This Sony Ericsson is not a Smart Phone

[@MrSociofobs]

"It had no headphone jack, showing how far ahead of its time it was" lmao

[@JanusCycle]

:)

[@ThePhobosAnomally]

From what I remember the standard headphone jacks were not used in phones at that time. Every phone had some sort of custom made solution to which you connected your headphones. These phones normally had custom made connectors for the chargers to which you could also connect specific headphones. At the time appliances (and everything really) was not as efficient as today, but it was a happy time.

[@Potatoleague-ux2zc]

I hate the fact that when i changed my phone with one newer it doesn't have headphone jack and i have discovered today that Consequently because my phone doesn't have headphone jack it also doesn't have radio application which i dont use but i remembered that today using my phone

[@Krizefugl]

It had a propietary headphone connection. And it came with headphones in the box. Replacements were expensive though.

[@MrSociofobs]

@@ThePhobosAnomally True, only back then the manufacturers didn't intentionally remove a feature just so they can create an artificial problem and sell the "solution" in the form of overpriced earbuds. Still, those proprietary connectors were just as bad.

[@kolkoki]

Something I miss from those times is hackability. Nowadays on android, rooting is super annoying, breaks many things and needs constant maintenance. Those kind of mainstream devices that would "just work" and be immediately hackable is lost through time.

[@memediatek]

Tbf a lot of android phones would just work if it wasn't for companies feeling like they needed to own your device, not the person who has just spent £100-£2000 on a shiny slab of glass that is needed just to eat in a restaurant nowadays. I use my phone with a custom ROM and root and have no issues, as I am with a decent bank (Monzo) and don't use any of the apps that feel like I shouldn't be allowed to use them like McDonald's, Starbucks, Netflix, or Paramount

[@kolkoki]

@@memediatekYou're absolutely correct with your first sentence. Thats what i mean by my last sentence.

[@FoxyDrew]

@@memediatek I don't know what's funnier. That McDonalds has root detection in their app, or that people care enough about the McDonalds app not to root for it xD

[@vadnegru]

​@@memediatekare you using Google Pay, or your bank allows to pay from it? All that play integrity nonsense makes me look into going back to stock. In case of HyperOS that would mean forever locked bootloader, which i hate to do.

[@Kx0195]

I miss the Nexus days.

[@ekner]

In Sweden these Sony Ericssons were everywhere. Kids around my age all used them instead of MP3 players. MMS using the built-in cameras led to spicy new ways of communicating. The smarter functions were quite well hidden, but googling facts about stuff was definitely possible, and I even found an instant messaging client that worked well with MSN messenger. We didn't have a lot, but it was fun to make the best of it anyways. Early days.

[@Luczkizu]

In Germany too, most had Sony Ericssons and Nokias.

[@netako]

Not just Sweden but Europe as well, it was easily one of the most common brands on the market before the iPhone showed up.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Was data cheaper in Sweden? They were common in my school in the UK too but only 2 kids who shelled-out for contracts ever used 2G data. So most of the sharing of pics and vids was (painstakingly) via Bluetooth rather than MMS in my school.

[@ChillingCrowley]

@@kaitlyn__L o2 did 500MB month for £7.50p in 2006/2007, that was plenty for a GPRS phone

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@ChillingCrowley and I topped up £5 every few months. It wasn’t until 2009 or 2010 that you got free data for topping up £5 that I started using 2G and 3G.

[@explosivelybrilliant]

That dual microSD to Memory Stick RAID card is incredible. I mean, I know that RAID as a concept has existed for a very long time, but for some reason , in my head, consumer-level devices with RAID don't feel normal until like 2010+. And that was for PCs and the like! Seeing something like this for use with flash storage cards in that time frame is kind of blowing my mind a little 😅

[@JanusCycle]

I'm also still very impressed by the dual slot adapter. I wish there was more of this kind of stuff.

[@connardman]

It worked very well with the PSP . 😄

[@Wojt0n]

@@connardman Exactly, it was nearly as revolutionary for PSP users as SD2Vita adapter for PS Vita users. The downside of this solution, you can't read either of microSD's directly, you either have to use Memory Stick Pro Duo reader or connect PSP directly through USB to read/write data.

[@fabrestervis]

i was so happy when i found a working one on a fleamarket for my jailbroken psp 1k. finaly working 32gb for games :D there was even some space to put movies

[@awesomeferret]

I had one of those for my PSP. I had a 128 gig PSP around 2012 and it was very cool, but I never used more than 40 gigs of storage.

[@MrRavensFjord]

Love this era of Sony phones, it just seemed like they were in a league of their own when it came to the feature phone market. Even now Sony is standing out, being the only manufacturer to keep the 3.5mm audio jack and SD card slot on their flagships.

[@ChillingCrowley]

This and the next iteration, k800i, were really great phones. It's when mobile phone cameras started getting serious.

[@noth606]

Except it's not a Sony phone, it's a 'Sony Ericsson' with Sony being the silent partner. Sony had little to do with the UI and phone bit, they made the camera integration part largely. Family worked for them back then, still work in the biz but currently for Apple and Samsung unsurprisingly. Sony did do some stuff back then but only Japanese Domestic Market, all "Sony Ericsson" phones are really Ericsson with some Sony flavor to varying degree, like they did do parts of the PCB etc for the walkman branded stuff, as well as case design for some models. It was a strange hybrid company, "Sony Ericsson" was not a part of Sony, it was/is a separate entity with HQ in Stockholm Sweden for a time, later London if memory serves me, not sure now as I can't be bothered to look it up. Either way, calling it a Sony phone is the same as me calling you a banana. I doubt you're a banana any more than this phone is a Sony.

[@MrRavensFjord]

@@noth606 I am a banana but you may call me dad

[@kass1142]

Also not even annoying punch holes or nocthes in the current Sony's flagship. 👍

[@NomanJohan]

Nokia was king

[@jaymills1111]

Was that a photo of your then kitten and now 17-18 year old cat? What a good kitty. Stood the test of time even better than the phone did!

[@JanusCycle]

She is now 17 years and a few months old. From kitten to distinguished older cat. Her name is Inky.

[@breezie1337]

Around 2006 - 2009 i used a SE z710i. The OS looks very similar to the one on this model. Opera mini was a great addition and allowed you to browse the web comfortably. Even KZbin worked since they used to serve 3gp versions of the videos back then. The OS was super snappy and stable

[@vadnegru]

Using opera mini mod you had ability to download by pressing button 1. Or i used some website like ssyoutube, I don't remember.

[@Jetsetbob3]

I had a feature phone like that too, but I don't remember the brand. Opera mini was a really efficient data saving browser, only displaying the useful information. It was even working well in GSM Edge.

[@VaporOne1]

I had a W810i. Still have it in one of my drawers somewhere. One of my favorite phones I ever owned. The headphone cord that came with it was detachable in the middle to reveal a 3.5mm audio jack! It was amazing, iPods weren't a thing where I grew up so this phone was my first on the go music machine. So many good memories.

[@JanusCycle]

I also appreciate the W810, which I would like to see appear in a video one day.

[@datsat]

I had Skype and Google Maps on mine. A true smart phone at that time! Everyone was amazed!

[@Gordon.Pinkerton]

Of all the phones I've had, this was one of my favourites. Also had the sliding w580i as well, which was great. Absolutely loved those Walkman phones.

[@AsyunNRG]

I had a W580i in gray - blue. Was the best phone i ever owned. The sound quality, even with MP3 files was unmatched at the time. Still holds up today. Amazing device that was way ahead of it's time@@Gordon.Pinkerton

[@Sithhy]

Phones from this era give me always a nice feeling when I see them. I was in late elementary school at the point when they were popular so half of my class mates had Sony Ericsson's while the other half had Nokia's; cannot forgot the "wars" between those two brands which always were fun. I remember how me & my friends used to talk a lot about what the phones are capable of, what stuff you can load onto them, what software you can flash etc. One of my friends has gotten the K750i & we thought that was one of the best phones of all time... Good times

[@OHHHHUSBANT]

Now its iphones and the various android companies now

[@angeleocorrodead]

This is a smartphone. Just without the touch screen

[@straightwarlock5341]

Yeah, try using a browser or even email on this thing

[@angeleocorrodead]

@@straightwarlock5341 i used it many times. You used joystick like a mouse.

[@sargera1]

​@@straightwarlock5341back then this baby can whoop s40 Nokias no sweat cuz even on java their chips ain't slouch

[@tomashubelbauer]

SE modding. So happy you included this section in the video. It was so fun to do and see better and better tools being developed for it in real time in that era.

[@JanusCycle]

Yeah, it was a great time to be in. I will be doing more modding in the future.

[@k11zdr]

​@@JanusCycle You can mention how the patches could be made or how to port one between platforms

[@confusinggameplays1687]

Your videos have so much personality, the thumbnail, the documentary type voice, the devices shown, everything is just a compliment to each other. LOVE IT!

[@JanusCycle]

Awesome to hear that, thank you! I often think I make weird videos, but I'm glad they come together.

[@paralelmind]

+1 Complete relaxation and travel thru time. Nostalgia at its finest Thanks @JanusCycle!

[@hp6r]

The jump in camera quality between K700i to K750i was so gigantic that I think there's never happened again between two devices separated by one generation.

[@spazjackrabbit61]

you should compare that with S700i, which was SE's flagship model in 2004

[@hp6r]

@@spazjackrabbit61 you are right, I totally forgot about S700i. It had a really good camera actually.

[@highdefinitionstanleytm9614]

The k800 was a huge jump to after that the gains were very very minimal.

[@MoroccanAnwar]

😮 I had the k750 the 800 and the w810 best era of phones Eva! I used to listen to the same music as I was heavily into breakdancing (bboying) this video was a good reminder of those good times. I remember recommending it to my friend who died of cancer last year. I still have so many great pictures we got from these phones. One was when we climbed on top of a mini street sweeper van in a busy oxford street and smoking a cigarette while people waved and laughed at what we were doing. I also remember meeting the time I bricked the phone after I just got the number of the girl I ended up marrying and trying to contact sony to help me get the number out because flashing it would make me lose it. I went to the same place for weeks until I saw her again 😅 we literally got married a few months later. 🎉 Man this phone brings too many memories the more I think about it the more crazy stories come to mind. Thank you for this video

[@JanusCycle]

I really enjoyed this story, thank you.

[@Toreonify]

I'm glad someone finally mentioned ELFs and patches for Sony Ericsson phones! My K530i was flashed to a W660i, had custom fonts, icons, a home screen with "now playing" widget (with active controls), a HTC Sense clock (with animations!) and a dock-like launcher for apps. It was a beast. I've played original DOOM on it without any problems. Remapping hardware keys was awesome, because I mapped the camera button to lock the keyboard and disabled "press unlock then *" message.

[@niceguyjoe]

I loved my K750i. Awesome camera, amazing mp3 player. I was listening to podcast, rocking my full music collection and taking great photos. The physical buttons for play / pause and volume as well as the satisfying clunk of opening the camera made this phone a joy.

[@vadnegru]

I only recently could change tracks by volume buttons. I missed this feature since k550i.

[@TheBasementChannel]

Great vid. There’s a whole scene that was quickly overshadowed by the iPhone generation, and it’s rapidly being forgotten. I’m glad you make these kind of videos.

[@GeoNeilUK]

And the thing is, the iPhone was a basic phone compared to what came before it. The one thing Apple did get right was the interface though. That interface made all of the advanced clever things your old phone could do much more accessible (when they were there) The Register didn't call it the Jesus Phone for nothing. It had so much hype and such a fandom among people who didn't know what their old phone could do, but it took a while to catch on among those who knew the score and knew Android came out already far ahead feature wise!

[@shanebaker1]

as an aussie who’s lived in canada, janus x trailer park boys was incredibly unexpected but very welcome

[@george_gav24]

remember fondly in Venezuela in 2005 a friend showed me how she streamed live tv on that phone and to this date I cannot comprehend how that phone did that, truly ahead of its time

[@nikolaygruncharov7283]

I had w800 patched and hacked af ... Custom acoustic drivers, custom camera driver, etc. You just unlocked bunch of sweet memories.

[@ChainShinra]

Generally, the SE phones were some of the very best ever made. I had quite a few, and kind of worked myself up to the top of the line being the P-series. Really miss those times. Doubt we'll ever see something like that again though. Guess we can be glad to have witnessed such times. Because many never will.

[@Sb129]

The Sony Ericsson phones always seemed cool from like 2001~2006ish. For me the first I had heard of them was getting a network connection of a Palm. Sony Ericssons were usually not super locked down like most phones were. I am sure you remember how much Bluetooth was disabled and hampered on US cellular networks at that time. Well the Ericsson usually had all its BT profiles and some models had something much much more rare. An IrDA port! It was possible to connect to a network with a Palm over infrared through certain Sony Ericsson phones. I knew a foreign exchange student in HS that was from Japan and he had a Sony Ericsson, it also had the IrDA port. I couldn't establish a network connection but I could see that both devices could see each other it was really cool. I also got another chance when my Aunt got a model with that port as well. I always thought the games for regular phones were interesting but since I have had a Palm long before I had a cellular of my very own, I was always more interested in Palm games and software. I am definitely familiar 'hacking' the firmware of a diverse set of devices though. I have done so with my iPod, Sandisk Sansa MP3 player, HTC HD2 (a classic btw) and my PSP (I had to hard mod my battery to make my own tool battery back in the beginning and I had to go to Staples to make my Magic Memory Stick cuz I didn't have a MS reader at home). I have also seen may old articles and knowledge of hacking old stuff to be gone mostly. Even on XDA there are many dead links on old stuff. Fortunately I am a bit of a data hoarder and I've pretty much kept 80~90% of everything I have ever downloaded. By 2006~7 the cell phone market had so many interesting models from every sort of manufacturer that Sony's Ericsson didn't really stand out like it once did. A darn shame to be sure. On the subject of streaming over 2G, I have done such before, many times. It was on my iPhone 3G funny enough but since I wasn't on AT&T I didn't get 3G so I settled for 2G and I streamed internet radio stations (AnimeNFO, Yggdrasil, some other JPOP stations~) In general I got good enough quality. Have you ever listened to a strong AM station? The fidelity was close to that on 2G, Lol~!

[@LightTheUnicorn]

I had the previous model, the K700! I remember a friend of mine having a black K750i too, and it really was a wonderful phone, it took for the time genuinely excellent pictures! That same friend later got a K850i and, gosh, that thing was a monster of a non-smartphone. Sony Ericsson made some really wonderful stuff over the years.

[@kaitlyn__L]

My brother had the 850, I had the 580. I remember being jealous of that huge light-up Walkman button lmao (and the built in speaker!)

[@nemanjaj8903]

My first ‘smart’ phone was k700! Ahh good old times, still remember everything about it

[@CyclingSteve]

I loved my K800i back in the day, with a J2ME Gmail client towards the end, I only stopped using it when the camera sensor decided to self destruct.

[@TradieTrev]

You've got a very calm voice mate! Always love it when you get the soldering iron out!

[@JanusCycle]

Thanks! I enjoy soldering and always wishing I had more time to make stuff.

[@Mitchbaz93]

i was a k750 owner back in the day and i used to love all the things you could do with it. always on the forums doing things to it, downloading new themes daily, bluetoothing apps and games to my friends at school, one i remember the most was the game line rider, everyone wanted asked me for that. also the predictive text was so good, i could write 90% of a message without looking at the phone

Oh wow! I didn't expect to see a K750! It made me smile when you said it was the best phone you ever had, I kept saying the same thing back then too. Joystick on mine died at the end but I had all the shortcuts I needed memorized which made getting into desired menus was very fast and easy. Nothing but good memories with that phone!

[@JanusCycle]

It's really good to hear from other K750 fans. This phone was just so amazing back then.

[@static-san]

I didn't have a K750 but I had a contemporary model. Sony Ericsson phones of that time were amazingly powerful. They also had a very powerful Bluetooth stack, something Android wouldn't get for many years. I would use BT to mount the phone as a file system to get files on and off it. Also used it to dialup to work from my laptop, similar to how you'd hotspot with a phone today.

[@antifocus]

So nostalgic, I remember liking lots of SE phones back in the day and this is one of them

[@RapideWombaticus]

Absolutely adore these. I owned a W800i...never loved a phone more - it was perfect at the time. I could type texts like a beast, it got me into photography, had my tunes on it, had the dock and my mini speakers too... And you showed TRAILER PARK BOYS! You've earned a Subscriber 🎉 Great review 😊

[@sailaab]

One of THE MOST wholesome mini documentaries on SE phones of the era.

[@TPD]

such a brilliant phone. i remember turning all the EQ channels up which pretty much doubled the volume from the speaker

[@avamnepohui7260]

The equalizer increased the volume, but this was not the maximum that this phone could do. If you wanted more volume, you had to set the song to the ringtone and listen to it through the menu in the settings, where the ringtone volume is adjusted. This was the maximum that the phone could produce just like that, but if you wanted it even louder, you had to patch the sound driver. After that, the phone began to get very hot in the place where the speaker is located, discharged in 20 minutes, but played music so loudly that my ears began to hurt.

[@brookerobertson2951]

I had the official Sony speakers they were pretty loud but would kill your battery. I would always carry one or two spare batteries with me. Lots of fun times back in the day. This was before everyone had Bluetooth speakers so it was pretty cool.

[@brookerobertson2951]

@@avamnepohui7260that’s a cool idea..

[@stangadoboaradreaptaomoara9567]

I was honestly surprised by those pictures. I didn't expect that much quality from a phone camera that old.

[@DavidRichUK]

Huge Sony Ericsson fan in the day. Still have plenty in my old collection. Many hours spent flashing unlocking and generally taking great photos.

[@drbrezo53]

God the J-Roc tune from Trailer Park Boys really took me back

[@JanusCycle]

One of my favourites!

[@Ice_Karma]

Ahhhh, the days of WAP and J2ME. The only time I haven't _completely_ hated working with Java was doing J2ME stuff, for the simple reason that Sun couldn't screw up the implementation of features they simply didn't include! 🤣

[@cocusar]

I'm not a Java programmer, but when I had the w580, I tried to do a simple file browser and debug the j2me app on the phone, and although slow, I was able to do so! It was almost magical for me at the time. Not sure if this was the same experience for other phones.

[@mesicek7]

4:47 we had a mobile tv package with 7 channels that came out in late 2006. Worked via umts and the pic quality for it's time was pretty decent on my Nokia n70.

[@SpacedAug]

As a Canadian, I feel seen and acknowledged for your choice of trailer park boys. Well done.

[@narcissisticnarcissus4956]

Yes, it is a smart phone. You even showed us the browser.

[@scotshabalam2432]

Smart Phones are re-branded micro-PCs and I hate the form factor they need to make that possible which is too small to be a PC and too big to be a phone. I miss having a tiny phone that's just a phone in my pocket.

[@magnusboman1576]

I had this phone back in the day, a friend of mine had flashed the firmware for me and it was truly a beast!

[@EvanderFdes]

Thanks for bringing back so many memories of my childhood with this video. I used to mess around with my sister's W660i and my dad's K810i, adding those themes, patches and elfs. It was so cool to run those custom patches. One day I messed up the flash so bad that it corrupted the W660i's firmware and my sister lost some really important data 😅. I also remember helping a friend to cross flash the K810's firmware on the K800i. I think SE-NSE and TOP-SE were the main forums that I used to visit.

[@JanusCycle]

Great to hear from someone who also enjoyed the modding scene back then :)

[@jayforkay]

I used my W800 like forever back then. It was such a great phone. Really nice reminder to the good old times!

[@kunjupulla]

My dad had this phone, got a lot of childhood memories back 😊. Here in India this phone was quite the luxury at that time

[@noname1210hh]

i used to have the k610i and it was one of my favorite phones ive ever had, i had a few of them one still works and gets service

[@whoever_81]

Great design + great features + great camera + it just works. Great success! Had it and loved it.

[@Kapersky20]

Thank you for unlocking memories of modding these phones. I remember modding phones like w200, w300 and w580, with lots of windows vista related ELFs, vista was all the rage back in the day, one thing i always loved installing is a vista sidebar thing on the home screen.

[@cocusar]

Ah, seems like I'm not alone! I remember adding exactly that, and some wmp skins on the Walkman. I also recall adding a custom flash menu that set the side leds to a custom color on the w580. Such joy to test patches that skinned the OS and didn't know how they'll look until fully booted. These images were usually PNGs, with alpha channel! just amazing.

[@ChillingCrowley]

​@@cocusarA happier, simpler time 😊

[@kaitlyn__L]

Did your guys’ 580 ever have the enter/OK button in the D-pad break? Both me and the other kid at school with that exact model had that problem a lot. We even started avoiding the middle button in favour of the side OK button when we could (which IIRC was most times but not every time?) and it’d still die after a few months. Don’t know if it was just from living in a humid area but no other phone, MP3 player, etc buttons have ever had a problem like that.

[@ChillingCrowley]

@@kaitlyn__L yeah that or the charging port breaking were pretty common but they got a lot of use ✌️

[@cocusar]

@@ChillingCrowley and all of the numpad keys broke in half, it was a common defect

[@lewat.kamera]

i feel really lucky to be in that era,i own a K610i,crossflash to W660i,Patches, ELF's,camdrive and sound drive mod,also a custom logo for menu's and in the Walkman Player. and don't forget the "TrackID", it always surprise me how good its capability to recognize a song

[@RingwayManchester]

Another brilliant video thanks

[@BlackBullPistol]

I had a W900i, this phone was a true killer for it's time (I bought it in 2006). It had a rear 2Mpix camera sensor, a front VGA camera, 470MB of internal storage (I've used an 8GB MicroSD card with adapter), a loud dedicated speaker, big 2.4" screen and it was 3G capable. And oh boy switching from 2G to 3G was night and day difference I tell you :-D

[@DacLMK]

I haven't had this model, but my first phone was the W810i, which is similar to this model to the K750i, and I loved it. It had all of the features mentioned, and I used it a lot. It brought me memories of my first phone.

[@JanusCycle]

I also have a W810! Nice phone. I'm aiming for it to appear in a video one day.

[@pvkoinch]

You reminded me of this phone. It Was stolen in a bus when i was returning back to home. The bus was crowded,I had earphone hanging in my neck. This was enough for the thief to unplug the earphone and steal it. Best camera phone at that time. I had it in black colour. The best was the neon flash! The flash used to pop with the sound of capacitors(imo). Best phone ever used and very very beautiful.

[@swapnildarakhe9857]

I like the way you bring these old devices into the modern world. It makes me realise how far technology has came. Nowadays I can't wait even for a second for buffering while earlier had these kind of phones where screen refresh rate can actually be seen by eyes 😂.

[@JanusCycle]

I'm really glad you are enjoying watching because I'm really enjoying making these videos :)

[@altabdo1541]

modding Sony Ericsson back then was crazy, I still remember modding my K800 to get full manual camera control and a walkman music player, for me as a teeneger with limited technology knowledge, it was wild!

[@danielckw0206]

OP should recreate THE SE-NSE forum 💀 👇🏻

[@JonathanMorris777]

The 'i' was once used by companies to show a relatively minor update to an existing model, but eventually was just used to signify international, showing what bands were supported. The manuals and other literature omitted the 'i' as they were intended for all variants/SKUs.

[@RealNovgorod]

Man, those were the times, I remember the firmware upgrade to a W800 and I could put my entire mp3 collection on that thing back then. I got a used one for cheap with a broken camera, but I killed it by taking it for a swim in the ocean. The W910 (with the sliding screen) was its spiritual successor - the smallest phone we'll probably ever have (other than those purpose-made for a prison wallet). But by that time Sony started screwing people over with planned obsolescence where the sliding cable was intentionally designed to crack after 6-12 months and you'll gradually lose buttons and screen functionality. A replacement cable was only 3 bucks on ebay but it was always a big hassle to change every year like an oil filter (still a breeze compared to what we have to put up with now just to access some internal component). Other than that, it was such a great phone that I kept using it for 8 years until I replaced it with a Galaxy S7 in 2016. Mobile internet wasn't much of a thing until then (too slow, unreliable and too expensive rates) and for everything else the phone was just perfect. It was truly the last ever Sony product worth spending money on before the comany died.

[@completelyretarded]

your videos are so kino i feel the need to actually comment to help you with the algorithm, can't wait for what you've got in store for this year

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you !

[@PDRIFT86]

I had the W800 and i loved it. I had hundreds of mp3s and many full length movies that i converted for it on the memory stick. Sadly the joystick stopped working and i tried to replace it but it didn't work again. I think i paid 3 or 4 hundred dollars for it. I miss that phone.

[@Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaah]

Glad I found your channel, this video brings memories, back when my parents bought me brand new at the time W660i. I was a bit more tech-savvy than my peers then, and I figured out you could pirate phone games. I probably played every single shooter that this phone supported, and there were a lot of those, from BT Biplanes to Alpha Zone and Deep 3D. I could also share those games with my classmates (for a small fee) by sending them a .jar file of the game. With 15-20 new games every month ""sold"" to half of my classmates I could cover the internet bill for 100mb of the traffic for another month. Most of the games back then were 150-500kb, so I had plenty of traffic left after the games for chatting, browsing forums, and downloading videos. Shame there is no way to get one, even used, where I'm.

[@JanusCycle]

Great story, thanks for sharing this.

[@josangoj78]

I still have a K610i from 2007, still working. Used it most as a music player and gaming device (it had that same tennis game, but was an special WTA edition). It came with its USB transfer cable, so it was easy to put stuff into the device. N.B.: I remember that the 'i' suffix stood for 'international', that is, a model meant to work with GSM networks, opposed to other cellular standards like CDMA or EVDO.

[@JanusCycle]

I've now remembered there was a 'c' model for China as well.

[@MrRon100203]

I had the K610i back in the days and spent some time modding it with w660 firmware.

[@standard-carrier-wo-chan]

This was the phone my dad had for the longest time. I remember spending hours just tinkering with it, or play that tennis game sometimes, it was such an amazing and loaded phone for kid me. Now the phone lays in its box collecting dust, battered and weathered from extensive use, but sometimes I'd charge it back up and just play around with it.

[@JanusCycle]

I'm really glad you kept it.

[@rate733]

Nice PCG-U1 UMPC! (lovely name Sony) & thanks for sharing. I had a buddy in high school who had one of these K750's and I was dying to get one. Honestly I miss this era of phones before the monoliths took over as the devices had personality.

[@ChillingCrowley]

The Nokia 7xxx line ways had the most personality. You're right though it's difficult to tell one modern phone model from another at a glance.

[@SlimJim3082]

Sometimes I cry when I see these Sony Ericsson phones. I had the z200, S200, k700, w705, w710 amd at last the j20 ..

[@JanusCycle]

Very nice sequence of phones you had there :)

[@arx117]

Except propriety charger port and M2. Sony erricson knew how to make not just affordable but also great one. Since Sony bought errricson mobile in 2012, Sony became less and less in term of quality, update and with less country they selling today, it became premium product with not so good camera

[@TwentyEightySeven]

I bought my K750i from new in 2005 to replace my T610 (another amazing phone). Used it for many years often as my main camera because the pictures it took still hold up in quality today. It was so cutting edge at the time and innovation in phones changed so much from year to year back then.

[@JanusCycle]

I also went from T610 to K750! That was such a great time having those phones. The T610 also has a special place in my heart.

[@oil_moon]

Some of the pictures I took on that camera back in my teenage years look better than anything I've ever taken on a modern smartphone.

[@dougiefreshh0019]

I think that says more about your shots

[@m3gAnac0nda]

Oh god, please. Too much

[@Puzomor]

Modern phones rely more and more on smart postprocessing to increase capabilities in certain situations. This means that older phones are very consistent in how photos look in good conditions (well lit outdoors scenes). Modern phones use all kinds of noise reductions and sharpenings which (ironically) eliminate detail from images by misdetecting fine high frequency detail for noise, and ruining edges by over-sharpening everything in order to fake a well-focused image.

[@Maximilian1990]

I remember playing that tennis game, that airplane game, and that platformer game on my friend's phone throughout the entirety of my high school senior year. This thing was so groundbreaking for it's time

[@ВикторШишков]

My favorite dumb phone as well. Had it for 6 years as a daily driver. Installed multiple camera drivers in an attempt to sqeeze the last bit of quality from the sensor and it held up to many phones released later. For the forums, use the wayback machine and see if its already a discussed problem.

[@bjornroesbeke]

I wanted to buy a new Nokia phone when my 3310 got stolen for the second time, but the store didn't have it in stock and suggested the one next to it... The K750i! Best choice ever. I even used its joystick to control the mouse cursor on my PC, so i could pick a movie to watch without leaving the bed.

[@GASQBDUV]

I used the J2ME version of the Opera Browser all the time way back on long busrides. If i remember right thebrowser filtered everything trough a proxy, so the slow GPRS speed wasn´t really a issue then. I also used to read a ton of books on the tiny display.

[@IvanIvanov-vt2xl]

I had the same phone when i was a teenager, hacked the sound drivers and it was the loudest phone among my friends. I even keep some files for modding in my archive. Great video !

[@lemagreengreen]

I loved Sony Ericsson's feature phones. Had a W508, K700, K750 and K800 which were all great in this era. Later feature phones really weren't that bad, could never go back but things were changing a lot by this time and they weren't hopeless any more.

[@SeasideBandit]

I still have my K800i that I bought back in 2009. I use it all the way up to about 2017 or so. Still works too, although, I did have to replace some parts from a scrap phone. I can't remember what it was. Throughout the years it has suffered abuse from being knocked and dropped, and still worked like a charm. It was just as much of a tank as the 3310 I'd say.

This brings back memories. I still have my K750, which was actually the second one. The first one I lost but I remember I flashed it successfully to the W800 firmware, this was the beginning of my phone hacking era

[@jasonproductions9391]

The OS that these Sony Ericssons used to run was amazing. So much smoother, prettier and overall better than what most Samsungs or some of the cheaper Nokias at the time could offer. My SE had this MIDI creator utility, where you could make your own music to use as a ringtone or alarm sound. It even had a small video editor, where you could create stunning 3GP files from whatever clips of photos you had. It felt so much ahead to everything else.

[@beejayOne]

Oh yeah, I can remember this one! I bought it shortly before attending German military service, and still have so many photos from this this time, made with the genius camera! Its successor in my possession was the W810i, which was also great, albeit very similar.

[@donotatme]

My family used to be all in on Sony Ericsson, my mom used a K800i for years, well into the smartphone days. We used it a lot for pictures! I had a W200i as my first phone that I continued to use as an MP3 player long after getting newer phones (that had no headphone jack). I had a charger with a passthrough so I could plug in the 3.5mm headphone dongle as well. Had it plugged in to my stereo like that for years. Even after the little plastic on the charger broke I used tape to hold it all together lol

[@Glazier160]

Same! My dad has a w700i.

[@HabitualLine-Stepper]

As a teenager, I owned so many Nokias: 7110, 3310, 8210, 5210, 8250, 8310, 8850, 8900, 8900i, 6600, 6100, 7600, 8800, 7373... What's crazy is I went from a Nokia 7373 to an...iPhone, which came within a year of the 7373... Looking back this makes no sense, but remembering my sister's w800i, you remember the technology was there, just poorly packaged... I actually went from the first iPhone to Blackberry: 9000, 9700, 9780...to an iPhone, and haven't left iPhone since... Going from the Nokia 7373 to an iPhone was 'one leap for Sony Ericsson users, and a giant leap for Nokia-kind...'

[@arx117]

I never understand why people upgrading their phones too quickly. Most of time, i will use same phone for 5 years before i buy a new One.

[@cromulence]

I had the W850i and absolutely adored it. Pretty sure it's an evolution of this phone. Used it to tether to my netbook, back when the Internet was light enough to browse with a minuscule data cap. The camera was surprisingly good and audio playback was great. Never got into the Java or hacking side of things though!

[@ChillingCrowley]

The W800i was the music centric version of this phone. The W in the W850i stands for walkman and the K in K850i stands for Kamera

[@psydex]

Great nostalgic video. Reminded me of the good old times when I was a kid - modding my K800i. Unfortunately i managed to hard brick it with far manager by flashing the wrong CID. Still, fun times - I wish I was able to resurect it and see it again in it's modded state

[@kaitlyn__L]

Aw man, I wish I’d known about that modding forum back in the day. I didn’t have exactly this model but I had a slightly later Walkman one with the same functionality. I got themes sent by kids at school over Bluetooth, but I couldn’t find other free themes back in the day. I bet if I knew about that forum I would’ve had my pick of hundreds! Sony made the same claims about music streaming, as well as a Shazam-esque service. But I never used them because data was so expensive on pay-as-you-go back then. So all my multimedia activities involved transferring over USB to the bundled 128MB micro Memory Stick from a computer. I had a few episodes of a few TV shows converted to 3GPP format to watch them on the go 😅

[@JanusCycle]

2G data was way too expensive, I also avoided it. That's why I think that we who knew how to do it, would get a big memory card and take advantage of that.

[@yuriifedak5951]

Oh thank you for this awesome video! I had K550 model, which is like a successor of the K750, as far as I know. Also that’s what a consultant said me when I asked if they have K750 for sale back then 😅 Oh, what a time it was… Thanks to that phone I became the “game dealer” in my class - I had Internet at home and knew how to download and share games for all of my friends 😎 It’s no doubt that this Sony Ericsson’s marvelous piece of technology is one of just several reasons I decided to become software developer and generally tie my life with tech.

[@JanusCycle]

That's a great story, thanks for the share :)

[@caviar_dreamz]

I still remember seeing this phone on G4! The reviewers were comparing it to the Blackberry and I remember the camera being a stand out in their reviews. I wanted one, but I was really young at the time so my parents wouldn't buy me it.

[@TetengTornado]

These kind of video is just so therapeutic for me, in addition the voice of narration is also soothing. I love old devices that I have not touched before or tinkered when I was younger since I don't have access to such finances. Slowly I got some of them and tinkered with these stuffs and it still amazes me when it works. Technology is fascinating.

[@JanusCycle]

I'm really glad you are enjoying, I hope to show lots more interesting tech this year.

[@gadgetmadlad6691]

K750 was a Bobby dazzler back in the day. I would of thought you would of preferred the p900 that was the dogs doo das. Would be cool to see what you could do with p900 though. Great video as always mate.

[@JanusCycle]

The p900 was intriguing. But I was (and still am) into extreme miniaturization. I do have a p900 now though. I will have to have a closer look one day.

[@gadgetmadlad6691]

@@JanusCycle if you like small Sony Ericssons, I would highly recommend the f100i or as it's more commonly known as the jalou its very similar to the k750i and w800i but a fraction of the size and tbh its probably 1 of if not the nicest looking models of the time. Check it out.

[@JanusCycle]

Interesting phone, thanks for the suggestion!

[@_____7704]

I love this channel - Premium KZbin content. Appreciation and greetings from Radelaide!

[@JanusCycle]

Rock on Radelaide!

[@_____7704]

@@JanusCycle Home of churches, serial killers and Villi's pies!

[@JanusCycle]

I kinda want to stay low key on this KZbin. But you deserve to know that I live in Adelaide too!

[@_____7704]

@@JanusCycle Your *CORRECT* pronunciation of "dance", "chance" and "demand" has been a give away.

[@JanusCycle]

@@_____7704 I was wondering when my accent would get noticed. Well, hi, good to meet you. Mad March ending soon.

[@RSOFT92]

This brings back so many memories..... My second phone was an Sony Ericsson K750i in Black ("upgrading" from an LG flip-phone). I had this Phone for years and i loved it! I remember the games, the red theme, the awesome camera mechanism.

[@mccann82]

I had the W800. Also worked for a mail order mobile phone company and the k750i was the best selling phone for ages, probably until the k800 came out.

[@praptaku]

Ahh yes, I suppose I miss the Elfpack fun. It had potential for quite advanced applications, I remember working on GBA and SNES emulator ports, as well as ports of emulators of some older consoles. Some of my work was also based on ports for Siemens phones, which also had an Elfpack of their own. Of course there was a port of Doom, and even tinkered with a port of Quake, although it never got far enough to be released, and eventually I lost interest as SE "dumb" phones were moving towards oblivion at an increasing rate, with smartphones slowly taking over. However, most of my work was aimed at the slightly faster models - DB2020 chipset based models (e.g. K800i, K550i etc.) and later also the A2 platform (DB3xxx chipsets) that both used a 220 MHz CPU and had more RAM compared with the older (and later used in lower-end devices) DB2010 chipset that K750i mentioned here used. I hope den_po is safe with all that's happening in the world.

[@JanusCycle]

Thank you for the work you contributed to the scene. Many of us are extremely grateful for the fun times you gave us. I'm aware of a Doom ELF port that can run on a W810. I'm very keen to try that out. Also I will be looking at more powerful, later Sony Ericsson models one day.

[@praptaku]

@JanusCycle it must've been the same Doom port, IIRC most of my ports ran on the slower DB2010 platform, they were just, well, slower ;) On my "channel" under this name I still have some elfpack videos, I remember including in the release threads on se-nse. One major drawback in Elfpack that I remember, that was meaningful for gaming and such, was quite limited audio API, which resulted in most of my Elfs being mute. IIRC it only allowed playback of specified audio files in formats supported by the phone's built-in player. I remember someone else made a companion Elf app to the Doom elf, that played a shooting sound each time player pressed a specified fire button. On the other hand, emulating the audio subsystem for something like Snes or GBA would've resulted in unplayable performance, even without it wasn't working at full speed. Then again, it was fast enough for me to complete Chrono Trigger on my W890i, although I really missed the amazing soundtrack ;) Fortunately it wasn't my first playthrough, so I could approximate it in my head ;);) Edit: yeah I do see in my video's description that Doom did run on any DB20x0 as long as there is enough free RAM. Also the Elf wasn't just Doom, it could also play Doom 2 and all sorts of custom, modding scene WAD files, sometimes complete games of their own - not all worked though, as some WADs were made for later Doom engine modifications, and there may have been cases of WADs that required more RAM than both DB2010 and DB2020 could provide, and only worked with DB3xxx that IIRC had even up to 30~ ish MB of free ram on startup. I also see that my K550i was flashed with W610i firmware, which IIRC gave it extra media features, possibly without any drawbacks. So many things I've forgotten since then :') I also had (still have, like all my SE phones) a DB2010 W200i, but don't remember installing Elfpack on it. Or maybe it was a rarer DB2012, too much time has passed. I also don't remember my videos being THAT much of a potato quality, sure they were low res and sometimes unfocused, but there's some terrible compression artifacts on top of that, I'm certain weren't there 10+ years ago. Some sort of youtube bitrot, huh.

[@justdanpo]

Hi! Nice to meet you =) I'm doing well, trying to escape from reality to keep my mental health =)

[@praptaku]

@@justdanpo great to hear that you're doing well! We haven't talked in a looong time, so sometimes I've been wondering how you're doing - but after such long time it's kinda awkward to ask directly haha. /MaW/okejokej

[@JanusCycle]

@@justdanpo Hi, I hope you are taking care of yourself. Health and mind are very important things to look after. My best and kindest wishes to you.

[@sigiczek]

Got one of those, still fond memories of this "brick". Remembering even checking stock prices in real time on the street in the built in browser during the crash of 2008 ... I also love your Sony Vaio model with "Crusoe" processor. That was something I dreamt of getting my hands on at that time but was too expensive for me.

[@HuseynMemmedov]

7:59 This was also a built-in game on some Nokia phones back then…

[@MarcinKralka]

Yeah, I had this game on my Nokia 2700 Classic, amazing phone as well. I wish I still had it.

[@Sharp931]

I was part of this community. We could change the LCD driver, the camera driver and others at home. Android is partially open source, yet it's way more closed then these old gadgets.

[@arx117]

Android become strict every few years. For example in 2010, installing custom Rom is just unlock the bootloader and you still can use banking app Now, you can't do that anymore and what worst is side loading OBB is a nighmare because since Android 13, Google patch the loophole.

[@skanowais]

Damn i feel old

[@UsuallyLime]

Also love all those GUI animations - very smooth for a feature phone. Great gadget!

[@goiterlanternbase]

Listening to a phone speaker, through a phone speaker, is such a pain🤣

[@tomaszmarcinkowski8242]

I had a W810i and later W850. the latter was my favourite of all time, I still have it and it works!

[@magfal]

I'd argue that the K800I and similarly powerful phones in the series are smartphones. Especially the C905. In many ways more of a smartphone than the iPhones prior to the 4S. I have so many J2ME files for these phones. Sorted by native resolution and capability.

[@JanusCycle]

I'm going to explore the K800 one day. The xenon flash and better screen are something I want to see.

[@magfal]

@@JanusCycle go for the C905. It's the ultimate phone in the series as far as I know.

[@selimdagtekin3101]

I agree the C905 was a beast back then

[@IppiopaidFEEDBACK]

At 3:00 that’s exactly what I did! I had my first iPod, which was the one that was like a clothes pin. Pretty much squeeze it in clip it on yourself. After I got this phone (the Walkman version) I never had used for the iPad again, because who’s gonna carry around 2 things? Plus, it had more memory than my 1 GB iPod, which was the smallest iPod Apple ever made.

[@theoldtechhandheldtinkerer4092]

clearly a video made for kids born after 2000 😅 I mean every java based phone had the features that this one had, just this phone did it all a little better than all the others. And golly, I miss a lot of J2ME games that I used to play, there are hundreds that are worth playing, but I had my best experience with games on my Symbian based Nokia 6630, which at the time was already considered a smartphone, before the slab smartphones came out. I had bangers such as Carmageddon 3D.

[@CodeCube-rv1rm]

I still have this as an emergency dumbphone. Loved it when I first got it as a teenager. I used to take photos, listen to music and play Doom RPG on it

[@217awsome]

If possible, could you post some links to where you found the tools to install ELFs? :) I'd love to see if I can try some of this on a K610i or W595!