Smartphones Trivia
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49 free Smartphones trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This smartphones trivia quiz covers the pocket computers that replaced cameras, music players, maps and pagers in barely two decades. The easy questions handle the basics: who unveiled the first iPhone and when, which company makes Android, what the App Store and Google Play are, the phone famous for being indestructible and the game called Snake. From there it moves through the pre-history: Martin Cooper's 1973 call on a Manhattan sidewalk, the $3,995 Motorola DynaTAC, the IBM Simon that is now called the first true smartphone, the Nokia Communicator, BlackBerry's push email and Symbian's brief reign. The harder half is for gadget fans: why Android was announced in a subway station, the dessert names and why they stopped, the price of the first iPhone, how many apps launched the App Store, the year the headphone jack began to vanish, the drupelets behind BlackBerry's name, Nokia's 'burning platform' switch to Windows Phone, the Galaxy Note 7 recall, the origin of emoji and the Oxford Word of the Year that was not a word at all. If you enjoyed our Apple, Google or computing history quizzes, this is the deep dive on the device in your hand. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for smartphones, the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and the other devices and companies named before publishing.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which device, released in 1994, is retrospectively described as the first true smartphone?
The IBM Simon
The IBM Simon could send faxes and email, but a battery lasting about an hour and a steep price held sales to about 50,000.
Q 02Which wireless technology found in smartphones is named after a 10th-century Danish king?
Bluetooth
Bluetooth began as a placeholder: Intel's Jim Kardach borrowed the name of King Harald Bluetooth, who united Denmark, because the tech would unite PCs and phones.
Q 03Which Motorola engineer made the first public call from a handheld cellphone, on a Manhattan street?
Martin Cooper
Martin Cooper dialed his chief rival, Joel Engel at AT&T's Bell Labs, to tell him he was calling from a real handheld cellphone.
Q 04Which 'brick' phone of the early 1980s was the first handheld cellphone sold to the public?
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X needed ten more years after the 1973 prototype call to clear technical and regulatory hurdles before it went on sale.
Q 05Which iPhone's 'antennagate' reception problem led Apple to hand out free cases?
iPhone 4
The iPhone 4's steel rim doubled as its antenna, so gripping the lower-left corner could weaken the signal and drop calls.
Q 06What does 'SIM' stand for in the SIM card used by mobile phones?
Subscriber Identity Module
Subscriber Identity Module: the card holds the identity the network uses to recognise you, so moving it moves your subscription to another phone.
Q 07Who unveiled the first iPhone at Macworld on 9 January 2007?
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs announced three products, a widescreen iPod, a phone and an internet communicator, then revealed they were one device.
Q 08Which Microsoft CEO laughed in 2007 that the iPhone was 'the most expensive phone in the world'?
Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer said business customers wouldn't want it because it had no keyboard, which made it a poor email machine.
Q 09With which US carrier did Apple secretly develop the original iPhone at an estimated cost of $150 million?
Cingular Wireless
Cingular, later AT&T Mobility, gave Apple free rein after the disappointing Motorola ROKR collaboration.
Q 10After scratches appeared on a plastic prototype screen, which company did Apple ask for the first iPhone's glass?
Corning
Corning revived a toughened glass left on its R&D shelf, and it shipped on the first iPhone before being branded Gorilla Glass.
Q 11After cutting the 8 GB iPhone from $599 to $399 in 2007, what did Apple give angry early buyers?
Store credit
Store credit: after 'hundreds of emails' about the $200 price cut, Apple gave early iPhone buyers $100 to spend at its stores.
Q 12What reason did Apple give for leaving the charger out of iPhone 12 boxes?
To cut waste and emissions
To cut waste and emissions: Apple said the slimmer box let 70% more iPhones fit on each shipping pallet.
Q 13Android is based on a modified version of which kernel?
Linux
Linux: in 2017 Google got long-term Linux kernels supported for six years, not two, because the old window almost ran out before Android phones shipped.
Q 21In the 2011 Apple-Samsung patent fight, which Samsung phone did Apple set beside an iPhone 3GS in court images?
The original Galaxy S
The original Galaxy S picture had been shortened and narrowed to match the iPhone 3GS, and Samsung accused Apple of misleading the court.
Q 22Which Canadian company, founded in Waterloo, Ontario, created the BlackBerry?
Research In Motion
Research In Motion renamed itself BlackBerry in 2013, as the brand it had made famous lost ground to the iPhone and Android.
Q 23Why was the BlackBerry pager given its name?
Its keys resembled the fruit
Q 14Which Android co-founder had earlier created the T-Mobile Sidekick?
Andy Rubin
Andy Rubin's startup first built an operating system for digital cameras, then switched to phones as camera growth slowed.
Q 15What made Google's Android team scrap its BlackBerry-like prototype phone in 2007?
Apple unveiling the iPhone
Apple unveiling the iPhone made one Android engineer think 'We're going to have to start over', and the team switched its focus to a touchscreen prototype.
Q 16For years, major Android versions were named alphabetically after what?
Desserts and sweets
Desserts and sweets: from Cupcake to Pie, until Google dropped the names because English dessert words weren't 'inclusive' for users worldwide.
Q 17The Play Store, launched in March 2012, replaced which earlier app store name?
Android Market
Android Market was folded into Google Play with Google Music and the Google eBookstore, so one store now sold apps, songs and ebooks.
Q 18Which 2016 smartphone game did the US Holocaust Memorial Museum ask visitors to stop playing inside?
Pokémon Go
Pokémon Go put capture spots at real landmarks, memorials included, so players hunted creatures inside the museum until Niantic removed such sites.
Q 19Which photo app, launched only for iPhone in 2010, did Facebook buy for about $1 billion in 2012?
Instagram began as Burbn, a location check-in app, until its founders cut it back to the photo sharing its users liked most.
Q 20Which Samsung phone was recalled worldwide in 2016 because its batteries could catch fire?
The Galaxy Note 7
The Galaxy Note 7's replacement units, fitted with batteries from a different supplier, caught fire too, so Samsung stopped making it.
Its keys resembled the fruit: the tiny buttons looked like a blackberry's drupelets, and thumb-typing on them became a corporate email habit.
Q 24Which US president kept using a specially secured BlackBerry while in office?
Barack Obama
Barack Obama insisted on keeping his BlackBerry after his inauguration despite security objections, so he used a model specially enhanced by the NSA.
Q 25Which operating system, descended from Psion's EPOC and used mainly by Nokia, led smartphones until the end of 2010?
Symbian
Symbian led until the end of 2010, the year Samsung and Sony Ericsson abandoned it as iOS and Android took over.
Q 26In February 2011, Nokia announced it would adopt which company's operating system as its primary smartphone platform?
Microsoft's Windows Phone
Microsoft's Windows Phone won out because CEO Stephen Elop said Android gave Nokia too little room to stand out from rivals.
Q 27Which Microsoft music-player brand launched in 2006 to take on Apple's iPod?
Zune
Zune never made much impact, trailing even SanDisk's Sansa in US share, and Microsoft stopped making the players in 2011.
Q 28In 2017 Apple admitted slowing some older iPhones with worn batteries in order to prevent what?
Sudden shutdowns
Sudden shutdowns: Apple quietly throttled iPhones with worn batteries to stop them switching off, and US states later said it had hidden the problem.
Q 29Which hugely popular game came pre-loaded on the Nokia 3310?
Snake II
Snake II belonged to a Snake series whose success on Nokia phones revived snake games and signalled a new era of mobile gaming.
Q 30The world's first automatic analogue cellular network was launched in 1979 for car phones in which city?
Tokyo
Tokyo's car-phone service, run by NTT, later spread across Japan and was the world's first full-scale cellular system.