I love it when I can still repair or modify a piece of gear. The large physical size and relative simplicity of older gear makes a big difference for that, especially for home users. And then there’s the whole thing where a lot of newer stuff is just glued together, so you can’t even access the insides without expert knowledge.
Back when I was making chip music, the original Game Boy was all the rage, despite the shitty display.
A few years back, I found my old ThinkPad that I bought used in about 2000 and it still worked, homemade Hayden Christensen background and all. I was so upset by evidence of 16 year old me being horny for Anakin that I almost threw it against the wall, but it probably still would’ve worked.
Same thing here. There’s2 things I do on a new thinkpad even before installing Linux on it
Swap fn/left Ctrl
Disable touchpad
The nipple mouse is just perfect for when you don’t have access to a proper mouse, and disabling touchpad in bios just eliminates all the annoyances with touchpad such as your palm ruining the day when typing
That Nokia was never a shitbox though. That was an excellent product when it launched and you’ll have a hard time finding owners who disliked it. Heck, you’re liable to get an earful for disparaging it, and rightfully ao.
I prefer the slightly newer 3410. It has a better button layout and added features such as web browser, picture editor and downloadable games (my grandma somehow has the long-lost first ever 3D Java game Munkiki’s Castles on hers, which has been in daily use for 20 years). However, they are so similar that their later revisions only differed by the button placement and firmware (see Janus Cycle’s video).
Funny how he flashed the firmware and struggled with the incompatible button layout rather than getting a cheap second-hand 3410, even a broken one would do (are there any broken ones, though?)
you’ll have a hard time finding owners who disliked it
Well hello there. It’s been more than 20 years, but I remember the keyboard on that thing being complete garbage. It was mushy, yet knee-dialing all the time with no automatic locking. And keyboard lock was some stupid unwieldy two-hand combination. The UI was extremely clunky too with only one button and two arrows pointing who knows where, and those arrows keys tended to get sticky over time. Also it was overly heavy and bulky, with a terribly attached back cover giving it a false sense of robustness - it shattered in pieces just like any other phone of that era. I think it was rather power hungry, too, I’m not sure, but I definitely did change the battery a couple of times. Overall, though, not a terrible phone by any means, but it was neither the most advanced nor the cheapest option, just the most widely marketed one right around the time when mobile phones started booming and ended up as a lot of people’s first one.
See, I had one as well. I always had proper belt cases on my phones, so I never experienced any butt dialling or back cover issues. The keyboard lock was annoying for sure.
I always loved the weight and size of that phone generation. I’ve got giant hands and later phones just felt too small to comfortably use. Heck, I’d buy one of those giant brick phones if they sold a decent one. Give me that two week battery life!
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