Join us for a look back at the best (and worst) of Android and Google over the years in our series Technostalgia.
Of all the dozens, if not hundreds, of phones I've tested over the years, I just couldn't shake my fond memories tied to my first Android phone, the HTC Inspire. So I bought one off of eBay.
The Pixel C didn't live a long life or enjoy massive retail success, but its design and functionality were fantastic. I wish more people had the opportunity to experience just how great this product was, and I can only dream of what could've been if Google had refreshed it with new components.
We all go through a lot of "firsts" in life, including our first Android phone. The Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate is the gadget that ignited my passion for the platform, and today, I'm revisiting it to see how it holds up to 2020 standards.
People love to say that phones aren't as exciting as they used to be — and while MrMobile would argue that foldables make this one of the most interesting periods in mobile history, it's certainly fun to look back on When Phones Were Fun.
Apple announced this week that some of its phones from 2015 will be getting iOS 14 this fall, while on our side of the mobile fence, a phone is lucky to see two years of Android updates. Well, there is one lone success story in the "long-lived Android devices" category, and it's sitting under my big screen TV right now.
You probably have absolutely no idea what the Nexus Q was. And even if you do, you probably never saw or used one. But its legacy can been seen across many very successful Google products since.
Android 3.0 Honeycomb introduced a radical new UI and a host of exciting new features, but it wasn't quite ready for consumer use, and Google did little to fix the inherent problems. That said, Honeycomb contributed in a big way to Android's future growth.
Motorola makes a lot of good Android phones, but none of them are anywhere near as fun or exciting as the Moto X was. It's time to bring it back.
Smartwatches have been a pipedream for aspiring secret agents, affluent tech nerds, lovers of all things sci-fi, and so many more, for a very long time. Android seemed like a fitting platform to begin bringing the future to our wrists. In the beginning, smartwatches were sometimes big and weird, but also some of them were the best we've ever had.
Remember when you had to root your phone to make it something you wanted to use? Thankfully, those days are gone. Good riddance!
In the early days of Android, on-screen keyboards were okay, but physical keyboards were still preferred by a great many of us budding Android users. I was one such user, and I miss those days dearly.
There's more than seven years between Android 4.4 KitKat and Android 10. Just how different are the two versions, and can we trace the path from there to here?
Android looked a lot different in the days of the HTC Inspire, but it's the phone that pulled me away from my iPhone and sparked my love for the Android platform as a whole.