5 iconic Android phones that marked the history of smartphones

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at Macworld in 2007, Android was just a small phone software project purchased by Google, from a market perspective. While Apple’s device was the catalyst that started the touchscreen smartphone movement, a wide range of phone makers were quickly hot on the iPhone’s heels, and most of them were powered by Google’s Android. Although many Android phones have been released over the years, a few key models have played an important role in helping the Android ecosystem grow to where it is today.

The very first Android phone released to the public was the HTC Dream, although it included a slide-out keyboard and buttons to help control the device. The iPhone, on the other hand, stands out with a large touchscreen and only a few buttons for power, volume and the home screen. It wasn’t until the release of the Motorola Droid in 2009 that Android really hit the mainstream.

We’ve scoured the archives to identify which Android phones really made their mark on the industry and what role they each played. Below is our list, including what helped them stand out and how they made Android the powerful software it is today.

The T-Mobile G1, also known as the HTC Dream, was the first Android phone released when it launched in 2008, more than a year after the iPhone hit stores. HTC’s device comes with the Android Market, now known as Google Play. The G1 had an interesting start to life, as the phone’s initial model, which was codenamed “Sooner,” resembled a BlackBerry when it was prototyped in 2007. The design was abandoned after the iPhone started making waves, and the new model was marketed as the T-Mobile G1.

The phone featured a full physical QWERTY keyboard that appeared when the screen was swiped up. The screen itself was a 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 320 x 480. The device also featured five buttons at the bottom of the screen, a clickable trackball, and a 3.15 MP camera with autofocus.

It wasn’t the best-looking model on the market at the time, but the main differentiator was the new Android software which featured three customizable home screens, widgets, and the ability to copy and paste. The addition of a notifications drawer was also seen as a key improvement over the iPhone experience. Apple adopted a “notification center” in 2011.

The Motorola Droid is one of our top picks for phones that made Android history, as it was a device that truly popularized the Android operating system. The Droid was Verizon’s answer to AT&T’s proprietary iPhone and is widely considered the phone that made Android a mainstream brand. Verizon also went to great lengths to ensure the phone’s success, even going so far as to license the Droid name to Star Wars maker Lucasfilm. Verizon put significant marketing behind the Motorola Droid and did the same for a few other models from HTC and Samsung that also used the Droid moniker over the years.

The Motorola Droid comes with a touchscreen and slide-out keyboard similar to the T-Mobile G1. It launched with Android 2 and featured turn-by-turn navigation which was considered a major differentiator, as the iPhone only had basic navigation instructions at the time. Verizon’s ad campaign did its job, with the Droid selling 250,000 units in the first week after release, which in 2009 was a considerable feat. The device reached approximately 1.2 million units sold in Motorola’s fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and set Android on a path to even greater popularity.

You can’t discuss Android’s greatest hits without including Samsung in the conversation. The Samsung Galaxy Note is a device that broke the mold for smartphone form factors, and while its screen size was considered ridiculously large at the time, its 5.3-inch size is now considered pretty standard. In many ways, the Galaxy Note helped popularize the “phablet” category, further blurring the line between a phone and a tablet. It set the bar for larger screens, so much so that many smartphone manufacturers today offer models in every range that exceed this size.

The Galaxy Note also revitalized the use of a stylus, which Apple had actively shunned with the iPhone. The S Pen has received good reviews and has proven to be a great productivity tool. The phone comes with an 8MP camera capable of recording 1080p video. It sold over 10 million units within nine months of its release, constituting a commercial success for Samsung.

The Note eventually became a flagship product for Samsung, although the Note 7 was subject to dramatic recalls in 2016 due to its tendency to catch fire, making it one of the worst Samsung phones of all time. Samsung stopped making the Galaxy Note in 2021, after the Galaxy Note 20.

The LG G4 was a shining moment in the era of LG phone manufacturing, with screen quality and a camera that set a new bar for what Android smartphones were capable of after its launch in 2015. LG’s improvements pushed other Android manufacturers to up their photography game after some reviewers said the G4’s screen and camera could match and surpass the iPhone 6 Plus. The G4 featured an IPS LCD screen with a density of 538 ppi, compared to around 401 ppi on the iPhone 6 Plus. LG’s G4 also had a 16MP f1.8 camera which received praise for color accuracy and overall quality.

The G4’s camera featured X-, Y-, and Z-axis optical image stabilization, and when paired with the laser autofocus and color spectrum sensor, it took stunning photos even in darker conditions. The G4 also had excellent video capabilities, recording 4K video at 30fps. While LG created an incredible phone with the G4, the company stopped making smartphones in 2021, after a string of profitable years.

The Google Pixel was the first device that saw the tech giant take full control of the hardware and software stack. Launched in 2016, it follows years of partnership between Google and other companies to create co-branded Nexus devices.

Google also decided to make a splash by creating new features for its Pixel devices, including exclusive use of Google Assistant for months before its release on other Android models. Pixel was presented as an opportunity for Google to showcase Android’s potential to the fullest. To do this, Google improved the user interface to focus on business apps and features. The device also comes with unlimited cloud storage through Google Photos.

The Pixel’s strong point was its camera. Where the LG G4 won in terms of camera hardware in 2015, the Pixel had even better quality thanks to its software. Since then, Google has also continued to focus on photography. Its most recently launched Pixel 10 was considered the iPhone for Android users when it launched in 2025, and particularly received praise for its improved cameras.

We’ve scoured the archives to find five devices that had the biggest impact on the industry and set benchmarks for the Android phones that followed them. While there are many Android devices that have been favorably reviewed and feature excellent specifications, we focused on the devices that truly made their mark and put Android on the path to the market dominance it enjoys today.

Honorable mentions should go to the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge with its innovative curved screen and the Samsung Galaxy Fold which helped launch the modern foldable smartphone category. We also couldn’t forget Huawei’s smartphone line, which briefly surpassed Samsung’s global smartphone sales in 2020 before US restrictions stifled its business outside China.

The innovation and diversity these phones brought to the market helped Android reach more than 3.8 billion active users, according to Business of Apps. This translates to a global market share of 73%, according to Counterpoint Research, meaning that around three-quarters of all smartphones on the planet run Android.