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Phones through the years

Order by the year each phone came out. You place all 50 cards on one timeline, one at a time. You start with three lives, and ten right in a row wins a lost one back.

Phones through the years
Placed0
In a row0
Order by the year each phone came out. Drag or tap it onto the line
Phone
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Phone
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50
Cards
3
Lives per run
release years and dates
Ordered by
Cards only
Card reveal

How to play the Phones Through the Years timeline game

Every card here is a phone that mattered, from wooden boxes and rotary desk sets to bricks, flip phones, smartphones and foldables. The name is on the card with the maker printed below, and you sort them by the year each one came out. A first phone is placed for you with its year showing. For each new card, tap the gap where you think it belongs. When you're right the year is revealed. When you're wrong the phone still lands in its proper place, but one of your three lives goes.

The early landline cards are spread far apart, so those tend to be friendly. Things get tight once mobiles take over, and several famous models can land within a few years of each other. Think about what each phone could do: a tiny screen, a keyboard, a camera or a touchscreen all give you clues. Nokia and Motorola fans will have an edge in the middle stretch, while the Apple and Samsung cards demand you remember which upgrade cycle was which.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 50 cards you might be dealt, with 22 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

  • Bell box telephone Bell Telephone Company
  • Western Electric hand telephone Western Electric
  • Model 500 rotary phone Western Electric
  • Princess phone Bell System
  • Trimline phone Western Electric
  • Mobira Senator Mobira, later Nokia
  • Mobira Cityman 900 Mobira, later Nokia
  • Nokia 1011 Nokia
  • Nokia 2110 Nokia
  • Nokia 8110 Nokia
  • Nokia 9000 Communicator Nokia
  • Nokia 3210 Nokia
  • Sharp J-SH04 Sharp
  • T-Mobile Sidekick Danger
  • N-Gage Nokia
  • Motorola Razr V3 Motorola
  • LG Chocolate LG
  • Original iPhone Apple
  • Motorola Droid Motorola
  • Samsung Galaxy S Samsung
  • Samsung Galaxy Note Samsung
  • Fire Phone Amazon
  • Google Pixel Google
  • Nokia 3310 revival HMD Global
  • Samsung Galaxy Fold Samsung
  • Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Samsung
  • Huawei Mate XT Huawei
  • Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold Samsung

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