The first Android is 15 years old, and it is the opposite of everything we want in a smartphone today
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My first Android phone was a Samsung Galaxy S, and the main reason I picked it back then was that some apps, mainly Anki, were free on Android but you had to pay for them on iOS (even when both are from the same open-source project), and I thought it would be cool to be able to go through my flashcards during my commutes. Oh and you could remove the back cover and easily replace the battery on that one.

Polar
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5
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1Y

Mine was the HTC Dream. Had some issues with the radio, so it would just lose signal (without telling you) for hours.

I didn’t know anything about Android, but I heard you could flash a new radio. I followed some random guide, bricked the phone, and gave up on Android until the Nexus 4.

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41Y

Yeah that was my first too. I remember that I found the S2 ridiculously large when it came out. Also I was super jelous for the build quality of the iPhone 4 which was released at the same time. Glad that these times are over.

Never_Sm1le
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11Y

LG Optimus Black is my first. At that time I was a long time Nokia 6267 user, about to upgrade to Asha. My dad decided to give me his instead. Android user ever since

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201Y

I still have a G1 in a drawer, every couple years I find it again and spend a few minutes flipping the screen open and shut. What a fun mechanism.

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35
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1Y

Who else would love to see a phone similar to the G1 get released again? Modern specs, larger screen, but a similar housing design, just less clunky.

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31Y

Give me a modern Nokia N900 form factor and I’ll buy it in a heartbeat. Better yet if it can dual boot Android and Linux.

This would make me as happy as a kid on a Christmas morning.

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21Y

This looks perfect! A pitty the price with the currency conversion is kinda prohibitive, but the product is just perfect. I’ll take a hard look into it. Thanks a lot for the heads up!

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71Y

The only phone I ever dared to write code on. It was a brave new world.

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31Y

I still miss my G1.

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91Y

I’d love to see a modern Xperia Play phone with a sliding gamepad! I even considered buying a Surface Duo when it was released but gave up because well, Microsoft…

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11Y

Turns out that was a good decision

RachelRodent
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11Y

You can put linux on them

ME5SENGER_24
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111Y

The G1….brings back memories 🥲

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61Y

deleted by creator

krolden
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11Y

If only they stuck with maemo…

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231Y

I, for one, will keep waiting for Android 18.

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31Y

My god, the memes that will drop when Android 18 releases. Now that I think about it, I’m surprised I haven’t seen any for Android 13 or 14.

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creator
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211Y

Krilin I think you’re in the wrong community

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31Y

Krillin’s response: Hurry it up, you’re killing me here…

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31Y

Krillin_owned_cnt++;

MeanEYE
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171Y

What happened to those doomsayers who claimed fragmentation will kill the ecosystem. And yet here we are.

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11Y

-Sent from my LG

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7
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The other side of fragmentation is making accessible a usable smartphone for those who might not otherwise have access.

I think the availability of Android does lead to more affordable devices.

Ensign Rick
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4
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deleted by creator

thelastknowngod
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21Y

I think I returned mine and stuck with the HTC Dash for a year or two more until the software was better.

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111Y

I was in preschool when Android came out, crazy how far times gone.

katy ✨
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221Y

Cool I feel ancient

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101Y

Stop making me feel old, godamnit.

katy ✨
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61Y

Bring back Holo, cowards

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581Y

It’s crazy how the authour keeps shutting on the phone, being like “wow we’ve learned so much since then”, but physical keyboards were the fucking best.

Touchscreen keyboards are super error prone and you need to physically look at it as you type. It used to be the case that you could write and send messages without needing to look at your phone at all. Under your desk while you kept eye contact and a verbal discussion with your teacher and they wouldn’t even know.

i was running the last keyed blackberry until android 9 became incompatible with some necessary apps.

I had practically no errors in my writing. Now on the touchscreeb i keep making constant mistakes even after half a year of being back on a touchscreen.

Fuck, a quarter of the time i have to repeat typing in my unlock code because it didnt recognize the jeystrokes properly.

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211Y

You’re assuming the bulk of the interaction with your phone is producing content instead of consuming.

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111Y

That’s an interesting perspective that I hadn’t considered.

I’m not big on doomscrolling, I don’t have Facebook or Instagram or Twitter… I MOSTLY use my phone for activities that involve dialogue. I’d never really considered that this maybe isn’t representative of broader behaviour.

Has this always been the case? Did the phone changes meet existing behaviour, or drive people to a fundamentally different behaviour?

arefx
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111Y

Idk I can still type without looking at it as long as I take a quick glance when I first start typing. But it is easier with a physical keyboard for sure.

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-21Y

I can still type without looking as long as I can look

lol

arefx
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11
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For one second, I’m sure most people would do this with a physical key word too. being pedantic about this is just dumb but thanks for the “lol” it added a lot to the conversation. Also you had to change my wording to make it work for you, fuck right off.

So many morons on this planet lol

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21Y

This is an extreme reaction

@[email protected]
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31Y

Physical keyboards have markers on home row so you don’t need to look. They existed on the phone keyboards too.

The guy is right about being able to do things without looking. I remember using speed-dial to open a text conversation and send a message without ever looking at my phone. It was pretty great.

I’ll try to type without looking: this is me round without looking in a phone keyboards. Yeah, it just doesn’t work as well without knowing where exactly I’m pressing.

It would be hard to make a phone slim enough and handle a physical keyboard again, but it would be awesome. It would make writing code on mobile a possibility again. Today it’s too tedious.

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11Y

Considering the fold and flip Samsungs are a thing you definitely can.

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1Y

Not bad this us me not l99king at the keyboard and just at what I’m typing on screen above and of course auro correct correcting a hunch of things as I go

Edit: Its better than I expected but still not great

Anti Weeb Penguin
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-21Y

They can break tho

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61Y

I’m sure you know someone with a phone like this right now.

Anti Weeb Penguin
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11Y

Physical keyboards can break much easier, also if you speak more than one language they are impractical.

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11Y

I have broken way more screens than I have physical keyboards. I have found that when using the typical alphabet the keyboard was just fine for Tagalog and Spanish. I could see it being an issue if you spoke Ukrainian or something with a different set of characters.

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1Y

I miss my sliding keyboard on my original Motorola Droid

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41Y

Those buttons sucked though.

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41Y

I was really fast at typing on mine. But I was also like 11 and had smaller hands

arefx
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41Y

Wow I feel old, when I was 11 a cell phone was bigger than a brick, literally.

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1
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1Y

My first phone was the LG Chocolate. That was the peak of phone tech on verizon plans for a month

BNJMNBanks
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11Y

I got my first Android, a G1 from a store in Downtown. It was the best transition to a smartphone from a Sidekick LX (the brown one). Wow… it’s been 15 years since then. That’s nuts.

shastaxc
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21Y

I miss my motorola that looked like r2d2

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