The Nokia 2600 was the first mobile phone that I owned; I’m a pretty late entry to the mobile tech scene, but this phone was the device that got me into using a phone. There were only two things it could really do: make calls, and send text messages. It didn’t even have a web browser. Something that it did have, though, was a colour screen. At that time, seeing a mobile phone screen in anything other than grayscale was a breath of fresh air, and simply because of that it felt ahead of its time to me. The 2600 also had a speakerphone, which meant you didn’t have to hold the phone up to your ear when making a call! Amazing!
Two main things that held this phone back for me was the lack of a camera or Bluetooth, the latter of which made phone-to-phone file sharing (I did a lot of that back in the day) impossible. Despite that, I vividly remember the hours I used to spend playing Bounce, or sending text messages to my friends; I loved using this phone, and despite its lack of features it introduced me to the potential that the mobile phone had. For that, I’m very grateful.