It is June 2002, and Nokia has just released a device that feels like it fell off the back of a spaceship. The 7650 is a landmark for three reasons: it’s the first Nokia with a built-in camera, the first with a colour screen, and the first to run the Symbian OS (Series 60), making it a “smartphone” …
Nokia 6310i
While everyone else is chasing colour screens and cameras that take photos resembling a bag of flour, Nokia has quietly released the 6310i, a phone so fundamentally perfect that some people will still be using it in 2026. Launched in early 2002, it is the refined “i” version of the 6310, and it is t…
Samsung T100
It is April 2002, and if you walk into any high-street mobile shop in the UK, you’re likely to see a crowd of people huddled around a small, silver, egg-shaped device. That device is the Samsung SGH-T100, and it is currently making every Nokia on the shelf look like it belongs in a black-and-white f…
Sony Ericsson T68i
Following the marriage of Sony and Ericsson, the T68i arrived in early 2002 as the first fruit of their union, though it’s essentially a refined, re-badged version of the original T68. The sleek, “Arctic Blue” finish is a significant aesthetic upgrade over the original’s gold-and-grey look, making i…
Nokia 8310
If the 8210 was for the fashionistas, the 8310 is for the fashionistas who’ve just been promoted to middle management. Launched in late 2001, it’s Nokia’s first Series 40 phone to feature GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), which is a fancy way of saying the internet is now “always on” and you don’…
Ericsson T68
It is late 2001, and Ericsson has just dropped a bomb on the industry that makes every other monochrome “brick” look like a Victorian relic. The T68 is the first widely available handset in the UK to feature a 256-colour STN display, and while 101 x 80 pixels sounds modest, seeing a tiny digital ima…
Nokia 3330
Nokia has pulled a classic “S” move here, taking the 3310—the phone that effectively conquered the planet—and giving it a modest internal facelift. Released in early 2001, the 3330 is identical to the 3310 on the outside, save for the “Pebble” grey cover it usually ships with, but the real changes a…
Nokia 3310
It is September 2000, and if you aren’t currently trying to beat your mate’s high score on Snake II, you’ve clearly missed the cultural memo of the millennium. The Nokia 3310 has arrived to replace the already legendary 3210, and while it looks like a slightly smoother, more rounded version of its p…
Nokia 6210
f the 3310 is for the kids in the playground, the Nokia 6210 is for the people who actually pay the mortgage. Released in mid-2000 as the successor to the venerable 6110, this is the pinnacle of the “classic” Nokia design before things started getting weird with cameras and color screens. It is rema…
Siemens C35i
Siemens is tired of being the runner-up, and with the C35i, they’ve finally produced a handset that can look a Nokia in the eye without blinking. Launched in early 2000 as a direct rival to the 3310, the C35i is a compact, dual-band GSM worker that brings high-end features like WAP to the masses for…