10 Years Ago: Pocketnow's First Smartphone

10 years ago today, we published our first smartphone review ever which marked the beginning of the smartphone revolution. Pocketnow had been around longer than that, of course, but we had mostly covered Pocket PCs back then. In the spring of 2002 we got our hands on the first device that tried to combine the power of a Pocket PC hand held computer with the always-on communications of a mobile phone.
The GSM/GPRS expansion pack was actually an attachment for the most powerful Pocket PC of the time; the Compaq iPAQ H3600. The iPAQ H3600 was actually one of the first products that was manufactured by HTC. Its design boasted modularity with expansion "sleeves" that wrapped around the device and added functionality.
Most people were walking around with both a cell phone and a PDA at the time. The PDA would sync with a desktop computer so that you could keep track of all of your contact info, appointments, tasks, and notes while mobile. For a long time I carried only a PDA with no cell phone since I thought it was ridiculous to carry a phone that didn't sync all of my personal information automatically. It seemed even more ridiculous trying to sync the PDA with a mobile phone using the infrared ports.
So I waited for the first real smartphone to appear. Yes the Treo 180 was released a couple months earlier, but it had that silly "graffiti" text input interface, a greyscale screen, and a ton of things it couldn't do (GPS navigation, MP3 player, video player, real HTML web browser, etc.)
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The Compaq GSM/GPRS Expansion pack was unique in that it was adding phone capabilities to a pocket PC that was never designed to be a phone. This meant adding a phone speaker and microphone to the back along with a secondary battery, firmware, power button, and external antenna. The attachment even included its own software that automatically installed on the Pocket PC when attached.
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Pocketnow has been a key source of mobile technology news and reviews since its establishment in 2000. With offices on three continents, Pocketnow offers round-the-clock coverage of the mobile technology landscape, from smartphones to tablets to wearables. We aim to be your number-one source for mobile tech news, reviews, comparisons, and commentary. If you love mobile as much as we do, be sure to subscribe!
10 Years Ago: Pocketnow's First Smartphone
• 10 Years Ago: Pocketno...
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[@liviuvelichi6847]

That moment when a 2002 phone can do more than the iPhone 6S

[@agoogleuser1188]

apple fans be but hurt

[@FlameGam3r]

This actually looks really good from a 2002 perspective

[@jb0177]

Found one of these at GoodWill for $10. Perfect shape. Bought a battery, and sold it on eBay for $200.

[@TheGrayWolf81]

jb0177 Shoulda kept it! Then maybe after another few years you could've sold it.

[@badbeatking80]

Cool story bro

[@omarrodriguez4237]

Im actually really surprised at how complete that thing is and for a 2000 "smartphone" it really is amazing. When I saw it I thought youd say it came out in 2004 or 2005, it has a touchscreen, mp3, web browser and plenty of great features it sort of make me wonder how phones arent better today when thats a 14 year old phone.

[@omarrodriguez4237]

Of course a modern smartphone is better its 14 years more advanced, yet it doesnt seem that way is my point.

[@danielrmorenop]

Omar Rangel speed and form factor are things to take into count too, and affordability

[@omarrodriguez4237]

Dont you think youre asking way too much for a gadget that old? My point is: it was the shit in its time. End of discussion.

[@danielrmorenop]

I'm saying that we've progressed in 2014 in terms of speed and form factor.…. Obviously it was a great device back then

[@AK-wb2ww]

First you said that phones now aren't better, then you say they are more advanced. Seriously, make up your mind.

[@megabojan1993]

I remember how badly I wanted to own one of these smartphones as a kid back in 2002, but they were extremely expensive :)

[@andreww1212]

Hahaha. Same here! All of my friends had the Compaq iPaq H3600 in high school. Eventually I ended up convincing my parents to get me the HP iPaq 5455 in 2004 or so.

[@HYITHO]

lol I think we all shared the same taste. Back then I always imagined myself carrying one of these around.

[@megabojan1993]

HYITHO Back in the day I also liked the Nokia communicators, mainly the Nokia 9210 and Nokia 9500. These were one of the most advanced phones in the world back in the day.

[@HYITHO]

MegaBojan1993 oh yeah definitely man. back then, where I am from, mobile phones were limited to pretty much upper middle class to rich people and phones like these were pretty much a dream for us. but nowadays, almost everyone got a smart phone.

[@megabojan1993]

HYITHO You're right, smartphones were extremely expensive back in the day, and they were quite slow in doing everything. Few months ago I picked up a Nokia 9210 from ebay, and I was surprised how everything is so slow on that phone :) That nokia was my unfulfilled dream phone and that's why I bought it :)

[@Ja5219]

Amazing, I was actually amazed at how fast you went through the menus. At 8 mins in, I paused the video and quickly grabbed my smartphone and cherished it much more. I know that Pocket PC was what they had back then, but this just made me appreciate smartphones of today more and also realize how far things have come in 10 years.

[@britneytimberlake11]

this is alot faster than my iphone 4 when it upgraded to ios7. Seriously!

[@okhan5087]

lol

[@sburton015]

I remember buying one of these for like $500 to $600 back in about the summer or fall of 2000

[@JTManuel]

i was drooling over this set up years ago. i got me a visor with the gsm phone attachment and music player attachment. i was golden back then!

[@bhaveshkalani9405]

So this is in my recommendation after 8 long years.

[@sriramsundar8388]

Video: 10 years ago KZbin: *Reccomends the video 8 years later*

[@Hassanw9]

smartphone have changed so much over the years it's unbelievable to the fact that I lived through the changes... I'm 18 now and I can't remember these kind of PDA/smartphone thingy being popular I remember the old Nokia phones like 3310 and 6230 and so on

[@vinnievincent85]

You dont remember these because they were never that popular :) Escpecially not compared to todays smartphones. It wasnt considered normal and ok back then to buy a phone for 500+$ to a child.

[@abailey1086]

Great job as always.

[@amarajit]

Still better than the Iphone :3

[@JuiceBoxX]

Nick Eddy I smell an apple fanboy

[@Kuristofa138]

Nick Eddy you can't custom iPhone nor is it open-source. The first Android phone is better than iPhone 6.

[@JustinSmith24]

Nick Eddy He is right though. Androids will NEVER be faster or more fluid than iPhones for the simple fact that iPhones IOS is EXTREMELY intuitive and simple.

[@CalugaMen]

Justin Smith Windows Phone

[@stretuz]

***** android is very buggy os

[@Dimondminer11]

And almost 10 years ago again

[@FedJimSmith]

I remember the days when I desparately want to have a Palm Organizer

[@GuyWithThePie]

I wish they still made these Microsoft Pocket PCs. Phones from the early 2000's rock.

[@thescrybe]

Wow. This brings back so many memories. One of my first pocket PCs. I think I upgraded from that to an HP 4700?? Waxing nostalgic...amazing how far technology has come. I still miss having a full size SD card slot.

[@FrStProductions]

I have the pda part without the expansion pack and the battery was recently replaced so it works like new!

[@jaylonakers845]

I had a pocket PC my mom gave it to me it was kind of cool looking how far we have become

[@frostygene9]

it's nice to see these throwback videos :)

[@RTSchofield]

My dad had one of these. I thought it was so cool. Then he left my mum and me for another woman and left it behind. Best day ever.

[@vaxick]

I had one of those back in the day. My fondest memories with it are playing old Lucas Arts games on it along with Sim City 2000.

[@AlexanderPataridze]

Awesome idea to start reviewing old stuff!

[@dianasoto5309]

That thing is huge!!!!!!

[@sydneyaustraliayoutubersme7483]

remember this phone very well

[@PelegTsadok]

Watching this is so nostalgic, it reminds me of Windows XP and my dad's old i-mate K-Jam. This device felt so amazing when I was a kid, and it has more functionality than an iSheep

[@TECHNOGEEK20000]

I remember the AvantGo service. I used it back when I had a palm pilot pda. It was very cool for the time.

[@0megaJB]

I have been a Windows CE/Pocket PC user from the late 90's I had the IPAQ and loved it, the expansion packs were very useful and it's amazing to see what they've done with these devices.

[@Chriva]

I have many found memories of those! I first owned the monochrome version(3130) and later on the 3630 (your model), and ofcourse others after that, but they where the first one's that sparked my interest back then. Module players, Linux via cyace, emulators, pocketquake, Leo's flight simulator and what not. Miss those times =)

[@ConcordeOne77]

Same here, i also miss my palm treo too, sadly it disintegrated and the keyboard buttons fell out

[@florianbecker8312]

I had One of the PDA....Make my day:-)

[@twisted_void]

Still have couple of PDA's at home :) It was a great device for its days. Way ahead of its time.

[@linkeddevices]

Back in 2004 I had the iPaq PDA which would link to my flip phone for full Internet access. It was pretty amazing. That thing could literally do even more than smart phones today. It was meant for industrial, commercial and scientific use so beyond web browsing, media and video play back of any format, and thousands of other apps like word processing etc, it supported SDIO which allowed it to use add on peripherals like audio processing for my electric guitar and even air quality testing. The thing could even be used as a universal remote.

[@weakie87]

Amazing response!

[@ArielJerseyJr]

That Pocket PC is really fast also packs a lot of features.

[@wkeklaalal1577]

Basically 20 years ago😲

[@linkeddevices]

You could use any if the full desktop web browsers like Opera mobile or net front and download full windows mobile apps in the form of cab files.. I remember installing pkaybstation and Nintendo emulators and playing games on the go with a Bluetooth controller. Windows Mobile was an incredible platform

[@lynn.chaaaa]

so nostalgic!

[@EddyGraphic]

it was actually 13 years ago today XD

[@PrysmaticFireGaming]

+Eddy Nelson Lopez look at the upload date

[@EddyGraphic]

+Prysmatic Fire I know, that's why I said that it was 13 years ago today.

[@bilal00276]

+Eddy Nelson Lopez No, you said it as if they got it wrong.

[@XgamerdaveX]

You made that comment 4 months ago.

[@Randolfirene2]

+Prysmatic Fire Eddy there was nothing wrong with Eddy Nelson's statement. It's the way you interpret his comment that was wrong. He said 13 years ago "TODAY".. its indicating that the phone was out 13 years prior to his comment not the upload date of the video. Geez! common sense is getting scarce nowadays.

[@MrPenriquez]

I remember when Palm pilots and other pocket PCs were all the rage lol It makes me feel old!

[@christosarchontoulakis7890]

That was a really cool tool!!

[@HugoParedes]

But seeing this brings me back to that time. QTEK S100 and S200 were amazing.

[@sapiigor]

Had my first ericsson cellphone in 1996-7 thats an antique. This is fearly new.

[@parrotfishko]

i want to buy this antique one day as a collection.

[@flatplant]

almost 20 years now, hot damn.

[@VochtigePizza]

i still got 2 of this beautys, not in use but still.

[@VanSanProductions]

Imagine if modern smartphone operating systems were this simple. So snappy

[@yohan1004]

This phone was heavily featured on through out early season's of Smallville tv series.

[@MrNamegame]

"This is in a time where Apple was making iPods that were basically a laptop harddrive with a screen and a little clickwheel that played MP3's and that's it." I did modify that a little bit, but basically the same words. Anyways, I remember seeing an original iPod that actually still worked once. I don't remember if it actually made harddrive sounds or anything like that, but what I do know is that it would have definitely fit into a laptop harddrive mount's place back at that time. It's really that large physically with much less space than today's smartphones, even. So think we've come far enough that I can just hook my phone up to my desktop through bluetooth and play music through the computer into my headphones while gaming. It's that awesome nowadays.

[@etact8888]

I still have several of these compaq pocketpc, first model is 3630 I think. There's a expansion pack for wifi, and a bluetooth cf card. wifi connection is quite fussy, bluetooth connection is very weak (aso if u use up the cf slot then ur memory expansion cf card is out). Also have the infra red usb transmitter and u have to align on the table and do modem dialing. All the trouble we do that day for connectivity is hard to imagine!

[@josephdesimone6599]

I had one of the Bluetooth adapters for this device, and I remember that I could never get it to actually work. It was very frustrating to fuss with it, and I tried for hours to get things set up, but it never did work out. It's strange to think that Bluetooth is so universal these days. I remember the early days of WiFi, as well. It was a really big deal the first time I could get on the internet from a wireless connection. These days, even your toaster has WiFi.

[@Mike-zl4zs]

Nice Video! I actually have a Compaq Pocket PC from 2002, slightly different though, no speaker in the D-Pad, its on top, it does have a stylus (the tip is broke off though and Im not quite sure where it is) and I have that exact same dock

[@drummerben04]

Man Radiation coming off of that must of been crazy!

[@Rayoui_]

I still have one of these.

[@R3AP3R664]

I had one of these when i was 20... pass down to me from my father, he upgraded. this shit was expensive ... :O

[@Centrinario]

I'm getting one for Christmas!!!!... is what I would have said 12 years ago had I had the money back then to buy it, which I didn't...

[@kwas101]

Had one with the GPS sleeve, was given to me by a client. I used to take it shopping with me, had my shopping list on it. I used to get a few interested looks. Now if you *don't* have a smartphone you get a few interested looks.

[@WarthogRacer]

My Father got one of these from the company he works for back in the day. I thought it was awesome!

[@ianedmonds9191]

Ahem Jornada 920. That was integrated with a built in cellphone with GPRS modem. I used it for about a year.

[@Yggdrasill8]

I had one for high school, at the time it was really neat, I always feel nostalgic about these, but having a s7 with all its wonderful functionality and almost 200gigs of memory is a ten thousand times better. I was swapping a bunch of bulky flash cards for all my music/images and converting videos to run smoothly on it at very low resolutions was a pain.

[@what316austin1]

could you please do a video of all the cellphones u have had , it would be very interesting .

[@NightBat-vc5jx]

First touch screen phone I ever saw was one back in 2006 now that I think about it

[@dannyclub09]

I had an original Windows Mobile phone, it had Wi-Fi but it barely ever worked and the battery was so short. It was second hand.

[@Justas736]

it looks badass :D

[@R_.709]

Now it's been 20 years

[@spiffystump8114]

The device is complicated compared to today's

[@c4dageek]

Woh, those beeps and chirps really take me back. I wonder if my O2 XDA 2 will still power up. (also HTC-made 'Himalaya' I think)

[@PrimeMover93]

im actually impressed

[@benhaotang]

exactly another 10 years

[@kaibaCorpHQ]

Pocket Now started the "My first cellphone videos" before it was cool 7 years ago.

[@HASSANKHANGANDAPUR]

old is gold

[@cleanycloth]

Woo! I have one of these, but with no expansions. (HS3975)

[@tengzhiwei1083]

Wow so classic to phone nowadays

[@georgegta5010]

Nice video I still have the old sony mp5 player v2007

[@judielebuenaventura2858]

10 years ago, They reviewed a 10-year-old device. And now, I watched it 10 years after.

[@redchojnowski7159]

This phone is an adult now. 18 years old. I'm 40 years old.

[@NodePoint]

I have a HP IPAQ which has Bluetooth and WiFi. The problem is that the screen has cuts on it and it shows a red colour on the defective touch screen BUT the touch screen works really well.

[@AXIESSALO]

And let me add.... SIEMENS SX 45 FROM 2001 ^_^ !! Just like this one, Stylus, color touch screen, Internet and Windows for pocket PC's 😉😎

[@AXIESSALO]

Like my coment for let it be seen by others, im tired of the algorithms if this dont get likes this will dissappear in the coment box

[@MultiSlawa]

looks like a breathalyzer

[@mountainblanc3200]

screen looks good even in 2017, although i think the pixels are dying, still looks good, i hope they will bring this back in a modern package.

[@rigurat]

The back of the device as the phone. That idea sounds good even for today, because no face oil on the screen.

[@xXBlackxMoonXx1]

if they will develop it in 2014 it will be awesome. it`s faster than our smart phones now and very good can i have it ? :D

[@PokemonHelper582]

Wow... In 10 years something like this becomes a smartphone, it´s just amazing how technology keeps advancing and changes everything.

[@PhillipSmithstargazer]

i remember them I was using palms for years, i did not got to this smart phone, a year or two later 2003 or 04 i think I my first smart phone, a iMate smart phone running windows CE and others using windows CE and still used palms and carried cameras and mp3 players as well up to iPhone 3s release. That when smart phone finally became a stand alone device.

[@brian171999]

11 years

[@copywritingbyrazvan249]

Pocket PC wasn't a bad OS for its time. It was actually quite complex and it took IOS and Android a long time to become better than it. I remember using it the first time and I was blown away by how many things you could do on a mobile phone. BlackBerry OS was a far more streamlined form of Windows Mobile, far less technical. It is funny how history repeats itself. BlackBerry OS was like IOS. Windows Mobile was like Android. At any point in history we're going to have a complex, customizable operating system and a simpler, streamlined one.

[@Fruitarian.]

Who still watchin in 2022?

[@Dark5tar111]

It's so fast!

[@samueltan2148]

Can’t believe another 10 years have passed…

[@benbelcher1998]

I remember my brother getting this... it was so cool

[@AquariumBro97]

I remember on the HTC Tilt and Tilt 2 the Windows Mobile on there was like Windows XP on a phone screen

[@JayRockMitchell]

I have two of these with the key board attachments very hard to find

[@n0ti5]

Nokia 9000 Communicator released in 1996, closer to a "smartphone" than a pda with a gsm expansion pack.

[@ranajitdas5927]

Watching it on the 19 th april of 2021.

[@dguignu]

For 2002 this is some pretty amazing stuff

[@JacksonWalter735]

It's still neat today too. Wished I could get my hands on one in 2020 without spending too much money.

[@fry.master]

Damn that things fucking fast for a 2002 phone! So snappy! not feature packed but nearly lagless on the ui!

[@KDpyro]

agree with you^^

[@kderailed86]

This was mu dream device esp. The stylus loved stylus phones

[@Otachitaki]

It's actually fast wow

[@sparticus214]

I consider the moto razor as first smart phone because it was one of the most popular phones ever and made smartphone and was a flagship for all phones today