Rummaging Through Drawers Reveals First Mobile Phone (2001-2005)
And A Pair Of Silk Knickers (Just Kidding)
Imagine my surprise when I was rummaging through some drawers the other day, only to discover my very first ever mobile phone.
It was 2001 and SMS texts had changed the game, meaning more and more people were snapping these things up. One day I walked past the shop window, saw the Nokia 3330 and made an impulse buy.
The WhatsApp generation that gets confused by the concept of delayed gratification won’t get this, but receiving an SMS text on a phone like this was a mini event in itself. It didn’t even show you the message right away, it just said 1 New Message had arrived… this thing did suspense better than Agatha Christie.
Here is the ACTUAL phone, which I can’t believe I’ve still somehow got:
It may not look that impressive in 2025, but in 2001 this thing was cutting edge. I loved the reassuring click of buttons and… well, everything about it really.
The build quality of it was legendary. You could drop it out of a block of flats and it would laugh at your attempt to damage it. If you drove over it in a tank, it would just smile at you afterwards.
The battery would last 2-3 weeks on a single charge, you didn’t have to keep plugging into an electrical life support, and if you wanted to send someone a message it was there to faithfully do your bidding.
Sending a message on a T9 phone may not sound very exciting now, but writing one out back then was an event in itself and predictive text sort of came to the rescue on the speed front. At one point I was convinced I’d developed telepathic powers because I sensed when a message was incoming. And sometimes, it felt like I already knew exactly who it was from… before I even looked.
2003 was peak Nokia 3330 use territory for me. If it had been any other phone, I think I would have worn the keypad out that year with all the messages flying back and forth, but as you can see it still looks pretty much brand new. You gotta give props to the OG 3330.
You could even set it to vibrate, which was a cheap thrill for some people with this feature (I didn’t ask any further questions).
If you actually wanted to hear from someone, seeing “You Have 1 New Message” on your phone was like being a fruit machine addict getting 3 cherries all lining up in a row and then hearing some coins landing in the collection tray below.
The only downside was it created a bit of a bulge in your trouser pocket, but nobody ever complained so it wasn’t a deal-breaker. This phone made office work and lunch hours seem less dull. I worked at a car company who banned people using mobile phones that could take pictures, but they couldn’t stop me bringing this thing in.
Minimalistic and joyous is what I’d call it. I stuck with it until 2005, when the temptation of a phone with a camera came along to make me switch, but the new phone wasn’t actually as good, you could just take and send low resolution images on it.
Sending pictures to someone on a mobile phone? That’s sorcery isn’t it 😉
I still kept this phone as a backup, but because I used it so infrequently at that stage, Vodafone recycled my number. Absolute bastards.
They are switching off the 2G networks in 2033 or earlier, at which point this will no longer work and it will become a curiosity. We’re still a few years away from that as I write this and I know for a fact this would still work if I got a battery and a charger for it. I may just do that with a new number as a burner phone, just to resurrect it back to life before the great switch-off.
No idea what I’ll find when I switch it on… but it will be interesting to see if there’s at least one message worth keeping.
In the spirit of the nostalgic texting vibe, this could be the number I hand out to just one or two people… if they ask nicely.
Sounds like a plan Dean. Yes, it very well could be.
Take a good look at this photo. It contains an important clue you may find useful in a future post…
Update: I just ordered a SIM, charger and battery for it so I can see what, if anything, was still on there. Ooh, exciting!
This phone holds more memories than it ever did messages, that’s for sure.
Was the Nokia 3330 one of the greatest phones ever made in the history of the world? I’d argue it was up there. They made it bombproof and the only thing that will consign it to the museum is when the spoilsports switch off 2G.
Thanks for reading, see you in the next one.
Let’s ironically play this one out in a world where you give away your number to someone, but don’t yet know if you want to add them to WhatsApp and your old Nokia 3330 comes to the rescue 🙂 “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen…