What kind of phone do you have?

[Memory]

I was a big Blackberry fan for most of my adult life because I loved the hardware keyboard. I started with the Curve 9600, then the Q10 and finally rocked the KeyOne for five years that I wanted to be my forever-phone, but the battery eventually crapped out on me. When I was finally forced to replace it, it couldn't even hold a charge for a minute.

Since Blackberry is pretty much dead after their manufacturing deal with TCL ended, I was forced to find another brand. So after some shopping around I decided to get the Surface Duo 2 when it launched. Between my Blackberry Curve and the Q10 I owned two different Microsoft Lumia Windows phones and really liked them, and I've been a fan of the Surface device lineup for a long time so decided to give Microsoft another shot.

It was really expensive when it launched, but it's been so worth it. Just like Blackberry did with the KeyOne, this time around Microsoft went with Android instead of shoehorning Windows onto a mobile device, so it has all the benefits entailed therein. Plus, having two screens is so good for multitasking that I almost never use my desktop PC or laptop anymore unless I'm working on a project or need to type out something longer than a couple paragraphs because I still struggle with typing on a touchscreen.

It's a gorgeous device, too. With the bumper, mine looks exactly like the one in this image.



So what's your phone?

[isopod]

I've never had a particularly fancy phone, for a long time it was because they were too expensive but at this point I've realized I don't need or even really want the fancy stuff, especially if it means giving up the few features I actually care about (read: the headphone jack). My first phone was a secondhand iPhone 4S from a family member, but I decided pretty quick I didn't want to get locked inside of that particular walled garden and it's been cheap mid-tier Android phones ever since, mainly from LG. My current phone is an LG K61. It has way more cameras than I know what to do with, but otherwise I can't complain about it. It's withstood an impressive amount of drops, albeit with a screen protector and a basic case. It does what I need it to do, which, admittedly, isn't a lot; I don't use it for anything much more intensive than watching Youtube. I'm planning to keep using this thing until it gives up the ghost, and then see about trying to get a Fairphone 3.

If you're curious, it looks like this:

It's got something approaching a pearlescent sheen in person. It's a cool effect.

From what I can tell, LG seems to be quietly killing off their phone division. It's a shame, I really liked their phones.

[tarocchilla]

When i was a kid, my parent divorced and my dad got me the shittyest motorola phone to talk to me without having to call my mom, even if it was a phone that only called and messaged i felt like i was at the peak of technologycal developement. Then, my dad got a blackbarry and gave me his old nokia, i have no idea wich model it was but it was red, had a sliding camera and could even go on the internet! i liked that phone a lot! then my dad gave me a samsung phone witha querty, that i used in my fitrst highschool yeras. when whatsapp got popular my mom gifted me an lg phone that barely worked but hey, it had whatsapp! Then my dad gave me his old iphone 4 and i was trurly in the smartphone world, i could play games in there! That iphone lasted me until it was on life support and thanks to a friend of mine i got an asus zenfone 3 for really cheap, that i used until...a few months ago! and i decided to replace it with my current phone, an honor 50 lite.

Honestly my criteria for picking the phone were "the cheapest phone with a very nice gps that i can throw around and doesn't shatter" because i don't do a whole lot with it, and i certanly don't do phone gaming!
If i knew about dumphones and co. i would have gotten one of those tbh. there are even phones with a phiscal keyboard but i didn't know anything about those so i just got the cheapest phone the market had to offer!

[Frost Sheridan]

oh man, i've always loved weird cell phones! sadly, there are very few options for cool, weird phones nowadays, but some still exist if you look hard enough. my main phone is a unihertz titan pocket, probably the last phone still being made with a real qwerty keyboard. it looks like a blackberry, but it actually runs android 11. here's mine running my super custom home screen that makes it feel like a proto-smartphone from like 2010:



sometimes i'll swap it out with a sonim xp5s, a massive thicc bricc of a phone. this one's not smart at all, it's just a regular ol feature phone that can call, text, and sort of browse the web.



i'm thinking of adding a small, cute flip phone to my phone repertoire sometime, but i haven't decided which one i want to go with yet. there aren't a whole lot of good 4G-compatible flip phone options available on the market currently.

[Melooon]

You guys have really diverse and interesting phones! I got a silver 256GB iPhone XS from an old man on eBay for 250 euro which was a heckin deal! Iv used Android off and on over the years, but Iv always found it clunky and unreliable compared to iOS (LG stopped updating my phone so I had to install a custom ROM to get new updates but that broke banking apps and then the headphone jack just stopped working?? ugh) although I do like the customizability it offers.

If I called people more instead of messaging I would totally get this thing though



https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html

[Memory]

my main phone is a unihertz titan pocket, probably the last phone still being made with a real qwerty keyboard. it looks like a blackberry, but it actually runs android 11.

I considered the Titan when I was still shopping around, but wasn't sure about the quality since I had never heard of the brand before. If you've ever used a Blackberry, how would you say it stacks up?

If I called people more instead of messaging I would totally get this thing though

That thing looks amazing! But I almost never call anyone as well so it'd just be another shiny toy that I never use.

[Frost Sheridan]

I considered the Titan when I was still shopping around, but wasn't sure about the quality since I had never heard of the brand before. If you've ever used a Blackberry, how would you say it stacks up?

man it's been a real long time since i've last used a blackberry so my memory's pretty fuzzy, but i'd have to say that the hardware and build quality of the titan is just as good, if not better than, comparable blackberries. the whole phone is made out of aluminum and rubberized plastic so it's super stronk and has a nice heft to it. the keyboard is clicky and tactile, and the shape of the keys makes it easy to feel the difference between them, so it's a much more accurate typing experience than on a touchscreen. however, the keys are STIFF when brand-new, so typing long messages can be fatiguing until the keyboard 'breaks in' after extended use.

the big downside of the phone is that the quality of unihertz's software and OS modifications is pretty poor - you can tell that it's made by a small manufacturer that doesn't have the experience or resources of a bigger player like samsung or apple (or blackberry used to be). i've never had anything outright crash or fail to work, but setting up any of the custom features on this phone can be a pretty janky experience. however, once i put in the effort to set everything up the way i like it, it's perfectly competent. in my opinion, the beautiful hardware and physical keyboard outweigh the janky software, but your mileage may vary.

if you're like me and primarily use your phone for texting and instant messaging, it's a fantastic device! however, if you do a lot of web browsing, video watching, and/or social media on your phone, this phone won't give you the best experience because most apps and websites expect you to have a big, tall screen instead of a small, square one.

[Memory]

I currently have a wonderful lil' Nokia 6500 slide, alongside my aging OnePlus 6.
Originally, I got this little Nokia phone out of an old drawer at my parents' house, and it belongs to my late grandmother.

Picture mine:


[Picture description: A silver and black old sliding brick phone with a backlit dial pad. It is turned on, showing a Marijuana-themed green background and various UI elements on top: some quick access icons including messages, music, contacts among others, as well as statuses for the music player and a radio.]

If you're wondering what that terrible cannabis theme is, it's because when I acquired this phone I looked up themes online and they all were wonderfully early-2000s horrible. It was one that embraced the "cool around Y2K" theme the most.

[Memory]

man it's been a real long time since i've last used a blackberry so my memory's pretty fuzzy, but i'd have to say that the hardware and build quality of the titan is just as good, if not better than, comparable blackberries. the whole phone is made out of aluminum and rubberized plastic so it's super stronk and has a nice heft to it. the keyboard is clicky and tactile, and the shape of the keys makes it easy to feel the difference between them, so it's a much more accurate typing experience than on a touchscreen. however, the keys are STIFF when brand-new, so typing long messages can be fatiguing until the keyboard 'breaks in' after extended use.

Blackberry's keyboards would always start to wear out on me after a few years. The keys would lose that "click" and were easier to push accidentally, or would sometimes register twice on a single press. So the stiffer keys on the Titan would probably be a benefit there.

if you're like me and primarily use your phone for texting and instant messaging, it's a fantastic device! however, if you do a lot of web browsing, video watching, and/or social media on your phone, this phone won't give you the best experience because most apps and websites expect you to have a big, tall screen instead of a small, square one.

That's another thing I loved about the KeyOne. It had the full hardware keyboard plus a tall screen with an aspect ratio comparable to other smart phones. It was a bit top heavy while holding it from the bottom to type, but it still worked pretty well. That said, I didn't mind the shorter screen on the Q10 that much either. It wasn't great for video or games, but it was serviceable. However, one of the first things I did when I bought the Duo 2 was set it up in tent mode and start watching The Mandalorian on one of its giant screens. A lot of people who purchased it actually use it more as a tablet than a phone and I can see why.

[Cobra!]

I have a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. I've been using Blackberry phones for years because of the physical keyboard, but when they stopped making them, and couldn't get any other brand on contract, I had to use something else.

I settled with the Z Flip because it's a phone that reminds me of the weird and wonderful phones from the 90s and 2000s. Seems to have that same gimmicky energy!

It's uncomfortable to use in long periods of time, but I rarely use my phone anyway, so that's not a big issue. It's generally not practical in the slightest, but that doesn't matter to me. It's just so cool!

If I called people more instead of messaging I would totally get this thing though



https://skysedge.com/unsmartphones/RUSP/index.html

Wow, that is so neat! I've always wanted to use a classic rotary phone, but connect it to my smartphone via bluetooth or something. Surely there's a market for such a thing?

Since it doesn't (yet) exist, is there a way to connect a real rotary phone to my mobile?

[Kutan]

Since it doesn't (yet) exist, is there a way to connect a real rotary phone to my mobile?

You can! I only learned about it recently in that LGR answering machine video. There's a little gadget called the Xlink Gateway that you can plug a landline phone into, and then it connects to your phone via bluetooth. It's a little expensive, but there's videos on youtube of people using rotary phones with it, so I guess it works!

[dantescanline]

I was gonna get a fairphone but the current model was all sold out, and i also considered some other degooglefied android but i decided against it because i still use some google app store stuff. ended up with a OnePlus Nord, pretty happy with it. didn't have very much annoying popup shit from them, compared to all the samsung crap that normally comes preinstalled.

[Starstorm_X1]

As of this writing, I currently use a Samsung Galaxy S21+ (the Snapdragon version). My intent with this is for me to use it for a LONG time, maybe 5-6 years or so? Admittedly, I've been using apps that aren't web browsing, messaging, or maps less and less, so maybe I might buy a more basic phone in the future once my S21+ breaks. But even then, I think my favorite thing I've done with it is run a QEMU port on it (called Limbo) to run Windows 95! (Unfortunately, said W95 install may have broken itself somehow. I might go more ambitious and try to run Windows 98 or even XP next time!)

(I admit, I regret not waiting for the Z Flip 3, which came out a few months after the S21s did. Sure, it had a worse camera, but it looked and felt different! Also, there's the satisfaction of opening and closing the phone...)

And speaking of older phones, my first one was an LG 500G from Tracfone. It had a QWERTY keyboard, which I kind of miss, admittedly...

[Absentmind]

I have a Hwawei P20 Pro. It's been a great phone honestly. I am looking to make the switch to a dumbphone which I would take outside with my whilst I keep my smartphone at home. Any suggestions:dunno: I'd prefer one with GPS and whatsapp.

[debleb]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7, but I basically never use it. The only reason I ever turn it on is to check my bank account, because annoyingly my bank doesn't just have a website you can use, only an app. I just find smartphones way too bothersome to use to make them worth using over my computer. Plus I'm not a big fan of touchscreens, at least not when they're the only method of input.

I think I'd like one of those Unihertz QWERTY phones. Maybe this Titan Slim one, since it has a more typical aspect ratio that would play nicer with a lot of apps.

Having an actual, physical keyboard would make actually using the thing a lot less annoying for me. I might even consider *gasp* using it semi-regularly. But until the Samsung is completely gone, it's not important enough for me to actually go and get a new phone.