Over the years, I’ve owned a great number ofexcellent smartphones. From a young age, I remember being fascinated by phones as a product category, and I’ve remained so to this very day. For me, I understand phones to be a microcosm of human ingenuity, technological prowess, and innovative spirit.
In all honesty, referring to our handsets as ‘phones’ is a bit of a misnomer. For all intents and purposes, our modern-day cellphones are pocketcomputers, the likes of which our ancestors wouldn’t have believed possible to engineer, let alone mass produce at an industrial scale.
There arecertain phone modelsthat have left a lasting impact on me – both personally and professionally – more so than any of their contemporaries. Here are five handsets in particular that I’ve personally used as my daily driver, and that hold a special place in my heart.
Here’s what it’s like using my very first smartphone 14 years later
I booted up my very first smartphone, the 2011 HTC Wildfire S, and took it for a spin in 2025 - here’s what my experience was like.
1HTC 10 (2016)
My favorite smartphone of all time
The 10 is HTC’s flagship smartphone for 2016, competing directly with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 within the Android space.
Bar none, my all-time personal favorite smartphone is theHTC 10. I’ve always been fond of HTC as a phone maker, with its eye for beautiful industrial designs, slick software packages, and an early embrace of the Android OS.
In my eyes, the HTC 10 wasthe last phone of an erafor HTC – it was the final flagship from the company to embrace an aluminum unibody chassis, the last to include a powerful 3.5mmheadphone jack, and the (first) and last to offer up an optically stabilized front-facing selfie shooter.
How the iPhone 4s became one of Apple’s most iconic phones
Let’s take a nostalgic trip back in time and unpack Apple’s 2011-released iPhone 4s.
2Apple iPhone 4 (2010)
The very first phone design I fell in love with
The iPhone 4 was a milestone release for Apple, with its high-resolution display, its front-facing camera, and its now-iconic design language.
I was in middle school around the time that theiPhone 4launched, and I remember it being a very big deal. This was a time in which fans would camp outsideApple Storesto be first in line for product launches, and it was a time when year-over-year generational jumps were significant.
The iPhone 4 was a milestone release for Apple in a number of ways. It was the first iPhone with a pixel-perfect ‘Retina Display,’ and the first with a front-facing camera for FaceTime. Perhaps most notably, it was also the firstiPhoneto ship with a physical design that looked and felt like a finely-crafted luxury good.
The Honor Magic V3 shocked me with its thin, lightweight form factor
Honor has crafted the world’s thinnest book-style foldable, and it makes me excited for the future of the category.
3Honor Magic V3 (2024)
My first foldable phone was a magical experience
Honor’s latest book-style foldable phone is incredibly thin and light – more so than many slab-style devices.
When I reviewedthe Honor Magic V3 last year, it was the first time I had ever experienced using abook-style foldable phone. In retrospect, I consider myself lucky to have gotten to break the proverbial foldable ice by way of the V3.
Unfortunately, the Magic V3 never launched within the North American market. This is a shame as the phone is simply brilliant. It’s a remarkably light device, and it’s as thin as most regular candy bar-style slab phones – a seriously impressive feat of engineering.
Samsung Galaxy S9 review: A refined evolution
How does this flagship phone hold up to testing?
4Samsung Galaxy S9 (2018)
The magnum opus of Galaxy handsets
The Galaxy S9 is Samsung’s base-level Android flagship for 2018, serving as a refined continuation of the previous year’s S8 model.
When I think of aSamsung Galaxysmartphone, I think of the Galaxy S9. In many ways, I view the S9 as the pinnacle of Samsung’s mobile phone efforts, with no other S series model even coming close to dethroning it.
At its core, the Galaxy S9 is a refined version ofSamsung’s S8from the year prior, and it nails just about every aspect of smartphone excellence. The gorgeous waterfall or edge ‘Infinity’ display, the hidden pressure-sensitive home button, and more – it’s all here.
Remember when Google’s Nexus 5 turned the Android world on its head?
Back in 2013, Google teamed up with LG to release the Nexus 5 – the phone would briefly go on to set the Android world ablaze.
5LG / Google Nexus 5 (2013)
The phone that gave rise to my love of Android
The Nexus 5 was a 2013 collaborative effort between Android maker Google, and hardware maker LG. The phone features a 4.95-inch FHD display, the Snapdragon 800 processor, and 2 GB of RAM.
I attributethe Nexus 5for inspiring my love for theAndroidoperating system. This downright-iconic phone was made in collaboration between LG and Google, and it was my first experience with ‘stock’ or the ‘vanilla’ flavor of Android.
The Nexus 5 was an early example of a ‘flagship killer,’ offering incredible value and hardware bang-for-your-buck at a time when smartphone prices were beginning to creep up on a yearly basis. I’m also partial to the Nexus 5’s physical design – to this day, the phone is what I would describe to be the perfect size in terms of display and footprint dimensions.
Remember these cell phones? Yes, you’re officially old
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some downright iconic phones.
