I was just watching old videos from like 2008 and saw people flipping their Razrs and LG phones around. My dad had one of those and wouldn't upgrade for ages. What was actually better about them compared to the touch screens we have now?
Flip phones just felt more *satisfying* to use, like there was actual physicality to closing them and they fit better in pockets back then.
touchscreens weren't really reliable yet in those early days - they'd lag, drain battery like crazy, and honestly people were skeptical about dropping their phone on concrete with no physical protection.
plus the flip design was kinda a status symbol, especially with something like a Razr, so theres that. my dad had the same situation btw, refused to upgrade until the iphone basically became unavoidable lol
The durability argument has some truth - those hinges could take a beating - but the real reason flips dominated was mostly practical: they protected your screen by default and kept things compact when closed. Touchscreen tech around 2008 was indeed clunky, but what really made people stick with flips wasn't reliability so much as habit and the fact that the iPhone and Android phones were still expensive and felt like luxury items rather than necessities. Your dad probably hung on because his flip did the job (calls, texts, maybe some basic apps), worked for days on a charge, and didn't require constant babying the way early touchscreens did. The "satisfying click" angle is real for some people, but honestly, most folks weren't choosing based on that - they were just using what worked and cost less than jumping to the new thing.
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