I am born in 2000, right when computers started to have a specific place in the living room, and grew up with smartphones. I ended up loving technology. I got my first computer at the age of 14 to play video games, and started tinkering it in the following years. During this "short" time, I've tested and discovered multiple hardware, operating systems and software. In this post, I'm only going to mention the hardware I ran and run, and the reasons for my choices.

Phones

The first phone I remember using was the invincible Nokia 3310, with the amazing game Snake preinstalled and the smart T9 predictive text. It wasn't mine but I used it often. I also used another phone, a Samsung one, with prepaid SIM cards to send SMS/MMS, but the experience wasn't as smooth, it was at the beginning of nice GUI on phones. The first phone I chose to own was a Samsung with a slide out keyboard, with a 3G/H+ connection. It was already old-fashioned when I got it, but I loved using it, even if everything was slow as hell.

Smartphones

One day, I gave up my phone for a "smart" phone, whatever it means. I went for a Samsung Ativ S, running Windows Phone 8 at first, and updated it to 8.1. This OS was amazing, haters gonna hate, but it was, and the phone itself looked nice (still does imo). It didn't need a powerful hardware to run everything smoothly.

Later, when it wouldn't receive update anymore, I switched to a Microsoft Lumia 950, running Windows 10 Mobile. It was my last phone with a removable battery, and had the best virtual keyboard I've ever used, even today. In addition to the phone, because I was a Windows Insider, I also received a Qi charging station, and the "Display Dock" to use the phone on a bigger screen, the same way we would with a computer. It was nice, but I didn't have a use case for it, maybe it could have been more useful for people who travel a lot and didn't want to bring a laptop. Because there were a lot of official applications missing, it is the first time I looked for alternatives, and started to discover the open-source world. At the time, I would never have expected my interest in FLOSS software in the future, but it's a discussion for another day. Another great thing with this phone, is the fact that I could changed its back with another, so rather than using the default plastic back, I bought a leather one. I miss doing this with phone.

At the end of the support of Windows 10 Mobile, I went for an Android phone, and OnePlus was a brand I was following closely. I first got a OnePlus 6, and bought a OnePlus Nord some years after. They were great, but I never had the thing I liked with my previous phones. The one thing I really miss from this brand is the alert slider.

Again, when the support of the OnePlus Nord was close to an end, and because of multiple issues I started to experience with it, I made the switch to a Google phone because I planned to install Graphene OS, and specifically chose the Pixel 9a, mostly for financial reasons. The fact that the camera bump is nearly non-existent is a great deal, and the experience with Graphene has been amazing so far. I feel like I've regain some control over my phone.

What amaze me when doing such trowbacks, is to see that my first smartphone had 1 GB RAM, while my current phone needs 8 GB. There are improvements to the screen quality and multitasking, but it's difficult to believe there are as much optimization today requiring so much performance.

Finally, every time I buy a new phone, I like to buy a new one, but I use it as long as I safely can. None of them costed more than 500€ (included special offers).

Computers

Desktop Computers

My first desktop computer was a prebuilt from Asus, that I used mostly to play games. It came pre-installed with Windows 8, and was able to update it to 8.1. Contrary to common belief, I didn't dislike the interface, but I admit it wasn't the greatest for non-tactile screens. I was also able to install Windows 10, but only boot it to play, because I started dual boot a KDE Neon at the same time, bad choice for a first time btw. The computer died a decade after I bought it, while trying to give him a second life with a fully Linux install for my family, with Kubuntu. During its lifetime, I upgraded parts like installling an SSD, and more RAM. The choice for a prebuilt was because it was cheaper than what I would have been able to do buying each parts, and I wasn't confident enough to build it myself at the time.

This computer initially had an Intel Core i5 4440S running at 2.8 GHz and 4 cores, 8 GB of DDR3 at 1600 MHz, 1 TB HDD, and an NVIDIA GTX 760 with 3 GB of VRAM. It was good back then (would still be for a daily use running any Linux distribution).

In 2023, I bought another computer, but I built it myself. Initially I had Windows 11 because I thought it was still the best support to play my video games, but one day, I decided to give a shot to a fully Linux build, and I was impressed to find that all my current games worked flawlessly. I am currently running Fedora Kinoite because I want to spend the least of time configuring the system and need stability.

This one has an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X running at 3.8 GHz and 6 cores, 16 GB of DDR4 at 3200 MHz, 1 TB SSD NVMe, and an AMD Radeon RX6600XT with 8 GB VRAM. Components have come a long way, I can't imagine how it was before, and it's not even the latest. I don't need to upgrade it yet, but if I keep playing in the future, it will be easier to to modifications.

Laptops

My first laptop was refurbished from a family member, and I only used it for a high-school project. It also became my experimental computer, to try new distributions. During that project, I had Manjaro installed, but got too many issues that I never reused it. Even with Linux, it was slow as hell.

My second laptop was bought for university with Windows 10 pre-installed, upgraded it to 11, and is now a dual-boot with EndeavourOS. To this day, I barely boot Windows, only to work on a Windows-only project that I couldn't do in a VM, and use Linux to do programming and everyday stuff. Because I like to tinker my laptop but not too much, I'm really happy with this distribution. It is a Lenovo, and except some screws coming loose, it works like a charm.

This laptop has an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with 6 cores running at 2.1 GHz (up to 4 GHz!), 20 GB of DDR4 (hello 4 GB soldered), and an SSD of 500 GB. I'll keep using it until it dies probably, or when ARM becomes the new norm.

Other information

The remaining

Other than phones and computers, I have never own a tablet, I never had a PlayStation nor an Xbox, only a Wii in the living room, and got multiple Nintendo DS (DS Lite, DSi XL, 3DS). I'm no longer playing on Nintendo consoles, but I have still tried some of their games you know how.

I'm currently using a Withings smartwatch, the only one I bought, and I still like it. The autonomy is great, there are real needles (but an electronic system), a little screen for important notifications only, and it tracks me when doing sports; all I ask from such watches.

Other things I tested

During this decade, I have tested iPhones, which I never liked, I have tested iPads, which are great tablets, but I have no need for one, I have tested Macs, but I don't understand why one would buy it for another reason than their build quality... I have also tested other phone brands, but never found an interest in them, and Android tablets, no comment.