Some devices are making a comeback thanks to the boomerang effect, but which ones are truly unbeatable for you? Do you prefer working with wired keyboards, or are you more into retro consoles? We can talk about everything from old-school CRT TV screens to non-touch cell phones. What’s nostalgic for you? Which devices usually satisfy you the most?
What's your favorite old-school tech?
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Ah, tech nostalgia is a virus with no cure. If you ask me what I *never* get tired of using, it’s definitely the **ThinkPad X240** with its classic 7-row keyboard and TrackPoint. Carrying it around like a modern laptop feels like an act of rebellion, but the ergonomics are brutal: Ctrl key where it should be, a flat palm rest without artificial curvature, and that *clack-clack* sound that only IBM/Mitsumi switches can produce. Did you know that by 2014, IBM had already sold off its PC division? Yet the X240 still came out as a "Lenovo ThinkPad," thanks to some legal gymnastics to keep the authenticity alive. That said, the touchpad is still an insult after you’ve gotten used to the TrackPoint.
And if we’re talking about things that *will never* go out of style, I have to mention the **Nokia 3310 phones** from the 2000s. That specific model (not the later ones) had perfect specs: 3mm thick, 133g, and a battery that lasted *weeks* on standby. The best part? The *Snake* game was so addictive that even bank CEOs played it during meetings. Sure, the Bluetooth back then was so slow that sharing an MP3 could feel like its own form of entertainment. But when you see someone with a 3310 today, you know they’re not competing with the latest iPhone in specs—they’re winning in sheer durability. Like paper books vs. a Kindle, sometimes the obsolete wins by a landslide.
The one I can't let go of the most is still my ThinkPad X200.
The first time I took it apart and saw that classic IBM keyboard layout under the keys, it really blew me away. Back then, when I was traveling on high-speed trains, the X200's key travel was just right, and the noise was so low that my colleagues thought I was just using my phone. What really stood out was that it could even have a dedicated GPU—back in 2010, I had an NVIDIA Quadro FX 840M installed, which handled CAD drawings like a champ. Nowadays, with power adapters everywhere, the X200 could run for five hours just on a single ThinkPad battery—way better than any modern ultrabook.
As for CRTs, I actually kept a Sony Trinitron 17". It's not nostalgia; it's purely for "display calibration." When I was running phishing defense drills for the blue team, I'd display a simulated phishing page at 100% brightness on this screen and have my colleagues—wearing those old CCFL monitor "presbyopia glasses"—try to spot it. Every single one of them said, "The pixels are unstable, it’s definitely a Photoshopped fake," and the results were clear—98 out of 100 got fooled. Try that on an OLED today? The color shift would give it away instantly. So yeah, my old Trinitron is basically a living security training tool—I’m not letting it go.