THE EVOLUTION OF CELL PHONE DESIGN BETWEEN 1983-2009

Cell phones have evolved immensely since 1983, both in design and function.

1983

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
Analog Motorola DynaTAC 8000X Advanced Mobile Phone System mobile phone as of 1983.

1989

Motorola MicroTAC 9800X
The first truly portable phone. Up until its release, most cellular phones were installed as car phones due to the inability to fit them into a jacket pocket.

1992

Motorola International 3200
The first digital hand-size mobile telephone.

Nokia 1011
This was the first mass-produced GSM phone. It was produced until 1994.

1993

BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator
The IBM Simon was the first PDA/Phone combo.

1996

Motorola StarTAC
The first clamshell cellular phone. Also one of the first display screens featured on a cell.

Nokia 8110

Alternately called the “banana phone”, this phone was popularized in the first Matrix movie.

Nokia 9000 Communicator
The first smartphone series, driven by an Intel 386 CPU.

1998

Nokia 9110i
This iteration of Nokia’s Communicator series significantly reduced the weight of this precursor to the smartphone.

Nokia 5110
This cell phone was the most popular consumer model at the time of its release and for some time afterwards.

1999

Nokia 8210
This phone was loved for its customizable design, but hated for its screen fade.

Nokia 7110
The first mobile phone with a WAP browser.

Nokia 5210
This phone was known for its durability and splash-proof interchangeable casing.

Benefon Esc!
This was the first instance of a GPS being integrated into a mobile phone, and was sold mostly in Europe.

Samsung SPH-M100 Uproar
The Uproar was the first cell phone to have MP3 music capabilities.

Nokia 3210
The internal antenna and predictive T9 text messaging sold approximately 160 million of these phones.

2000

Ericsson R380
The R380 featured a black and white touchscreen, partially covered by a flip.

Nokia 3310
This popular phone sold 126 million models, and was particularly popular in Europe.

Ericsson R320
One of the first phones with a WAP browser. A version of this phone was released in China that allowed Chinese character SMS.

2001

Nokia 5510
This phone featured a full QWERTY keyboard. It could also store up to 64mb of music.

Nokia 8310
This phone contained premium features not normally found on handsets of the time, such as Infrared, a fully functional calendar and a FM Radio.