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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: 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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Let’s Revisit the OnePlus One just before the 7T launch in today’s Throwback Tech Thursday!

Joel Joseph — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:25:24 +0000

OnePlus is all set to announce its 14th smartphone (taking into account OnePlus X, OnePlus 6T Mclaren, & OnePlus 7 Pro 5G as well) in India today and internationally on October 10. In today’s Throwback Tech Thursday, we thought it would be the perfect time to revisit the first-ever smartphone from OnePlus, the OnePlus One. The company, which started off as the maker of affordable ‘Flagship Killers’ continues to release incredibly value-for-money smartphones. But this year it took a leap and made its mark on the premium segment as well. The most recent OnePlus 7 Pro is the best example of this strategy featuring the top of the line Snapdragon 855 processor and a beautiful 90Hz display that’s unusual in its price segment.

But where did it all start?

It all started with the OnePlus One, the company’s first-ever smartphone developed with the idea of bringing high-quality products in a simplistic design. The phone was meant to take on the major flagships of 2014, including the Galaxy S5 which was twice as expensive as the ‘One’. Undoubtedly, the first OnePlus One offered more value than any other device ever seen in the flagship market.

So what did the OnePlus One offer?

The phone came with the Snapdragon 801 processor, the same one powering all the flagships in the market in its time. It had 3GB of RAM, 16GB / 64GB ROM variants and a 5.5-inch 1080p display from JDI. It had a pretty decent camera as well: a 13MP IMX214 Sony sensor at the back and a 5MP sensor up front taking care of the selfies. While the camera was never the strong point of the OnePlus One, it was still decent enough for your daily needs. Overall, in terms of hardware, it had specs never seen on a $299 smartphone!

But what made it even more special were its accessories. Despite featuring a minimalistic design, the OnePlus One came with a unique textured back that stood out. In fact, hardcore OnePlus fans would still remember how popular the sandstone finish turned out to be. But apart from the textures, OnePlus also offered unique back covers for the One, like a Special Kevlar, Denim, and even Bamboo wood covers. The company provided several ways to customize the phone’s overall look, garnering positive reception from its fans all across the world!

Another feature that set the OnePlus One apart was its software. Unlike companies like Samsung and LG, OnePlus decided to use a bloatware-free CyanogenMod OS for its international customers. If you remember, CyanogenMod was a big deal back then and getting it shipped right out of the box gave it a significant advantage among its competitors. Also, since CyanogenMod was quite light and snappy, the OnePlus One turned out to be one of the fastest phones in its time. Further, the open nature of the company along with its support for developers gave rise to many custom ROMs for the device. For smartphone enthusiasts, it was nothing short of the perfect smartphone at its price and a viable alternative to Google’s own Nexus 5.

But Not Without Issues

But being a first-generation device, the OnePlus One wasn’t without faults. The biggest one was its availability. The company’s invite system could be said as controversial, which forced thousands of users across the globe scrambling for an invite to purchase the device. If you remember, OnePlus invites were a huge deal for nearly a year of its release. By April 2015, the company managed to stabilize its production, and the OnePlus One was made available to purchase invite-free.

Editor’s Pick: OnePlus 6, 6T, 5 and 5T Android 10 rollout schedule for China officially confirmed

Another issue with the OnePlus One was its support. Being a new startup, the company faced some criticism for its after-sales support. Even the phone’s camera wasn’t as good as some of the top tier flagships of its time. Although marketed as a ‘Flagship Killer’, users had to sacrifice on the camera quality to some extent.

The OS was also an issue. Just shortly after it launched in India, OnePlus was notified that Cyanogen had entered into an exclusive agreement with Micromax to sell phones running Cyanogen OS. The agreement prevented OnePlus or any other manufacturers from being able to release phones running the OS and also from issuing updates to the OnePlus One. That singular act was what led OnePlus to develop its own Android-based custom OS which it named OxygenOS (HydrogenOS for China). You can say it was a blessing in disguise.

But overall, the OnePlus One managed to shake things up in the market. Despite starting off on a small scale, today, OnePlus has succeeded in capturing a significant chunk of the premium smartphone market in regions such as India. Back in 2014, you could have easily dismissed OnePlus as a small-time smartphone startup with a sketchy future.
But today, it’s a smartphone company to be reckoned with!
OnePlus smartphones may no longer be ‘Flagship Killers’. But with phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro, they are now the trendsetters and lead the industry with consumer-oriented features.

OnePlus’ latest flagship is refined and supports the high-speed 5G network

As OnePlus prepares to launch its brand new OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro, let’s recall where these guys started and how far they have come.

Do you remember the OnePlus One? Does anyone still have the phone?

The post Let’s Revisit the OnePlus One just before the 7T launch in today’s Throwback Tech Thursday! appeared first on Gizmochina.

Stylus + Plectrum + Touchscreen + Music: We Revisit Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic in today’s tech throwback

Joel Joseph — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 14:35:38 +0000

In today’s throwback tech Thursday, we go back to 2008, the year when we saw the launch of the extremely popular Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. For a company that was obsessed with keypad phones, the 5800 XpressMusic came in as a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t the first-ever touch screen phone from the brand but it most likely is its first popular one. The phone was so popular that it sold 8M units in its first year alone! In fact, in India, it broke the record for the most sales by selling 58,000 units sold within three weeks of its launch. Given its popularity, there’s a very good chance that you’ve used the 5800 at some point in your life.

Why was the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic so popular?

First, it was the early days of the iPhone, and touchscreens were slowly gaining popularity. Second, it was a touch screen smartphone from Nokia which was a very popular brand back then.

The phone came from the XpressMusic family and music was a big deal back then (for that matter, even now!). The phone came with a compact design and weighed just 109 grams. There were three colors available: Blue, Black, and Red.

source: Wikipedia

The biggest highlight of the new device was its sharp 3.2-inch touchscreen panel. You could use your finger, a stylus that neatly slid in its dedicated slot after use, and even a plectrum which the Finnish company added inside the box. Also, the phone was paired with a decent quality headset out of the box. And with a 3.5mm jack, the 5800 XpressMusic was indeed a treat for music lovers from Nokia.

Other specs of the phone include 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.2MP Zeiss optics camera with dual-LED flash, BL 2.0 with A2DP, stereo speakers (yay), and MicroUSB 2.0. The 5800 wasn’t exactly a high-end device, but Symbian S60 OS did well in keeping the users interested. What’s great was that the company kept improving its software over time through regular updates.

But 5800 XpressMusic wasn’t without issues

One of the biggest drawbacks of the device was its touch sensitivity. The display on the 5800 featured resistive touch, which meant you had to press really hard to register touches. It was no way near as good as an iPhone phone which featured a capacitive touch screen. As for the OS, Symbian S60 touch was decent but again, it couldn’t compete with iPhone’s UI which was made for touch right from the ground up.

Also, unlike in some markets like India where the pricing was competitive, in the US it was closely priced as the iPhone 3G. It retailed for nearly $400 and at the same price, you could get an iPhone 3G unlocked at that time.

Nevertheless, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a phone that’ll probably be remembered as the company’s first touchscreen phone used by the masses. It’ll have a special place for people who used it as their first-ever touch screen device!

Check out some of our previous Throwback Tech Thursday articles below!

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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!

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Throwback Tech Thursday: We Revisit the Best Selling BlackBerry Curve Series

Joel Joseph — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 18:26:10 +0000

Before Android & iPhones were popular, there were only a handful of players that were dominating the phone industry. One among them was the Canadian smartphone maker, BlackBerry. While its phones are non-existent today, just as the original Nokia brand that vanished from the market, back in the 2000s, BB phones were really popular. In fact so popular that BlackBerry’s Curve models outsold the iPhone back in 2009. For Q1 2009 in the US, BlackBerry had three models in the top 5 best selling phones list, with the other two being the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile G1 aka HTC Dream (this was the first ever Android phone and we have a special throwback here). It’s rather funny to see how things have changed now. Android smartphones and iPhones dominate the smartphone market, while BlackBerry is nowhere to be seen.

Source: Flickr Marvin Kuo

BlackBerry Curve reached out to a really large set of users with its competitive pricing and a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. In fact, the BlackBerry 8320, which was quite a popular model in the series was the smallest and the lightest BlackBerry phone to feature a full-sized QWERTY keyboard back then. The keyboard was really cool, which made every BlackBerry phone a texter’s dream! The BB 8320 came with support for instant messengers like Gtalk, Yahoo, Windows Live, & AOL which kept its users ahead in their social game. Not to mention, BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) was a really big hit back in the late 2000s. Being exclusive to BlackBerry phones, BBM users seemed to have a different social circle altogether!

Source: Flickr Enrique Dans

The phone came with Blackberry’s iconic trackball navigation which made browsing through the UI a breeze. It had Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 2.0. Wi-Fi, in particular, wasn’t a common feature among BlackBerry phones, so the 8320 stood out. Further, the phone came with a 2MP rear camera. It wasn’t a good camera but then BlackBerry was never a fan of adding cameras to its smartphones. So to see even a 2MP sensor on the back of a BlackBerry phone was a big deal back then.

Other features of the device included a 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroSD slot, GSM/ Edge support (yes, no 3G despite iPhone featuring it!), and an inbuilt MP3 and MP4 player.

Editor’s Pick: Throwback Tech Thursday: Engaging the Legendary Nokia N-Gage!

The BlackBerry Curve 83XX series didn’t have a fancy processor, an amazing camera or even 3G. But the 8300 series models featured a full-sized QWERTY keyboard, a compact lightweight design (which didn’t bother you when you talked on the phone for hours), and a solid messenger client which kept you ahead in your social game.

Later versions of the Curve replaced the Trackball with an optical Trackpad (Source: Wikipedia)

Later models in the BlackBerry Curve series saw a shift from the traditional trackball to an optical trackpad. For example, the Blackberry 8530, which was yet another popular model in the series, featured an optical trackpad. It continued with the QWERTY keyboard design as its predecessors along with a 2MP camera. Even the battery life was as terrible as the older models.

By 2011, BlackBerry decided it was time to introduce full touch screen models in the Curve series. So the Curve 9380 finally ditched the QWERTY keyboard for a 3.2″ display with 360×480 pixels. After experimenting with touch, there were a couple of QWERTY models in the Curve series like the BB Curve 9320. But after that, the Curve series pretty much came to an end.

So did you ever use any of the BlackBerry Curve series models? How was your experience?

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

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Throwback Tech Thursday: Nexus One, Google’s First Pure Android Phone Revisited

Joel Joseph — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 18:39:46 +0000

Ever since Android was officially made available for smartphones, manufacturer decided to add their own flavor of UI on top of the operating system. This led to significantly different experiences on different smartphones running the same OS underneath.

Google wasn’t happy with such variance in the Android experience. The company had an ideal view of how the operating system should work on an Android phone but it couldn’t force companies to ditch their customizations. This eventually led to the birth of the Google Nexus series, one of the most sought out lineup by Android enthusiasts across the globe. So if you have been following the Android landscape ever since its inception, it’s highly likely that you’ve heard or seen the first-ever smartphone in the Google Nexus lineup, the HTC Google Nexus One.

HTC was a major smartphone maker back then and it wasn’t a surprise that the search engine giant decided to partner with them to make its first smartphone. The hardware partners have changed a few times since Nexus’ inception, but one thing was common among all partners – they were given freedom to design these Nexus phones. But the software would be controlled by Google and it would become the base of how a perfect Android phone ran on the latest version of the OS. Being the first-ever Nexus smartphone, the HTC Nexus One has a special place in our hearts. So let’s take a closer look at what it had to offer back in 2010.

The HTC Nexus One had a typical HTC design. The back was slightly curved and the overall design was similar to the company’s Desire model. There were actually two versions of the Nexus One back in 2010. The first units rolled out with a Pentine AMOLED display but it would later be replaced by a Super LCD panel which reportedly offered better power efficiency and color accuracy.

The front had a tiny 3.7-inch display of 800 x 480 pixels. This was one of the better displays back in 2010. There were four capacitive buttons, which was typical of the Nexus lineup. But there was a trackball below these capacitive buttons which made the phone unique. It was a lot similar to Blackberry devices and offered easy navigation across the OS. Interestingly, this trackball also doubled down as a notification light, which looked pretty cool.

Editor’s Pick: Google introduced Shoelace; a new social network to tie people together

As for the specs, the Nexus One was no slouch. It came with the Snapdragon S1 single-core 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. No, this is not a mistake. The phone had just 512MB of storage, which forced the company to add a dedicated MicroSD slot on board. On the back there was a decent 5MP camera with autofocus and LED flash. The battery was average for its time at 1400mAh. Notably, it was removable, unlike Nexus devices that were launched later on. 2010 wasn’t exactly the selfie age, so Google and HTC decided not to add a front camera.

Previous Throwback: We Revisit the World’s First Camera Phone & Its Selfie Camera

The real highlight of the Nexus lineup has always been its software and the Nexus One was no exception. The phone came with Android 2.1 Eclair out of the box with voice-guided navigation and voice to text transcription. Imagine how far we’ve come in the last 9 years. Everything is voice-based now, with Google Assitant and Alexa taking over our daily lives. The phone also brought 3D icons and live wallpaper which looked pretty cool for its time. Given that this was a Google-backed device, the Nexus One received a number of major updates. The phone got Android 2.2 Froyo and also Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread. It could have been updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich too, if not for its super-old hardware platform.

With these specs and software, the Nexus One would have sold pretty well right? Unfortunately, the phone didn’t fare so well in terms of sale.

Nevertheless, the Nexus One will always have a very special place in our hearts. It was the first-ever Google phone and is the reason why the Pixel lineup exist today!

So did you ever use the Nexus One? What are your thoughts?

UP NEXT: Huawei files a trademark application for “Cine-Lens” and “Camera Matrix”

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