samsung device. This phone actually turned me off to Samsung as a company. DVD players, AC's, TV's, you name it. Samsung is dead to me. I wish I knew how much trouble this phone was before I lost a year to it. Thank god for HTC.
2011
T-mobile MyTouch 4G aka HTC Glacier
Officially the 3rd best phone I've ever owned. Hell, it just works. The WiFi hot-spot feature alone was worth it. This is one of the phones I'm holding onto in the event the LG G2X doesn't work out for me.
Updated: 4/27/13 Just because I'm procrastinating from what I really should be doing, and someone reminded me about this 3 year old post
2011
LG G2X
I had to give my MyTouch to my then girl friend as she desperately needed a phone, and I wanted an excuse to buy a new one. She insisted on having a phone with a keyboard, and I loved having it. I went with the G2X just to have a 100% pure vanilla android device. I missed it so much after all the TouchWiz, SenseUI, MotoBlur... There was one big issue with it that ultimately lead me to drop it. The Battery life was atrocious. If I got 3 hours on this thing it was a great day. Ultimately that phone just died for some reason, still under warranty, but no longer offered by T-mobile, they gave me...
2012
HTC Sensation
When it was brand new, it was awesome, as it wore on it, like so many other phone's I had rooted, it slowed down quickly. Like literally, the phone took about 3 minutes to boot, then it was just laggy as all hell. I loved the Hardware, probably one of the best built phones I've had since the PEBL, the screen was incredible, and the camera was outstanding. It was the total package in a phone, but the damn thing was just too slow. I factory reset the hell out of it and eventually it just crapped out. What ultimately did it in though was actually another warranty issue that may or may not have involved the phone at all, but the reception in my area as it was the worst phone I've ever owned when it came to reception. After returning it 4 times, they offered to send me another phone...
2012
Samsung Galaxy S3
I really tried to resist and gave them all kinds of reasons as to why I hated Samsung phones based on my history... It didn't stop them from giving me the damn thing, and initially I was kinda surprised. It wasn't a bad phone. Apparently Samsung has come a long way since the Vibrant. Doesn't change the fact that it's still a plastic phone with TouchWiz. I couldn't quite see past it though, there were just too many little things I found wrong with it to really enjoy it. Besides at this point, I had had a different phone every 6 months for a while, I had my eyes set on the Nexus 4.
2012
Nexus 4
Officially the best phone I've owned since the G1. It now makes for the 3rd best phone I have ever owned. (See previous phones) It's vanilla Android. It's got the Snapdragon S4 chip & 2Gb Ram, so there's little lag ever. If I had to come up with a con, it would have to be the 16Gb internal memory cap and lack of removable battery. But they're really not cons. Owning this phone was really taught me to cut down on the crap that I have downloaded and never use, and how to manage battery usage. I think from here on out I can really say that I'm comfortable with giving up size and weight for a lighter slimmer phone. I would rather carry a charged battery pack in my bag than another battery, bonus it powers my Nexus 7 if need it. What really makes this phone special though... I've had it since launch day, and while I've thought about it, I haven't rooted yet. I haven't had the need. Sure it would be great to loose adds, but really, since I only use apps that I use, generally they're all pro versions and I've paid for them. The few that I haven't, don't bother me enough. I don't need to over clock, the phone is plenty fast. I don't need a different ROM, I've always kept it stock anyway. Really, the only thing I would do is change the font. In any event, this will be the last phone I buy till the Nexus 5... Or maybe the Motorola "X"
This should have been an internet blog article, not a post. Sorry I got carried away. So what's your history?
1996 (Freshman Year)
Audiovox MVX480 AT&T
I found it cleaning out my Grandmothers old apartment, don't remember the model and it's impossible to find on the web. Thing to note though, The Motorola StarTAC came outaround that time. I gave it up switching from AT&T to Bell Atlantic. (When AT&T was still originally AT&T and well before Bell Atlantic became Verizon)
1998
Samsung SGH-1910 on Bell Atlantic
I finally got a 9oz flip phone, meaning keypad covered phone. With the battery in, I needed the side holster because this wasn't fitting in my pocket and cargo pants weren't popular yet. Gave it up switching to VoiceStream. Thank you Jaime Lee Curtis.
2001
Nokia 3310 (Grey Brick) on VoiceStream
This thing was top of the the line back just before Nokia went on a spree of designing designer phones (Nokia 8110) . First and only phone I've ever been able to change body plates on. The thing was also one of the sturdiest phones I've ever played catch with. After 2 years I just got bored with it.
2003
Motorola V300 On T-mobile
I wanted a color phone with a camera that could play music. Bonus the rubberized blue exterior. I was also down with getting a small flip phone as people grew tired of my incessant pocket dialing. Got rid of it because I wanted something called bluetooth. (I still have this phone and it works rather well)
2004
Motorola V330 On T-mobile
First phone I ever flashed firmware in, which if memory serves me was a whole lot easier then. Got rid of this one because it fell in a stand up urinal mid stream.
2005
Motorola U6 (AKA PEBL) On T-mobile
This phone just looked cool. It was small, light, played mp3's and was really, really reliable in damn near whatever hole I was calling from. One of the best, if not the best phone I've ever owned. I still have it to this day, and used it recently when I found a sucker to buy my Samsung Behold 2 while I was waiting for the Vibrant to come out. I wanted to buy the ROKR U9, but it's technology is a bit dated. The only reason I stopped using it was because my contract was about up -again- on T-mobile and they gave me another phone just to stay with them, so....
2006
Motorola RIZR Z3
Not an awful phone, but the build quality was crappy. The center dial wore off after while and it had a bad overheating thing going for it. The battery ultimately went on it from overheating and I just gave up the phone, thus supporting my new phone every year practice.
2007
HTC Shadow On T-mobile
It was my first "smart phone" When I went to look at it in the store I was even more blown away by how cool a smartphone was. However after just under 2 weeks, my girlfriend hated it and she routinely used it more than I did so I turned it in. Oh, yeah and windows mobile was REALLY REALLY bad. Turned me off to Windows mobile forever.
2007
Motorola ROKR E8 On T-mobile
One of the worst phones I've ever owned. Sure it was thin and played music. It's not worth it if the UI sucks, and the key lock is buggy as hell. Everything about this phone made me mad. I got rid of it out of frustration. Funny because I loved Motorola. (I still have it, and it still works to some degree if anyone wants it)
2008
HTC-G1 (AKA HTC Dream) On T-mobile
Having been a long time Linux nerd and Google disciple/slave, I knew I wanted an Android phone. I preordered it after seeing one of the T-mobile workers with it in the store next door. Huge screen, fast, full internet. It's only setback was that the damn thing was huge. Small price to pay as it turned out to be the 2nd greatest phone I've ever owned. Sold it to the same guy that bought my......
2009
Samsung Behold 2 On T-mobile
Christ. You know what bothered me most about this phone, it kept unmounting the SD card while it was on and corrupting it. I lost lots of music, data, random files that were kind of important on a 4gb card! The thing was awful. The whole being forever stuck on Android 1.6 was inconsequential because an OS update wouldn't fix an inherent OEM Samsung firmware flaw. I tried to hold out on this thing as long as possible, but one day after it corrupted my SD card and erased my resume I decided to sell it and either go without a phone till the Vibrant came out or use one of my old ones. So the guy that was lusting after that phone, because lets face it the screen was awesome and he only watched movies on his phone, bought it. I went back to 2005 technology and used the PEBL, still an awesome phone.
2010
Samsung Vibrant On T-mobile
Time will tell what this phone is going to be like, but considering where I've come from over the past 14 years this phone is a great improvement. It restored my faith in Samsung to a degree, and I'm sure that I'll have this phone till it either becomes outdated or unusable due to the constraints of its hardware and software. The next phone will probably be a dual core with whatever iteration of 3.xx possibly 4.xx software available.... edit... Took the first best offer I could get on this POS phone. Never again will I ever buy another Samsung device. This phone actually turned me off to Samsung as a company. DVD players, AC's, TV's, you name it. Samsung is dead to me. I wish I knew how much trouble this phone was before I lost a year to it. Thank god for HTC.
2011
T-mobile MyTouch 4G aka HTC Glacier
Officially the 3rd best phone I've ever owned. Hell, it just works. The WiFi hot-spot feature alone was worth it. This is one of the phones I'm holding onto in the event the LG G2X doesn't work out for me.
Updated: 4/27/13 Just because I'm procrastinating from what I really should be doing, and someone reminded me about this 3 year old post
2011
LG G2X
I had to give my MyTouch to my then girl friend as she desperately needed a phone, and I wanted an excuse to buy a new one. She insisted on having a phone with a keyboard, and I loved having it. I went with the G2X just to have a 100% pure vanilla android device. I missed it so much after all the TouchWiz, SenseUI, MotoBlur... There was one big issue with it that ultimately lead me to drop it. The Battery life was atrocious. If I got 3 hours on this thing it was a great day. Ultimately that phone just died for some reason, still under warranty, but no longer offered by T-mobile, they gave me...
2012
HTC Sensation
When it was brand new, it was awesome, as it wore on it, like so many other phone's I had rooted, it slowed down quickly. Like literally, the phone took about 3 minutes to boot, then it was just laggy as all hell. I loved the Hardware, probably one of the best built phones I've had since the PEBL, the screen was incredible, and the camera was outstanding. It was the total package in a phone, but the damn thing was just too slow. I factory reset the hell out of it and eventually it just crapped out. What ultimately did it in though was actually another warranty issue that may or may not have involved the phone at all, but the reception in my area as it was the worst phone I've ever owned when it came to reception. After returning it 4 times, they offered to send me another phone...
2012
Samsung Galaxy S3
I really tried to resist and gave them all kinds of reasons as to why I hated Samsung phones based on my history... It didn't stop them from giving me the damn thing, and initially I was kinda surprised. It wasn't a bad phone. Apparently Samsung has come a long way since the Vibrant. Doesn't change the fact that it's still a plastic phone with TouchWiz. I couldn't quite see past it though, there were just too many little things I found wrong with it to really enjoy it. Besides at this point, I had had a different phone every 6 months for a while, I had my eyes set on the Nexus 4.
2012
Nexus 4
Officially the best phone I've owned since the G1. It now makes for the 3rd best phone I have ever owned. (See previous phones) It's vanilla Android. It's got the Snapdragon S4 chip & 2Gb Ram, so there's little lag ever. If I had to come up with a con, it would have to be the 16Gb internal memory cap and lack of removable battery. But they're really not cons. Owning this phone was really taught me to cut down on the crap that I have downloaded and never use, and how to manage battery usage. I think from here on out I can really say that I'm comfortable with giving up size and weight for a lighter slimmer phone. I would rather carry a charged battery pack in my bag than another battery, bonus it powers my Nexus 7 if need it. What really makes this phone special though... I've had it since launch day, and while I've thought about it, I haven't rooted yet. I haven't had the need. Sure it would be great to loose adds, but really, since I only use apps that I use, generally they're all pro versions and I've paid for them. The few that I haven't, don't bother me enough. I don't need to over clock, the phone is plenty fast. I don't need a different ROM, I've always kept it stock anyway. Really, the only thing I would do is change the font. In any event, this will be the last phone I buy till the Nexus 5... Or maybe the Motorola "X"
This should have been an internet blog article, not a post. Sorry I got carried away. So what's your history?
.
) I had my HD2 sitting on my desk while cleaning my room up. Ended up knocking it off my desk into a half full glass of Lemonade. 
Quickly fishing it out of the glass I tried to see if it still worked, and it kind of did, but at the same time it kind of didn't. The volume rocker became stick and would act as if someone was holding down volume up constantly and wouldn't allow the use of the phone. I turned it off, took the battery out, and grabbed a can of electrical contact cleaner... Worst thing ever! It ate through all the plastic it touched and totally killed the phone....
