Siemens SL55 (2003)

It was fiddly to use, had a terrible screen and poor build quality - but the Siemens SL55 is certainly one of the cutest phones ever made.

Launched in 2003, the SL55 was probably the tiniest phone on the market, measuring just 82 x 45 x 22 mm and weighing 79 grams. But it wasn't just the small size of the SL55 that turned heads - the elegant combination of curves and styling details meant that this phone has a huge amount of "wow factor".. and the SL55 was making inroads into this marketplace a full year before Motorola's RAZR.

The 101 x 80 pixel 4096 colour CSTN display was a bit basic even in 2003. The SL55 had GPRS, a WAP browser, polyphonic ringtones, but it didn't have Bluetooth or a camera.. and certainly nothing fancy like an MP3 player. Of course, it could make phone calls and send text messages too, and really that's all the SL55 was designed to be.. a compact, attractive phone for people who really just need basic functionality.

The SL55 was quite a successful phone, but Siemens could never really come up with a suitable successor. The SL65 and SL75 were better specified but lacked the charm of the original SL55, and eventually the whole Siemens Mobile business folded.

For a time, Siemens showed great promise with a number of highly innovative designs, but they never could reliably sort out their quality control issues. Ultimately the SL55 stands as a reminder of what might have been, and it still calls out for a modern remake.

Siemens SL55 at a glanceSource: GSMArena
Available:	2003
Network:	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
Data:	GPRS
Screen:	101 x 80 pixels, 4096 colours
Camera:	No
Size:	Compact slider 82 x 45 x 22mm / 79 grams
Bluetooth:	No
Memory card:	No
Infra-red:	No
Polyphonic:	Yes
Java:	Yes
GPS:	No
Battery life:	5 hours talk / 9 days standby

Motorola V70 (2002)

Launched 2002

This almost forgotten handset is clearly the inspiration for the new Motorola AURA. Launched in 2002, the V70's rotating function was just as unusual as it is today, but the rest of the technology in the V70 was looking a bit dated, even for 2002.

Like the AURA, the V70 was expensive at launch.. our research shows us that the asking price was around $750 or so.. but that's still a lot cheaper than the $2000 price tag for the AURA.

The Motorola V70 was a dual-band GSM phone with a rectangular 96 x 64 pixel monochrome display, a simple WAP browser, GPRS, vibrating function and voice dialling. It was a pretty lightweight handset at just 83 grams. Modern essentials such as Bluetooth, a camera and colour display were absent.

Today the V70 is almost completely forgotten, but it appears that it is quite a collectable device.. and it seems that someone in Motorola certainly remembers it!

Motorola V70 at a glance(source: GSMArena)
Available:	2002
Network:	GSM 900 / 1800
Data:	GPRS
Screen:	96 x 64 pixels, monochrome
Camera:	No
Size:	Rotator 94 x 38 x 18mm /83 grams
Bluetooth:	No
Memory card:	No
Infra-red:	No
Polyphonic:	No
Java:	No
GPS:	No
Battery life:	3.5 hours talk / 6 days standby

Motorola StarTAC (1996)

About 10 years ago, the Motorola StarTAC was probably the coolest mobile phone on the market. In terms of size and weight, the StarTAC closely matches modern clamshell phones, and you could consider the StarTAC as perhaps being the first truly modern mobile phone.

At the time of its launch, the StarTAC made a huge impact. At roughly half the weight of most competing handsets, and in a much more compact size, the StarTAC made headlines, especially in the business press (for example BusinessWeek and Fortune Magazine).  Nobody had ever seen a mobile phone like this before, and it was the first phone that you could easily put in your pocket or clip to a belt and not really notice it.

There were several different models of StarTAC handset, covering both analogue and digital phone networks, including CDMA and GSM versions. Original StarTAC models had a small LED display, although this was later changed to a monochrome LCD panel.

The original StarTAC phone was fearsomely expensive - shortly after launch the full retail price of the StarTAC (without a contract) was somewhere in the region of $1500 to $2000. For a device weighing just 88 grams or 3.1 ounces, the StarTAC was more expensive to buy (by weight) than pure gold.

The StarTAC pictured here is a single-band GSM 900 model, the StarTAC 130 (model MG2-4D11) dating from around 1999. The front of the phone has a quite prominent clip which is the battery cover. Inside, one immediately noticeable feature is that the screen and keypad are all on the lower side of the phone, and the upper half only has the speaker. Compare this with a typical recent clamshell device, and you can immediately see that the StarTAC had a very cramped layout. (Pictured left is the Nokia 6131 alongside the StarTAC).

Despite the stylish black design and diminutive size, the StarTAC was not really very advanced. The StarTAC 130 could handle SMS messaging, it had a small number of mono ringtones to choose from and a basic address book. The user interface was truly horrible to use, a problem that dogged Motorola for many years afterwards. There's also an extendable antenna, which is something you never see these days.. unfortunately, this was quite prone to damage.

Over the five years or so that the various StarTAC models were in production, very little changed in the way of looks, and Motorola didn't produce anything with this much "wow factor" until the RAZR came out several years later. In 2006, PC World magazine named it the number 6 "greatest gadget" in the past 50 years.. there are even companies such as Retrobrick that sell the StarTAC to collectors today.

We have some more pictures of the StarTAC in our gallery.

Nokia 6310i (2002)

Launched Q2 2002

In terms of mobile phone history, 2002 was a very long time ago.. and you would expect a handset from that era to be obsolete and completely unloved, right?

Well.. almost. There's an exception to every rule.. and that exception is the Nokia 6310i. The 6310i itself was just a slightly upgraded version of the 6310 (from 2001) which in itself was an upgrade of the 6210 (from 2000). So, the 6310i is a six year old phone based  on even older technology, which makes it remarkable that you still see the 6310i in use today.

By modern standards, the feature set seems pretty laughable. The display is a 96 x 60 pixel monochrome panel, and the 6310i doesn't have a camera, music player or even polyphonic ringtones. But it was one of the first Nokia handsets to support Bluetooth, and it came with GPRS data and Java support for downloadable applications. 

But there are several features in the 6310i that Nokia have never really been able to match. Firstly, it is a very easy handset to use. The number keys are well spaced and very comfortable to use, and the menu and selection keys are exceptionally simple and intuitive. Add to that the large call and hang up keys, and many people would argue that the ergonomics on the 6310i have never been bettered.

It's quite a tall phone, coming in at 129 x 47 x 17mm, but combined with an ergonomic design, it means that the microphone is somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth when in use, which is handy. The large size also means that the 6310i is quite robust - most surviving ones will have suffered a few bad drops in their time.

The battery life was excellent too, with a maximum talktime of over 7 hours and up to 17 days standby time, the 6310i easily outlasts many of its modern competitors.

The Nokia 6310i is still popular today, and refurbished handsets can cost up to £100 / €140 or so. New ones are very rare as the phone has been out of production for some years, and prices range from around £150 to £220 (€200 to €300). Why so expensive? Simply because many people see the 6310i as the best handset that Nokia have ever made in terms of usability.. and they'd like to stick with it.

Whether you think that the 6310i is an old clunker or a design classic is up to you. But we certainly think that Nokia could still learn a thing or two from this ancient mobile phone.

Nokia 6310i at a glance
Available:	2002
Network:	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
Data:	GPRS
Screen:	96 x 60 pixels, monochrome
Camera:	No
Size:	Tall monoblock 129 x 47 x 17mm / 111 grams
Bluetooth:	Yes
Memory card:	No
Infra-red:	Yes
Polyphonic:	No
Java:	Yes
GPS:	No
Battery life:	3 - 7.5 hours talk / 17 days standby