Ask Lemmy

Bring back sliders with full keyboards

I always thought this was such a cute phone

I always liked the color.

I would not call these on the picture "dumb phones" though.

I had a Motorola phone. I actually liked it because it had a really good camera. The native photo editor was also top notch at the time.

A Nokia 3100 ... it was the first phone I bought, and I kept it through college and beyond.

The thing was a beast :-)

128x128 pixel screen, with 12-bit RGB. No WiFi, no Bluetooth. Had some web access with WAP (no not that! "Wireless Access Protocol"). It did have a camera module though /rofl

And best of all, the battery lasted a week!

I had a pink Moto SLVR L7

I wish phones would go back to being unique. I want a slider with a physical keyboard (like the HTC EVO Shift). My Pixel 6 Pros battery is showing wear already but there's nothing on the market I feel is worth switching to.

LG enV... Clamshell phone with a full keyboard when opened... God, that phone was awesome

Motorola Razr babyyyyy

I had this sick LG car phone and it made vroom vroom sounds. Used it for a decade and I still have it and it still works.

Does BlackBerry count as a dumb phone? I have a hard time calling it a smart phone.

I had the Envy 2, the last phone I had with an actual physical keyboard.

It's the one feature I miss the most. If I could have smartphone functionality with a physical keyboard I would be much happier.

This isn't my hand but I had this lovely bastard:

I used to be able to chuck it down the stairs and everything.

SonyEricsson w810i. It was a great phone and an upgrade from my earlier SonyEricsson T610. The w810i is in my bedroom drawer.

I got the first Android smart phone after those (G1/Dream) which I still have in my kitchen drawer.

Happy memories texting my mates in uni. God so much has changed in 20yrs. 😱

A Samsung slider. I remember watching the Matrix the first time, and when that phone popped open to reveal the keypad it was mind-blowing. Getting a slider phone a few years later was so satisfying.

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/samsung-sch-a950-verizon-wireless-review/

This beast. Yeah, it has an mp3 player in it so I could put all my tunes from Kazaa on there.

I'm surprised I haven't seen Sidekick II here. I think that was one of my last ones via T-Mobile before the first LG Android phone came out.

I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, or who made it. It was a phone with a full keyboard, and instead of sliding the keyboard out it opened like a little laptop. When it was closed, it was a shiny silver blank rectangle with a display that would shine through when a call was made or when someone called me.

There were so many cool unique phones before Basic Rectangle With Button took over.

The Samsung SCH-U740

It was a good one! It literally flipped 2 ways.

LG enV Touch. The thing was actually awesome. Music player was dope, touchscreen worked well, full physical keyboard, and the browser could load Flash. The web browser wasn't perfect but was on par with the blackberry of the time.

A Nokia Ngage , it was a Gameboy phone combo

Last time in my life that I was cool.

I miss slide out keyboards. Touch typing is trash bro.

Depends on "how dumb?" I had a Motorola RZR before my first iPhone(2), then before that, some camera flip phone (Motorola E815), and before that, an SCH-3500 flip phone. Before that, land lines only.

Sony Ericsson W580i

The last phone I had before I got an Android phone was an LG EnV2. I still have the thing, it still turns on though no networks support it and the battery is toast. Sometimes I just hold it in my hand for a few minutes because it's just such a nicer thing to interact with than my S10e.

I don't really count it as a "dumb phone" though. I had some Samsung slider before that that really was a "Camera phone." Effectively no web browser, no app ecosystem at all, you could barely get the pictures it took out of it. The EnV2 was USB, there were games and things you could get for it, it had some email and web capability.

Then I got my LG Ally phone running some android version from before they started naming them after sweets, and it's all been downhill from there.

An Apple iPhone! Hahaha, I kid. . . . . I use Arch, btw.

A Moto Razr I think, my first smartphone was a Palm Centro.

Don't remember exactly what it was, but I think it was Samsung and was one of the ones where you slid it up to access the keypad. I got it around middle school as a hand-me-down from my dad. I thought it was the absolute coolest thing at the time, despite that was around when my parents were upgrading to smart phones. I'll definitely have to look it up to see what it was.

Edit:

On GSMArena there is 66 pages of different model Samsung phones and plenty that you slid up to access the keypad. Finding the exact model would be like finding a straw of hay in a needle stack, so I'm giving up after 14 pages.

Just had look at it, a Sony IT-B3 wall-hung. Never needed charging. So dumb it could only memorize phone numbers. Used it once or twice a week.

Finally got a free Android when digital got under $20/mo.

Sony-Ericsson J110i. Still have it somewhere.

The nokia BRICK. No clue its really name but we all know the phone. It was my first phone i got when i entered high school.

Is Nokia 5230 a smartphone? It didn't feel very smart

I had this sweet thing, I was the coolest kid on the block I tell ya.

Nokia N93
My first smartphone was HTC HD2 which I replaced around 2016 for Pixel, which I still use.

I would argue im still using a dumb phone because it sure aint smart

Sony Ericsson w810 -> iPhone 3g.

My First and last iPhone

I had an LG VX4500. Loved that phone and still have it sitting somewhere in a drawer today.

I'll charge up old phones from time to time to read old text messages.

An LG EnV 3. The full keyboard was a must for new!

Some flip-phone from Sprint, though I can't even recall the name now. It had the ability to play text-based games and even snake! I think I was carrying a Palm Pilot near the end of that. It was an upgrade from the first brick I kept in my car for emergencies only. In 2004ish, I upgraded to a Siemens SX66 (Windows-based smartphone) and ditched the Palm Pilot. I continued to use Windows phones (I think I ended with an HTC Hero or something similar), until finally being convinced by borrowing a friend's old iPhone to get one of those. Was on iPhone from 3gs until 6plus. I made the jump to Android when Pixel 6 Pro came out, and that's what I still have today.

my only "dumb phone" was a nokia 5300.

i used it for years, until i got dads old iphone 3 after he switched to a samsung phone.

i think that was a few months before jobs died, and the iphone 4s was released.

How dumb? OG Motoroloa RAZR V3 > Nokia N96 before I had an iOS or Android device.

BlackBerry Pearl

Dude I loved my Envy 2, played so much Tetris in the bathroom at work!

My first phone was a smartphone. But a smartphone version of the one in your picture would be awesome.