These are the most iconic smartphones of the decade

Smartphones are ubiquitous and a vast chunk of world’s population can simply not do without them anymore. And this was the decade when the smartphones well and truly arrived. A myriad of innovations coupled with technological advancements have made the smartphone the must-have gadget. Brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, and a plethora of Chinese companies have been churning out smartphones one after the other. In a decade where there have been so many smartphones, it’s a tough ask to pick the iconic ones of the decade. Here we list out 25 smartphones that in our opinion were the most iconic ones:

The first iPhone came in 2007 and changed the world forever. But it took three years for the Cupertino-based tech giant to make the first truly great device, which was the iPhone 4. A new eye-catching design, Retina display, A-series of processors — features that are now synonymous with the iPhone — first came to the iPhone 4.

Built for Google by HTC, the Nexus One was the smartphone that started the Google journey in the business. It was pitched as the ideal blend of hardware and software and was as pure an Android phone you could get back then.

If you are using — and are so used to — a big screen smartphone, thank the Galaxy Note from Samsung. It was a bold move from Samsung to launch a big screen (5.3-inches) when everyone else had small phones. It paid off handsomely and the Note series continues to be a trendsetter for the South Korean tech giant.

The smartphone that set the Samsung juggernaut in motion, and in a sense of the Android ecosystem as well. The Galaxy S II was Android’s answer to iPhone and the battle still continues till date. It was also the first phone to feature Samsung’s Exynos chipset, which powers the current generation devices as well.

Sony might not be a relevant player in the market anymore but it was one of the earliest phones to be water and dust resistant and was also one of the first phones to have 1080p screen. Two features that are now extremely common across smartphones

The phone was proof that Windows OS could actually work. Nokia sold lakhs of these devices as it fell under the budget segment. But soon, the Microsoft-Nokia partnership broke and Windows phones are now officially dead.

The unibody smartphone design that has become the norm now started with the HTC One smartphone. This was a time when HTC was the go to option for those who didn’t want — or rather couldn’t afford — an iPhone. The HTC One ensured enough brand equity for the company to get a good next few years.

A phone perhaps ahead of its time with features like flexible display and battery. It also had a self-healing coating at the back. LG, back then, used to be quite an aggressive player in the smartphone market.

Before Oppo became a force to reckon with in the smartphone market, it launched its N1 phone that was high on innovation. It was the world’s first smartphone to feature a swivel camera. It didn’t find many takers back then but did lay foundations for the pop up selfie camera

Back then there were numerous of jokes about the name of this phone but at the end of the decade it’s OnePlus that laughed all the way to the bank. OnePlus One was the ‘flagship killer’ and has become one of the key brands in the global smartphone market.

The first phone that Xiaomi launched was the Mi 3 and since then there has been no looking back. An iPhone lookalike, the brand — and the smartphone — caught the fancy of budget conscious Indian smartphone buyers. So much so that Xiaomi is now the number one smartphone brand in the country.

There was a time when Micromax ruled the roost in smartphone market. Then Chinese brands happened and things were never the same. Yet, the Canvas series of smartphones were really popular at in the decade before they fizzled out.