10 mobile phones that defined the decade

Trend-defining mobiles that rang our bell in the noughties

By Phil Lattimore

From: http://www.techradar.com/

The Vertu: not a credit crunch handset

The last decade has been revolutionary for the mobile phone.

Not only has ownership rocketed, the cellular phone been transformed from a gadget for simply making and taking calls or texting into an astonishingly powerful hub for multimedia entertainment, internet surfing, social networking, GPS location-finding, camera snapping – plus lots more that there's an app for…

So what were the handsets that rocked us during the last decade and defined the noughties?

1. Nokia 7110 (1999/2000)

While we partied like it was 1999 and the clocks chimed in the Noughties, hip phone-slingers were slipping the spring-loaded slider and calling on the smartest handset in town – the WAP-packing Nokia 7110.

The first phone to deliver up the mobile internet, we surfed to see where to go next as the New Year kicked in…and waited….and waited…The internet in your pocket (well, sort of in a rubbishy, snail-slow way) had arrived.

2. Nokia 3310 (2000)

Many people's first mobile phone, like its 3210 predecessor the Nokia 3310 was one of the early mobile-boom smash hits.

Not only was it cheap and cheerful, it offered a smidgeon of style, with swappable customisable covers, an internal antenna, T9 predictive text messaging, downloadable ringtones and voice dialling. And there was Snake II, too. It was a doddle to operate, helping to cement loyalty to Nokia in many a phone buyer.

3. Vertu (from 2002)

The mobile phone as money-no-object noughties boom-time status symbol. Ultra-premium brand Vertu was established by Nokia to offer opulent crafted handsets in luxury materials to those with huge quantities of cash to splash.

No 'free with contract' deals with Vertu – handsets start at several thousand pounds each and go up to six figures. It's not that the phone features were that outstanding – although the personal concierge service was none too shabby… Despite the credit crunch, Vertu is still going strong.

4. Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman (2005)

While not the first phone to have an MP3 player onboard, Sony Ericsson shifted music playing on mobiles to prime-time by reworking the iconic Walkman brand into a music-centric handset package.

Equipped with a decent quality tune player, earphones and memory card, the W800i Walkman concept helped establish mobile phones as an everyday music player alternative.

5. Nokia 7650 (2002)

Remember when phones didn't have cameras built in? The Nokia 7650 was the decade's snap'n'send ground-breaker, with a VGA shooter tooled into the back of Nokia's debut Symbian Series 60 smartphone.

Nokia's high-end trend-setter may not have been a best-seller, but its instant-snapping legacy has redefined how we now use our phones (and embarrass our mates…).

6. Motorola RAZR V3 (2004)

Jaws clunked open and phone geeks visibly dribbled when Motorola first unveiled its RAZR – an ultra slim object of clamshell desire. It was a handset that pulsed 'must-have' from its gorgeous flat metallic keypad to its unfeasibly thin flip lid.

And then Motorola rode the design for all it was worth, pushing it from high-end aspirational boy-toy to mass-market standard-issue best-seller, with over 110m variants of the RAZR sold worldwide.

7. Nokia N95 (2007)

Reflecting the technological savvy and smartphone know-how of the world's number one phone maker, the N95 was a powerhouse of a multimedia device. Packing all the latest leading edge gadgetry and features – from top-grade camera and music player to GPS – it epitomised the assured pre-eminence of Nokia in the high-end arena. After all, who else was there to duke it out with…?

8. HTC Dream (a.k.a T-Mobile G1, first Android phone) (2008)

Out with the old, in with the new… As the decade comes to a close, the Android smartphone platform looks set to become the new game in town as far as smartphone makers are concerned.

The HTC Dream was the first (slightly ungainly) shape of things to come, but with more refined models like the HTC Hero arriving and momentum among other manufacturers growing, the Android OS could be the hot mobile ticket for the new decade.

9. Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry (2002)

From Wall Street two-way paging niche to worldwide messaging phenomenon, the RIM BlackBerry epitomised the always-connected mantra of the noughties, from boardroom to bedroom.

Devilishly addictive, the Qwerty keyboard-packing, push email-delivering BlackBerry phone not only boosted productivity, it also gave us a reason to keep checking our mobiles 24/7.

10. Apple iPhone (2007)

And there's one more thing… First released in June 2007, overnight Apple's iPhone single-handedly changed the game for mobile makers, putting sheer intuitive usability and a great user experience top of the agenda.

Sure, the first version lacked some phone feature standards, but the iPhone subsequently set the pace for rivals, making touchscreens essential gadgetry, reinventing the way smartphones are expected to work (ie: easily) and raised the bar for phone apps.