Remember when phones were fun?
July 17, 2023
People have asked my opinion on which phone they should buy from the moment I started at CNET as a phone reviewer. For a long time, it was a conversation I enjoyed. There were tons of choices, and I understood why it was difficult to sort through them. My, how things have changed.
If I’m asked that question now, it leads to a much shorter conversation because today’s phones are dull.. Your choices are some kind of iPhone or some kind of Android phone (typically Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel). And except for a couple of outliers like the Galaxy Flip and Fold, they all look the same. If you want something other than a glass rectangle, your choices are few.
Phone design used to be a magic wonderland of sliders and swivels, physical keyboards in an array of shapes and almost every color in the rainbow (fortunately, phones that aren’t black still exist). Nokia, of course, holds the record for the most bizarre designs (remember the 7280?). No, they weren’t always practical, but they were always fascinating.

You also could count on a huge variety of manufacturers beyond just Apple and Samsung. Awesome phones came out of the labs of companies like LG. Siemens, Kyocera, Ericsson/Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry, HTC and Sanyo. Motorola in particular always will have a special place in my heart. It gave us the thin phone (and phones in general), and I’m happy to see its latest Razr win accolades.
Absolutely, phones now do a lot more, and they do all of those things better than ever. Sometimes, the features between popular models feel a bit indistinguishable, but no one would ever argue for browsing on a Windows Phone browser over even the cheapest Galaxy. On the other hand, ending a call (when we actually make them) by pressing a button is far less satisfying than slamming closed a flip phone.
One of my favorite CNET memories was reviewing the first iPhone all night when it was introduced in 2007. It was a device that changed the world, and alongside its Android rivals it continues to do so. But as powerful as today's phones are, they’re just not as fun as they used to be.