15 Outdated Tech Devices You Probably Still Have Somewhere

A nostalgic dive into 15 outdated tech gadgets you probably still have tucked away — each one a reminder of how fast the future became the past.

Alyana Aguja
May 5, 2025
5 min read

15 Outdated Tech Devices You Probably Still Have Somewhere — Glenn Carstens-Peters from Unsplash

Remember those once-cutting-edge gadgets now buried in drawers, closets, and basements? From the beloved iPod Classic to forgotten Zip drives, these 15 outdated tech relics tell the story of how quickly innovation moves — and what we’ve left behind. This list is a nostalgic, eye-opening look at the devices that shaped our digital lives and why some of them might still be worth holding onto.

1. iPod Classic

Image from eBay.ph

The king of mobile music, the iPod Classic, introduced us to carrying thousands of tunes in our pockets with that perfect click wheel. It was a cultural phenomenon before smartphones cannibalized its function. If you happen to still have one, it probably still functions — Apple designed them to be long-lasting.

2. Flip Phone (Motorola Razr, anyone?)

Image from Wikipedia

Before smartphones became ubiquitous, the Motorola Razr was the height of cool — thin, metal, and ideal for flinging-against-the-wall dramatic hang-ups. It did nothing more than call and text, but that was the beauty of it. They’re even kept as backup phones nowadays by some due to their battery life and simplicity.

3. VHS Player

Image from eBay.ph

If you’ve got vintage home movies or ’90s Disney cassettes, chances are you still have a clunky VHS player stashed in a closet. They were once the center of family movie nights, but now they are relegated to streaming and Blu-ray. They’re becoming collectors’ items — and a requirement for digitizing your memories.

4. Game Boy Advance

Image from Wikipedia

The Game Boy Advance provided us with gaming perfection in the palm of our hand, with Pokémon FireRed, Metroid Fusion, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow remaining great today. Although the screens were not backlit initially, gamers found their workarounds (hiya, worm lights). Those handhelds still get respectable prices on eBay from gamers who are nostalgic for the retro years.

5. MiniDV Camcorder

Image from Ubuy Philippines

Back when YouTube was young, MiniDV camcorders were the DIY filmmaker’s tool of choice. They offered better quality than VHS and were compact enough for vacations and birthday parties. If you’ve got tapes, now’s the time to digitize them — MiniDV players are getting scarce.

6. PalmPilot (or other PDAs)

Image from Wikipedia

Prior to smartphones managing calendars, emails, and to-do lists, there were PDAs such as the PalmPilot. With a stylus at the ready, you could sync with your computer and be a wannabe busy executive. Most are now tech fossils, but they were necessary stepping stones to contemporary mobile computing.

7. External CD Burner

Image from Ubuy Philippines

Before cloud storage and flash drives, saving your files or burning a CD mix was done with a clunky external CD burner. They were finicky and slow, but at the time, it was high-tech magic. Now, they’re mostly collecting dust in drawers alongside piles of blank CDs.

8. Digital Picture Frame

Image from mybest Philippines

Remember when you proudly showed off a digital picture frame that rotated through 240p family vacation photos? These were the wave of the future for photo albums — until smartphones and tablets replaced them. Nevertheless, some individuals repurpose them as quirky retro displays or clocks.

9. Zune

Image from Ebay PH

Microsoft’s ill-starred response to the iPod, the Zune was a decent MP3 player with a cult following. With good hardware and wireless sharing capabilities, it just couldn’t break Apple’s grip. Today, it’s a relic of tech underdog lore — and oddly collectible.

10. USB Flash Drives Under 1GB

Image from Office Warehouse

Once deemed miraculous for holding more than a floppy disk, 128MB or 512MB flash drives were red-hot items. Today, they can’t even fit one HD photo album. However, they remain hidden in desk drawers, with strange files from 10 years past.

11. Netbook

Image from Britannica

Netbooks were tiny, inexpensive, and outrageously underpowered laptops that were everywhere in the late 2000s. They used Windows XP or Linux and were designed for “just browsing the web” — but too often couldn’t even manage that. If you still own one, you’ve got a functioning testament to the boundaries of bare-bones computing.

12. Corded Landline Phone

Image from Ubuy Philippines

Not only retro — but still surprisingly usable during power outages. Most houses still possess an old rotary or push-button corded phone, even if it hasn’t been used in years. It’s a physical reminder of when you memorized numbers and actually picked up the phone without knowing who was calling.

13. CRT TV

Image from Desertcart Philippines

These heavy, boxy monsters took up half your entertainment center but delivered a deep, warm picture perfect for retro gaming. They’re nearly extinct now, but retro gamers swear by them for their low input lag and perfect pixel scaling. If you’ve got one, don’t toss it — sell it to a collector.

14. Zip Drive

Image from Ubuy Philippines

Prior to USB drives and cloud storage, the Iomega Zip Drive provided an astonishing 100MB of removable storage — revolutionary for its time. They were the size of giant floppy disks and produced clicking noises that announced serious data work. They were fleeting but a giant leap in portable storage progress.

15. Satellite Radio Receiver (such as early Sirius units)

Image from baliwag.gov.ph

Prior to streaming, Sirius and XM provided commercial-free satellite radio in your home or vehicle with stand-alone receivers. These clunky, dedicated devices introduced niche music and talk radio to fans before they consolidated and entered integrated car systems. Most remain operational, but now seem like overengineered throwbacks to the pre-Spotify era.