Do you own a classic ?

It’s about 2AM here in Barcelona as I type this, but I’ve noticed something that keeps happening fairly regularly at Coolsmartphone. Every week or so, I get notified of a comment on a really, really, really old handset review we did years back. Today it’s the turn of the Virgin Lobster 700 TV review which was originally written in 2006 (it’s dated late 2010 because we imported it into our newer systems). Anyhow, it turns out that someone still owns one, and he still uses it..

I’ve still got my Virgin Lobster after all these years. It’s a brick of a phone. I’ve dropped it countless times, and somehow it still works. I put a 2GB micro SD card in the back and haven’t had to delete a single text message in the 7 years I’ve had it. Just think of that! 7 years of your social life, all recorded. That’s almost as old as facebook!

The real quibble I have with this phone is exposed in some of the photographs above. It will dial 999 at the drop of a hat. Leave it in your pocket, put it in your bag… It doesn’t matter. Suddenly you’ll hear the “blip” that means it’s starting to make a call. You locked the phone. There’s only one number it can call with a locked keypad. That’s right! Emergency services… If you look at the phone side on (as in some of the photos above) you’ll notice that actually of all the keys on the keyboard the number 9 sticks out further than any other key. It’s also at the edge of the keypad and juts out. This is a design flaw: a huge, gaping hole in their design that has probably accounted for thousands of unintended calls to the emergency services. Great phone, if not for that! 🙂

This phone is now almost 6 years old. At the time it had a great deal of promise – a phone that could receive TV and DAB digital radio on the move. Surely this was the future? No internet streaming – just TV on your phone, direct from the transmitter!

Sadly no, the service was quickly discontinued and the Lobster became a “normal” smartphone once more, although we could never really get used to that wibbly-wobbly keypad.

So my question to you guys is this. With all the new flashy smartphones on display here in Barcelona, do you still use a really, really old smartphone, Pocket PC or “normal” phone on a daily basis? I’d love to know, and to see who has the oldest one. Perhaps Chris, who sent us the comment above, has the oldest smartphone here?

Comments (8)

  1. Itdoesntmatter
    • James Pearce
  2. Darren
  3. Mitch
  4. James Pearce
  5. iPhone Fan