Picture this: you’re walking down the street alone and see something truly amazing.

What do you do?

You want to share it with someone as soon as possible. But how do you share it? The best option available would be to find a nearby payphone and call your friend, dialing a number you know off by heart.

No, this isn’t the latest Black Mirror episode. This was life before cell phones, when you had to remember and record details of your day for recall later with nary an opportunity to go viral. Luckily “life before cell phones” was pretty far back in time, because the cell phone has been around (in numerous incarnations) for generations and SaskTel’s been there for it all!

The 80s - Early 90s AKA The time of the Bag Phone and the 8900X

The time of big hair and acid wash. Also the time of the car phone (or the phone in the bag). Especially handy in the times of mechanical trouble, this cumbersome device was probably only ever used in cases of emergency (or if you had a totally tubular business deal to close).

The next evolution was a truly portable device—if you can reasonably call a phone that weighed 2.5 pounds portable. Models like the Motorola 8900X had features like a 30-minute call time, and storage for up to 30 numbers!

It’s the 90’s! AKA the age of the BRICK

This era brought about a legend in the cellphone game - the Nokia- 3310. Nicknamed the brick, this phone earned the reputation of being nearly indestructible. Also, you could customize the face plates in a variety of colours and spend hours playing Snake.

Totally 2000s AKA The New Millennium of RAZR and Rumour

Nothing felt as satisfying as ending a call with the crisp snap of a flip-phone and anyone who was anyone had the flip phone to end all others: the Motorola Razr. In the early 2000s this metallic coloured marvel, with a smooth number pad that made T9 texting a dream, had a lot of people feeling that this was the be-all end-all of cellphones.

As the ability to make calls transitioned to the ability to send texts, the need to send messages faster and with fewer errors made a functional keyboard the must have item when upgrading. Models like the LG Rumour 2 had a slide out qwerty keyboard that made sending your “lolz” ten times as fast.

The Aughts AKA The Blessings of the BlackBerry

As technology advanced, we got more and more capabilities in the palm of our hands. Early adopters of such technological advancements rushed to get the Blackberry. It had everything: a camera to send pictures, a keyboard with a satisfying click, and Blackberry Messenger to avoid those annoying text overages. It also introduced a divisive feature: Read Receipts. Yes, before BBM the timeline of when and if a text was opened was fuzzier and less concrete.

The Twenty-Tens to Today AKA Hello iPhone!

With the advent of the iPhone, Apple loyalists found the last brand they’d ever use. The iPhone changed the game with sleek design, touch screen technology and a camera that was good enough to give birth to the Instagram influencer.

Every coin has two sides and if the iPhone is one, Android is the other. And when models like the Samsung Galaxy arrived it paved the way for everyone to adopt the smartphone. All day batteries, wide screens, incredible storage? What else could we possibly ask for?

Does your phone have you feeling like you’re a mile behind? Head to SaskTel to find out about upgrading your phone ASAP.

Have any of these models brought back memories? What was your first phone? Hit us up and let us know which milestone you remember most!