Cell phones have come a long way. When they were first on the market, they were the size of a human head. They’ve evolved from looking like a landline to the flip phone to having a keyboard to being entirely touch screen. As cell phones transformed through these stages, they have become more efficient and offer more features. However, there are some features that have been tossed to the wayside over the years.

You Could Walkie-Talkie Your Friends

Certain types of cell phones had a walkie-talkie feature that was like Motorola radio accessories. In order to walkie-talkie someone, they needed to also have a phone with this feature. You would select the person you wished to contact and hold the button on the side of your phone as you spoke into the phone like a walkie-talkie. It was a cool and efficient feature. However, the one downfall was that like a walkie-talkie, everyone around you could hear both ends of the conversation.

Your Phone Had Its Own Screen Protection

When the brick cell phone was phased out and the flip phone was phased in, cell phones went through a lot of improvements. One of those changes was that the phone had two separate sections. The bottom section was for the keypad and the top section had a screen. You could flip the top screen onto the bottom screen to close the phone which provided protection for both sections that touch screens today don’t have.

They Had Slide-Out Keyboards

When flip phones were on the market, consumers’ main frustration was that they were difficult to text on. The keypad only had numbers with three or four letters assigned to each number button. Life was made much easier for cell phone owners when the Sidekick and other phones with keyboards came out. The keyboards would slide out from underneath your phone screen and you could text as easily as typing on a computer.

While phones have attained many features over the years, there are still some perks to owning a retro phone.