UKC

I’ve been clearing out my “old, discarded tech” draw which has a bunch of mobile phones dating back to 1997 in it.

My favourite from my draw is a Motorola Razr flip phone.  Back in the day when I still made phone calls, and SMS was the only asynchronous messaging platform, it did everything I expected of a phone, it was tiny by modern standards, and the design was really nice to use.  

It still feels somehow futuristic today between the flip-out nature and the unique numeric keyboard.  If we can get to the point a modern touchscreen pocket supercomputer with terrestrial and satellite connectivity (ie a modern Apple or Android mobile device) folds away to the side of a Razr when not in use, we truely will be living in the future.  Foldable screens are getting there but robustness has some way to go, and it would need fold along a second axis to reach folded Razr proportions….

An honourable mention goes to the Psion 5 MX from my draw which booted up first time on a pair of fresh AA batteries and still has a lot of my old work on it.

What is the defining mobile phone from your past, and why?

Probably my favourite was my Samsung Solid. It really was indestructible. I remember I couldn't find it one evening so I rang it to try and find it but it wouldn't ring. Then, I discovered it had gone through the wash in my pocket and the reason it wouldn't ring was because it had no signal in there. When I took it out it was still on and perfectly functional. 

I had a Blackberry Bold and I still yearn for an analogue, full, mini Qwerty.

Siemens M35 (https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/phone-detail/siemens-m35 though mine is grey all over). Bought 2001 and it still works.

Small, been 100% reliable (still working), battery lasts more than a week (and replacement battery still does last time I tested it), no updates ever required!, dust proof, water resistant, robust, and as for calling it just works/worked (though sms is a bit of a click a button once, twice or three times to get the character you want so not great by modern standards!).

Once I upgraded it was only used as a mobile to carry just in case of an emergency, and as a backup mobile. Sadly, it will be near the end of useable life when the network switches off the older technology.

Useless fact apparently the M designation was Siemens for phones with military specifications for outdoor activities; no wonder it has lasted so well!

Not a telephone but in many ways the electronic gadget that I miss the most. Had mine repaired a couple of times but eventually had to admit it was no longer useable. For a while it was the only computer I had at home & I wrote first drafts of a few articles on it before transfering them to my office PC.

3310 of course.

I liked how when dropped it would separate into several pieces that would scatter in all directions.

After some time hunting them all, it would click back together and work perfectly.

Ericsson 768, late '90s. Tiny, not quite Razr size but still small. 10 character display 😂 it couldn't even display a phone number without scrolling! It was so much smaller and better than everything else that everyone at work had one. There was only one ringtone that was loud, so everyone had the same one. Endless amusement to be had.

Sony Ericsson P900. My first ( and one of the world's first) smartphone. Like a laptop that would fit in my pocket with a mobile data connection. It was a revelation.

Nokia 5110. Classic.

After a series of phones that worked OK, I had an Ericson T39, which I thought was great and then a succession of Nokias which worked and made phone calls (in a satisfactory but uninspired way) and then a Blackberry but my first iPhone (4) was a such a huge step forward in functionality that I think that has to be my favourite. Even now, I still like the square-edged styling and small size of that generation of iPhones.

I had a Psion Revo - the one that folded into about the size of a glasses case. Many a Climber magazine article was drafted on that while I was away cragging!

I loved my tiny gd55. 

It was so small I kept it in my wallet. 

Now my phone is huge and I keep my wallet inside it! 

Ok, I don't think this will be a popular choice but I really liked my Nokia Lumia Windows Phone. The UI was better than iOS or Android (and still is IMO)

3A, 3MX, 5MX, and then Revo when I thought I'd lost the 3MX. The Revo keyboard was horrible and unresponsive.

I still like my MotoE2; good pocket size, clear screen. Just not updated, and now suffering the insoluble Android System Data bloat problem. Shame you can't buy anything other than a phablet these days...

First 'GSM' mobile was a rack of TMS320C25s in the back of a transit. When GSM stood for 'Groupe Speciale Mobile', and during the development of the spec.

Nokia 6300 was great in its day. Ran Opera Mini on it and it whizzed along on just EDGE/2.75G. 

The modern Nokia 6300 4G thing is a worthless piece of rubbish in comparison like all the KaiOS disasters. Of course, that is to be expected, since we now live in an age when almost nothing works right. 

For me, it was the Nokia N97.  A Symbian smartphone with a side-out keyboard and a cracking good camera.  Like all of Nokia’s Symbian devices, a lot of things were a bit half-baked, and the build quality wasn’t what it should be, but it had one killer app - Here Maps, which got me around Germany’s southern cities during a week’s motorbike trip from hostel to hostel.

I also had a Nokia lumia phone, sadly all too short a period before they dropped support for it.

The lumia phones had NFC and high capacitance screens which worked with thin gloves on, way before such features were standard on high end flagship Samgsungs and iPhone. 

The Nokia 7110 - proper Keanu   - OK, I know that it wasn't the original Matrix handset but it was better.

Nokia 7110 slide phone - was a company phone, so had to give it back, or would still be in a drawer somewhere.

Motorola V50 because it was so compact.

Nokia 6110 would be my classic phone of choice outside of my current S23 which I really like.

It was the first I had connected to a car to be able to have hands-free calling, had a fantastic battery life and was, by today's standards, bullet proof.

Snake was good too.

Me too. I miss my Blackberry. Maybe this could be a replacement?

https://www.minimalcompany.com/

(I am not affiliated with this in any way)

I convinced my younger sisters that the slide was voice activated and only responded to my voice, which I must have found very amusing at the time given I still remember it.

It also took some serious abuse, including falling out of my shirt pocket from a first floor flat window onto concrete - the bits all going back together - and getting slammed in a car door (back when car doors needed a proper pull).

6310i. Issued by work when I had to start visits to the US. At home it was great, long battery life, good hands free cradle for the car.

Sony Ericsson T610 or similar. Almost as tough as the Nokias from a few years earlier but with a bright colour screen and a brilliant joystick thing on the keypad.

I loved my Sony Erickson T68, 2g and WAP, email client built in, I never could justify the expense of the clip on camera - sigh, but the radio built into the headphones was a wonderful piece of tech. I know I looked hyper cool sitting on the rail outside the library of Durham Uni listening to radio 1 with that phone in my hand.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha. Was a perfect size, well made, looked smart and had a decent enough camera for some early bouldering videos I made. And was a fairly decent price. Not been able to match it since.

Got to be my little Nokia 7000, trouble was you need really good eyesight. 

T39 one that stands out for me, loved that one, remember it having some good games on too!

https://www.mobilephonemuseum.com/phone-detail/ericsson-t39m

86 grammes. Lovely.

Ericsson R520m – early 2000s or so. It had everything from bluetooth to rudimentary voice control, and was built like a tank. The whole backside was a solid thick piece of magnesium alloy. Even though it wasn't rugged per se like the R310s, I still once chipped a floor tile with it when I dropped it in the pub.

HTC Legend. It was the first smartphone I had. Bombproof metal casing, and a nice implementation of Android.

Honourable mention goes to my blue sparkly Nokia 3210 for somehow lasting through 7 years of University life!

Nokia 105 4G. Not facing very stiff competition.

I worked on an iteration of the RAZR back in the day, it was a great bit of kit. Designed in secret away from Motorola's middle management naysayers, it was huge in terms of design, if not internal tech. One of the first to be developed without a stub or pull-out antenna. (I had a device prototype returned after review in the US by mg't 'needs arial - can't sell without, US customers won't trust it' it had an internal coil type antenna ) Sold like hotcakes, and we rinsed it to death, Carphone Warehouse wanted hot pink, so we made hot pink. D&G wanted gold, we made gold - and an equally cringe advertising campaign to go with it!

My go to in the drawer of many phones - my Nokia 8850, small, stylish, love the aluminium slider - think it was peak feature phone tbh!

Biggest hates that came across my desk - the Nokia 6810 and N-Gage, both of which should have been drowned in a sack.

HTC Magic. One of the first Android phones available, it had a trackball, which I still miss, and a removable battery. It was first handheld computer I'd owned since an iPAQ 3630 a decade before (I always wanted a GSM sleeve), and it was also the last handheld computer I've owned - not a single phone I've owned since has been small enough to hold.

I occasionally ponder getting a Unihertz Jelly which seems to be the most similar thing available today, but reviews seem to indicate the battery life could be a downside.

Nokia 3310 now THAT was the true classic. You could throw it across an office (I mean lob it like a cricket ball), quickly fully dip it in a pint of beer and remove then lick it clean. Only charge it once a week (every  Sunday night in my case) and it just worked.

Even had Snake and Nokia Backgammon, could send and receive text and calls -- I mean what else do you need?

I can’t find the model number but I had a couple of tiny Sony Ericsson’s in the 90 s of a similar ilk . About thr size of three boxes of matches lined up . Phone. Text . And the last one had a Walkman . Built in. To the phone. What more could be done ? 

i went swimming with a Nokia 3510 and, after drying out, it still worked

The Unihertz Jelly is actually a remarkably good device.  It’s my occasional daily driver when I’m taking a “break” from tech - it still provides useful smartphone features (including NFC), but in a small enough package to make mindless scrolling unpleasant.

The 7110 was my second favourite.  

In reply to thread:

Really interesting to read all the replies - a lot of people have a lot of fond memories of tough, small and compact phones.  Now everything has converged on a touchscreen slab it’s easy to forget the range of innovation and variety of design in phones around 20 years ago.