Dear flip phones,
In the words of Justin Bieber, where are you now that I need you? Where are you now? Samsung still thinks you’re a thing, they’re even trying to bring you back in Korea with the Samsung W2017 – but in the UK? Niente.
Remember when we first met in 2004, you were a Motorola Razr C3 I convinced my father to buy me so I would stop using his phone to text boys. Specifically, Daniel Page, the school flirt who I then discovered texted all the girls. Did I stop texting, though? Of course I didn’t. You lasted about a year, and what a year it was. Endless fun pretending to recreate the ‘Hello Moto’ advert, slapping you shut after phone calls because it made me look ‘cool.’ You fitted so seamlessly into my pack pocket so I could sneak you into school without my teacher ever knowing. Your buttons felt so satisfying to press when texting - yes I am aware how peculiar that sounds, but it’s true.Thank you MR, for being such a great first flip phone.
Then, we move onto a part of my life I like to call my ‘experimental phase.’ Out went the Razr and in came a Motorola Pebl U6 along with an extremely severe side fringe, netted sleeves and flares so big I don’t know how I walked without tripping. You were colourful, bold and brash. I had the blue, because pink was too ‘girlie’ and I wanted to be taken seriously (I was 15 and now know pink is fantastic). I once had you confiscated during biology and it felt like the world was ending. I miss you, lil blue pebl.
Then came the time I discovered selfies later on in 2005, and for that I want to thank the Samsung E530. I now liked pink, and I liked to spend my days taking pictures on the front camera with that teeny tiny screen. You also had Bluetooth, which blew my 16-year-old mind. I could send those selfies to everyone within 100m distance. What a world we lived in.
Fast forward a few years and probably a few phones and the Sony Ericsson W508 had made its way into my life. I was at uni, I didn’t have an iPhone YET but it was inevitably going to happen soon. You were so wonderful at playing music to me on route to work, lectures, and probably when I should have been listening to people talking not listening to Bloc Party. You spoiled me with your 100MB – at the time that felt like the world and more. And your battery life was exceptional, something I now cherish in my heart because my iPhone dies after about 2 hours 36 minutes.
So there we have it, a flip phone history. A trip down flip phone lane. I then moved onto a blackberry until the iPhone became a thing, then obviously, I cheated on my blackberry and it’s been iPhone all the way. But flip phones, you hold a special place in my heart, and will forever and ever
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.