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Mrwhosetheboss tests 42 years of phones, fake antenna included

Museum handsets put Arun Maini's touchscreen habits to the test, from an early smartphone to Nokia's pocket-sized entertainment machines.

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Mrwhosetheboss Story of November 9, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of the most watched videos since yesterday, with 229,486 views.

I Tested 42 Years of Phones!

Things we can learn from the video

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1:16The Motorola DynaTAC combines considerable bulk with just half an hour of talk time.
5:49IBM's Simon brings a touchscreen, stylus, built-in apps and a puzzle game to an early smartphone.
11:13Maini plays Snake on the Nokia 6110 before moving into the camera-phone era.
22:18The original iPhone's interface marks a turning point, despite missing features including 3G.
29:08The Galaxy Note pairs a large screen with a stylus as mobile streaming becomes more practical.
34:26Foldables lead into Maini's conclusion that revolutionary designs often face ridicule before acceptance.

Arun Maini pulls out a Motorola's extendable antenna and discovers that looking useful was part of the design. "The antenna is basically a lie," he says of the MicroTAC, one stop in Mrwhosetheboss's hands-on journey through mobile-phone history.

"I Tested 42 Years of Phones!" went up today and has already drawn about 230,000 views in its first few hours. After his recent folding-phone comparisons, Maini steps back to ask how the objects in our pockets became capable of so much.

The Mobile Phone Museum supplies the historic handsets, with a white-gloved assistant passing them over. The DynaTAC is signed by mobile-phone pioneer Marty Cooper, but its most startling feature is a limitation: a long charge buys barely half an hour of conversation.

Then come devices whose ambitions feel much more familiar. Maini tries the IBM Simon's touchscreen, stylus, apps and puzzle game. The Nokia 9000 Communicator opens into a tiny keyboard-equipped office. Museum founder Ben Wood remembers the reaction: "Honestly, it was just a revelation. You know, people just couldn't believe such technology could exist."

There is room for Snake, the slim Motorola Razr and the Nokia N95's dual-sliding multimedia extravagance before the iPhone changes the shape of the story. Maini revisits its missing features as well as its appeal, then follows Android, the oversized-for-its-time Galaxy Note and foldables through to the iPhone Duo. The episode includes a sponsored VPN segment.

Viewers are bringing their own timelines to the comments: memories of waiting for the household phone, amazement at the old hardware's bulk, and jokes that battery anxiety has survived every generation.

Maini's closing argument connects the initially mocked large screens and folding designs: "Revolution is always made by those willing to brave the ridicule." The old phones are not just curiosities here. They let him demonstrate how strange a familiar idea can look when it first arrives.

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