This month we celebrate the ten year anniversary of the Nokia N95. While it doesn’t quite share the same legendary status of the 3310, it was a device that redefined what a handset could be.
Flashback is an occasional series in which we take a trip down Memory Lane, to revisit products, brands and moments from the world of technology past.
It was ten years ago that Nokia brought me back into its fold by introducing, what would be at the time, the most advanced handset in the world. Like many, my very first cell phone was a Nokia, but as I grew out of customizing my devices with unique shells, custom colored LED setups, and battery packs, I naturally gravitated towards handsets that offered better technology. This meant jumping to devices from other brands like Motorola and Samsung that offered color displays and better designs.
During this time I would forget about Nokia and they would slowly fade from display kiosks from mobile services providers in my area. After becoming enamored with the world of mobile phones, I discovered that there were more options than what was available at your local store – I uncovered the world of unlocked handsets. It absolutely blew me away finding out about the sheer volume of devices that were available globally and how much better they were compared to US carrier offerings.
I would take my first dip into the world of unlocked handsets after doing quite a bit of research and speaking with many people that shared my passion on HowardForums. While I had never seen or used one, I made a fairly ambitious purchase and inducted myself into the world of Window Mobile-powered Pocket PCs. It was my first experience with a Windows Mobile device that offered impressive new features to me like a touch screen, stylus, memory card expansion, and more. From this point, I would continue to stick with Windows Mobile devices, upgrading whenever something new and worthwhile would arrive. But what would come up next would be unexpected and also leave me salivating for months.
