My bible study guys like to poke fun at how old I am. I like to remind them how much cooler I am than they are:)

This week, one of the newer guys in the group found out that I was a lot older than he actually perceived me to be and it just blew his mind. He then asked how old I was when I had a cell phone, guessing that it wouldn't have been until I had graduated college. I surprised him when I told him I actually had a cell phone back in 1998. Most of the guys in the group didn't have phones until around 2004. Yeah, I was an early adopter of electronics back then. Maybe still a little bit now. Anyways, it got me thinking about all the cell phones I've owned over the years. I'm surprised they still have images for some of these phones on the interwebs.

Samsung SPH-1000 (1998-1999)

Probably the first mass consumer phone out there. I went to BestBuy and bought one with my own money even though my dad didn't allow me to buy one. After owning it for about a week. I decided to listen to my dad and return it. Then right before I graduated highschool, my dad bought it back for me as a graduation present. I was the coolest guy in school.

Motorola StarTac (1999-2001)

The charging dock on the SPH-1000 eventually gave out (cheap plastic) and I was no longer able to charge the phone anymore, so Christmas 1999, I was in the market for a new phone. I came back to Austin and the hottest phone out at the time was the miniscule StarTAC, precursor to the RAZR. It was $250 which was a lot at the time to be paying for a phone, but you were really paying for the size. My friend Gary and I were both looking for the phone so we thought we could negotiate with the Sprint kiosk guy for a better price. Turns out everyone in the mall was sold out of them. When we finally found someone who had it, he wasn't willing to budge on the price which led Gary to shout, "Oh come on!!! It's Christmaaaaas!!!" The guy ended up giving us both $10 off on the phone. Hilarious.

Sanyo SCP-4500 (2001-2003)

The StarTAC broke one day because it was in my front shirt pocket when I decided to hop a small fence rail at McDonalds. The phone fell out onto the pavement and split into two pieces. A child nearby started laughing uncontrollably. I needed a new phone again, but I didn't know what phones were out there. My friend Gideon had this Sanyo phone which had this crazy feature: SPEAKER PHONE! I knew that that was what I wanted. It was bigger than the StarTAC but SPEAKERPHONE! Crazy! No need for wired headsets! I got around the bulk of the phone by putting it in the leg pocket of my Old Navy Painter's Jeans. You know, the ones that came with the hammer loop.

Samsung VGA-1000 (2003-2005)

After my contract was up on the Sanyo, it became time to look at another phone. Up to this point, none of the phones that I had owned had had color screens, so I decided it was time for one of those. Enter the VGA-1000, I believe I paid $130 for the phone, which eventually became the most basic "free after rebate" phone for Sprint. But it served me well for a good two years. Oh, though it was color, it had the worst screen resolution, even though the screen was the size of a postage stamp.

Samsung A-900 Blade (2005-2008)

I owned this phone the longest out of all my phones. Small size, color screen, bluetooth, MP3 player (sort of), this phone was Samsung's answer to the Motorola RAZR. After 3+ years, my phone didn't look as clean as the one shown in the picture, but was pretty scratched up. I even considered tearing the casing off of the phone and spray painting it another color. Out of all my phones, this one was probably the best one, considering price vs. features. I kept it over a year after my service contract ended because I couldn't find another phone that I wanted to pay money to replace it with.

Apple iPhone 3G (2008-present)

Eventually though, I ended up getting a new phone. After about 10 years with Sprint I decided it was time to jump ship. Sprint didn't have the greatest service, nor did it always have the best selection of phones; a problem that they are recently addressing though. Anyways, UT employees got a 20% discount on AT&T, so it was time to switch. The iPhone is definitely a big jump from that first cell phone I ever owned, but if history is any indication, phones will just keep getting more and more technologically advanced.