This was challenging but fun video to put together, so I hope you all enjoy! Make sure you comment any weird phones that I missed- and have any of you owned any of these phones? Very curious on that one. Detailed timestamps below: (WARNING: SPOILERS!) 1:12 - 25. Motorola Atrix (2011) 3:09 - 24. Nextbit Robin (2016) 4:46 - 23. Motorola Moto Z (2016) 6:38 - 22. Asus Padfone (2012) 8:08 - 21. LG DoublePlay (2011) 9:30 - 20. Nokia 3650 (2003) 10:51 - 19. Neptune Pine (2014) 12:41 - 18. Blackberry Priv (2015) 14:28 - 17. Pantech Pocket (2011) 15:36 - 16. Nokia N90 (2005) 16:45 - 15. LG G Flex (2013) 18:43 - 14. Yota YotaPhone (2012) 19:58 - 13. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom (2013) 21:43 - Intermission 22:51 - 12. Huawei Mate XT Ultimate (2024) 24:11 - 11. Caterpillar CAT S60 (2016) 25:30 - 10. Sharp Aquos Crystal (2014) 26:38 - 9. Vertu Signature Touch (2014) 28:25 - 8. Palm Phone (2018) 29:56 - 7. Nokia 7600 (2003) 31:20 - 6. Energizer Power Max P18K Pop (2019) 32:56 - 5. Motorola MPx (2004) 34:28 - 4. Blackberry Passport (2014) 36:18 - 3. Sierra Wireless Voq (2004) 38:01 - 2. Honor V Purse (2023) 40:59 - 1. LG Wing 5G (2020)
LG wasn't afraid to push the envelope and the wing is great for delivery drivers. Also for content creators you can film yourself and the background in front of you. I'm tired of same-y smartphones, we need innovators again instead of cookie cutter ones. Very interesting list tho. I love the Aquos Crystal design.
I am a bit sad the Mi Mix Alpha with it's screen that COMPLETELY wrapped around the device and acted as both it's screen AND chassis (literally the ONLY part of the phone that was NOT screen was the top, bottom, and a sliver on the back just big enough for the camera lenses), wasn't on this list. Especially since it's from 2020.
Yeah I was looking for it but that's not a good one that can emulate the controller to the bottom The phone is great but it's lacking a lot app up to take advantage of the screen One thing I hate about the LG is that the keyboard when you go to the bottom it doesn't rotate. you have to trick it to do it
I miss the "wierdness." Having something a little different from everybody else felt nice even if it wasn't necessarily top of the line or the absolute best device. Had the LG Tritan, Moto Rokr z6, and LG Rythm as my weird devices. T9 texting is a lost art imo 😆
BlackBerry Passport was one of the best phones I ever had. And BBOS10 was the best OS I ever used. It was all so ahead of its time. And device itself was just premium. You could feel it. And it worked perfectly well. Until BB died.
I completely agree. Many functionalities of that OS is also into iOS. Only drawback what I had was lack of some crucial apps, especially bank related. But honestly I still think how to use it even now, because it was the best for productivity. Plus I was able to write on it even without looking on the phoe.
It is such a head turner. Mostly use UA-cam on my phone, holding in landscape mode with one hand is a hassle especially with how heavy and large phones have because. This solves that beautifully
Is it just me or is the screen taller (wider) that most smartphones? It looks like that in the video and I like that about it. Tbh sometimes it would be useful to have an extra screen on the phone, as long as any two apps can run at the same time, one on each screen. And if you can have split screen on the main screen even better
yap, @@leylandlynxvlog, the screen is a bit taller I think justification of the main screen dimension is to create 3 identical squares when you split te main screen (when i display 2 app on the main screen and 1 on the second screen, the 3 apps have same dimensions)
Honestly I love how experimental all of these are, unlike Apple's same "refined" same-y UI. Cell phone technology was progressing at a fast rate because of these experimental phones and we learned what worked and what didn't
That’s what I love about iPhones that they are refined and mostly stay the same, but I can respect the experimental phones that helped us get to where we are today.
There’s a reason Apple singlehandedly rocked the smartphone market-the average consumer doesn’t want experimentation, they want longevity. The refined approach works because, well, it’s reliable. The phones on this list weren’t reliable.
22:02 i still have this sony xperia play and 34:55 blackberry passport, even 2 models the og and the silver edition aka dallas. they’re so advanced for their times, sometimes i still use them for nostalgia
I actually had a Moto Z back in the day and I had the battery pack Moto Mod. I actually had to get a replacement at one point due to a cracked screen and funnily enough the first device didn't have functioning Bluetooth. The second one did. Good phone.
The HONOR V Purse is basically a repurposed HUAWEI MATE XS with screen folding outward, and the HUAWEI MATE XT is the evolution of HUAWEI’s foldable smartphone design.
I had a roommate in college that found the perfect niche for the palm phone, kids whose parents made them install Life360 or some similar tracking software. When he would go out for the night he would disable Life360 on his phone and then turn on Life360 on the Palm phone and leave it in the dorm room.
God I LOVED my Moto Z(ed) Play, the battery booster would get me through entire weekends without charging, and the speaker was just fun to use. First new phone I ever bought!
I had the BlackBerry Priv back in 2016 and to this day it's still in my top 3 phones of all time, the keyboard swipe to choose auto correct was fantastic and the camera was god tier for the time
I remember my aunt had the Galaxy S4 Zoom back then. 12 year old me thought it was the coolest thing ever, but ofc looking back at it now I see how impractical it was. But I think it’s still a cool relic of its time.
Very nice list and entertaining video. I actually owned a Sierra VOQ back in the day. It was my first introduction into the world of Windows Mobile and smartphones in general. It was fun to use, but unfortunately the joystick broke two times, because it was unprotected on the front of the phone.
I had a Yotaphone. I loved the eink screen for reading and it also meant you could take selfies with the main camera. I found that the phone overheated a bit too much for comfort though. I cracked the eink screen and that was the end of it as no one was prepared to repair it.
I can see the Honor Purse actually being solid for someone who lives and frequents places that take NFC everything. I'd imagine that's part of what they were considering. NFC payments, wifi keys. Someone with a 99% digital lifestyle. The Blackberry Priv seems like something that would be amazing now. Far more robust slide mechanisms that only take the bottom half of the device. Modern day internals are way smaller and more flexible with the layouts compared to back then. Especially when Samsung Google and Apple are on a race to the bottom copying eachother, I feel it could be a hit today. I definitely thought it looked neat back then
Ooh! I had a lapdock for my Droid 4. A lot of the stock was liquidated and you could find them on eBay for cheap. Gonna be honest, I really enjoyed it. Was great for the bus trips to and from colleges, I could work on assignments or watch whatever shows I downloaded onto my phone. Fun fact, it wasn't uncommon for modders to use RPi's with the lapdock. I never did, but I know it was a thing people did.
The fact that NexDock and UPerfect still sell lapdocks means there is a market for the idea. Just that it doesn't make sense to have it locked to a single phone. (I use a desktop dock with an external monitor... in fact, typing using this set-up right now with my phone and a TV screen).
I'm dutch and I work 22 years now in the mobile industry. i've seen many these weird phones but not the pantech, it never sold here or anywhere else in Europe.
The wing, I have a 16 pm, I watch lots of videos in iPod video sized portrait mode because it’s more comfortable to hold. I’d love to swing the screen up like that. Not practical but I get the appeal.
I had that Sharp Aquos Crystal. When all phones were mostly had large forehead and chin, this tiny almost no bezel display and no earpiece definitely turned heads.
My biggest problems with smartphones these days are app creep, basically apps becoming bigger a bloated too tons of pointless updates and not being able to remove stock apps. It's 2024, sure the company gets money for having these apps preinstalled on phones from the app dev. But you shouldn't have to be forced to root your phone to remove them. Just let us uninstall them, they can still be in the phone ROM and be reinstalled if the phone is factory reset, but enough is enough. As for physical keyboards? Sure, the demand flagged for a bit. But given how bad touch screen keyboards still are (you're lying to yourself if you say they're good), if a phone company were to introduce another physical keyboard phone and not charge the down payment on a car for it, you'd see a resurgence in interest.
I'm actually learning a lot about phones. I went to get my new phone a week ago, and when they asked me which one I wanted, I honestly didn't know because I just needed a phone that would replace the one I had, and I didn't know which one was best for me. So the sales rep showed me some phones with various prices, and I chose the one within my price range. Recently, though, I started watching videos about phones, and now I'm finding them quite fun to learn about.
Love the P5 music 👍 The Moto Z phones were sick, the mods were great and the Z2 Force was the best one, I remember always using the gamepad mod back in the day
14:32 that was my first Android device and my favorite modern smartphone, I had a Nokia E5-00 for years after my mother gave it to me when she got and Android, but when Symbian died and my phone lost support for many apps and services, one day at the mall there was this kiosk with second hand phones and my parents told me to get an Android phone to use Whatsapp and other communication apps, and it was love at first sight, people at my uni really loved it as well since it was like a "mini tablet" also it included an early version of the Swiftkey keyboard, and since I never liked the lack of tactile feedback with moder touch screen keyboards, Swiftkey was the best way for me to "type" text in, and now that GBoard also has the same functionality, I still use swift moves to type in today.
Had both the NextBit Robin and the Blackberry Priv. Both were unique and were great during their initial releases. The Robin’s form factor and color separated itself from every other phone at the time. The Priv’s physical keyboard was a functional gimmick. Loved both phones but they couldn’t sustain competing with Apple and Samsung.
Hah, i daily drove the LG Wing for 2 years. It was super weird and confusing for other people. It had some software issues, but overall a pretty decent phone. The secondary screen was a funky idea, but also made the phone a real chonker. Loved the camera modes though, especially that you could use both front and rear camera's at the same time
Shame now that there is basically zero ingenuity in the smartphone market today except for folding phones which don't seem to be getting affordable for most people anytime soon.
The affordability aspect may be getting better. Granted this was with a seasonal discount, but I just got a Motorola Razr+ for less than $500. And Moto really put a lot of genuine effort into making it different, it's the first phone I've had in years that I actually look forward to using.
A phone that relies entirely on the cloud for storage is going to be murder on your phone's bandwidth plan, and could be vicious if you happen to wander into a roaming zone.
Did they have a Moto Maker website? I'm sure they did. You could choose your mod online, then order. I think that's how it went. I thought the whole idea was very Moto. That is, excellent.
I think for the gflex it positions the mic nearer your mouth. for the power button finger print sensor being positioned at the back, that is where your finger is normally positioned to make it easier to disconnect calls i guess. I owned an LG G3 and it is actually my favorite among my previous phones, more than I loved my Galaxy s3 and my Galaxy A50 and my xperia z5. I actually miss the fingerprint sensor at the back.
As someone who routinely watches videos while taking notes (relevant to the video or not) the LG Wing actually seems pretty handy. It's likely just a nuisance that ruins reliability, but the concept could be done well under the right market circumstances.
The S4 Zoom's biggest issue was that it was based on the S4 Mini architecture, which meant a slow dual core processor running the camera, which meant it was pretty slow. Even for the time. The S5 Zoom / K Zoom that followed had a faster processor and was a much better phone overall, with a slimmer profile and better pocketability, but in the end, the issue of the bulk and the fact that the zoom lens wasn't waterproof and collected dust like crazy - compared to slab phone cameras which are relatively well protected - meant that it wasn't worth the hassle for the extra zoom reach. (I still have both. Quite fun, but picture quality out of the 1/2.3" sensor is only superior to standard smartphones when you're using the extra reach of the zoom. Otherwise, you will get similar or better out of a more traditional phone with bigger main sensors)
Some of the phones I used in the past and really enjoyed were other LG and Motorola's not mentioned such Motorola Milestone, Motorola Milestone 2 and Motorola Droid Razr, LG Prada and LG Chocolate. The Milestone was their flip to full size keyboard, Droid Razr was light and super thin and LG phones with some of the first capacitive touchscreens.
I had the ASUS PadFone Infinity. It was great! This was in 2013, before synching between devices was as seamless as it is now. I didn't take the tablet attachment everywhere, and it was quite thin by then, in any case (unlike the one shown in the video). With a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it made a perfect little computer for writing or easy tasks. The phone itself packed awesome specs and took excellent photos, too. It was expensive, though.
I really wanted a Padfone but they were hard to find in the US. I think they were a carrier exclusive. You have to remember these convertible phones/laptop/tablets were attractive because cloud services were not ubiquitous like they are now so it would have been convenient to carry your files on your phone and then be able to work on them on a bigger screen. Also, massive phablet phones were not the norm yet and we wanted to text and call from a bigger screen at home and office.
I had a 3650 for 2 years and I loved it. I had a camera in my pocket none of my friends did, also no-one wanted to "borrow a text" as only I could type on the thing which once I got used to it I think was faster.
Surprised to see the Atrix as it was the first Android phone I ever bought and I never thought of it as weird, though I can see why you could call it that. Loved that thing, it was super snappy back in the day. I was too poor to have any of its addons though lol
I think the LG VX9400, the device the LG Wing more closely resembles, would be a great honorable mention. This device came out to showcase the new live TV service from Verizon's 3g network. The screen swiveled out, and it also had a tv antenna
I actually had the Motorola Z2 force. I bought that model not because of the moto mods, but because the screen was shatterproof, something that while working in emergency services I appreciated. When I bought it, I was switching from iPhone and it was just something different. And there was a promotion when I got mine where if you locked into a two year contract with Verizon, you got the projector for free. I ended up getting that and the speaker. It was a cool design. But I ended up switching back to iPhone once my contract was up.
I still rather use the qwerty keyboard than the touchscreen for my texting or typing needs. My HTC windows 7 phone had the biggest one of the phones I've had, and it was great. Didn't even need to look at it, far more accurate than tapping or glyde typing has ever been.
i missed out on several of these phones cause i was on sprint for many years and there were very few cdma phones compared to gsm. i desperately wanted the sharp phone with a giant screen that my friend had circa 2004 on tmobile. i also had the cutest samsung flip phone around 05 that used a micro sd card and had a color screen and mp3 player controls on the outside. it had a stereo 2.5mm jack that sounded great using a 3.5mm adapter
I love your videos but hearing Persona 5 music in almost every single one of them is getting a little tiring. Maybe try switching things up a little more in terms of background music.
My dad had a Palm Pre 2 phone when I was 15 and I thought it was the coolest thing at the time. It was touch screen and had a slider keyboard much like the Blackberry Priv. I remember him being pretty disappointed in it and when he was done with it he let me keep it for a time. I loved the idea of it's slider function and the look of the glossy keyboard buttons, but I realized why he disliked it so much. First off the buttons were kind of small so typing errors happened often, but I noticed my dad dropping it a lot. I chalked it up to him just being clumsy but after fidgiting with it for a while I kept dropping it too. The sliding function was terrible. It was bad enough that the weight would shift more top heavy when it slid, but it for some reason it would slide really fast and it practically jumped out of your hand. You had to brace yourself or cup the phone when preparing to type something haha. I'm not sure if it would entirely qualify as a wierd phone, but it was definitely my wierdest phone experience.
I never had the Moto Atrix but I did have a secondhand LapDock which I got for about $100. I used it with some DROID model that was only a bit more recent, possibly the DROID RAZR MAXX. A friend had the Moto Z. The battery pack and camera were her favorites.
Had the Atrix and it was awesome. The lap dock went on sale really fast and I got one for $150. It was my on the go laptop for the day and worked well.
VIDEO IDEA- all carrier exclusive phones from back when that was a thing lol. Essential phone and HTC Evo 3D & 4G were Sprint exclusives, T-Mobile sidekick, HTC droid incredible from Verizon, ETC. Compare all the carrier exclusive phones that they were using to convince people to switch
It had a slight bend to it because most phones tend to break if you accidentally sit on your phone while it was in your back pocket.. the bend was to prevent breakage
I had a nextbit robin! I enjoyed it, for the most part, but it didn’t last very long I think I had it for a little over a year and it stopped working right when I was getting a new phone.
Thank you. I enjoyed this walk down memory lane since I owned some of these phones. I just have to say that I had a miserable time with every LG phone I owned. I stopped after trying three of them over the years.
The Nokia 3650 was great. The keypad was great after a little fine tuning of the old muscle memory. Calling it weird or bad basically means you never used it longer than five minutes.
Hear me out, as a student a modern padfone concept would actually be very useful if done right because being able to turn a 6.7' display into a tablet is great for note taking and drawing
Awwww, I had the G Flex 2. At 5,5" it was a pretty nice phone. I think I played pokemon go on it in 2016. yep. A lil overheating, but a champ. Oh, also had the moto flip out. best GBA machine, since the gba.
The Asus PadFone was briliant. Yes, you still needed to log around a tablet and a keyboard, but the point was that they were all the same device - no need to keep multiple devices updated, transfer files and log in multiple times. Simply put the phone into the tablet shell to continue watching a video seemlwsly on a bigger screen. For example. I had two of them, both sied because of the USB 3.0 Micro USB port broke. It just wasn't designed for this use case. Something similar with today's type C and software would be great, and a nice alternative to my current phone, the Z Fold.
i loved my 3650, nobody dared to borrow it since the keypad was weirdly placed 🤣 it was so hard for other people to type, so they usually gave up 😋 the only downside is that if you get so used to the keypad, you'll have trouble typing on a normal keypad 😅🤣
Brings back a lot of memories, mostly unpleasant, having purchased the Nokia 7600 when it came out along with many other strange Nokia phone(ngage) I do wonder what I was thinking back in the day.. Although seeing a blackberry priv & my all time favourite phone the blackberry passport makes me long for days gone by.
A weird phone I remember fondly is the Pepsi phone, it wasn’t a huge bold departure from the usual phone experience, but it was a pretty decent mid range phone that somehow got branded completely by Pepsi, sadly I never got to see one irl
The purse phone wasn’t that bad honestly, it was really cute and I could actually see myself wanting to buy it lol. Just wish I would’ve heard about it when they first released it 😭
I had a BB Passport back in the day and I loved it. The form factor was great for actually getting things done, and the qnx operating system was a tour de force. The next time I would be ask satisfied with a phone was when I got my current Galaxy z fold which goes a long way in restoring that workwide capability. The z fold is also an awesome game player too.
This was challenging but fun video to put together, so I hope you all enjoy! Make sure you comment any weird phones that I missed- and have any of you owned any of these phones? Very curious on that one.
Detailed timestamps below: (WARNING: SPOILERS!)
1:12 - 25. Motorola Atrix (2011)
3:09 - 24. Nextbit Robin (2016)
4:46 - 23. Motorola Moto Z (2016)
6:38 - 22. Asus Padfone (2012)
8:08 - 21. LG DoublePlay (2011)
9:30 - 20. Nokia 3650 (2003)
10:51 - 19. Neptune Pine (2014)
12:41 - 18. Blackberry Priv (2015)
14:28 - 17. Pantech Pocket (2011)
15:36 - 16. Nokia N90 (2005)
16:45 - 15. LG G Flex (2013)
18:43 - 14. Yota YotaPhone (2012)
19:58 - 13. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom (2013)
21:43 - Intermission
22:51 - 12. Huawei Mate XT Ultimate (2024)
24:11 - 11. Caterpillar CAT S60 (2016)
25:30 - 10. Sharp Aquos Crystal (2014)
26:38 - 9. Vertu Signature Touch (2014)
28:25 - 8. Palm Phone (2018)
29:56 - 7. Nokia 7600 (2003)
31:20 - 6. Energizer Power Max P18K Pop (2019)
32:56 - 5. Motorola MPx (2004)
34:28 - 4. Blackberry Passport (2014)
36:18 - 3. Sierra Wireless Voq (2004)
38:01 - 2. Honor V Purse (2023)
40:59 - 1. LG Wing 5G (2020)
I love your videos they are great quality bro but im sad that you dont get much recognition anymore algorithm aint fair is it
This is epic, thanks for putting in the work!
I love out of the ordinary tech gadgets or smartphones , your list will be useful for me , I'll search the internet to buy them for my collection
I have had the LG P895 Optimus VU.
It was a large phone (for the time) with a 4:3 aspect ratio.
Awesome video
LG wasn't afraid to push the envelope and the wing is great for delivery drivers. Also for content creators you can film yourself and the background in front of you. I'm tired of same-y smartphones, we need innovators again instead of cookie cutter ones. Very interesting list tho. I love the Aquos Crystal design.
now mix both and search for lg crystal
I loved my LG G6. And my nexus 5. LG made good phones, sadly gone now.
The V series was so good, i loved my v20
I actually miss LG so much.
I want a Wing
I am a bit sad the Mi Mix Alpha with it's screen that COMPLETELY wrapped around the device and acted as both it's screen AND chassis (literally the ONLY part of the phone that was NOT screen was the top, bottom, and a sliver on the back just big enough for the camera lenses), wasn't on this list. Especially since it's from 2020.
that, along with the meizu phone with zero ports were among the most memorable for me
Vivo Apex
most of these phones were from states...soo
That was a concept phone and never made it to consumer production.
From what I remember it never made it to market so its not relevant for that list
LG wing can be the ultimate emulator machineee, especially emulating dual screen consoles (DS, Wii U)
Yeah I was looking for it but that's not a good one that can emulate the controller to the bottom
The phone is great but it's lacking a lot app up to take advantage of the screen
One thing I hate about the LG is that the keyboard when you go to the bottom it doesn't rotate. you have to trick it to do it
I miss the "wierdness." Having something a little different from everybody else felt nice even if it wasn't necessarily top of the line or the absolute best device. Had the LG Tritan, Moto Rokr z6, and LG Rythm as my weird devices. T9 texting is a lost art imo 😆
BlackBerry Passport was one of the best phones I ever had. And BBOS10 was the best OS I ever used. It was all so ahead of its time. And device itself was just premium. You could feel it. And it worked perfectly well. Until BB died.
I completely agree. Many functionalities of that OS is also into iOS. Only drawback what I had was lack of some crucial apps, especially bank related. But honestly I still think how to use it even now, because it was the best for productivity. Plus I was able to write on it even without looking on the phoe.
I still rock the LG Wing today and love it!
It does do a lot
It is such a head turner. Mostly use UA-cam on my phone, holding in landscape mode with one hand is a hassle especially with how heavy and large phones have because. This solves that beautifully
So much that it got featured on Blue Beetle the movie
Lg Wing user powaa ^^
Is it just me or is the screen taller (wider) that most smartphones? It looks like that in the video and I like that about it. Tbh sometimes it would be useful to have an extra screen on the phone, as long as any two apps can run at the same time, one on each screen. And if you can have split screen on the main screen even better
yap, @@leylandlynxvlog, the screen is a bit taller
I think justification of the main screen dimension is to create 3 identical squares when you split te main screen
(when i display 2 app on the main screen and 1 on the second screen, the 3 apps have same dimensions)
Honestly I love how experimental all of these are, unlike Apple's same "refined" same-y UI. Cell phone technology was progressing at a fast rate because of these experimental phones and we learned what worked and what didn't
That’s what I love about iPhones that they are refined and mostly stay the same, but I can respect the experimental phones that helped us get to where we are today.
@@CaramelCraftYeah, I agree.
the refined-ness is why the iPhone is such a market beast right now and why all of these phone companies on this list are dead.
There’s a reason Apple singlehandedly rocked the smartphone market-the average consumer doesn’t want experimentation, they want longevity. The refined approach works because, well, it’s reliable. The phones on this list weren’t reliable.
Well most of them are dead because Apple stole their features and had the ability to refine them.....@@hamdanali2036
22:02 i still have this sony xperia play and 34:55 blackberry passport, even 2 models the og and the silver edition aka dallas. they’re so advanced for their times, sometimes i still use them for nostalgia
I actually had a Moto Z back in the day and I had the battery pack Moto Mod.
I actually had to get a replacement at one point due to a cracked screen and funnily enough the first device didn't have functioning Bluetooth. The second one did. Good phone.
I did too! I had most of the attachments. My favorite was the speaker, it was pretty good
The HONOR V Purse is basically a repurposed HUAWEI MATE XS with screen folding outward, and the HUAWEI MATE XT is the evolution of HUAWEI’s foldable smartphone design.
Babe wake up, new 91Tech Top 25 video just dropped!
Why is babe always asleep
That's a mouth full
It was a good video, and your choice of background music made the video even better.
I had a roommate in college that found the perfect niche for the palm phone, kids whose parents made them install Life360 or some similar tracking software. When he would go out for the night he would disable Life360 on his phone and then turn on Life360 on the Palm phone and leave it in the dorm room.
God I LOVED my Moto Z(ed) Play, the battery booster would get me through entire weekends without charging, and the speaker was just fun to use. First new phone I ever bought!
I’m still using one as a media player. It can’t handle UA-cam reliably anymore, but it’s a great music device.
This is a perfect video, as I love weird stuff, and I love phones. Thank you!
I had the BlackBerry Priv back in 2016 and to this day it's still in my top 3 phones of all time, the keyboard swipe to choose auto correct was fantastic and the camera was god tier for the time
I remember my aunt had the Galaxy S4 Zoom back then. 12 year old me thought it was the coolest thing ever, but ofc looking back at it now I see how impractical it was. But I think it’s still a cool relic of its time.
its been nearly a decade and youtubers still cannot escape the Persona 5 OST
Very nice list and entertaining video. I actually owned a Sierra VOQ back in the day. It was my first introduction into the world of Windows Mobile and smartphones in general. It was fun to use, but unfortunately the joystick broke two times, because it was unprotected on the front of the phone.
The really boring smartphone is today's smartphone. They all look the same. A black screen on the front and a back body filled with lots of cameras.
I had a Yotaphone. I loved the eink screen for reading and it also meant you could take selfies with the main camera. I found that the phone overheated a bit too much for comfort though. I cracked the eink screen and that was the end of it as no one was prepared to repair it.
it is sad that LG left the smart phone market
True
love your videos, always high quality content
I can see the Honor Purse actually being solid for someone who lives and frequents places that take NFC everything. I'd imagine that's part of what they were considering. NFC payments, wifi keys. Someone with a 99% digital lifestyle.
The Blackberry Priv seems like something that would be amazing now. Far more robust slide mechanisms that only take the bottom half of the device. Modern day internals are way smaller and more flexible with the layouts compared to back then. Especially when Samsung Google and Apple are on a race to the bottom copying eachother, I feel it could be a hit today. I definitely thought it looked neat back then
Ooh! I had a lapdock for my Droid 4. A lot of the stock was liquidated and you could find them on eBay for cheap. Gonna be honest, I really enjoyed it. Was great for the bus trips to and from colleges, I could work on assignments or watch whatever shows I downloaded onto my phone.
Fun fact, it wasn't uncommon for modders to use RPi's with the lapdock. I never did, but I know it was a thing people did.
The fact that NexDock and UPerfect still sell lapdocks means there is a market for the idea. Just that it doesn't make sense to have it locked to a single phone. (I use a desktop dock with an external monitor... in fact, typing using this set-up right now with my phone and a TV screen).
The Passport was the greatest device I have ever used. Just brilliant on every level. BBOS was also criminally underrated.
The Priv could have been so amazing, but of course they self sabotaged.
Also kind of surprised the BL40 wasn't here.
Please make another one. I loved this. Great job.
I'm dutch and I work 22 years now in the mobile industry. i've seen many these weird phones but not the pantech, it never sold here or anywhere else in Europe.
The wing, I have a 16 pm, I watch lots of videos in iPod video sized portrait mode because it’s more comfortable to hold. I’d love to swing the screen up like that. Not practical but I get the appeal.
I had that Sharp Aquos Crystal.
When all phones were mostly had large forehead and chin, this tiny almost no bezel display and no earpiece definitely turned heads.
My biggest problems with smartphones these days are app creep, basically apps becoming bigger a bloated too tons of pointless updates and not being able to remove stock apps. It's 2024, sure the company gets money for having these apps preinstalled on phones from the app dev. But you shouldn't have to be forced to root your phone to remove them. Just let us uninstall them, they can still be in the phone ROM and be reinstalled if the phone is factory reset, but enough is enough.
As for physical keyboards? Sure, the demand flagged for a bit. But given how bad touch screen keyboards still are (you're lying to yourself if you say they're good), if a phone company were to introduce another physical keyboard phone and not charge the down payment on a car for it, you'd see a resurgence in interest.
I LOVED my Nokia 3650 back in college and got used to the keypad quickly
I had the HTC Wildfire S growing up, it was super small but not bad enough or weird enough to make any of these lists 🤣 cool video!
I'm actually learning a lot about phones. I went to get my new phone a week ago, and when they asked me which one I wanted, I honestly didn't know because I just needed a phone that would replace the one I had, and I didn't know which one was best for me. So the sales rep showed me some phones with various prices, and I chose the one within my price range. Recently, though, I started watching videos about phones, and now I'm finding them quite fun to learn about.
Love the P5 music 👍 The Moto Z phones were sick, the mods were great and the Z2 Force was the best one, I remember always using the gamepad mod back in the day
14:32 that was my first Android device and my favorite modern smartphone, I had a Nokia E5-00 for years after my mother gave it to me when she got and Android, but when Symbian died and my phone lost support for many apps and services, one day at the mall there was this kiosk with second hand phones and my parents told me to get an Android phone to use Whatsapp and other communication apps, and it was love at first sight, people at my uni really loved it as well since it was like a "mini tablet" also it included an early version of the Swiftkey keyboard, and since I never liked the lack of tactile feedback with moder touch screen keyboards, Swiftkey was the best way for me to "type" text in, and now that GBoard also has the same functionality, I still use swift moves to type in today.
Most Americans have never heard of symbian even though it was the world's leading OS for years, and also android got a lot of its ideas from it.
I had an LG GFlex that I used for years! It was practically indestructible, and the contour was pretty good for the back pocket as well.
Had both the NextBit Robin and the Blackberry Priv. Both were unique and were great during their initial releases. The Robin’s form factor and color separated itself from every other phone at the time. The Priv’s physical keyboard was a functional gimmick. Loved both phones but they couldn’t sustain competing with Apple and Samsung.
Hah, i daily drove the LG Wing for 2 years. It was super weird and confusing for other people. It had some software issues, but overall a pretty decent phone. The secondary screen was a funky idea, but also made the phone a real chonker. Loved the camera modes though, especially that you could use both front and rear camera's at the same time
grate video josh
Shame now that there is basically zero ingenuity in the smartphone market today except for folding phones which don't seem to be getting affordable for most people anytime soon.
The affordability aspect may be getting better. Granted this was with a seasonal discount, but I just got a Motorola Razr+ for less than $500. And Moto really put a lot of genuine effort into making it different, it's the first phone I've had in years that I actually look forward to using.
A phone that relies entirely on the cloud for storage is going to be murder on your phone's bandwidth plan, and could be vicious if you happen to wander into a roaming zone.
nice selection, i am entertained
Loved the 7600, had three of them in the end. Really comfortable to use once you got used to it.
Always loved that Canucks logo
I have two Moto Z's. One with a speaker mod, and one with a battery mod.
Did they have a Moto Maker website? I'm sure they did. You could choose your mod online, then order. I think that's how it went.
I thought the whole idea was very Moto. That is, excellent.
I think for the gflex it positions the mic nearer your mouth. for the power button finger print sensor being positioned at the back, that is where your finger is normally positioned to make it easier to disconnect calls i guess.
I owned an LG G3 and it is actually my favorite among my previous phones, more than I loved my Galaxy s3 and my Galaxy A50 and my xperia z5. I actually miss the fingerprint sensor at the back.
I had the Moto Z Force with the camera, battery, and speaker. They were all pretty neat, I loved using the speaker 😄
I had the Moto Z Play. It was a solid phone
As someone who routinely watches videos while taking notes (relevant to the video or not) the LG Wing actually seems pretty handy. It's likely just a nuisance that ruins reliability, but the concept could be done well under the right market circumstances.
I miss my Moto Z, I had both (and only) Force phones and man not having to worry about whenever I dropped my phone was sooo nice.
Was always a huge fan of Neonode when it comes to weird yet awesome smartphones, way ahead of its time though...
Excellent video! All these dumb phones are hilarious
The S4 Zoom's biggest issue was that it was based on the S4 Mini architecture, which meant a slow dual core processor running the camera, which meant it was pretty slow. Even for the time. The S5 Zoom / K Zoom that followed had a faster processor and was a much better phone overall, with a slimmer profile and better pocketability, but in the end, the issue of the bulk and the fact that the zoom lens wasn't waterproof and collected dust like crazy - compared to slab phone cameras which are relatively well protected - meant that it wasn't worth the hassle for the extra zoom reach. (I still have both. Quite fun, but picture quality out of the 1/2.3" sensor is only superior to standard smartphones when you're using the extra reach of the zoom. Otherwise, you will get similar or better out of a more traditional phone with bigger main sensors)
Some of the phones I used in the past and really enjoyed were other LG and Motorola's not mentioned such Motorola Milestone, Motorola Milestone 2 and Motorola Droid Razr, LG Prada and LG Chocolate.
The Milestone was their flip to full size keyboard, Droid Razr was light and super thin and LG phones with some of the first capacitive touchscreens.
I had the ASUS PadFone Infinity. It was great! This was in 2013, before synching between devices was as seamless as it is now. I didn't take the tablet attachment everywhere, and it was quite thin by then, in any case (unlike the one shown in the video). With a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it made a perfect little computer for writing or easy tasks. The phone itself packed awesome specs and took excellent photos, too. It was expensive, though.
I really wanted a Padfone but they were hard to find in the US. I think they were a carrier exclusive. You have to remember these convertible phones/laptop/tablets were attractive because cloud services were not ubiquitous like they are now so it would have been convenient to carry your files on your phone and then be able to work on them on a bigger screen. Also, massive phablet phones were not the norm yet and we wanted to text and call from a bigger screen at home and office.
I had a 3650 for 2 years and I loved it. I had a camera in my pocket none of my friends did, also no-one wanted to "borrow a text" as only I could type on the thing which once I got used to it I think was faster.
Surprised to see the Atrix as it was the first Android phone I ever bought and I never thought of it as weird, though I can see why you could call it that. Loved that thing, it was super snappy back in the day. I was too poor to have any of its addons though lol
I think the LG VX9400, the device the LG Wing more closely resembles, would be a great honorable mention. This device came out to showcase the new live TV service from Verizon's 3g network. The screen swiveled out, and it also had a tv antenna
16:12 this one is actually really cool looking too. Imagine this now with really good cameras and camera software
I actually had the Motorola Z2 force. I bought that model not because of the moto mods, but because the screen was shatterproof, something that while working in emergency services I appreciated.
When I bought it, I was switching from iPhone and it was just something different. And there was a promotion when I got mine where if you locked into a two year contract with Verizon, you got the projector for free. I ended up getting that and the speaker. It was a cool design. But I ended up switching back to iPhone once my contract was up.
I still rather use the qwerty keyboard than the touchscreen for my texting or typing needs. My HTC windows 7 phone had the biggest one of the phones I've had, and it was great. Didn't even need to look at it, far more accurate than tapping or glyde typing has ever been.
i missed out on several of these phones cause i was on sprint for many years and there were very few cdma phones compared to gsm. i desperately wanted the sharp phone with a giant screen that my friend had circa 2004 on tmobile. i also had the cutest samsung flip phone around 05 that used a micro sd card and had a color screen and mp3 player controls on the outside. it had a stereo 2.5mm jack that sounded great using a 3.5mm adapter
I love the LG Wing. I think it would be brilliant for multi tasking and gaming too.
I love your videos but hearing Persona 5 music in almost every single one of them is getting a little tiring. Maybe try switching things up a little more in terms of background music.
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I had a BlackBerry Priv and it was not only the coolest, but best phones I had. Miss that thing.
always love to hear persona ost in your vids
My dad had a Palm Pre 2 phone when I was 15 and I thought it was the coolest thing at the time. It was touch screen and had a slider keyboard much like the Blackberry Priv. I remember him being pretty disappointed in it and when he was done with it he let me keep it for a time. I loved the idea of it's slider function and the look of the glossy keyboard buttons, but I realized why he disliked it so much. First off the buttons were kind of small so typing errors happened often, but I noticed my dad dropping it a lot. I chalked it up to him just being clumsy but after fidgiting with it for a while I kept dropping it too. The sliding function was terrible. It was bad enough that the weight would shift more top heavy when it slid, but it for some reason it would slide really fast and it practically jumped out of your hand. You had to brace yourself or cup the phone when preparing to type something haha. I'm not sure if it would entirely qualify as a wierd phone, but it was definitely my wierdest phone experience.
The Priv was AMAZING! The keyboard was just fine, but everything else was incredible.
I never had the Moto Atrix but I did have a secondhand LapDock which I got for about $100. I used it with some DROID model that was only a bit more recent, possibly the DROID RAZR MAXX.
A friend had the Moto Z. The battery pack and camera were her favorites.
Sweet Jeez, i did not expect you to start off with the Atrix
honestly, i like the idea of an e-ink screen on the back, even if just a small display to show messages.
Had the Atrix and it was awesome. The lap dock went on sale really fast and I got one for $150. It was my on the go laptop for the day and worked well.
I still stand that the LG Wing was LG's final hurrah and they did a pretty damn good job with it despite it all.
God. I remember wanting the original Asus Padfone bad. Phone, tablet, laptop, it blew my mind. It should be brought back.
You forgot Nokia N-Gage.
VIDEO IDEA- all carrier exclusive phones from back when that was a thing lol. Essential phone and HTC Evo 3D & 4G were Sprint exclusives, T-Mobile sidekick, HTC droid incredible from Verizon, ETC. Compare all the carrier exclusive phones that they were using to convince people to switch
I loved going to phone stores to bend the g flex. I seriously don’t understand why it needs to be just slightly bendable, but hey, it was fun
It had a slight bend to it because most phones tend to break if you accidentally sit on your phone while it was in your back pocket.. the bend was to prevent breakage
The Samsung Omnia i900 was one I owned in the past, if I remember correctly, it had a Windows operating system with and Android experience as well.
Had the LG G Flex when I was still in high school, and damn I loved that phone a lot.
I had a nextbit robin! I enjoyed it, for the most part, but it didn’t last very long I think I had it for a little over a year and it stopped working right when I was getting a new phone.
Curved screen was always an utterly stupid idea, it was never neat.
Thank you. I enjoyed this walk down memory lane since I owned some of these phones. I just have to say that I had a miserable time with every LG phone I owned. I stopped after trying three of them over the years.
The Nokia 3650 was great. The keypad was great after a little fine tuning of the old muscle memory. Calling it weird or bad basically means you never used it longer than five minutes.
Hear me out, as a student a modern padfone concept would actually be very useful if done right because being able to turn a 6.7' display into a tablet is great for note taking and drawing
The LG Wing has a telephoto, wide, and ultra wide camera on the back, making for an extremely versatile system.
The Wing was basically a more modernized VX9400 that swiveled to the side as well
Awwww, I had the G Flex 2. At 5,5" it was a pretty nice phone. I think I played pokemon go on it in 2016. yep. A lil overheating, but a champ.
Oh, also had the moto flip out. best GBA machine, since the gba.
Says they’re in no particular order then goes on to say had a hard time ranking them.
The Asus PadFone was briliant.
Yes, you still needed to log around a tablet and a keyboard, but the point was that they were all the same device - no need to keep multiple devices updated, transfer files and log in multiple times. Simply put the phone into the tablet shell to continue watching a video seemlwsly on a bigger screen. For example.
I had two of them, both sied because of the USB 3.0 Micro USB port broke. It just wasn't designed for this use case. Something similar with today's type C and software would be great, and a nice alternative to my current phone, the Z Fold.
i loved my 3650, nobody dared to borrow it since the keypad was weirdly placed 🤣 it was so hard for other people to type, so they usually gave up 😋 the only downside is that if you get so used to the keypad, you'll have trouble typing on a normal keypad 😅🤣
The lap dock did not sell well because data was so expensive.
If we had 50 gig plans back then we would all have gotten lap docks
Brings back a lot of memories, mostly unpleasant, having purchased the Nokia 7600 when it came out along with many other strange Nokia phone(ngage) I do wonder what I was thinking back in the day..
Although seeing a blackberry priv & my all time favourite phone the blackberry passport makes me long for days gone by.
A weird phone I remember fondly is the Pepsi phone, it wasn’t a huge bold departure from the usual phone experience, but it was a pretty decent mid range phone that somehow got branded completely by Pepsi, sadly I never got to see one irl
I was looking to move on from my Galazy Z Flip 4 and get a Flip 5, but now I kinda want an LG Wing 😅
I love my LG wing! I carry it in my backpack for whenever I need to Remote Desktop
The purse phone wasn’t that bad honestly, it was really cute and I could actually see myself wanting to buy it lol. Just wish I would’ve heard about it when they first released it 😭
I had a BB Passport back in the day and I loved it. The form factor was great for actually getting things done, and the qnx operating system was a tour de force. The next time I would be ask satisfied with a phone was when I got my current Galaxy z fold which goes a long way in restoring that workwide capability. The z fold is also an awesome game player too.