When Phones Were Phones!

Do you ever pine for the days when mobile phones were just that, phones you could carry with you? Simple small, light single purpose devices that did a couple of things really well... make and receive phone calls and send and receive txt messages.

Not these expensive multi-purpose phone cum computer cum email cum TV cum DVD player cum Camcorder cum Camera cum Hi-Fi System cum everything devices. Not these mega expensive, mobile connected, everything, everywhere portable computing devices that also happen to do phone calls… and also happen to track your every move!!!

Pine for a world were word processing, voice recording, video recording and playing, music making and shopping and constant email contact didn't follow you everywhere you go? A world where you could walk down the street without bumping into people stumbling aimlessly around head buried in their 'Mobile Device'? A world where you didn't have to put up with white ear bud wearing, inanely smiling people living in a world of their own laughing at some in joke email or personal video message, or something, whatever!

Well I got fed-up of the multi-touch, multi-media world lately and decided to go back to the good old days of only 10 or so years ago. To my favorite mobile phones that I have owned over the last 30 years (and I have owned a lot and always had the latest)... the Ericsson T28 and the Ericsson R320.

Lovely phones, small, light, long battery life and great for voice calls and txting. Both have voice activated calling and great reception and the T28 is a brilliant and totally classic piece of design that has never been replicated. A button activated flip out mic and auto voice calling and just so small and light when compared to the expensive and relatively fragile iBricks most people carry around these days. A mere 83gms and 97 x 50 x 15 mm with 4 0r 5 hours of talk time and a massive 65 hours of standby time. These things don't need charging everyday like those multi-media iBricks tend to.

Picked them both up really cheap on eBay and their in great condition. Perfect to throw in the pocket and forget about until you need to call or txt someone and then to know that you will always have good reception and don't have to worry about holding them in a particular way or standing  close to the window or something equally daft that we have come to take for granted with those expensive multi-media mobile devices.

Maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy old man but I really don't know what the latest tech is adding to the world... maybe its just a tech addiction that feeds corporate coffers and has us throwing perfectly good devices away just so we can have the newest, greatest and latest Android or iPhone. I remember some technology wag saying many years ago that the only thing sure about the future was that the phone companies would make a lot of money... you only have to look at the high street proliferation of mobile phone shops and who are the global giants to see how right they were.

So I thought it was time to go back to the future and get rid of my iDevices and invest in some proper mobile tech. So I thought about which were my favorite phones of all time given I had been an early adopter and always had both personal and work provided mobiles upadted very regularly. The Nokia 8110 was good and the Motorola Razr to, but the Ericsson phones of the late 90's early 2000's were the best ever.

I think mobile phones reached an apogee at the Millennium and it has been all down hill since then.

The Ericsson R320 is actually my favorite ever phone, I had one one they came out in 2000 and kept it for years. It even has an infrared port (remember those :-) and can be configured for email and simple WAP browsing etc... but who needs those things. I just want a good reliable sturdy phone that is going to do the job it's designed for and both these classic retro Ericsson phones do the job, brilliantly!

The T28 has got to be the retro classic and in my opinion has yet to be bettered as a small, light basic mobile phone. Very Star Trek, actually! Born in 1999 it will live long and prosper :-)

I now use both and always carry the T28 when I go anywhere. Long live the real mobile phones from the time when phones were phones were phones...

Enjoy!, Tom

ps: I recently picked up a job lot of T28's, some T28 World, T28s and T28sc models and plan to refurbish them, so if any of you fancy a great little classic 'retro' phone that does what a good mobile phone should then just drop me an email at tom@ravenred.net or call me on my R320 at 07519 839 604
... going cheap to good homes :-)