I miss when tech looked cheap, plastic, and honest

By Paulo Vargas Published May 23, 2026

I was bouncing between retro games on my Anbernic RG353V when I realized I missed something I didn’t expect to miss: gadgets that looked cheap.

I don’t mean bad tech, broken tech, or some misty-eyed claim that everything was better when batteries leaked and screens had the viewing angle of a bank receipt.

I mean devices that looked obvious. The controls announced themselves. The plastic shell didn’t pretend to be jewelry. The ports were right there, not hidden inside some seamless little mystery coffin. That’s exactly why I brought this Game Boy Color revival.

It’s not going to win design awards, but it’s earnest and I understood it.

That kind of physical clarity used to be everywhere. A Game Boy Color didn’t need to whisper “interaction model” at me. It had a D-pad, face buttons, a cartridge slot, and enough seams to make the whole object feel like a small machine built for human fingers. You could look at it and know what wanted to be pressed, opened, swapped, or plugged in.

Modern gadgets often go in the opposite direction. Phones became glass rectangles. Earbuds became tiny glossy beans. Laptops became thin metal slabs with fewer ports and fewer physical clues.

To be fair, there are good reasons for some of that: thinner bodies, cleaner surfaces, better durability, and easier water resistance. Still, they often look more expensive while feeling less approachable.

Somewhere along the way, “premium” started meaning “hide the gadget.”

Transparent plastic still feels weirdly radical for the same reason. Those clear shells from the ’90s were cheap, loud, and completely unsubtle, but they let the machine show through. You could see layers, screws, boards, and little fake sci-fi organs. Even when the transparency was more theater than function, it made the device feel playful instead of sealed off.

That appetite hasn’t disappeared. Nothing uses transparency to make phones and earbuds feel less anonymous. Playdate turns a small yellow handheld and a crank into an entire personality. CMF by Nothing leans into color, modular parts, and visible controls. Apple’s colorful iMac revival felt like a tiny crack in the silver-and-space-gray wall.

I don’t look at those products and think the past won. I just think a lot of today’s gadgets could stand to loosen up.

Cheap-looking tech wasn’t always charming on purpose. Sometimes it looked cheap because it was cheap. Plastic creaked, colors aged badly, and hinges loosened after enough abuse. Some devices had the design confidence of a toy from a pharmacy checkout aisle.

But that was part of the appeal. They looked like tools, toys, and little machines instead of lifestyle props. They gave you handles, slots, ridges, switches, and visual permission to actually use them. Modern tech often feels like it wants to survive in a showroom more than a backpack.

That’s what my Anbernic reminded me of. I don’t need every device to become transparent purple again, though I wouldn’t complain. I just miss when tech looked less like it was auditioning for a luxury hotel lobby and more like it knew it was allowed to be a gadget.