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Long before the modern smartphone revolution triggered by the arrival of the iPhone in July 2007, pioneering companies of old drove an earlier revolution by introducing the world to mobile phones.
Some of these old cell phone companies are still around and kicking dust till today, and you will perhaps be surprised to know that some of your favourite smartphone manufacturers today are ancestors that have been around since the 1980s.
I like to refer to the 80s companies as the 1st generation cell phone companies. A second generation of phone manufacturers came on stream in the 90s and early 2000s. Lastly, I classify cell phone companies that arrived after 2007 as 3rd generation mobile manufacturers.
- The Old Cell Phone Companies That Your Parents And Grandparents Used Alcatel BlackBerry Ericsson HTC LG Motorola Nokia Palm Panasonic Samsung Siemens Sony Trium
- Old Cell Phone Companies And Manufacturers: Conclusion
The Old Cell Phone Companies That Your Parents And Grandparents Used
Motorola, Nokia, and Ericsson are some of the old cell phone companies
Alcatel
The first Alcatel mobile phone was made in 1996 when Alcatel started out as a French brand. Yes; that was a long time before the modern Alcatel Mobile came into being in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent and Chinese TCL Corporation. In 205, the joint venture was done away with and Alcatel Mobile became a full subsidiary of TCL Corporation.
I owned two models during the years of the original Alcatel, Alcatel 311, and Alcatel Idol 3.
BlackBerry
BlackBerry was initially known for making email pages, but in 2003, the first BlackBerry smartphone was announced, and so the Canadian company began its journey into the world of cell phones. It went on to achieve fame and acclaim, before it hit years of decline.
Ericsson
Ericsson is one of the really old cell phone companies. The first Ericsson mobile phone was released in 1994. The brand later merged with Sony to become Sony Ericsson, and later died off when Sony bought them out of the joint venture. I owned two models, Ericsson R320s and Ericsson R380s. By the way, Ericsson is Swedish.
HTC
The first HTC phone that I can trace back was the Apache, also sold as the PPC-6700 in the USA. This was in 2005. The company started out by making phones for mobile networks and carriers, as well as other phone companies. It later switched to making its own name-branded devices, but struggled financially, till it eventually exited the cell phone market.
Back in the old days, I owned a handful of HTC smartphones, namely: HTC Titan/Sprint Mogul pocket PC, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC HD7, HTC 7 Mozart, HTC Desire HD, HTC One X, and HTC Desire 816. The HTC brand is Taiwanese. PS: HTC is back releasing new models in 2023.
LG
LG is a South Korean manufacturer and made its first mobile phone in 2000. It isn’t quite among the grandest of the old cell phone companies and manufacturers that forayed into phones in the 80s.
In 2021, LG announced that it was exiting the mobile phone market. This was after years of struggling with sales. By the way, LG is not an abbreviation for “Life’s Good”; it actually stands for Lucky Goldstar. Now you know.
Motorola
Speaking of old cell phone companies and manufacturers, Motorola has the honour of being the oldest. It was the first to make a mobile phone. The DynaTAC 8000X phone , approved in September 1983, was the world’s first commercial portable cell phone. Motorola is an American business brand.
Motorola was split into two in 2011 resulting in tow separate entities, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Enterprise. Motorola Mobility was sold off to Google in 2012. Two years later, Google sold it to Lenovo, a Chinese business, which it has remained with till today.
Incidentally, a Motorola (the T2288) was my first mobile phone ever. I also later owned the Accompli A008 , along with a few budget models.
Nokia
With a head start in 1987, just a few years shy of Motorola, Nokia sits as an elder at the table of old cell phone companies and manufacturers. Its first mobile phones was the “ Mobira Cityman 900 “, released In 1987. I owned the 3310, 9500, E90, E7, N8, N9, Lumia 950 and many more. Nokia’s place as a legendary cell phone bra d is well documented. At one point, this brand was the world’s largest mobile phone brand for over 10 years.
Palm
Palm is a handheld brand that goes way back to the 90s. The first Palm handhelds were not mobile phones, but more like mobile computing devices. They were popular and were forerunners to modern smartphones. It was not until 2002 that Palm made their first mobile phone, the Treo 180.
I owned the Palm Treo 700P and Palm Pre smartphones. Palm Computing was an American business.
Panasonic
Panasonic was also one of the 2nd generation old cell phone companies and manufacturers. In 1996, the brand made the first mobile phone that weighed less than 100g. I never owned a Panasonic phone, though I longed to.
Samsung
Yes; Samsung may still be making trendy mobile phones, and be leading the charge as the world’s largest phone maker in 2021, but they are an old cell phone brand. Samsung’s first mobile phone was developed in 1988. That makes the Korean brand peers with Motorola, Nokia, and Siemens.
Which was the first Samsung phone? It was called SC-1000. I have owned a modest number of Samsung phones till date. The list includes Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy S9+, among others.
Siemens
Siemens is another elder at the table of old cell phone companies. The first Siemens phone hit the market in 1985 and the brand went on to make some very interesting mobile phones till its demise in 2005, when the brand was sold to BenQ. Siemens was also the first mobile phone brand to make a phone with a colour screen. Siemens is a German brand.
Sony
If you think that Sony is a new phone brand, you are highly mistaken. Back in 2001, the Japanese brand began to make mobile phones, later merged with Ericsson to become Sony Ericsson, and then bought over ownership again to revert to Sony.
While I owned 11 Sony Ericsson phones, I got to own and use only one original Sony phone, the Sony J5.
Trium
Trium was a Mitsubishi subsidiary founded in 1983 and was one of the earliest old cell phone companies in the world. The first Trium mobile phone was released in 1999. The company exited the mobile phone market in 2008. Interesting fact: for decades, the Japanese stayed ahead of the curve of mobile technology and had the most advanced phones and networks.
Old Cell Phone Companies And Manufacturers: Conclusion
Now, you know which mobile phone makers are old cell phone companies. Siemens, Trium, and Ericsson are history now. But other oldies like Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Alcatel still make cell phones till today, though they have gone through different ownership and transformations in all these years. If you are interested in mobile phones from the past and what to do with them, you will be interested in my article on old cell phones .
2023 Update : I am considering adding a 4th generation classification, to cover mobile phone manufacturers that arrived from 2022 (this will include Nothing technology, makers of the Nothing Phone 1 and Nothing Phone 2 ). Let me know what you think.
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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In the world of cell phones, smartphones are not particularly spectacular with battery life. Dumb phones and feature phones are best in that department. Some smartphones have been designed to narrow that gap, though. If you are hunting for the Samsung phone with the best battery life in 2023, we have narrowed down the available options to three models. Ideally, we would narrow it down to one and leave it at that, but network support and availability are factors that mean one model is available in certain regions but not in others.
As such, this article gives you three Samsung phones with the best battery life, so you can pick whichever is available in your region. Two of them are 4G LTE devices, while one supports the more advanced 5G networks. All of these cell phones are smartphones that very good battery life. We will kick off our list with the very top Samsung phone with the best battery life that you can buy today.
- Samsung Galaxy M62 has the best battery life of any Samsung phone in 2023
- The Samsung phone with the best battery life, 2023 (1st Runner-up): Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
- The Samsung phone with the best battery life, 2023 (2nd Runner-up): Samsung Galaxy A03s
- The Samsung phone with the best battery life, 2023 (3rd Runner-up): Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G
Samsung Galaxy M62 has the best battery life of any Samsung phone in 2023
The Galaxy M62 is the Samsung phone with the best battery life that you can buy in 2023
The best battery life on any Samsung phone in the market right now is found on the Galaxy M62. With a massive 7000mAh battery, 6.7-inch AMOLED display, and an Exynos 9825 chipset, this mammoth delivers extremely long battery life. Even sweeter is the fact that it has 25W fast charging coupled with it.
The Galaxy M62 is a 4G smartphone though, and while relatively widely available, it will not satisfy those who want to get in on some 5G action. For that, say hello to the Galaxy A42 5G.
The Samsung phone with the best battery life, 2023 (1st Runner-up): Samsung Galaxy A42 5G
The A42 5G has a slightly smaller 6.6-inch Super AMOLED panel, a Snapdragon 750 5G chipset, and a smaller 5000 mAh, battery. Charging technology is also a downgrade, clocking in at 15W. Bummer. But it is a Samsung with great battery life, and with 5G support.
Where the A42 5G might be a big letdown is in the screen resolution. Forget 1080p here; what we have is a 720p display. That sucks, we know. But if battery life is your priority, and you’d rather not do without 5G, it comes a close second place to the Galaxy M62.
Samsung Galaxy A42 5G is available in three memory options – 4/128 GB, 6/128 GB, and 8/128 GB. the base variant comes in at $399 in the USA, and £398 in the United Kingdom. For 5G network support, be sure to check with your carrier or mobile network operator for compatibility. This is the 5G Samsung phone with the best battery life.
The Samsung phone with the best battery life, 2023 (2nd Runner-up): Samsung Galaxy A03s
We had to pick another 4G Samsung phone with solid battery life, because neither the Galaxy A42 5G nor the M62 are officially available in African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. What you will find on sale almost everywhere you go in these countries, however, is the Galaxy A03s.
Equipped with a 5000 mAh battery (and 15W fast charging), a 6.5-inch IPS LCD panel (sorry, no AMOLED here, and the resolution is basic 720p as well), and a relatively lowly MediaTek MT6765 Helio P35 chipset, the Galaxy A03s delivers solid battery life for 4G LTE users. It is a much more budget device than the other two. The 3/32 GB variant sells for ₦66,000 in Nigeria, while the 4/64 GB trim goes for ₦75,000.
In Kenya, the Galaxy A03s sells for Ksh. 14,600 and Ksh. 16,500, for the 3/32 GB and 4/64 GB variants, respectively. In South Africa, the 3/32 GB variant goes for R2,399. It is available in the UK too, for £139, in India for ₹ 10,998, and in Europe for €158. It will eventually arrive in the United States too, if you’d rather not spend $400 on the M62 or A42 5G.
Note that this is a lower budget smartphone, so do not expect anything close to top performance from the Galaxy A03s. It is a little higher up the ladder above entry-level Android cell phones. If you want more power and more advanced features, check out one of the other options. If you are on a tight budget, though, and want great battery life, this is as good as it gets in 2023.
The Samsung phone with the best battery life, 2023 (3rd Runner-up): Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G
If money is not a problem, and you have enough to splurge, why not go for the king of the pack? Samsung S22 Ultra 5G is the most powerful regular Samsung smartphone in the market today, and it has very good battery life, though it is behind the other three we already listed. But that puts it ahead of scores of other Samsung models in the market.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G features a large 5000mAh battery, a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED display, an Exynos 2200 chipset in Europe or Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the rest of the world, and 8 GB or 12 GB RAM. And it supports the S Pen stylus. If you love to use an all-powerful smartphone with every feature possible without sacrificing excellent battery life, this is the one. Prices start from $1,099.99 for the 8/128 GB memory variant.
You have four options to pick from, depending on your needs and budget. Two of them are 4G cell phones, while the other two have 5G connectivity, so you are covered. Which of these is the Samsung smartphone with the best battery life that works for you – the M62, A42 5G, A03s, or S22 Ultra 5G? Tell us.
