At what age did people first get a mobile phone?

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lawley666@reddit

Nokia 5110 traded it for a cd player when I was 10

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CommunityOld1897GM2U@reddit

10 but I was a bit of a latch key kid so it was for reporting in.

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1HeyMattJ@reddit

Motorola vodafone sometime around 2007 maybe

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Ready-Fox-3264@reddit

I got a Nokia as a birthday gift for my 14th in 2004.

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BuxtonTheRed@reddit

I think I also had a Philips Diga as my first mobile, in 2000 when I went off to university.

Before I'd graduated, I had moved up to the Sharp GX10 which was one of the first phones with a camera on. I remember being quite annoyed that there was no sensible way to get the photos off the damn thing, so I ended up writing a simple dummy MMS server program to bodge it. (Why yes, I was studying computer science, why do you ask?)

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Never really occurred that phones with cameras predated ubiquitous USB. That's a clever solution!

I actually had and early AGFA digital camera around '99 and it had an RS232 serial port for getting the photos off. Probably a bit bulky to implement on a phone.

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m1_ab@reddit

My 11th birthday just before I went to secondary school. I'm 21 now.

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Ok-Vegetable929@reddit

I think around 11. When I was going to secondary school worked out cheaper as those times I actually used the house phone to make calls to friends. Those weren’t cheap

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wickedwix@reddit

My 10th birthday so I could get used to using it before starting secondary school. I wasn't allowed to take it to primary and I had to leave it at home when I went to my dad's houss, it was a purple Nokia 3410. I wasn't allowed to have it out on the street, only when I needed to call or text and I had to stop walking and find somewhere to sit or stand to do so, because my mum worried about me being distracted while crossing the road.

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weatherillj09@reddit

Yep you're right with the high school bit. Got my first smartphone (And mobile) when I was eleven, handed down from my parents, then my own phone at Christmas and that's still somehow surviving today, having only paid £85 for it.

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MrMontgomery@reddit

Am 50 now and used to lead a quite an illegal life as a 20 year old, moved from pagers to mobile phones when they first came available in NI, back when you couldn't even text on them as they didn't have screens

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shazhazel@reddit

LG Chocolate around 14.. Some Motorola before this and the classic 3330 at about 11

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Automatic-Use-6714@reddit

Motorola startac - circa 1998

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ClockAccomplished381@reddit

22 iirc. I could've got one sooner as they were definitely 'a thing' when I was at uni, but it wasn't at the point yet where it was expected you'd have one.

I imagine I'm relatively unusual in that I used the internet heavily for over 4 years as an adult before getting a mobile phone. Most people either waited less time to get a mobile, or their premobile internet years were as children.

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Im_not_a_crackhead@reddit

16

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Gary_BBGames@reddit

1998 when I was 18 and got a job.

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Historical_Rain_2960@reddit

30

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MannerAdditional2121@reddit

Late 30’s around 1998

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stejent@reddit

I think I was 11, but a friend had one in primary school and I was so jealous. But he did live in a chaotic household and I didn’t. I got a Sagem MW3020 from my grandad for my 11th birthday.

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tygeorgiou@reddit

Samsung galaxy S2, I have no idea what year it was but I'm 18 now so I was probably around 6? haha

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DECKTHEBALLZ@reddit

16 (born in 1992) our village didn't get usable broadband until 2014 so I didn't have internet at home (If you stood at the top of the hill you could get enough bars to get mobile internet but it could only cope with text based pages) until I was 22..

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Skate_beard@reddit

14yo in 1999

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GrumpyOldFart74@reddit

I was about 23-24 - when I quit smoking I spent £200 on an Ericsson 788 with no free minutes, 10p per text and no data at all!

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SpudFire@reddit

About 10,but that was early 00s so there wasn't much you could do with them and it was a hand me down Phillips savvy so about all that could be done was call and text. Didn't really use it much, it was more about being cool by having a phone to carry around.

I feel like kids having phones these days is more of a concern for parents due to how much phones can do.

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OdBlow@reddit

11 just before I went to secondary… it was a lobster flip phone! Only allowed it as I was taking a 1 hour bus to and from school alone and had to make the £5 top-up last the month. I’m 28 so not sure if I count as “young folk” anymore

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

I'm curious what a lobster phone looks like.

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OdBlow@reddit

Like this but I’m sure I had more of a hot pink colour

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MindlessBadger281@reddit

28- yes I’m old. Apart from the cost etc I didn’t like the idea I could be get hold of easily by work. Living in China now- it’s a must have as we use it to pay for things, order taxis, train tickets etc

I was right though about it being too easy for work getting hold of me 😢

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Worried-Penalty8744@reddit

Got a Nokia 3210 the day they were released in the UK, I was at secondary school.

My kids are 11 and rightly or wrongly both have iPhones. About 90% of their classmates all have some variation of a smartphone too.

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littlebird2446@reddit

Genuinely what does an 11 year old need an iPhone for? Surely you don’t allow them on social media or online games. So then what do they even do on it?

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Tigweg@reddit

Use ChatGPT to do their homework like older children, obviously!

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unusual_flats@reddit

In what universe are 11 year olds not playing online games?

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littlebird2446@reddit

Mine won’t be. I play online mobile games and any that has an online community is full of misogyny, toxicity and inappropriate language. Absolutely not suitable for an 11 year old child.

Single player or offline mode? Okay. But otherwise there is no way an 11 year old should be online interacting with god knows who.

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unusual_flats@reddit

Your kids are your kids, but the way you prefaced it with "surely" made it seem like yours is the majority opinion, which it definitely isn't.

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littlebird2446@reddit

I’m shocked that it isn’t. Why on earth anyone thinks it’s appropriate for 11 year old children to be in online games talking to strangers is beyond me.

You either play online games yourself and know what kind of people/language/behaviour they will come across in which case that’s just bad parenting. Or you don’t play online games and you blindly let your child play without even considering who has access to them. Which is also shocking.

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unusual_flats@reddit

Why on earth anyone thinks it’s appropriate for 11 year old children to be in online games talking to strangers is beyond me.

This is what parental controls to disable chat and private servers are for. Only 3% of 8-17 year olds don't participate in online games in some form, so it can't be that "shocking" unless you're in a bubble.

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littlebird2446@reddit

Just because the majority do something doesn’t make it correct. I am shocked by parenting on the whole these days. Children are exposed to things far too early. They spend far too much time online and on smart devices. I don’t believe an 11 year old child needs an iPhone and Snapchat and the rest. I am absolutely not convinced that most parents are adequately monitoring what their children have access to.

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unusual_flats@reddit

Just because the majority do something doesn’t make it correct.

I never said it did.

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redbullcat@reddit

What if they played with friends of theirs, and didn't play with strangers?

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Worried-Penalty8744@reddit

Not like they are the latest and greatest ones.

However, Take photos with their friends, call their friends, have WhatsApp chat groups, play Roblox, watch YouTube, read books, listen to music or audiobooks. Almost all their homework is online or available via apps as well so they can use their phones to do that if they choose.

We’re all part of the Find My ecosphere too but I am not a helicopter parent who tracks their every move. Useful for them to be able to call me to pick them up from a friend or whatever though.

When I was their age I had a phone, cd player and books. They basically have the same just in one device.

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NegKDRatio@reddit

Please don’t let kids play Roblox

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

That's a bit depressing but not very surprising I guess!

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Lots-o-bots@reddit

11 when i went to secondary school

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elhazelenby@reddit

Same. I got a nokia keyboard phone when I was 11 in 2012. All my siblings got phones at 11 except for my younger brother who got his at 16 (2023) because he has autism and so he hardly ever went out by himself until he started going to school using school transport without my mum due to her illness.

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scottynoble@reddit

Same in 1999, had a trium mars. was very expensive on vodaphone.. 35p a minute.. 10p text

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Not_Alpha_Centaurian@reddit

Snap. For me that roughly coincided with affordable mobile phones saturating the market for the first time around 1999, so it was probably one of the first years where 50%+ kids had a phone

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Swimming_Photo9295@reddit

Around 1999

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Dennyisthepisslord@reddit

12 or 13 when I got a Nokia 5110

Very different to kids getting a phone these days. We had text and snake and £10 pay as you go credit

I don't have kids but the technology difference would make me way more wary giving a kid a phone now.

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Alzdeejay2@reddit

They came out mainstream around the time I left school in 1998, I was 16 and purchased the Philips Diga.

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Deep_Pepper_5405@reddit

I got my first phone when I was 12yo in 2002. I got this Motorola T190 and it was tiny. Almost all my friends had gotten phones (Nokia 3210 or 3310) about a year before and I was so upset that I was not getting it. It was chrsitmas and my dad called the phone and one of the peresents was making a noise and I was so happy to finally get it.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Bit of Xmas magic there. 😁

I loved the era of small phones. My last 'dumb' phone before going over to smartphones was a Sunny Ericsson w320 and it was tiny.

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Deep_Pepper_5405@reddit

BAck it the day it was smaller the beter and it was glorious. Now I can barely fit my phone in my purse :D

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Livs6897@reddit

I had a w350 as my second phone, first was my sisters old one which was also Sony and also tiny. God knows what year but I was at secondary school so maybe 2009?

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Ok-Ebb2833@reddit

1n 1998 i was 12, nokia 5110.

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apocalypsebrow@reddit

16 , in 99 but I only got it because there was a big illness in the family and I needed to be reachable at all times for when something happened. It was a Nokia, 55 something

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No-Juice-3930@reddit

8

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Figgzyvan@reddit

A motorola 1997

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Numerous-Abrocoma-50@reddit

22 I think.

I am 47 now

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bluezenither@reddit

10 when i was in year 6: the nokia 215, then i got a hand me down iphone 6s plus, then 11 a hand me down galaxy s9+, then 12 a hand me down iphone x

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AbsoluteBingo@reddit

I got a second hand Alcatel brick to take to school in the early Noughties. Upgraded to Nokia 3310 a few years later.

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Redgrapefruitrage@reddit

I was born in 1993. I got my first phone (good old Nokia brick) at about aged 15.

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MahatmaAndhi@reddit

I was 16 in '99/2000 and got a Vodafone MN1 with my first job's wages. Felt like Billy Big Bollocks. I'd make calls to people just so strangers could see how cool I was. /cringe

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thefootster@reddit

When I was in sixth form. None of my friends had one, nor my parents so it was only really good for calling home. It was a Motorola c520. It took AA batteries. When you were texting you couldn't access the phone book so you had to memorise the number before writing a text.

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someguyontheweb99@reddit

I’m old and they weren’t common when I was a kid Id of been about 14/15 in the late be 90s and it was some sort of Motorola with a stubby ariel that dug in you if you sat down with it in your pocket

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Ashamed_Housing7489@reddit

30 s

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_isolati0n@reddit

I think I was about 7 or 8. Bought it from argos with my Christmas money.

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Educational_Worth906@reddit

But that’s just because it was the early nineties. I’m old enough to remember seeing people at work with the original DynaTAC brick phones.

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Slightly_underated@reddit

I had a Trium Mars when I was around 13-14 in secondary school in 1999 I think.

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awwwwJeezypeepsman@reddit

I got my first mobile at like 12/13. Nice Blackberry bold.

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HauntingTheVoid@reddit

I held out until the mid 00s

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Respect. A friend of my girlfriend apparently only got one a couple of years back and we're all in our 40s. No idea how she managed that!

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letsshittalk@reddit

id rather not have one ive hated every touch screen ive had over the last 15yrs

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HauntingTheVoid@reddit

I know people who still don't have smart phones in their 40s. They've just got Nokia's still

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TheRealGabbro@reddit

At about 26 years old when they were invented, or at least when they became affordable consumer items.

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SouthAyrshireCouncil@reddit

3210 when I was about 13.

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sharkkallis@reddit

When I went to uni. Not at first though...we still queued at the phone for the first half year.

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Cultural_Tank_6947@reddit

I got my when I moved to uni in 2002.

I suppose I could have got one a little earlier, but none of my friends had one so I wasn't really missing out.

Got myself a little flappy Samsung.

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letsshittalk@reddit

11in 2001. a brick Motorola then a nokia 5110

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Cornishchappy@reddit

I got my first mobile phone at 34. I still have the same number now at 61.

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honestpotatolabels@reddit

I got a Nokia 3310 when I was 13. I was pissed off because it was the same model my sister got 18 months earlier so mine was now an old model. That thing was indestructible.

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nibor@reddit

i got my first in 1995 and felt late to the party, I was 20. I was nervous at first, a girl at my saturday job had one stolen off her in 1994 so I thught having one would be a target

I was tempted because Mercury 121 had release plans that gave free calls after 6pm and the weekend and I got that with a Motorola Flair phone with a slim battery that needed a thick backup battery if you wanted it to last at least a day.

My girlfriend convinced me to get one as she kind of wanted one but did not have as much cash as me, she ended up getting her own a few months later. She said it would be good as I was about to head to University and it did prove useful as my halls did not have didicated phones.

My next phone was the Nokia banana phone, then the cute little Nokia,

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RoyofBungay@reddit

I was 26, late 90s. A Motorola Timeport. Not just any Timeport but one with a blue screen.

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FedUpFrog@reddit

I was 33, Xmas 1998, a PAYG phone. There was a £0.50 daily charge just to access the network. I remember thinking "what am I going to do with this?".

28 years on my phone is rarely out of reach and used for many, many things including this.

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Pretty_Radio_7746@reddit

About 25. Remember thinking they’ll never catch on. Why would someone want to be contactable anywhere. That was the days of shitty Nokia phones. I’d probably think the same today of smartphones didn’t exist.

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42ElectricSundaes@reddit

18

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Rasty_lv@reddit

I was 12 in good old 2004. My mom gave me her old Ericsson brick. You know, for selfie defense..

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ValuableActuator9109@reddit

12 - which is when I got sent to boarding school.

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Intrepid_Bearz@reddit

10 years ago, when I was 40.
I lived somewhere with no service from when I was 21/22 until I was 39, so a mobile would have been pointless there. The internet speed was quarter of a MB too, took 3 full days to down;old Deadpool movie. So decent tech wasn’t really any use. When we sold up and moved, that’s when I got my first iPhone and iPad.

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SpunkSacks@reddit

I was quite early. Sony Mars Bar.

Says here 1992 or 1993. So I was 22 or 23.

https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/phone-detail/sony-cm-h333

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prustage@reddit

I was 38 years old. But this was 1992 and I had a Nokia 1011, the first ever GSM phone.

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Gixxer1000k@reddit

Nokia 3210 when I was around 10

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Sandy_Bananas@reddit

13/14 mid 90s. Maybe an Erickson. You could change the front cover, and buy an led aerial for it.

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icouldbetash@reddit

I got a flip phone for my 10th birthday (2009) and then a smart phone when i started secondary school (2010)

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Certain-Trade-4121@reddit

I got my first one at 18 in the late 2000s (Nokia 2600)

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Llotrog@reddit

I was 16. It was the 1990s and I was going youth hostelling in Scotland; so my parents did something between insisting and being generous.

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projeztzgb@reddit

Nokia 3310 then the Nokia 3310i I was 7 . Beautiful time to be alive as a child . Phone was so my parents could contact me to come home for dinner or get home it’s late.

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Sway_RL@reddit

11 when i went to high school, it was a brick and before smartphones but it was just to call my parents if i needed them when out with friends really

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MiserableSympathy230@reddit

26 from an old woman I was friends with. Didn’t use it till I was 28 though

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Prestigious_Emu6039@reddit

About 30, Orange phone. First clip I saw was dancing baby.

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waxfutures@reddit

I got a Siemens C10 for my 16th birthday. Had that for a year before buying myself the good old Nokia 5110 with the money I got for my 17th.

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Avox0976@reddit

I was born in 2006 and i got my first phone at the age of 10.

My first phone was a hand me down iphone 4s

God i loved that thing, it looked so sleek and it felt so cool and exciting.

Though i wish i was given a starter phone first like a nokia or a black berry. I think it’s best if children struggle through older models and earn their way to modern stuff with age and responsibility. Plus flip phones are cool and i am so sad i never got to experience one. I have almost fomo form of nostalgia for those types of phones like i should have experienced them and all my friends experienced them when they were younger but I just missed out on them so i am missing the memories of them my friends have.

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iSkiia@reddit

I was 10 (it was a second-hand Nokia 3310 my mum's friend gave us). I used to get the bus home from primary school though 😆

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ceehred@reddit

I'm older, so it was probably in my early late 20's (late 90's) - once the phones became smaller than a brick, and affordable.

Was the era before smart phones. I was slow to move to a full smart phone when the time came, I first had to be convinced my banana fingers would cope with the tiny on-screen keyboard!

Nieces and nephews in my family got their own phones at around maybe 10 years old. They're teenagers/early-20's now. They all have smaller fingers 😃

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oscarx-ray@reddit

I had the same phone at around 11 or 12 in the late 90s for secondary school, as a hand-me-down from my mum.

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Eug1@reddit

I think it was a Siemens that got very hot

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Ancient-Position-219@reddit

11, some sort of Samsung in 2013. My younger siblings got theirs at 11/12 (2024/5). When me and my friends got ours, it was just as instagram was getting popular and the internet felt pretty unrestricted. Social media felt a lot more fun and chill but also adult and violent content was very easily accessible. I’m not sure much has changed unfortunately on that front though there is more conversation about it (maybe there was also conversation back then) and social media has absolutely been transformed into a different, endless beast. From what I remember 4g was kind of just coming out but no one I knew had mobile data to use or at least not much, relied on Wi-Fi.

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Srddrs@reddit

I got a 3210 in 2002, I was 13

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Giddyup_1998@reddit

19, in 1998.

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bllobblong@reddit

i got mine age 13 at secondary school

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Charming_Honeydew_91@reddit

My first one was a used trium i was 14 i swapped with a friend for a half a q of rocky my cuz gave me. I was a non smoker at the time so didnt fancy it so seemed like a no brainer 😂

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Development-Regular@reddit

Bt cellnet phone was my first phone, hated it, 3210 when i was about 14, absolutely goated piece of technology.

We got our son a phone when he was in year 7 so he could be located at all times and he could ring us etc.

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VodkaLimesAndSoda@reddit

A basic phone on pay as you go when I was 11, in my last year of primary school. I got my first smartphone and contract when I was 14 in the early 2010s, so right as the internet boomed but before it devolved to complete brainrot.

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maersyl@reddit

Born 1988. For my first phone - a Motorola with a single line dot matrix screen and an antenna - when I was 14.

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PipalaShone@reddit

14 (am now 41), my mum had company BRICKS and passed one down to me (Dad had a business brick by then then too).

A boy in my class was in a similar situation and we were really excited that we could text each other, but it wasn't working so I tried to ring him on the land-line and his Dad answered...

"Hi, it's "MY NAME"; is *** there?"

"WHERE ARE YOU, "NAME"??? GET HOME NOW!!

I didnt know that his big sister had the same name as me! She was at home at the time, studying hard!

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OG-87@reddit

12/13 maybe my brother got a new one and I got his 7210

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Additional-Nobody352@reddit

When i was 13 in 2000.

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FigureSubstantial970@reddit

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mattjimf@reddit

I was 19, it was a Motorola Manhattan on One2One, didn't even have sms messaging. It did have a battery pack that was essentially 6 AA batteries stuck together.

My son got his at 11 and my daughter will be the same age.

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PHayesxx@reddit

When I was around 10 and started playing out in a field that was across a main road, my mum couldn’t shout me for tea so would call or text. At the time I lived on a small new build estate so there was nowhere to play football etc.

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MisterD90x@reddit

i was born in 1990 and wasnt allowd a phone till i was 13.

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BigDsLittleD@reddit

Not entirely sure, 17 or 18 maybe, once PAYG became a thing.

I had a Sagem of some description that disrupted speakers in a huge area.

In fact, I think ive still got it in a box somewhere

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Blue_wine_sloth@reddit

Christmas 2000, just before I turned 14. Many people my age got their first phone then. This was the one lots of us had (trying not to feel bad that the website I got this picture from was that of a museum).

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

It may be the one I had too a year or two before. Looks very similar with the wee aerial. And it was on Cellnet

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Blue_wine_sloth@reddit

According to the museum page 👵🏻 it came out in 1999 so may have been! I remember when you sent texts you could send an emoji like 😎 if the person you were texting also had the same phone.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Hah, don't remember the emoji thing but it was quite a while ago I guess. lol

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AdThat328@reddit

11, just before starting Secondary School.

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Specialist_Emu7274@reddit

When I first started getting public transport, but lived far away enough my dad would drive me to & pick me up from the bus stop. The bus was pretty much never on time so was good to be able to text my dad or he may be waiting ages. I was born in 2001

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Unhappy_Clue701@reddit

Ha. I used to have a similar problem after my Saturday job in town, pre-mobile phones. So, I used to get off at a particular bus stop, with a payphone nearby. I’d put 10p in, ring the home phone number and let it ring three times, then hang up. I’d get the 10p back because the call never connected, and the ringing phone would alert a parent that I’d got to the pick up point. Worked a treat.

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Specialist_Emu7274@reddit

I’m sure it did, pay phones aren’t really a thing now though. There wasn’t one anywhere near either waiting for the bus or where I got off.

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readytocomply13@reddit

11/12.

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_Nefarium@reddit

13 in 2018, found my dad's old Nokia 3310 and used that for 3 years until I was 17 in 2022 when I finally got hassled into buying a smartphone after being given grief from my collage for not being able to access their timetabling app.

I know I'm a niche example for people in my age group but long story short is that I just really don't like being pestered or interrupted / being wired into the world 24/7.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Completely understand and respect for being a hold out. Getting harder, as your example demonstrates.

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AndrewHinds67@reddit

I was 28 in 1996 when I got my first mobile phone. I remember getting itemised bills and a mobile phone back then was bloody expensive. I got one monthly bill of £300.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Ouch, I was very much of the occasional £10 top up and minimal usage school when it came to the mobile. Can't imagine running up a £300 bill. Did it with dial-up internet on the landline during my IRC phase in the 90s however. Luckily I was working by then so could pay it rather than being murdered by irate parents.

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becki7824@reddit

I got my first one in 2001, I was 10. And it was when I started walking to and from school myself. I had one of these beauties!

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UnacceptableUse@reddit

I had a Nokia towards the end of primary school probably from age 8. Then I got an iPhone 4 when I was 13

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Auntie_Cagul@reddit

I was about 30. It was a Siemens A30. I didn't get a smartphone until 2018!

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No-Extension-2378@reddit

It was a Phillips "savvy"

My gran was first to get one, she'd spotted them half price in Boots, then my mum had to get one so my Gran would have someone to text, and they both decided I needed one for starting high school. I'd say it was more they can't resist a bargain and needed a third person to text.

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Slow_Gate9923@reddit

Around 11/12… there was a newspaper competition run by tango and I won the “businessman” package. Got a brand new phone, braces, file o fax and some other odds and sods

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

The full Del Boy 😁

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alphahydra@reddit

I got some kind of Motorola brick on the Orange network either Christmas '99 or 2000. So about 15 or 16.

It was a proper big ugly buttony bastard with a leather case and a belt clip. I thought I was a fucking high flier.

Then over next year or two, phones went through a sudden and drastic shift towards smaller and smaller handsets. People wouldn't be seen dead with anything bigger than their palm, and the smaller the better. Having a big phone became a proper "caught wearing bellbottoms in 1980" moment.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

I loved the small phone thing - they were so pocketable. Bit of a pain in the arse trying to type texts on the tiny keypad however.

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radiantr4y@reddit

In 2019, when i was 11 and had just started Year 7

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

11 seems the most common answer for the slightly younger (than me anyway) set.

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radiantr4y@reddit

I think it’s gone even lower now as when i’m waking home from Sixth form, i walk past a primary school, and i see Year 4s or 5s with their own phones, kinda crazy that.

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space_coyote_86@reddit

When I was 11 or 12 and it was a Nokia 3100. I don't know what I even did with it though, apart from dialling *# 1345# to see how much credit I had left. I dont think I was texting friends until a few years later.

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naiwub@reddit

I was 18.

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DoctorRaulDuke@reddit

21, it was a Nokia 101 in 1992. "the world's "most portable phone"

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

'92 is pretty early doors. Only person I knew then with one was my uncle who was a sales guy for some big company and had had one since the 80s.

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Stephen_Dann@reddit

A Motorola in 1996. Orange contract with 15 minutes of calls a month. Still have the number

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bouncypete@reddit

This is a loaded question. Some parents WANT their children to have a phone, so they know where they are and can do other things. Like work to pay the mortgage.

And some children demand a phone from their parents.

The question as it is posed won't take this into account.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Well whatever the motivation the average age seems to be around 11 going by the answers so far.

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HeartyBeast@reddit

The question isn’t loaded at all

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Majick_L@reddit

Around 11/12 ish when I was first starting high school - I’m 36 now

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mrskristmas@reddit

It was a Motorola brick with a small aerial. This was in 1999.

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TheRebelPercy@reddit

14 - Motorola C520. I think a maximum of 10 texts could be stored

The damage that smartphones do to young brains cannot be underestimate.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Frankly I doubt it's doing my slightly creaky brain any good but I'm very glad I didn't have a smart phone until my late 20s.

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Timely_Resist_2744@reddit

I got mine at christmas the month before my 13th birthday (so 2001). It was a nokia 3310. A lot of my friends got phones either at that same christmas or their birthdays that school year, with a few the year before and after. We pretty much all had phones in my year by the end of yr 9.

I only had one friend in my year group at primary who had a phone then and she got it in year 5. Her parents were divorced though and she only had it so she could keep in touch with whichever parent she wasn't currently staying with, as well as her step siblings and cousins on both sides (it may not have been in reality, but the parents always gave the impression of being amicable).

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mentaldriver1581@reddit

Im well beyond middle age and got my first brick type Motorola when I was about 30.

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Euphoric_Rough_5245@reddit

18 but only because I had a driving commute to work and it was a basic Nokia brick not a 3210 or 3310 it was something more basic than that.

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PenneTracheotomy@reddit

A Nokia 3310 for my 9th birthday in 2003

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_rayn3r_@reddit

i got my mums old phone, which was an iphone 6s, at 8/9 bc she upgraded to the iphone x (this was just after it came out)

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Content-Zucchini-648@reddit

Maybe 9 or 10? Back in the olden days before smartphones

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Golden years, relatively speaking anyway.

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homelandere@reddit

11, had an iPhone at 14 but gave it up to focus on my GCSEs
Had a brick phone for two years lol

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Yeah, I'm so glad they weren't a thing when I was school age. Too distracting and hate the idea of everything being videoed.

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homelandere@reddit

I mean this was back in 2014-2016 so it was a little weird being the only person in my year group without a smartphone
Had to have been the best decision I’ve ever made as my focus was insane

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hallerz87@reddit

Nokia 3310, when I turned 14

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Hes_anarc2005@reddit

Me and my partner at the time had a BT Cellnet contract phone, we thought we were cool because we could change the ring of colour around the aerial/antenna bit.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Eat your heart out custom polyphonic ringtones 😂

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Remote_Development13@reddit

First phone was a 3310 in 2004, I would have been 12

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MGSC_1726@reddit

My first phone too, an absolute classic. For my 10th birthday in 2003

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PastaLover27@reddit

Towards the end of year 7

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Prestigious-Guard311@reddit

35

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CapriSonnet@reddit

16 which would have been around 2000/2001. Completely against my will. Felt like I was being monitored and it was a huge burden to carry as I was skating everywhere. It was an Eriksson. Can't remember the model but it had a little nubby antennae.

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Lisylou21@reddit

I was 14. It was a BT cellnet phone. Everyone had either that or a Nokia 3310.

The 3310 was my 2nd phone.

I taught myself how to programme ringtones on the 3310, and had several books with the codes in to make ringtones of popular songs

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

I had a weird serial cable for my 3310. Think it was for uploading ringtones and logos or something. Never learned how to make ringtones though.

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Iamtir3dtoday@reddit

11 at the end of the last year of primary school, so that I could keep in touch with friends going to other schools

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showmethemundy@reddit

28 ish

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Flimflamsam@reddit

I reluctantly got one of the indestructible bricks, a 3310 I think it was, when I was around 19 or 20.

Really didn’t want one but eventually ended up getting one on Pay As You Go with Orange.

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Moppo_@reddit

About 13/14, got my brother's old flip phone. I hardly used it.

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Vetni@reddit

Age 10, my mom got it free with her Avon order

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Hah, funny how tech that cost top dollar ends up as a freebie eventually. I watched DVD players go from hot new thing costing serious money to literally £7 for a player in the homewares aisle of Sainsbury's.

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Vetni@reddit

In all fairness, this was some piece of shit Siemens that had a perpetually orange screen and could do fuck all

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Aromatic_Pea_4249@reddit

Think I was 30+

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bonshui@reddit

Year 2000, age 24

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Diddleymaz@reddit

39 in 1999

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Azuras-Becky@reddit

I was 17. It was a Boshe 109e. Translucent orange shell with a green LED lighting it up. My dad got it for me so I could always call for help.

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ZeldaFan158@reddit

10

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ScholarOk4307@reddit

Motorola from woolworths when I was about 11. 2002?

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Mysterious_County154@reddit

9

I was helping my grandad clean out his cupboard and found his old phone, he said I could have it and I've had a phone ever since. He got me a sim for it too

Was some Samsung flip phone

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Think you're the youngest so far

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Bonzos_Bowler_Hat@reddit

Gen X so 21

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user-captain@reddit

In my 30s but that's because they only became small enough to fit into my pocket.

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QueefInMyKisser@reddit

I got one early in my first year at university, in autumn 1998. Some friends told me they went to the pub and that if only I’d had a phone they’d have asked me to join them.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Hah, yeah good reason!

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koalabear20@reddit

I was like 10 or 11 and I got a Nokia 3310 lmao, I do think the age for my future kids would be different though bc a kid having a Nokia is very different to a kid having an iPhone w internet access lol.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Yeah, only so much time you can waste playing Snake and texting people at 10p a pop I guess. Not quite so all-consuming!

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Hes_anarc2005@reddit

Me and my partner at the time had a BT Cellnet contract phone, we thought we were cool because we could change the ring of colour around the aerial/antenna bit.

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bluejackmovedagain@reddit

I got a 3310 for my 11th birthday, because I was about to start secondary school and I'd be getting the bus on my own.

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Warm_Stress_1654@reddit

I would have been about forty - I was born in sixty-four - and my employer provided it, insisting that I must keep it by me at all times.

I hate the things.

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

Interesting, I originally got mine because the girl I was seeing at the time got a better one and gave me her old one and I quite liked it. I guess as a late teen/early 20s person it might appeal more. Plus I was into gadgets and tech then anyway.

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TheLengendMemer21@reddit

Samsung S3 Mini, I was about 12 or something.

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perpetual-grump@reddit

I'd have been about 14-15. Was one of those Motorola's with the big aerial in the late 90s. Then upgraded to a Nokia 402 with snake and interchangeable covers.

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anabsentfriend@reddit

It was provided by work.

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snackingsnek@reddit

I think i was maybe 22 So around 1996.

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SwiftJedi77@reddit

I was around 23 I believe

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dinkidoo7693@reddit

Got a Nokia 3210 for my 18th

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LilacScentedStoat@reddit

17 or so.

I remember it was a slightly curved Nokia with a pull down cover over the keys. I think it was 8110

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notanadultyadult@reddit

I’m 35. Got my first phone at around 10 or 11.

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Geejay-18@reddit

I was late adopter. Got my first one in 2004, at the age of 38.

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poliver1988@reddit

3310 in mid naughties

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Chris_Golz@reddit

I'm 51. I would guess the early 2000's. I was pretty late to the game. I didn't get a smartphone until 2011, and I only got one so that I could upload baby pictures.

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MuserofMusic@reddit

I got a Nokia 5110 when I was 16 or 17, 1998 or 99’. My daughters got phones at 12 and my son has had a phone since 10 but he barely touches it.

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GuelderRoseFruit@reddit

I got some random alcatel thing when was 17/16 or so and at Sixth Form. Then I upgraded it to a motorola clam /oyster thing. It's so old I've googled it and I can't find it lmao. You could RECORD RINGTONES (ooooo!) on it and it had a plastic decorative triangle bit and I bought a few ones for it. You could change the screen to be red or green so I chose red obvs.

When I went to uni I got a Samsung with... wait for it... polytonic ring phones (OOOOOOO!).

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Unhappy_Clue701@reddit

In 1996 I think. Was in my early twenties. Not too many people had them back then, though - they were expensive to buy, expensive to use, and expensive to ring from a house phone too.

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Big-Preparation-1109@reddit

1995, i was 27

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Mr-Incy@reddit

I was 19, which was 1994, but it was one of the bricks stereotypically used by yuppies, and it was a complete waste of time.

I got my first 'proper' mobile, I think it was a BT Cellnet one (made by Philips according to Google) in 1999.

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Sad_Interaction_2933@reddit

Got a Nokia 3210 on my 13th birthday

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Sad_Interaction_2933@reddit

Got a Nokia 3210 on my 13th birthday

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Sad_Interaction_2933@reddit

Got a Nokia 3210 on my 13th birthday

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Colour4Life@reddit

11 when I start secondary school around 2003

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cari-strat@reddit

Same as you, BT Cellnet Phillips phone in 1996, when I was 24.

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andyteg@reddit

16 on condition of starting my part time job in the first year of college. Nokia 6110

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Disastrous-Place-846@reddit

12/13ish, around 2005 I guess.

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Savanarola79@reddit

18 in the late nineties. An early pay as you go phone from one2one cost 50p a min to make calls

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Last-Deal-4251@reddit

I was 14 and it was the cheapest phone my dad could find. I was gutted as most of my class got Nokia 3310s and I had this massive Ericksson thing with a dick sticking out the top of it 😭

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Metrobolist3@reddit (OP)

lol

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CarrotBusiness6255@reddit

I think I was in year 8/9 in middle school , and it was with bt cellnet and it did absolute fuck all except call and text

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musicallymotivated93@reddit

11, I had a hand-me-down Philips Savvy from my mum.

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wardyms@reddit

3330 in 2002 or 2003. 12 or 13.

But you can’t exactly compare that to what they are today.

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ActionBirbie@reddit

I think it was my sister's old phone, circa '99 or something like that. A Nokia or some description.

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bookishnatasha89@reddit

11, summer before I started secondary school. 2001.

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Legitimate-Soil7109@reddit

Got an Alcatel for Christmas, born in 88.

My mum was the first to get one and my parents sat me and my sister down to tell us about it.

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RedRamblerUK@reddit

Born in 2000. 11. Nothing flash, a Nokia 3310 or similar. Replaced with a Vodafone smart - quality dad...

14 or 15 I got an iPhone 5c in green, then I started buying my own.

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

16. Sony Ericsson T68i. Loved it!

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Glittering_Habit_161@reddit

I was 11 when I got my dad's old phone that had a button in the middle of it and it was a small touch screen phone.

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spiderplant94@reddit

I was 11, when I started going to school by myself and my mam was at work. But - it was a nokia brick.

I got a smart phone when I started paying my own contract when I got a full time job at 18.

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