I recently came across a Facebook post about the history of Nokia phones, and it brought back so many memories about my older phones.

I can’t help but wonder, “am I the only one? Or do other people have their own interesting cellphone histories too?”

Back in college, owning one felt like a top priority, almost the highlight of my life. We weren’t rich, and we didn’t always have the newest or most expensive models, but we were happy with what we had and grateful to our parents for providing the best they could.

Now that I’m older, I realize material things aren’t really a priority anymore. I only use a smartphone as a reference tool, not mainly for calls or messages. Who even enjoys texting these days? Hardly anyone. All we really need is to stay updated with family and close friends, and even then, it’s not about the play-by-play of their lives.

Back in 1998, I had a Nokia 909 with a Smart Buddy line. I bought this with Kuya Jay from the Smart Telecom Office, Baliwag, Bulacan. It didn’t even have text messaging back then. I still remember my friend Lucia (may she rest in peace) asking me, “Why didn’t you choose Globe? They already offered texts.” Honestly, how was I supposed to know? I was from Saudi and that kind of technology wasn’t available to the public yet. I really had no idea. I wonder why Kuya Jay didn’t egg me into buying the Globe line. Perhaps because we’re in the province and Globe didn’t have coverage there? Who even remembers!!!

There was even a partyline that speaks Chinese. We would randomly call that number and just try to join in. We were kids who didn’t have phones growing up, pardon our foolishness.

Then in 1999, I bought this Bosch GSM, with Kuya Jay, again!

It was such a steal because it happened during the midnight madness sale at SM North Edsa. The timing couldn’t have been worse, we were gone for hours right in the middle of our grandfather’s wake (I know, we’re animals). Naturally, everyone at home was furious because we left the wake, but we couldn’t resist the buy-one-get-one-free deal. My uncle (my grandfather’s son) was the one who pushed us to go and paid for it himself. He kept the “buy,” and I got the “get one.” I wonder if he caught more trouble for it than we did. I bet he did. He was also young at that time, to be fair.

Also in 1999, I bought Nokia 3210 in Greenhills back when it was still flat and less Greehillsy. Again, Kuya Jay was with me when I bought this phone. He was an integral part of my prehistoric cellphone life, wasn’t he?

Trivia: The next time I saw Greenhills again was in 2009 (and boy it’s changed!). I don’t know why I never went there in between. I was a Divisoria girl I guess.

I forgot the original casing that I chose but I definitely went for the mustard casing eventually. I had it especially made in AirArt. I was into those colors back then, so yeah, it looked pretty cool although I thought it would have looked better if my skin was lighter. Pardon my stupidity, I was only 17.

Come year 2000, I had my Ericsson T28. This was courtesy of the cellphone capital of Riyadh – MURSALAT! This was where the secondhand or cheaper phones were being sold. Mine was definitely secondhand.

I loved the Ericsson phone but hated that it cannot read the 4-liner graphics that was so “in” back then. I could not partake into sending/receiving quotes etc. So I requested to have my phone replaced with a 4-liner. This was of course, purchased from the cellphone central of Riyadh & I finally got my dream phone at that time, Nokia 8250! It was secondhand and was already backlit. This was my 2001 phone 😀

This isn’t the actual photo and the backlighting definitely didn’t look like this. My case was transparent with multicolor backlight, too Christmassy I guess. Unfortunately, this phone got snatched from me. Honestly, I think the holdapper just couldn’t resist the holiday vibes my phone gave. Feels like a joke now, but that event stole not just our phone and money, it brought us eternal trauma (I was held up with my bestie, they pulled out an icepick and threatened to kill us).

So my parents bought me a replacement phone sometime in 2002. It was a very popular phone at that time, the Nokia 5210. This was a brandnew phone.

This phone was nicknamed the “Manananggal phone” because, just like the creature from Philippine mythology, it could split in half. It gained fame thanks to the Power Four boys, a Filipino boy group featured in a Rexona ad, they even had their phones strapped to their arms. That was the phone on the ad. I can’t quite remember if mine was orange or blue… Uggh, my memory is the worst!

For my college graduation in 2003, my folks bought me a Nokia 7210. I thought I’d immedialy lose it because my uncle (the one who funded my 1st texting phone) jumped onto the swimming pool with this in his pocket.

Thank GOD we were able to recover it. I can still remember that my polyphonic ringtone was Maroon Five’s She Will be Loved. Was I the same one who couldn’t remember the color of my previous phone?

All these phones were back when I was in the Philippines.

So yeah, I moved to Riyadh in 2003 and had a job. My very first 500 USD paying job LOL.

I bought yet another secondhand phone from Mursalat and it was a Sony Ericsson P800.

The love of my cellphone life, my ultimate favorite! Funny thing is, I don’t even like blue, but for some reason, it just fit this phone perfectly. Of course, firmware updates back then weren’t the smooth tap-and-go process they are today, so by 2004, I eventually had to let it go and replace it with the leaflike Nokia 7610.

I loved it… until one of Faye’s classmates swiped it. She had borrowed my phone for her class, and when it went missing, she tried calling it, only to hear it ringing inside a kid’s bag. The kid flat-out denied it and refused to have the bag checked. I couldn’t really fault my sister for not pushing for inspection; they were just 9-year-olds. What do they know?! Oh well, stealing, apparently!

So sometime between 2004 and 2005, I replaced it with my most favorite selfie phone, the Nokia 6260. The best phone ever! (I say this a lot!)

My photos taken with this phone are the best photos of my life. It’s probably because it was when I looked best, hehehe. I hadn’t taken that into consideration, I have always credited the phone for it.

Around 2006, I was working at KFSHRC, which had its own social club. Through it, there was this guy Salem? Saleh? who could basically hook employees up with anything! I even took an installment plan from his store to get my hands on a Nokia N70. It was a pretty cool phone, though honestly, the selfies didn’t have the same spark as my previous ones (from the old phone). I guess I just lost my spark, hahaha, that could be the real reason! Who knows?!

Between 2006-2007, I switched to Sony Ericsson P990i. This was bought as a new unit.

It was cute but it did not have my P800’s appeal. But it was nice using it. Felt like I was some kind of executive! I partially let go of this phone when the very first iPhone came in 2007.

My then boyfriend (now husband) gifted me this iPhone. It did have so many quirks and I honestly hated it. I had to keep using the P990i alongside it because this phone shuts off randomly. I was grateful for the phone, but I felt that iPhone had been forced on people that time. For me, it was not ready for release.

Around 2009, I still have the iPhone but I was also using my Blackberry at that time. It was a thing back then.

I think this was my model, BB Curve. I used this til 2012. This marked the point when my interest in switching phones began to wane.

While using the BB Curve, I also had this Huawei P1 Ascend sometime between 2012-2013. I had it free from my first STC postpaid line!!! As Filipinos would joke, “medyo naka angat angat na daw ako sa buhay” (like jokingly saying, “I was starting to prosper in life”), since I had a postpaid line while everyone else was on prepaid!

It was a good phone but the firmware eventually reached it’s end of life. It ran slow and I couldn’t update anymore. I eventually replaced it with an iPhone 5C around 2014.

This one stayed with me for a while, until the day it took a dive into the toilet. After that, eww, no way I was using it again. So in 2017, I finally replaced it with an iPhone 7.

This was my most trusted phone. I could not let go of it. I only replaced it in 2020 when my husband gifted me with an iPhone 12 Mini.

If he didn’t insist on this, I would not have replaced my iPhone 7.

And that pretty much wraps up my smartphone history bringing us to the present. I still use my iPhone 12 Mini for my PH number, but my husband recently gifted me an iPhone 16 Pro, so my Saudi number is on this phone.

Honestly, if it weren’t for him, I’d probably still be stuck on the iPhone 7.

The phone I really wished I had back then was a Sidekick, but we never got it here in Riyadh. I just thought it would be so cool to have one.

Sure, the iPhone 17 family is already knocking on the spendy crowd’s doors, but there’s no way I’d buy it for myself. I can’t upgrade Apple products like I’m just shopping for BKK clothes.

And YES, I know the timeline’s a little messy, with few months’ gap here and there. Time flies… or maybe my memory just does.

Photo credits: Google Photos