As an enthusiast who’s reveled over tech since I was young, I treated my phones throughout the years as extensions to my computer collection/hobby – naming my devices, maintaining them, accessorizing, jailbreaking, etc; while also reveling over tech specs, performance, and watching closely the year-over-year changes.
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This year I exchanged my outgoing device to get the latest iteration to this collection, a 256 GB iPhone Air in Sky Blue – the first time upgrading in three years since previously upgrading to a 128 GB iPhone 14 Pro in Deep purple. Today I wanted to reflect back on the devices I referred to as my phone at one point or another, sharing a few stories along the way, some thoughts, maybe a little history as well. Pictured above is most of my collection over the years, from 2011 onwards.
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My first smartphone

Picture this: You’re 11, and the original iPhone was just announced at Macworld 2007. You’ve been tinkering with a Compaq Presario Windows 95 PC for a couple of years by now, which used to sit in a big cardboard box downstairs in the half-finished old-school basement-bar.

Knowing only of the AMD Athlon XP HP-Compaqs running Windows XP Professional at school, seeing polycarbonate Macs and cheese graters only in passing, there was but one window into a modern computing experience for you: A dual-Core pentium Gateway laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium before the first service pack. Your phone is a sprint Motorola Razor V3i in silver.

A friend of the family gives you a box of old electronics, knowing you’re into tinkering with things like that. Within this box lies a strange, small, and rectangular handheld computer that’s half-touchscreen, half-buttons, with a slight antenna: a 2003 Verizon Palm Treo 600. It felt like the most confusing-yet-fascinating device, ever.

(Above: Pictures taken in April 2010 on a Motorola Karma QA1. My then-daily driver, a Power Mac G4.)

My thoughts: The Verizon Palm Treo 600 was an introduction for my younger self to smartphones as they were in the late 2000s. Though this was just something to play on rather than to make calls with, I really tried using it to attempt to understand the UI, design, etc; it gave me the impression smartphones were needlessly complicated and difficult to use. I would have never used this phone under any circumstances.
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My first real smartphone

Fast forward to Late 2010, it’s time to trade-in that Motorola Karma QA1, and check out the deals At&t had for the iPhone 3GS 8 GB model. By this time I was in high school, and our family switched off of sprint. Mostly anything I had up until this point stuck around with me for a while, being benign appliances from which to make calls (and some texts) with.

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Having an iPhone 3GS felt like a huge leap forward into the future whilst simultaneously having a solid, easy to navigate UI. It set the bar on what to expect out of a smartphone moving forward, although over time it became rather sluggish.

This was at a time where yearly spec bumps would prove strongly impactful on the overall performance of the new devices, leaving older devices in the dust rather quickly – especially as the market was still new, maturing, and Dual-Core smartphone chips were barely a thing. I loved my iPhone 3GS, but wanted something better sooner than I expected, so I started saving up.
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Getting an iPhone 4

In April 2011 I went on Craigslist and traded my iPhone 3GS plus some cash, for an unlocked 8 GB black iPhone 4 – I was in shock and awe at that Retina display! I’ve done computer repair gigs and bought a few things here and there up until that point, but I wasn’t used to a higher-stakes transaction like that.

The usual things ran though the mind: hoping the phone was real, that it would work, that there would be no issues whatsoever. Thankfully everything went smoothy, the most nerve-racking part was not having a phone for a few minutes as the SIM card was transferred.

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First foray into Android

Does anyone remember those Motorola: DRRROOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIDDDDD commercials from 2009-2013? I had one, and it was a Motorola Droid X. As a technological connoisseur, the device was calling upon me: An 8 MP camera, a 4.3-Inch screen, dedicated red camera button, dark-gray metal body, and.. Micro HDMI? Was this thing even real?

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Although it became awfully slow after a year, ran on Android Gingerbread, received maybe only 1 update ever, one positive really stuck out which I was also hopeful for: the camera. This device took some of my best and favorite photos from 2011-14, and did exceptionally well focusing on objects, capturing lots of detail. Both pictures below were captured in 2011, on that Motorola Droid X.

Since the device was on Verizon it couldn’t replace the iPhone on At&t, but it was an excellent companion.
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Straying from iPhone for a bit

Once Pandora’s box was open, I went through a series of Android phones before ultimately stepping back over to an iPhone X in Early 2018. The most recent impression I had of iOS in 2013 was that of a sluggish iPhone 4, the Android lineup looked far more interesting, and so I continued along this path. For a brief time before the iPhone X in Summer 2017, I tested out an iPhone 6 while a Galaxy S8+ was my daily driver.

• 2012 – 13: Motorola Droid Razor Maxx
• 2013-15: Motorola Droid Mini
• 2015-16: VKWorld VK6050
• 2016-17: Oukitel K10000
• Early 2017: S7 Edge, then Samsung Galaxy S8+

Back when I was looking into Android smartphones before 2018, it felt easier to get what I wanted out of an Android Phone: The Droid lineup provided a clean Android experience, Chinese smartphones experimented with massive battery capacities, and devices came in all shapes and sizes.
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Back to iPhone

WWDC 2017 is mostly what brought me back and kept me in ever since. In the same way Android had usurped my attention in 2011, the iPhone X did in Mid-2017. I was long off of my family’s plan and onto my own at this point, leveraging a low monthly cost to be able to afford a newer device without buying it right away or spending even more – to me it was worth it, to enjoy the tech.

I was hesitant considering there was 6 years of time invested into using Android phones, but in early 2018 I ripped the bandaid off. Out of every iPhone I had since, this is the only one I kept – it left an impression on me. The iPhone X felt like the future, again.

My iPhone X on 1/13/18

My iPhone X next to the iPhone Air in 2025

Between 2018 through 2022 I was on the same momentum upgrading every year – like I did when using Android devices. Seeing the value in having a more responsive device year over year, it wasn’t until the iPhone 14 Pro where I felt truly comfortable hanging onto the phone for a long time, skipping over 3 years’s worth of upgrades.

Last few years

In hindsight, I would’ve held onto the 11 Pro Max or even the Xs Max longer, knowing how uncomfortable the 12 Pro Max was to hold with its 90 degree sharp angles. The 11 Pro Max was nice, but didn’t necessarily feel like an upgrade over the Xs Max except perhaps with the cameras.

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Those were the last iPhones I remember comfortably holding before the 12 switched designs – it was a mistake I had to carry in my pocket for a couple years. Beautiful phone, though. When September 2022 rolled around, the iPhone 14 Pro rolled in – and it stuck with me for 3 years. What stuck out to me immediately (and most over time) was the 120 Hz screen refresh rate. What surprised me more than anything was its durability.

It was the toughest, most consistent, reliable, best looking phone I’ve ever had. Even thought about buying another one when the prices drop, this is another one which left an impression like the iPhone X.
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(Above: Sending in the iPhone 14 Pro, after trading it in for the iPhone Air.)

And now, iPhone Air

I’m an explorer, just as much as I want to maximize the life of my Apple gear. It took some exploration to figure out my baseline for what I expect out of a phone, and iPhone Air knocks it out of the park.
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It improved my smartphone experience by: having a seriously strong performing chip, a “Pro Max” size without the heft, having a far more premium feel + durability versus aluminum, being well designed, and bearing a soulful resemblance to the iPhone X.