The Slider

By the middle of the 2000s, phones were trying to do everything at once: play your music, take your photos, and still be small enough for a jeans pocket. One answer was the slider. The screen sat on top, and the keypad hid underneath until you pushed the front up.

The Samsung D900 was a slim, glossy black slider from 2006 that felt like a small piece of jewellery. The Sony Ericsson W580i, from 2007, was part of Sony Ericsson’s Walkman range, built around music. It had bright keys, a music player front and centre, and a built-in step counter that used the phone’s motion sensor.

What it was like

The slide was the fun part. A push with your thumb and the keypad slid out with a satisfying spring. Then you slid it shut again, then open again, a hundred times a day, just because it felt good.

These phones had colour screens and cameras, so people started taking photos of everything, saving songs on memory cards, and setting their favourite track as a ringtone. Sending a photo to a friend could cost more than a text, so you thought twice about it.

Why people still remember it

The slider was the last big idea of the keypad era: a phone that looked like a small, sleek slab when closed, but still had real buttons when you needed them.

The Slider is our take on that phone, and it’s coming soon. In the meantime, try The Brick.