The 7 Phones That Got Me To Where I Am Today

I think everyone remembers their first phone. For an average 16-year-old, it might have been an iPhone. For the baby boomers, it might have been a giant brick they had to lug around.

For me, it was a little flip phone with two screens — a dedicated display on the inside and *gasp*a little screen on the front for the time and a favorite picture. We had great times, that flip phone and me. While everyone else had their sleek and shiny Razrs, I was taking grainy pictures of my dog.

I fondly remember many of the phones that led up to the smart phone revolution. I had quite an assortment of the weirder, experimental design of phones, and I thought I’d share some of my favorites.

1. The LG VX8100 | Soon after my foray into the world of cellular phones, I ‘upgraded’ my LG VX5300 to a flip phone that my mom had been using — the LG VX8100. It had many similarities of my previous phone, but it had a blue front panel and the colors were even crisper. And mmmmmm a 1.3 megapixel camera. I was basically a professional photographer.

2. The LG EnV (in orange) | So let me preface this one by pointing out that the Blair Waldorf had this exact phone for a moment in time on Gossip Girl.

Now that I’ve made that apparent, I will say that this was my first ‘weird’ phone. I guess I can’t even call it weird because it was a pretty popular device at the time. Known for its flashy color, the enV boasted the full qwerty keyboard, and boy did I love that. Gone were the days of texting on a number pad. My fingers were flying as I shot out texts to…virtually no one. It was like 2007.

This phone will probably go down in history as one of my favorites because of how sleek it was. By today’s standards that’s just ridiculous, but back then, it was pretty thin, has two screens, and it was just cool.

3. The LG Dare | I remember when this phone was regarded as one of the biggest things to come to Verizon in a while, mostly because it was one of the first completely-touchscreen devices for the carrier. It was supposed to be an iPhone competitor back when only AT&T had the honor of selling them, but that competition was laughable.

If I thought I felt cool with the enV, then I was feeling off-the-charts with the Dare. I remember boasting to people the different features, usually using the ‘haptic feedback’ as the favorite.

4. The Nokia Twist | Ahh, probably the most insane of my phone choice history. I can remember standing at the Verizon booth in BJs, looking at the array of phones, and spotting the Twist. I was immediately transfixed.

Boy did this phone get me attention at school. It was pretty cool though, it was shaped like a square, and then the keyboard would ‘twist’ out.

I don’t think I had this phone for that long, but I remember one of the most popular features was that the back of it was a mirror. And that kind of says a lot about the phone itself.

5. The HTC Droid Incredible | Damn, I loved this phone. It was closest I ever got to an iPhone before I actually got one, and it was my first taste of Android.

This phone lasted me a majority of my freshman year of college, but then it unfortunately died on me. By then the Incredible 2 was out, but I decided to finally go for an iPhone.

6. The iPhone 4s | I don’t feel I need a picture or a description for this. You get it.

7. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 & Note 4 | So my iPhone brought me to my junior year of college when I decided to try something new. I looked back at my time with Android fondly, and decided to dip my feet into the waters once more.

Much to the dismay of my roommates, I picked up the Note 3 in the spring semester. I could no longer group text with iMessage, and that made me enemy numero uno.

While I loved the iPhone for its ease of use and beauty, I loved the Note for its originality and customization.

AND LET ME JUST SAY THIS: Everyone was so damn concerned that I was buying a phone with 5.7 inch display, and they made that known to me on several occasions. When I finally got the phone, everyone just had to comment on the screen real estate. But when Apple decided to come out with their own big-screened iPhone (like 2 years later, I might add) everyone flips their shit to get one. It’s still insane to me.

In September 2014 I was a bridesmaid in my cousin’s wedding. We were all getting ready in a hotel room, getting our dresses on, makeup, everything. Well, I put my Note 3 on the arm of a couch while I went to put my dress on. I come back, and it had fallen face down on the carpeted floor. I pick it up, slip it into the front of my dress, and go downstairs for photographs.

It wasn’t until later during the reception that I finally got the chance to check my phone for texts and the like, when I noticed a crack running diagonally down my screen. I was horrified. I had never cracked a phone screen before, or even done anything damaging to my phones. I felt awful about it, which is pretty materialistic of me, but screw you I love my tech.

The crack really wasn’t that bad, and I lived with it for a while until my upgrade was up and I immediately went to get the Note 4. That’s the phone I have at the moment, until my next upgrade this June. The Note 4 actually survived an entire Europe backpacking trip last summer (in an Otterbox of course).

And what will my next phone be, you might ask? I’ll never tell. xoxo Lindsay

(but actually it’ll probably be another Android)

Put down below the phone you have right now and why you love it!