Oldies but Goodies

Jason* is a senior at the company for which I work. Today, as we were walking out to lunch, he shared with me a startling fact: he has been using his current Nokia phone since 2005! He hasn’t changed it because “it hasn’t died yet – why waste a perfectly good phone?”

I can identify with that though; I used a Nokia 1112 for almost 5 years before I decided to trade in my ex [Note: Why wouldn’t I call it that? All the memories.. *sigh*] for my current one, a shiny red-and-black Nokia 5130 XpressMusic (which still has a proper keypad with buttons and all, much to the chagrin of my mostly iPhone-using colleagues).

There’s just something to be said about old phone models though; they’re a lot more reliable and sturdy than current editions hot on everyone’s wishlist! Here’s a list of the things I miss most about my ex, the good ol’ Nokia 1112:

1. Scheduled text messages. I really hate those moments where I get so caught up in things that I forget to drop someone a text message or make an important call. My ex had an exciting feature that is surprisingly missing from my new one: a “Send Later” option for text messages! I used it especially for sending midnight birthday wishes to old friends – my ex was a useful thing to have handy when looking to be the first one to wish them “Happy Birthday!”

2. Built-in torchlight. Back during my college days, power blackouts were an all-too-common occurrence, and the timing each time was just terrible. Whether you were doing an important assignment, gaming with friends, or taking a shower; when the lights went out, chaos ensued on a campus-wide scale. My ex had a great counter to all this though, one button press and voila! the torchlight saves the day! Plus, Nokia had ingeniously used a white bulb with minimal battery usage in the phone, so I ended up using the phone one more often than my actual flashlight.

3. Never say die. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve dropped my phone on the floor, sometimes high up enough that the phone just disassembles upon impact. No harm done; I’d just pick it up, dust it off, put it back together, and I can make a call right the next minute. My ex definitely wouldn’t survive an 88-storey drop, but what kind of an idiot’d have his phone dangling near the edge like that anyway? And besides, dints, scratches, nicks, and gouges mean nothing to me, not when my ex can easily..

4. Change clothes. Like I said, my ex has seen its share of troubles. Old as my ex was, it’s not like I can impress anyone with its battle scars. The beauty of it was how easy – and, more importantly, cheap – it was to switch phone casings. You could switch it up even for the fun of it. I wonder if there was anyone who actually kept a wardrobe for their favorite old Nokia? (I certainly didn’t; cheap as it was, I was a real miser when I was younger.)

5. Super clear screen. Malaysia, if you didn’t know it already, is a country where things can get hot as hell (and I’m not talking about the political climate, har-har-har). As if the oppressive heat (not a synonym for “government”) wasn’t bad enough, the bright glare makes walking in the hot sun almost unbearable. Still, no matter how bad the sunlight got, I was always able to read what was on my ex with perfect clarity. Black-and-white screens FTW!

Yes sir, those were the good ol’ days with my good ol’ ex! What about you? Do you miss anything at all about your old phone(s)? Or, keeping in tune with the whole “my ex” thing, did you suffer a bad breakup? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below! 🙂

P.S.: Names have been changed to protect their privacy.
P.P.S.: Jason* made me include this disclaimer.