GoKawiilRobert Triggs / Android Authority
I have spent the better part of two decades reviewing the best smartphones, witnessing firsthand and living through the advent of the modern smartphone era and the ensuing specification wars.
As a veteran, I can attest to the fact that while it is easy to get caught up in the incremental upgrades of the current flagship cycle, if you look closely at the latest iPhones or Galaxy phones, you will realize these are not just the products of Apple or Samsung’s latest genius. These phones were built on the shoulders of giants. Some didn’t make much of an impact at launch, some were recognized, and others were ridiculed experiments that failed to find a market or relevant recognition in their own time.
However, these twelve devices represent what I believe are some of the most pioneering phones of their time. They were the first to move the needle in a specific direction, even if they were too early, too expensive, or too ambitious for the technology of their era. Today, we might take some or most of these features for granted, but when they launched, these phones effectively set the standard for future generations of smartphones.
Palm Pre
Wikipedia
It’s hard to overstate the legacy of the Palm Pre. I still remember the first time I saw webOS running on the proto-smartphone. This was still the very early days of modern smartphones, where the iPhone sported a physical home button, and Android was a clunky, icon-heavy mess. In contrast, the Pre felt like magic. It introduced the concept of cards for multitasking and gesture-based navigation . You didn’t click a button to exit an app; you simply swiped it away. It was fluid, organic, and entirely ahead of its time.
Every modern smartphone user today is essentially using a variation of the Palm Pre’s gesture language.
Though the hardware was let down by a flimsy slider mechanism and a lack of developer support, the software legacy is undeniable. When Apple removed the home button with the iPhone X, it didn’t invent a new way to navigate. Instead, it simply polished the navigation style that Palm had pioneered nearly a decade earlier. Today, whether you use an iPhone or an Android phone, that “swipe up to go home” gesture is a direct continuation of the work done by the team at Palm.
Samsung Galaxy Note
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