15 Gadgets That Used to Be Luxuries but Are Now Obsolete
Once considered cutting-edge luxuries, these 15 gadgets were game-changers in their time—until technology evolved and left them in the dust.
- Alyana Aguja
- 5 min read
Technology advances quickly, and what was once a status symbol of luxury can soon become an outdated relic of the past. From car phones and PDAs to MP3 players and dedicated GPS devices, many revolutionary gadgets were essentials—until smartphones and new technology co-opted their roles. This list delves into 15 previously premium devices that changed their era but have now disappeared, supplanted by wiser, slimmer, and more convenient versions.
1. Portable DVD Players
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A necessity for travelers once, portable DVD players made it possible to view favorite films on the road without an all-inclusive TV. They were an upscale option compared to VHS-based portable equipment and were ubiquitous in flights and road journeys. Today, tablets and streaming services mean no one wants to lug around discs anymore.
2. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
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Before smartphones, PDAs like the Palm Pilot and BlackBerry were the ultimate business tools for organizing contacts, schedules, and notes. They featured styluses, tiny screens, and early internet access, making them highly desirable. However, as smartphones absorbed all their functions, PDAs disappeared completely.
3. Camcorders
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Home video cameras, a luxury in recording vacations and family life, were valued for the fact that they could record memories in real time. With digital cameras, then smartphones with 4K video, dedicated camcorders are no longer needed. Professional filmmakers can now record using a smartphone, and the camcorder has become an old relic.
4. Car Phones
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In the early 1980s and 1990s, car phones were a status symbol, with business executives and celebrities employing them to make phone calls on the go. These clunky, wired phones used early cellular networks and cost an outrageous amount of money. With the advent of small mobile phones, car phones became a thing of the past.
5. Floppy Disks
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Floppy disks were a must for file and software transfer between computers in the 1980s and 1990s, and having a high-capacity floppy drive was a technological luxury. USB drives, external hard drives, and cloud storage drove them out of business. Nowadays, most new computers with modern hardware do not even have a floppy drive.
6. Minidisc Players
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Sony’s Minidisc used to be an upscale competitor to cassette tapes and CDs, featuring digital-quality audio in a smaller package. Even though popular among audiophiles, Minidiscs never really caught on because of MP3 players. Digital music streaming eventually eliminated them altogether.
7. Beepers/Pagers
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Physicians, executives, and high-flying professionals used beepers to get emergency messages before the popularity of mobile phones. The pagers were small and could receive numeric codes or short messages, and then the user would have to locate a landline to return the call. Cell phones, apart from those in specialized industries, rendered pagers almost obsolete by the 2000s.
8. GPS Navigation Devices
Image from Garmin Philippines
Garmin, TomTom, and Magellan used to own the car navigation space with expensive GPS units offering turn-by-turn directions. These early versions cost a pretty penny and had to be frequently updated, but they revolutionized directions compared to printed maps. Nowadays, smartphones with Google Maps and Waze render single GPS devices redundant.
9. LaserDisc Players
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LaserDiscs were the forerunners to DVDs, providing better picture quality and digital sound at an elevated price. They were adored by home theater and film buffs alike, but their size and expense relegated them to non-mainstream status. DVDs came along, and LaserDiscs were instantaneously outdated.
10. Specialized MP3 Players (Such as the iPod)
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Having an iPod during the early 2000s was a status symbol since it allowed one to store thousands of songs in his or her pocket. It disrupted the music market, making CDs and Walkman irrelevant. However, with the introduction of music playback in smartphones, special MP3 players became obsolete.
11. Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorders
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After a time when they were a luxury for recording studios and audiophiles, reel-to-reel tape recorders provided better sound than vinyl records or cassettes. They were skill-intensive to use and cost a lot of money, so they were a luxury for music lovers. Digital recording and digital audio formats ultimately wiped out their necessity.
12. Electric Typewriters
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Electric typewriters were a giant leap from manual ones, providing quicker and smoother typing to professionals. Organizations and upscale offices invested in them before personal computers dominated. Nowadays, they’re nothing but collector’s items or novelty items.
13. Specialist E-Readers (Such as the Nook and Kindle DX)
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For a time, owning an e-reader was a badge of being up-to-date with technology, providing access to thousands of books in a single thin device. However, as smartphones and tablets became more advanced, they could run e-reader software, so dedicated e-readers were no longer necessary. Although there are still some e-readers, their use has fallen dramatically.
14. Fax Machines
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Once an essential office and business tool, the fax machine could send documents instantly through the telephone. While they were costly and demanded special paper, they were the quickest way to exchange paperwork before the invention of email. Now that digital documents and attachments via email are common, the fax machine is virtually gone.
15. Digital Cameras in Standalone Models (For the Casual Consumer)
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Having a digital camera in the early 2000s was a luxury, enabling individuals to take high-quality pictures without film. However, with the advancement of smartphone cameras, casual users ceased purchasing dedicated cameras. Today, only professional photographers and enthusiasts continue to spend money on standalone cameras.