1. Nokia 3310 [March 2004 - Dec 2005]
This is one amazing piece. It had great signal quality, decent battery life (which i screwed by using it when on charging). It was 2 yrs old when it was handed over to me (rather i snatched it from my Dad). I did try some modifications on it to make it look jazzy and cool, but it turned out to be a colored soap box. It was in working condition when i stopped using it. I still remember how i used to torture it by typing SMSes with my feet :). Talk about being Rough and Tough. It had this amazing feature: it used to break down into 3-5 pieces depending on the height from which it was dropped before it came in contact with the ground. Free SMS and Free Calling were the order of the day then and the phone didn't disappoint me to let me take full advantage of it. I handed this to shravan who failed to take advantage of it. It was dead by the time he started using it.
2. LG White Sleek Phone [Jan 2006 - Jun 2007]
My Love-Hate relationship with Reliance CDMA started with this sleek white phone which later turned brownish. Incidentally this was my first phone buy, 2400 bucks only. Like the previous one and the future ones, this was not spared from torture (as is apparent from the looks). It had some irritating ring tones. I remember one of my colleagues requesting me to change it.
3. ZTE Classic Cheapest model [Jun 2007 - May 2008]
Time had come to throw the old phone and replace it. But Reliance, as usual, was offering better price for new SIM card based phones rather than the old model ones. I decided to change my number and get a new phone + connection for 700-800 bucks. This had an amazing feature, it would not let the user speak for more than 5 minutes. After which, it could be used for ironing clothes. Then, one fine day, its microphone got screwed and i had to junk it.
4. LG Some Weirdo Color model with FM [May 2008 - March 2009]
My first color mobile, FM mobile, etc etc. I used a wired headset with it. It made my biking experience enjoyable with its decent FM. I had to stop using the FM after I had a near miss. Yeh India hai mere yaar, You can drink, drive and survive but not drive closing your ears and survive! It was a very decent phone until i dropped it multiple times when it was charging to screw the charging port. The phone is still in working condition. It needs help in charging though ;).
5. Not Apple, Chinese hiPhone [Dec 2008 - ...]
My first GSM, Music Player, Camera mobile which is being used only as Music player and camera. I got this phone imported from china. My colleague had got it for me (of course, i had to pay for it). Unfortunately, our jobs got knocked off during this period and I was about to resell to somebody even at a minor loss. I couldn't change my number during this Job hunting season and decided not to get a new number and put this mobile to use. However, this has been serving me in quite a few trips. It has auto Turn Off feature(!!!) too. Oh, Did i forget to mention 1 GB memory :-? [I invested 5-6K on this piece of $h14]
6. LG Some Weirdo Color Model with FM 2 [April 2009 - ...]
Same as 4. Supposed to be advanced but it is worse than 4 and cheaper too. Both are sub 2K phones. It's going strong after lapping more than 600 hrs of talktime and few thousand smses.
Not bad, I spent <13K over the last 6 years on phone (Got some 2K worth talktime too. Anyways, leaving it for simplicity purposes). Kanjos, Makki choos. Time to change my mobile based on the above collected stats. 6 phones in 6 years, means i gotta get a new one next fiscal.
A snap of all the phones in my house now (includes Asko's and Shravan's)
