Unboxing a new phone is always special, but in the early days of smartphones, it wasn’t just the hardware that left an impression. The default wallpaper was a defining feature that you’d see at the launch event and every ad that followed. Here are some of the most iconic ones in no particular order.
1Clownfish
The Clownfish wallpaper made its first debut when Steve Jobs announced the original iPhone at MacWorld 2007. It’s a vibrant image of two orange clownfish contrasting against the green anemone surrounding them.
The wallpaper was also used extensively in marketing materials for the iPhone, but here’s a Mandela effect for you—the Clownfish wallpaper was never actually available with the first iPhone, and it wasn’t a wallpaper, either. The original iPhone’s hardware didn’t support wallpapers as we know them today; instead, it was a lock screen.
If you wanted the Clownfish wallpaper on your first iPhone, you’d have to download it and set it up yourself. Technically speaking, the Clownfish wallpaper first appeared on the iPhone withiOS 16’s “Collections"wallpapers, which are an homage to the old-school designs.
2Earth
The original iPhone shipped with a lock screen image of our lovely Earth rather than the Clownfish. To be more specific, it’s an image of the Western Hemisphere with lots of clouds against a pitch-black background that is most certainly not outer space. Also referred to as the Blue Marble,this image was createdby a data visualization engineer named Robert Simmon, who based it on NASA’s photos.
3Dandelion
The Dandelion wallpaper debuted with the Samsung Galaxy S3. In my opinion, it’s the most iconic Samsung wallpaper of all time, in no small part thanks to the phone it came on. The Galaxy S3 marked a significant shift in Android smartphones, as the new version of TouchWiz UI offered a much cleaner,Frutiger Aero-esque software experience compared to its predecessors.
The S3’s sleek, rounded corners combined with the then-massive 4.8-inch display were perfectly complimented by the soft, elegant close-up of a dandelion and a pale blue sky.
4Nexus Live Wallpaper
You know a wallpaper has left an impact when itsthird-party appversion has over 5 million downloads. Thislive wallpaperfirst appeared on the Nexus One, Google’s first Nexus phone, which was manufactured by HTC. What made this wallpaper stand out were the animated cubes in Google’s colors that resembled a neural network. More cubes would appear when you touched the screen.
The original version debuted with Android 2.1, which is when support for live wallpapers was added, but there’s also a second, less popular version of this wallpaper thatappeared in Android 2.3–4.4.4.
5Rain Drops
Much like Dandelion, Rain Drops was iconic because of the phone it first appeared on, which was the iPhone 4. At the time of its release, the iPhone 4 was one of the thinnest, nicest-looking phones, featuring a stainless steel band sandwiched between two slabs of glass, similar to modern iPhones.
The wallpaper’s simple colors and design perfectly complemented the phone’s design, allowing the colorful apps to take center stage instead. Remember, smartphones were still a new and intimidating device to average consumers, so it was important to make the learning curve as easy as possible.
6Pink Summit
To be honest with you, the only reason I’m writing this article is to share my favorite wallpaper of all time with you. It’s an oldie, but I still use a full-size version of this wallpaper in my wallpaper folder on my PC.
The gorgeous wallpaper first appeared on the Nexus 5. It’s a photograph of the snowy summit of Lone Pine Peak, California, set against an impressively pink sky. Interestingly, a similar photo of the summit was used a few years later as the default wallpaper formacOS Sierra.
7Colorful Planets
This live wallpaper debuted with the iPhone XS, so it’s the most recent release on this list. It’s actually part of a collection of similar live wallpapers. These appear to be colorful oils trapped in a petri dish, meant to reassemble a planet that moves to make all kinds of crazy patterns when you touch the screen. They were a perfect way to showcase the iPhone XS’s new display, which reportedly had a60% greater dynamic range.
8Never Settle
OnePlus is a brand well-known for its “never settle” motto, which means that the company will never give up on innovating and figuring out how to make the user experience the best it can be. I like to think that it means you shouldn’t settle for a lesser smartphone, even if you’re not willing to spend a lot. The OnePlus One was the first high-profile “flagship killer,” which featured the motto set against a red pixelated background, one of many such wallpapers that OnePlus released over the years.
9Beach
Back in 2017, Apple was rocking a bunch of cool nature-inspired wallpapers across their devices. Perhaps none is as iconic as the iOS 11 beach wallpaper. It’s elegant, simple, and beautiful.
10Balloons
Samsung Galaxy S4’s Balloons background shares a similar Frutiger Aero-esque style to the S3’s Dandelion. However, it’s much more vibrant, thanks to the kid who’s graciously holding a bunch of colorful balloons. The S4 was one of the first smartphones with a 1080p display, so this picture was a great way to show off the sharpness.
