It is early 2004, and Nokia has just delivered the 6230—a phone so comprehensively capable that it feels like the engineers in Espoo were trying to win a bet. While the 6310i was the king of the boardroom, the 6230 is the emperor of the high street, the office, and the gym all at once. It is a class…
Nokia N-Gage
It is October 2003, and Nokia has decided to declare war on Nintendo. If you’ve stepped into a Carphone Warehouse lately, you’ve likely seen the N-Gage taking pride of place in a plastic display case, looking less like a mobile phone and more like a high-tech Cornish pasty. For the princely sum of £…
Nokia 1100
It is late 2003, and while the tech-elite are preening over their colour screens and camera lenses that take photos of what appear to be smudged ghosts, Nokia has quietly released the 1100. If you walked into a Carphone Warehouse today, you might overlook it in favour of the shiny Samsung flips, but…
Motorola V300
If the Samsung E700 is a sleek sports car, the Motorola V300 is a reliable, rubberised family hatchback with surprisingly good speakers. Launched in late 2003 as a mid-range contender on the T-Mobile and Orange networks, the V300 is Motorola’s attempt to bring high-end clamshell features to the aver…
Nokia 6600
The ‘Fat Phone’ has arrived in the UK, and it’s here to tell you that your PDA is obsolete. Launched in October 2003, the Nokia 6600 is a significant technical milestone; it is the most advanced Series 60 device Nokia has ever produced. It’s a chunky, soap-bar shaped beast that feels substantial in …
Samsung E700
It is late 2003, and Samsung has officially decided that the external antenna is a fashion crime that must be abolished. The E700 is a design-led masterpiece that has turned the heads of every mobile user in Britain, finally providing a clamshell that doesn’t look like a walkie-talkie from a 1970s p…
Sony Ericsson T610
If the Samsung T100 was the flashy newcomer, the Sony Ericsson T610 is the sophisticated graduate who’s just walked in and taken over the room. Released in the UK in mid-2003, the T610 is the phone that finally validated the marriage of Sony and Ericsson. After a few “getting to know you” handsets l…
BlackBerry 6210
The ‘Quark’ has arrived, and for the professionals of the City, life will never be the same. Released in 2003, the BlackBerry 6210 is a pivotal moment in telecommunications history; it is the first BlackBerry that actually functions as a phone without requiring you to plug in a clunky external heads…
Nokia 3510i
While the 7650 is for the tech elite, the 3510i is the phone that’s bringing colour and “the internet” to the rest of us. Launched in late 2002, it’s a brilliant mid-range worker that replaces the monochrome 3510. It’s got a 4,096-colour display that makes the menus look vibrant, even if the 96 x 65…
Orange SPV
The Orange SPV (Sound, Pictures, Video) is a bit of a historical moment: it’s the world’s first Windows-powered smartphone. Produced by HTC but branded by Orange, it launched in late 2002 as a direct challenge to Nokia’s Symbian dominance. It looks and feels more like a PDA than a phone, featuring a…