The 25 Best Cell Phones Of The Early To Mid 2000s, Ranked

I sometimes find myself wallowing in the nostalgia of the days when I would walk past the Verizon kiosk at the mall and cell phones sat on stands like snowflakes, each one unique with different things to offer. Now, if you have an iPhone you are a normal human being and if you opt for an android or some other type of cellphone you are relegated to the minor leagues of society, outcast due to the green texts. 

Now I am not going to start at the beginning with the giant antenna cell phones or clunky, non-flippable bricks that pretty much all looked the same. No disrespect to those phones, but they lack the individuality necessary to properly list them. So I figured I would start with the flip phone revolution and stop when the iPhone took over the world. The glory days of cellular diversity, if I may.

As I always do with these rankings, I crowdsourced some answers because no one has really compiled a comprehensive list and I wanted to make sure there was proper representation from everyone.

After combing through a ton of tweets, old cellphone articles, and wikipedia articles on the best-selling cellphones of all-time, I am ready. So, yet another giant list that absolutely nobody asked for but you all will enjoy before heading to the comment section to undoubtably question my gender: The top 25 cell phones of the early to mid 2000s.

25. LG Juke

Now, as iPhones and their screens get bigger and our testicles get smaller from the constant radiation undoubtedly blasting into them, it is hard to imagine a time where the general public thought SMALLER was better. This phone is a prime example of that. Nearly impractical and unimaginable by today’s standards, this switchblade phone was all the rage when I was in seventh grade. However, it was simply too small to be properly effective and too easily lost. 

24. Samsung Gloss

It is hard to imagine a phone less visually appealing than the Samsung gloss. All of the bad things about the old clamshell Mac computer with absolutely none of the charm. Buttons too small to properly type, a screen much smaller than the case. Just a sad excuse for a cell phone.

23. LG VX8100

My dad had this phone. My mom had this phone. Everyone had this phone. One of the first ones where you could take a sick selfie while the phone was still closed. There was also a game called Monkey Ball on here that I would beg my mom to let me use it so I could play. Music buttons on the outside to pump sone tunes. Nothing wrong here.

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22. Sony Ericsson W800i

This phone was pretty sweet with music, it had two gigabytes of storage which was a metric ton back then, and also had a sick 2.0 mega pixel camera on the back taking up a large chunk of it. It also had that little clit mouse type navigator which could be sped through faster than a four-arrow dial.

21. LG Shine 

I'm going to be honest, the actual physicality of this phone was nothing special, but the universe surrounding the phone was just too great to ignore. I had a vague memory of this commercial, but further investigation proved to be even more incredible. "The guy" mentioned to be checking out a couple ladies' ass? Brody goddamn Jenner! And Lauren Conrad! What a world

20. Whatever phone Cam'ron was holding here:

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Despite nearly five minutes of in-depth research, I could not find precisely what phone this was, but the idea of not including it in the ranking just felt criminal to me. I considered an honorable mention, but that also felt like short-changing him. Maybe the most iconic cell phone picture of all-time.

19. Nokia N95

The idea of "gaming" on a phone that looks like that is now comical, but it was very much a thing. A phone sliding both ways is not completely unique, but it is still cool and this phone was innovative in that department. Nothing like locking in to play some Tetris on this bad boy.

18. Blackberry Flip

This will not be the only Blackberry on this list, but it is the lowest ranked. Why is that? Because it is the least Blackberry Blackberry. Blackberrys aren't supposed to flip, that isn't what they are for. HOWEVER, the operating system was still elite and nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever top the Blackberry ball navigation. More on that later.

17. LG VX6100

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Why does such an ordinary looking phone fall in the top 17? One word: Privacy. Before we all knew that the NSA was watching every single goddamn thing we did, LG had the bright idea to pop this little slider option over the camera. An extra special bonus to LG VX6100 owners that there is a less likely chance there is some blurry accidental picture of their penis on an FBI server out there somewhere just ready to be hacked and viewed.

16. Nokia N-gage

Disregard the opinion of @vegasharby because this thing actually ruled. I mean, talk about just absolutely taking everything someone loves in a cell phone and giving NONE of it to us. Want to use it with one hand? Too bad. Big screen? Not here. What you could do, however, was drop your game boy advance and seamlessly transition directly to this bad boy without a single step lost. It was so wacky and so different that it actually was great. 

15. Motorola V70

Sometimes to keep your edge you have to zig when everyone else zags. This is exactly what Motorola did with the V70. A flip phone? Nope, a goddamn SWIVEL phone. The circle screen was also a courageous choice. My only memory I had of this phone was my middle school band teacher having one and we all thought it was the coolest thing. Big time crowd pleaser to whip it out and swivel for the kids. (Tough phrasing there but I'm sticking with it).

14. Siemens SK65

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If you haven't noticed by now, this is a list that rewards the brave and courageous who dared to be different. To stand out in a sea of phones that looked too much alike. Another swivel device, this phone paid homage to Jesus Christ himself with the crucifix design. It also sounds like seamen which is funny, and it is okay to admit that. This was also the first with with "complete e-mail management" which was actually a giant deal back then. Siemens will not be getting any more love on this blog.

13. LG Blitz

The LG Blitz was the right type of small. It was compact in a convenient, not annoying, way with a keyboard that slid out and actually provided decent-size keys. A full keyboard on a phone this small was a TREAT to be able to stop T-9 texting and fire off more rapidly. It looked a bit like that Leapfrog phone your parents would get you as a fake phone, but it was not! It was real.

12. Virgin Mobile Snapper

Shoutout to poor people everywhere who didn't live the luxuriously life of being on Verizon, Sprint AT&T or T-Mobile. The bright red "Virgin" logo was a clear sign of the less fortunate, like the A of the Scarlet Letter but for poverty. You know what though? This phone got the job done. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, just a little embarrassing.

11. LG Env Touch

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The enV name dominated the hell out of the cellphone game for half a decade. How can the newest, fanciest, touch screen be last on the list of enVs that existed? It just didn't have the nostalgia and the greatness of the other iterations. It got the job done, it had a good keyboard and navigation section, but compared to its competitors of the day, it lacked. Top 11? Of course, but no higher and right where it belongs.

10. Motorola Krzr

The top ten is a giant honor, and the cell phone that takes this honor is most definitely well-deserving. The worse version of the Razr (which comes later) was still a sick phone in itself. Slimmer, ungodly shiny and the right thickness. If I close my eyes and focus enough I can still hear the sound of this slapping back together, a beautiful sound and seamless fit. 

9. LG Rumor

I have not been shy about my love for a nice slide out keyboard, and this one was as good as it gets. Also some necessary Sprint representation since they used to absolutely dominate and this list has probably leaned disproportionately to Verizon exclusives. I remember a few of the coolest kids in my middle school having this phone, so I may be a bit biased having it this high, but I do know it was a damn good phone that got the job done and more, plus those buttons were VERY Big for the cellphones of that era.

Bonus story from this guy:

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8. LG enV

Here is the second version of the enV on this list. One of the efirst to do the dual functionality of the front of the phone as well as a full keyboard with navigation panel on the inside, this phone was quite literally the envy of those who didn't have it. You could text at the speed of light, it had some legit games, a decent camera and it paved the way for a legendary sequel. We are at the point here where 8-4 are all pretty close, so it came down to the real nitty-gritty to distinguish.

7. Motorola Nextel i530

This phone could survive a nuclear holocaust. I am sure there is an entire quadrant of the Great Pacific garbage patch filled with exclusively these hunks of indestructibility. My older brother's friend had one of these and we spent a ton of time just throwing it around and smashing it into things and it managed to take absolutely zero damage. Throw in the walkie-talkie feature and the yellow design cement this as nothing short of iconic.

6. LG Chocolate

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The Chocolate was actually tweeted at me more times than any other phone. I knew so, so many people who had this. The cool touch screen buttons, slide out feature, increased focus on music, sleek design and so much more made this phone as popular as it was. The Chocolate 2 had the sliding wheel, which was sweet, but this phone paved the way for that to even exist and made the list for that reason, with them being way too similar to have both.

5. enV 2

There it is. The best enV of them all. The enV 2. I mean, look at it. You want an anecdote for how great this phone is? My friend Connor used it for about 4 years after the iPhone existed widespread simply because it was so effective and great. Perfect sized keys for typing, a great front screen design with big buttons and a screen that could be used for a ton. They got it absolutely perfect with this phone. Also, my pal Harel had a full chocolate bar once melt in his pocket, getting all inside the crevices of this device, and the phone still managed to work completely fine. Wild stuff. Truly, nothing could be changed about it to make it better, but even so it is in the stop it deserves at number five.

4. T-mobile Sidekick

The T-Mobile sidekick was truly the definition of iconic, and as a result I know some people are going to be upset to see it at number four. The way it flipped out, the commercials, how genuinely cool it looked at all times. There is only one thing keeping it from being higher on this list and that is the fact that it was a T-Mobile exclusive. No one had T-Mobile, it was the inferior of all the cell phone carriers at the time and even as cool as it was, it wasn't cool enough to uproot your life and your plan to get it, but it is cool enough to be number four on this list.

3. BlackBerry Pearl

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BlackBerrys fall into weird territory on this list because while they were a near necessity for businessmen and classy adults, I didn't really know any kids or people around my age to have them. Regardless, it is iconic and the addition of the trackball was incredible. This phone was doing things other phones would not do until nearly a decade later. Tell me you cant feel the clicky buttons on your fingertips and the smooth track ball on your thumb just by looking at the image above.

2. LG Voyager

Now I know I am immediately making a hypocrite of myself by putting a tweet saying the greatest phone ever and then placing it number two. However, when I tweeted that I wasn't taking in all the other factors I did for this list into account. This had the best functioning, best keyboard, perfect touch screen, huge inner screen, great navigation pad. It had everything. Even the speakers on the phone were excellent. I would honestly, truly consider using this phone still. I looked it up on Amazon too and it is only $30, don't be shocked if I have a burner one of these running in a few weeks.

1. Motorola RAZR

Never has a phone been more iconic. If you did not have one of these in middle school you were a bonafide LOSER. It had everything. It was shiny, sleek, a loud flip sign, the external screen and so much more. But this phone transcended the features physically and electronically present inside it. It was a status symbol, the barometer for coolness. I had the special edition red one (no big deal) and I'm pretty sure that is the reason I was elected sixth grade representative in the Arlington Middle School student government ((no big deall)). Was it the most functional? No. Was it the smallest, biggest, most useful or anything else? No. Did that matter one single bit? Absolutely not.