tech throwback Archives - Gizmochina

Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting Nokia 1100 – The Indestructible Phone

Sean — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 13:40:21 +0000

In our last couple of throwbacks, we had revisited a few smartphones. But today, we’re going a bit further back in the past, namely the early 2000s. This was the time when Nokia was still king, and now, we’ll be covering one of its most iconic phones ever, the indestructible Nokia 1100.

What made the Nokia 1100 Special?

Simply put, the popularity of this phone might be unmatched by even some of the most well known models from the Finnish brand. It has an almost mythic status in the realm of phones. Back when it launched in 2003, the 1100 wasn’t the most powerful or even the most attractive looking device. However, what it lacked in appeal, it made up in various different aspects. It was a user friendly handset that was quite popular in every market that it was available in.

This holds especially true for the developing nations. Getting this out of the way now, the Nokia 1100 is the world’s best selling phone ever. It sold over 250 million units since its launch in 2003. It was so popular that it remained in production till late 2009. As mentioned above, it wasn’t the most powerful device back then, and lacked many of the advanced or modern features other handsets offered. But, it was built to work all across the globe, and banked heavily on its affordability and reliability; and let’s just say, it was quite reliable.

Apart from being the most popular device, the Nokia 1100 has a legend built around it based on its durability. It was touted for being tough and no one in the world ever worried about how they were handling it. The handset was designed with global market in mind and offered some degree of dust proofing, water proofing, and we all known, its tough as a brick. Also, the phone could last for hundreds of hours in a single full charge.

Impact & Future Influence

Following the launch of the Nokia 1100, the brand had tapped a vast market all across the globe. Many developing nations still had phone markets in nascent stages. So, the 1100 was the very first phone for many. Talking about India alone, the device’s affordable and reliable stature propelled it to the top. Now, even people in rural areas had access to a phone and it was especially perfect for the those that did not need anything more than the basic calling, messaging, alarm clock, reminder, and other such basic functions.

Although, you could still play some games on the device and it even had a torch that was a big selling point in many places. Nokia sold its billionth phone back in 2005, and you guessed it, the model was a Nokia 1100 that was purchased in Nigeria. While the company did offer similar phones back then, the 1100 was its cheapest model, which helped it enter various markets across the globe. So, its quite evident regarding the impacts of this device. And for the future, the company used its success to release a number of similarly specced phones after it. But while none of these saw the same level of success, it became clear that Nokia was the go to brand for a reliable and affordable phone. In essence, it helped cement Nokia as the market leader.

Design, Specs, & Price

Talking about its build first, the 1100 had a very basic and to-the-point design. It featured the company’s traditional style navigational keypad, which included a single button to end or receive calls, bi-directional keys, and vibrating alert. The device had a built in torch and had a C button that when pressed twice, locked the phone, and holding it would activate the torch. Interestingly, despite having an uninspired and basic look, the company offered the device in a number of color variants through the Xpress-On covers. This included a light blue, orange, black, dark blue, yellow, red, green and pink versions.

It had a monochrome display that supports 4 lines and had a resolution of just 96 x 65 pixels and 3:2 aspect ratio. It had a candybar form factor with soft keys and was powered by a 850mAh battery pack that was removable. None of these features would impress anyone now, but back in the day when phones were a luxury, a sub 100 US Dollar phone was perfect for many.

Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisting Nokia Lumia 1020 – The DSLR Camera Smartphone

Sean — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:46:32 +0000

This week, we are going to revisit a very unique Nokia smartphone. It is the Lumia 1020, which was a part of the brand’s Windows Phone lineup. However, the reason this device is fondly remembered isn’t for its design or software. Its was unique because of its large DSLR like camera on the rear. So lets take a look.

What made the Nokia Lumia 1020 Special?

Back when the Lumia 1020 launched, smartphone camera weren’t as great as they are now. Furthermore, cameras were barely breaking past 13 to 16 megapixel sensors range. But then came the Lumia 1020, with a whopping 41 megapixel sensor on the rear. Again, this might not seem too impressive but back in 2013, this device was easily often crowned as one of the best camera smartphones in the market and was constantly compared to DSLR cameras that offered a similar megapixel count sensor.

The device was quite recognizable back then as well. Nowadays we are used to seeing large island sized camera modules on the rear, but in 2013, you saw a lone sensor on the back sitting almost seamlessly with the rear panel. In other words, camera bump wasn’t as prominent yet. However, the Finnish phone maker launched the device with a huge circular module. While some found it unsightly, it housed the large camera module that was its most highlighting feature. This camera was also complemented by a camera app that received a lot of praise owing to its great user interface that was quite easy to use. Meaning, even beginners could shoot great pictures in manual mode thanks to the intuitive camera app design.

While megapixel count isn’t everything when it came to image quality, Nokia employed a number of techniques to make sure that the Lumia 1020 fully utilized the camera’s potential. The idea behind the sensor was to capture as much details that was possible to create the single best shot. Despite having a 41 megapixel sensor, the image output was only 5 megapixel as the device combined 8 megapixels into one. Nokia called this super sampling technology and marketed it as PureView. This even enabled the device to offer 4x zoom without losing quality and save images in RAW format as well.

Impact & Future Influence

I’m sure at this point you’ve realized that all of these features are not ground breaking now, since it is practically a standard in modern smartphones. But, the process of combining multiple megapixels into one for better quality and lossless zoom was quite innovative. Some would even say, this camera technology was popularized by Nokia. Now, we see smartphones arriving with 64 megapixel sensors that output shots in 16 megapixel through pixel binning.

In other words, the Lumia 1020 was one of the earliest examples of brands using larger megapixel count for better image quality. The camera app’s manual mode (commonly known as Pro mode nowadays) was also quite innovative back then. A lot of the interface elements can still be traced back to the Lumia 1020. While the smartphone wasn’t one of the best selling models back in 2013, it still held its own against other favorites in the same year, like the HTC One (M7) and the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Design, Specs, & Price

Although the camera was the highlighting aspect of the smartphone, it wasn’t as fondly remembered for a lot of other aspects. While the device did stand out, it wasn’t as impressive like the HTC One in terms of design, but it wasn’t terrible either. It feature a rectangular design with rounded edges that was mostly smooth except the camera bump. The rear panel is made by polycarbonate materials and arrived in Black, White, and Yellow color options.

It sported a 4.5 inch display PureMotionHD+ AMOLED display that had Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top. On the rear, it featured the large 41 megapixel camera that featured Carl Zeiss optics, paired with a Xenon and LED flash. This sensor had a 1/1.5 inch sensor size along with optical image stabilization. The front only offered a 1.2 megapixel selfie camera. Under the hood, the device packed Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus paired with 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of internal storage.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 was powered by a 2,000mAh battery pack. Notably, the device ran on Microsoft Windows Phone 8, which was upgradable to 8.1. Back when it first launched in July 2013, the device was available for 299 US Dollars, which was thought to be quite expensive. Although, the company soon slashed prices owing to the model struggling in the market. So, some were even able to grab the device for around 99 US Dollars on contract.

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Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting the HTC One (M7) – The BoomBox Metal Phone

Sean — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 13:37:08 +0000

While HTC isn’t a major figure in the smartphone market nowadays, it used to be a popular brand that was known for its premium grade flagship handsets. A good example of this is undoubtedly the HTC One (M7), so let’s look back at what made this device standout from the lot.

What made the HTC One (M7) Special?

With the launch of the HTC One (starting from the M7), the Taiwanese company had showcased that it was far ahead in certain aspects compared to its rivals. This was especially true in terms of hardware. The One M7 was launched back in February of 2013 and was met with an overall positive reception for a number of reasons, despite it technically failing in the market, commercially speaking. In its launch year, many articles had surfaced talking about the best smartphones of the year, and the HTC One made the list every time, if not outright topping it.

Its iconic metallic unibody was one of its highlighting features. Keep in mind, this design was a novelty back when plastic rear panels were still common in flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and glass panels were just emerging as well. Even by today’s standards, the phone has a solid build quality, which was further complemented by the company’s Sense software. This was the custom skin that ran on top of Android OS and was one of the best UI’s back when stock Android wasn’t considered too appealing.

During the time of its launch, Samsung was dominating the high end Android market with the Galaxy S4, but the HTC One M7 was thought to be a close competitor in the same segment. Reviewers were divided between the two phones, but many had even agreed that the One M7 was in a league of its own in terms of design and build quality.

Impact & Future Influence

While a metallic body and stereo speakers are not ground breaking features any more, HTC’s One series helped in influencing the industry and popularized them. In 2013, stereo speakers weren’t as common, and its partnership with Beats Audio for its BoomSound speakers was iconic as well. Furthermore, the smartphone was touted for its unique user experience, with its HTC BlinkFeed receiving a lot of praises. The BlinkFeed is positioned on the left of the home screen, which is a common feature in modern day Android smartphones.

This feature also tied in with social media apps, or even news feeds as well for up to date info related to politics, sports, and much more. So, it is clear that the HTC One has made its mark in the smartphone industry. While the UltraPixel camera technology did not deliver the performance it had claimed, the company did bet right on the concept that larger megapixel count isn’t everything. Rather, a larger aperture and pixel size helps in letting in more light, which helps in better low light performance. In the future, other brands would follow suit and ship their devices with image sensors that have larger pixel sizes to offer a better photographic experience.

Design, Specs, & Price

The HTC One M7 sported a 4.7 inch LCD screen with a FHD resolution. It had a large notch and chin, which houses the dual front facing stereo speakers. The top notch also featured the 2.1 megapixel selfie camera. While the smartphone is nearly a decade old, its display had a 469ppi pixel density that allowed for a crisp viewing experience. Under the hood, it ran on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 SoC, paired with 2GB of RAM and up to 64GB of internal storage. This was a flagship chip in 2013, since Qualcomm hadn’t launched its Snapdragon 800 series yet.

On the rear, it featured a 4 megapixel camera, which had OIS support and a pixel size of 2µm (hence the name UltraPixel). It was powered by a 2300mAh battery pack that was non removable, which also wasn’t common nearly 10 years ago. As mentioned above, the design of the HTC One M7 helped it stand out in the crowd, which was even more evident in its brighter color options like Red, Blue, Gold. The smartphone had launched with a price tag of 650 Euros (roughly 743 US Dollars). In other words, it was quite expensive. But back then, it offered an experience like no other.

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Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting Motorola Rokr Z6, the Stylish Music Phone

Sean — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:28:39 +0000

Looking at the voting results from our last two Throwback Tech Thursday, we noticed that you guys asked us to revisit the Motorola Rokr Z6 twice. So now, we are looking back at another one of Moto’s iconic phones from back in the day.

What made the Moto Rokr Z6 Special?

We had previously covered the popular Moto Razr V3 under our Throwback Tech category. That model was the definition of style in the early 2000s. However, with the Rokr series, the company placed its focus on multimedia tools, which did not break the bank. The Rokr Z6 was launched back in January 2007 and was even well received for its design, despite not being made from the same all metal build as the Razr. Reviewers back then praised its straight layout, which made it easy to use but with a look that turned heads.

Apart from just featuring a polished design, it also came with the latest generation of user interface and Linux based operating system as well, which was dubbed MOTOMAGX. It also offered text and multimedia messaging, a calculator, a calendar, and an alarm clock. Unlike the Nokia 6600 and N95, it did not offer a whole suit of smartphone like features, but its unique design and was definitely popular back in the day when specs weren’t everything and phones were more “fun.”

Impact & Future Influence

In our previous Moto throwback, we had talked about how the brand had made waves in the industry with the premium design on some of its phone. So, while the Razr series changed the game with their unique build, the Rokr series paired the company’s experience of making attractive phones with multimedia functionality at a relatively affordable price. In the early 2000s, phones usually resembled bricks and were unwieldy at times. But Motorola clearly took a different path. During the time of the Rokr Z6 launch, you would see a number of its advertisements on TV highlighting its slider design and multimedia features, which led to new successors launching with similar design later down the road.

Design, Specs, & Price

While the Razr featured the flip phone design that was beloved by many, the Rokr Z6 sported a sliding one. The device was quite compact thanks to its slider mechanism that hides its keypad when not in use. On the front, it featured a 2.1 inch TFT LCD screen that had a 320 x 250px resolution. Meanwhile, the rear housed a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash. Being a music phone, it featured a dedicated Music button along with the usual back key, four way D-pad, and the answer and cancel buttons as well.

Under the hood, a 528 MHz CPU powered the device, which also featured 64MB of SDRAM and 64MB of storage that can be expanded up to 2GB via a microSD card slot. Other features include, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, a mini USB port, and even had Windows Media Player 11 on the Z6m model (CDMA enabled version). It housed a 720mAh battery pack and also weighed 105 grams. This was believed to be heavy in those days. At launch, the Moto Rokr Z6 was available for around 90 Euros or around 120 US Dollars in 2007.

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Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting Nokia N95, One of the best early smartphone

Sean — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 12:57:48 +0000

Based on our previous Throwback Tech Thursday‘s voting results, the Nokia N95 has topped the list. So now, lets revisit the device that some considered to be the peak of Symbian and also one of the best early smartphone.

What made it Special?

One of the things that made the N95 stand out was that it was packed to the brim with features. The device first launched back in March 2007 and did almost everything that modern smartphones are capable of. While this was also the year that the original iPhone had released, it only turned heads with its full touchscreen design and interface. On the other hand, the N95 launched with a whole suit of features like video recording games library, and more.

The Nokia N95 is also quite memorable as a camera phone as well, with its 5 megapixel sensor with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens offering picture quality that trampled over most of its rivals. Notably, it could even record “DVD quality” video with VGA recordings at 30fps. While this might not seem impressive, only a handful of phones back then were even capable of this feature. Similar to the Nokia 6600, the N95 was a powerhouse in its time and could run 3D games from the N-Gage mobile gaming services. Keep in mind, the iPhone didn’t even have an App Store till a year after its launch, so it was clearly ahead of the curve back then.

Another major aspect that had it stand out was a selfie camera. Even in the early days of Android smartphones, there were some models that skipped the front camera entirely, so a Symbian phone featuring this technology also showcased how much effort and features the Finnish brand put into the device, and we haven’t even gotten to the slider part yet. Remember iPods, well modern smartphones have basically killed the need for a separate media player, but iPods were still a thing back then and existed alongside the iPhone. But this handset also had dedicated media control buttons that appeared by sliding down, meaning, you didn’t have to buy a separate media player.

Impact & Future Influence

As we mentioned above, the mobile industry was abuzz after its launch. The Nokia N95 was a huge success when it released in most regions. The company managed to sell over 7 million units by the end of 2007. Furthermore, it launched a new 8GB variant in the first quarter of 2008, which also saw 3 million sales. While this doesn’t compare to the behemoth sales of the 6600 over its lifetime, it still managed to outpace everyone of its competitors at the time. It was even crowned as the “best smartphone ever” by AllAboutSymbian.

Some of its features even went on to become industry staples. Always On Display, a feature beloved by many smartphone users today, is something that also made an early appearance with the N95. It even offered wired connections that allowed users to play movies on TVs from the mobile phone itself. Back in 2020, it was revealed that the company was also working on a new N95 model, however, the modern day reboot was never officially launched. This device would’ve also featured the iconic slider design, but for large stereo speakers rather than dedicated media buttons.

Unfortunately, while the phone holds fond memories for many, it is also referred to as the peak of Symbian before its decline. The iPhone with its radical all touchscreen interface and design soon managed to become a market leader and cause a shift in the industry. Additionally, Symbian and Nokia’s dominance slowly started declining after its launch. But the N95 was an undoubtedly impactful device, with modern day features having roots within the phone that is more than a decade old.

Design, Specs, & Price

Just like its predecessors, the N95 featured an iconic design that is immediately recognizable just like the 6600 owing to its popularity at the time. It was a slider phone that offered users two functionalities. Sliding up would reveal the keypad, while sliding down put the device into media mode with dedicated buttons. It also featured its traditional square like orientation for its buttons just under the display, which was a norm for the brand back then.

Talking about its specifications, it housed a 332 MHz Dual ARM 11 CPU, which was paired with up to 8GB of internal storage and 128MB of RAM. The device ran on Symbian OS 9.2 and was powered by a 1,200mAh battery pack (950mAh on the non-8GB variant). It was also one of the first devices to feature an Accelerometer, which was used to wake the device when being shaken and for some games too. Other features include GPS navigation, which again was an impressive feature back then, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack as well.

It sported a 2.8 inch TFT display with 240 x 320 pixel resolution and a 4:3 aspect ratio. Thanks to its PowerVR MBX GPU, the device could also run Quake III, Asphalt 3 or FIFA 2007, and even display it on the TV. The Nokia N95 first launched for a price of 550 Euros or around 730 US Dollars back then. This is a steep price tag even by today’s standards, but it was a premium grade high end handset.

We noticed a number of our readers shared their thoughts on the 6600 Throwback from last week, so we’d love to hear more from those that used the N95 as well in the comments section down below.

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Previous Throwback Tech Thursday Coverage:

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Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit Nokia 9210 Communicator, the phone that could send & receive FAX

Joel Joseph — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:23:31 +0000

Another Thursday, another throwback article. Today, we are going to take a look at Nokia’s business phone from the 2000s, the Nokia 9210 Communicator. It was one hell of a phone and anyone who carried one back in its day showed that he meant serious business. And why wouldn’t he? After all, the Communicator was one of the few mobile phones that could send and receive a fax. In an era where the internet wasn’t widespread, this was a really big deal. Talking about big, the phone was also pretty large. In fact, it was large enough to replace a brick. But it did have its share of powerful features to justify its bulky form factor.

source: wikipedia

The Nokia 9210 Communicator is from the age when even mobile phone boxes were huge. And I was just pleasantly reminded (check the video at the end) that the phone came with a number of huge booklets that were supposed to be read before using it. Of course, nobody would have bothered to go through them, after all, it would have probably taken a few hours to read them all.

Moving on to the phone itself, I wasn’t kidding when I said it resembled a brick. The phone measured 27mm in thickness and weighed 244 grams. It was like Nokia slapped a phone on top of a mini-laptop. I mean it looked the part. The Nokia 9210 Communicator looked like a cordless phone upfront, but when you opened it, the phone resembled a mini-laptop. You got a full set of QWERTY keys and even extra functional buttons on top, making for one hell of a business phone. It was also the first Nokia phone to feature a color display. It was Nokia’s first Symbian OS phone too!

I actually decided to cover the Communicator today in the Throwback series because it came with two displays. I was reminded of this model when I was covering the launch of the Nubia Z20 which also had two displays and was rich in features.

Nokia 9210 (L) vs Nokia 9110 (R) source: wikipedia

The Nokia 9210 Communicator featured a small 80 x 48 pixel screen upfront with the secondary color display inside being the real gem. Measuring 4.5-inches with a 640 x 200 pixel resolution, it was one of the better displays in the mobile phone market back in its time. Not to mention, the phone also came with a card slot to expand its minuscule 16MB memory. But it had a decent 1400mAh battery, which was pretty large for its time.

You could access the calendar, internet, and other typical PDA features through the bigger screen and keyboard inside. It even had an infrared port and a video player.

source: wikipedia

Nokia’s communicator clearly meant serious business and it had some serious features to back its reputation too. It’s no surprise that Nokia managed to overtake competitors such as Palm as well as Compaq in 2001, thanks to the Nokia 9210 Communicator.

Any ex-Nokia Communicator users here?

Meanwhile, check out this amazing video down below! It’s a trip down the memory lane.

Interested in more throwback articles? Read below!

The post Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit Nokia 9210 Communicator, the phone that could send & receive FAX appeared first on Gizmochina.

Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting the Iconic Moto Razr V3, the Phone That Made You Look Cool!

Joel Joseph — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 17:34:48 +0000

Motorola has a really long history of making phones. While it may not be a popular player in the market today, the brand has been selling smartphones since 1983, when it sold the giant brick of a phone, the DynaTAC 8000x! But the real success for the company came via the iconic Moto Razr series, particularly the Moto Razr V3.

Why was it so popular? Because it had one of the sexiest designs in a phone of its time. It was sleek, all-metal, and best of all, the flip to open sound was pretty satisfying. Anyone who wanted to be cool back in 2005 got this device. Well, by anyone, I mean someone with decent money, because this phone set you back more than $400 at launch. While that would get you a decent mid-ranger today, $400 was a significant amount to spend on a fancy phone back then.

The Moto Razr V3 got full marks for its design. So it’s no surprise that the phone managed to sell over 130 million units between 2004 to 2008. It is the best selling clamshell phone till date, which goes on to show its popularity among users.The phone drew long lines, quickly selling out too.

What Was So Special About Its Design?

Motorola dared to be different with the Moto Razr V3. It was a time when every phone had started to look like a brick. Yes, there were weird designs from companies like Nokia, but they were still fairly rectangular and thick. Remember the lipstick phone? Crazy design, but still a brick!

What made the Razr special was it chic look. It was super sleek, light weight (95 grams), and was shiny, all thanks to its metal design. The body was made out of magnesium and aluminum and unlike other smartphones in its day, the phone’s keypad was tactile and stayed flush with the body.

The simple act of flipping open the phone got a special fan following. Even today, I’m sure a lot of us would just pause for a second to see a Moto Razr flip open. That’s how iconic the Moto Razr has become!

Another cool feature was its camera! No, it wasn’t high resolution or feature rich. But thanks to its clamshell design, you could take selfies or use it like a mirror too. The display outside wasn’t great though. But you could make it work.

Editor’s Pick: Honor’s revolutionary Smart Screen product will be announced at HDC 2019

Talking about displays, guess where Vivo Nex Dual gets its inspiration from? The Razr V3 featured two screens, a small 96 x 80 pixel display on the outside and a 2.2-inch 220 x 176 display inside. Both were color screens, but nothing to shout about when you compare it with smartphones today. However, the outside screen came in quite handy alerting the user about new notifications, charging, and other details in a short format. The phone had a pretty decent MP3 player too, so you could listen to songs and get into your groove in style.

The Moto Razr had a small 680mAh battery with 250 hours of standby and 7 hours of talktime. It was nothing special but given its sleek design, it was enough to keep users interested.

Despite its expensive price tag, the phone became a status symbol among the youth. If you had a Moto Razr, you were considered to be cool! Motorola released the model in multiple color variants too, including a Black version. Later on, we would see updates to the original model like the Moto V3re and the Moto V3x.

There’s no denying that the Moto Razr V3 holds a special place among all phone users from the 2000s. While we are not sure if the company plans to revive the series with a foldable clamshell like design, it would be really cool to see its design being adapted to cater to today’s users.

Will we ever see a clamshell foldable smartphone from Motorola? Maybe we’ll!

Let’s wait and watch.

Previous Throwback Tech Thursday Coverage:

The post Throwback Tech Thursday: Revisiting the Iconic Moto Razr V3, the Phone That Made You Look Cool! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit the Sony Ericsson P990i ‘Keypad + QWERTY’ Phone

Joel Joseph — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 17:49:59 +0000

Back in the mid-2000s, Sony Ericsson phones were really popular. In fact, back then, the brand was one of the major players in the market! While things have gone downhill ever since Sony split up with Ericsson back in 2011, the joint venture managed to churn out a lot of interesting phones in the industry. For this week’s edition of Throwback Tech Thursday, we take a look at one such phone – the Sony Ericsson P990i. There are several cool features that make the phone special for its age and we’ll take a look at them down below.

Sony Ericsson P990i

One of the highlights of the Sony Ericsson P990i was its special flap design. The phone was one of the few phones to actually feature both a regular alphanumeric keypad and a QWERTY keyboard. It had a flap with a numerical keypad on top and once you opened the flap, you got a QWERTY keyboard inside. The design did make the phone a bit chunky, but there were hardly any phones in its time which offered both these methods of input.

What’s interesting is that the phone featured a 2.8-inch touchscreen display. So, you could also use a provided stylus (which hid neatly on the side) to browse through the phone. That was pretty cool back then and even now. But there was one more special method of navigation. Apart from the keypad, QWERTY keyboard, and touchscreen display, the phone featured a scroll wheel on the left side. So, Sony Ericsson had really got you covered in the navigation department.

There were several other special physical buttons too. Apart from the power button on the top, the phone featured an internet button, play/pause button, back/clear button, and a screen lock button. There was a camera too – a 2MP shooter with LED flash, which was pretty good for its age. What’s more, the camera housing could slide clockwise / counterclockwise to reveal the sensor. Plus, there was a self-portrait mirror on the camera housing, for the selfie lovers of its age. There was a front camera too, but it was a simple VGA one for video calls.

Sony Ericsson P990

The Sony Ericsson P990i wasn’t a revolutionary device. It didn’t even have a crazy design like the Nokia Lipstick phone. But the phone was feature rich and was way ahead of its time. It clearly isn’t a phone you’d forget easily.

Did you ever use the Sony Ericsson P990i? Did you like it? Tell us the features you miss and which you feel modern smartphones should have.

Previous Throwback Tech Thursday Coverage:

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