Your first mobile phone.

byte

blah wrote: »

This was my first


A Nokia 3210.
And everyone had one!

Yup, my first too! Damn good phone it was too, I gave it to my mother after I upgraded to a 3330. The 3210 long outlived the 3330, which was a pile of crap.

jhegarty

Nokia 6150 ... can remember what the phone cost , but the data cable to get on the internet (9,600 bps) was £200,....

January

Motorola StarTAC!

I bought it for my confirmation back in 2000. Loved the thing but only knew one other person who had a phone, my best friend, spent all day ringing and texting each other!

Frisbee

Nokia 3210.
If I could find somewhere that still did them I would definitely buy one. They were amazing....

Pj!

Mine was a crapy big Motorola with a pull out aerial and a little stupid flip at the bottom covering the buttons.
I knew 2 people with mobiles, and of course rang both of em straight away. On the way home on the bus one of em rang me back and the pure embarassment as everyone looked around to see who had a phone. I honestly wouldnt have answered it for the price of the phone back.

Musha

Nokia 1610 on Eircell 087 bought it as we were renting an apt and cost too much to install landline circa April 1996

mcauley

God this thread is great!!! I've had around half of the phones posted here....

First (proper) one I bought myself was a 3210 when I was around 14.....I remember saving up 2 weeks wages for it....It was almost space age because it had no aerial on it! my friends had 5110's at the time and they were all jealous.....funny to think about it now!!!!

Hotblack Desiato

I've only owned 4 phones... was a bit of a late developer

Nokia 5110, 1997 - 2000 on Digifone Speakeasy. Blew about £5 credit on the first day setting up the stupid voicemail greeting, before I read the bit of the manual giving the free number (192 or 193?) :rolleyes: 75p a minute peak, 20p off peak, what a rip! Eircell did nice things like send their customers free credit at Xmas or on their birthday. Digifone woudn't give you the steam off their p***, but usually had nicer phones, no mouldy old one-line-display Ericsson jobs... It was about a year before pre-pay customers were allowed the luxury of sending text messages :rolleyes: of course the GSM phones had supported it from day one, but the networks didn't yet realise that SMS was money for nothing, basically.

Nokia 8210, 2000 - 2003 on Vodafone billpay. Remember the guys in funny white trousers? Very expensive when it came out, was sickened at how cheap and common it would become later :eek: A stunner in the looks department, performance was ok at best, poor battery and very fragile, screen faults very common.

Nokia 8310, 2003 - 2006 on Vodafone billpay. Not nearly as sleek and sexy as the 8210, but much better life from the same battery, and a radio. A lot more sturdy too.

Nokia 6230i, 2006 - to date, on Meteor prepay. Great phone and does far more things than I'll ever use. Saving a fortune since I left Vodafon€. Nokia kindly did a battery recall and gave me a new one a few weeks ago Result!

*Lees*

I remember seeing an ad in a magazine for 'pay as you go' mobile phones!The ad showed a mobile phone with a coin slot on the top and I actually thought that pay as you go phones would be like that!!
I was the last of my friends to get a mobile phone! I remember when I got mine (an Alcatel M3888 i think?) I used to write out text messages as quickly as I could because I thought you would be charged for the length of time it took to write one!!
Here's my 1st phone!

barneysplash

My dad got the first one on our street in 1990.

It was a Motorola 088 carphone, that went into his new Toyota Carina II.

The receiver in the boot was about the size of a vcr, the handset
was on a cord mounted on the dash.

It was the coolest thing ever!

lezizi

[/QUOTE]

That was my first phone too.
I remember the first time i saw a text message my friend had just got a mobile from her mother, anyway it beeped and she looked at it and said' there is some envelope thing on my phone' we were there for about 10 mins trying to figure out how to get in to it and when we did we were amazed, we were like 'oh my god how cool, how did he do that'
Oh those were the days

Blisterman

I remember, my mum had one of the first ones, from the mid 80's. It was like a briefcase, with a handle, and to make or recieve calls, you had to pick up the reciever.
She kept it for years, as it had amazing reception, back in the days, when, on most phones, you used to have to step outside, to get reception. Anyone else remember that?

barneysplash

Blisterman wrote: »

I remember, my mum had one of the first ones, from the mid 80's. It was like a briefcase, with a handle, and to make or recieve calls, you had to pick up the reciever.
She kept it for years, as it had amazing reception, back in the days, when, on most phones, you used to have to step outside, to get reception. Anyone else remember that?

Here are two of the earliest portables:

1. The Dancall

2. The Motorola Transportable

Were these anything like your mom's phone?

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

APM

my first phone was the nokia 5110 in 1999. I remember getting my brother in the states to send over a vibrating battery for it twice. Thought it was the sh1t!

Everyone wanted a go of snake!

http://www.bluejackq.com/gallery2/5110-400.jpg

barneysplash

Baby4 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Ah yes the Trium, it had this Parrot picture that would show up when you started it up.


Here's a pic:

GerryRyan

First one in the household was 'the Brick' - a Motorola DynaTAC 8900X. I only know the full name because we still have the box lying around Looking back now - what were we thinking?

admiralofthefleet

i had one of those nokia ringo's, god looking back now it was useless, not even a menu on it

Mike...

Phillips Diga

A brick by any other name



nice phone tho

Blisterman

barneysplash wrote: »

Here are two of the earliest portables:

1. The Dancall

2. The Motorola Transportable

Were these anything like your mom's phone?

I think it might have been the Motorola. Definately not the other one anyway.

Edit:
Actually no, it wasn't. I remember, the buttons were on the phone body. Not the reciever.

thalia_13

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

My first mobile (around 1998) was one of these:



Was actually a pretty good phone - even if the battery life wasn't great,
and it had something Nokia have only in the last 2 years added as standard... a proper security code lock.

That was my first phone too, was the must sturdy phone I ever had, it withstood so many knocks and steep drops. Only got rid of it as dog at the arial off the top and had no reception. It had the text message function on it but could not send texts till about 1999(I think it was then - 1st/2nd yr college) I got a nokia after that, cant remember the model #, then got a 3510i. That was a fisher price phone if ever there was one! Onto my 4th sagem now, 1 fell foul of a cup of extremely sugary tea, 1 lost, and 1 still works but just liked the newer version.

barneysplash

Anyone remember the Actatel phone that took 4 AA batteries?

Or what about the Philips phones that you slid the sim card - without
removing it from the credit card sized holder - into the phone?

Remember when getting credit involved scratching off the lotto ticket style top-up cards?

Hagar

I don't have an actual pic because there were no digital cameras then but here's a modern copy.

Octopus

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

My first mobile (around 1998) was one of these:



Was actually a pretty good phone - even if the battery life wasn't great,
and it had something Nokia have only in the last 2 years added as standard... a proper security code lock.

Ah memories.
Dropped it one day getting into my car and ran over it with the back wheel.
Still worked fine.

xzanti

I was the first person on my estate (of my age group) and in my class to have a mobile, it was the first Eircel Ready to Go Motorola model, I've googled but can't find pics of it, it was all black and heavy as fook delighted with myself I was.. Thought I was the shizzle..

Preset No.3

I worked in the mobile phone business back when selling phones for £1000 was cheap! First phone was a Panasonic, about the size of 2 bricks with a battery that i used in a camcorder! The battery lasted about 3 hours! Only had it for a short while before getting my coveted Motorola 8500! What a great phone! The only phone that you could get signal when no other phone would help! That was around 1990.

I then went to work in Harry Moores at the start of the mobile revolution. We did a deal on first time connection on the Panasonic 'F' with a car kit for £400!It was unheard of to see a phone that cheap!

Preset No.3

xzanti wrote: »

I was the first person on my estate (of my age group) and in my class to have a mobile, it was the first Eircel Ready to Go Motorola model, I've googled but can't find pics of it, it was all black and heavy as fook delighted with myself I was.. Thought I was the shizzle..

Cant remember the model but it was the phone that if the battery died, you could replace it with 4 AA batteries. The brought out a GSM version of it later.

GutShot@CHLs

In London on the sites way back in 1988 we used something like the one on the left in this pic. Bloody heavy and expensive to use (> £2500 in 3 months)

barneysplash

Here is the phone I use:

It is a Nokia 1100, very retro - no colour screen, no internet, just basic functions like text, talk etc.

It even has a little led light on top.

The battery lasts about a week. It will take some serious knocks and keep on going:)

You can get them on ebay for about €50.

phasers

Moonbaby wrote: »

Nokia 5110

same here, a grand little phone

a hand me down from my brother, but I was still a total legend for having a mobile

L1011

Mine was whater Panasonic G-series was the first to have a vibrate function built in; also had a voice memory that could store a WHOLE TEN SECONDS of audio from the mike - until you turned the phone off... got the phone sim-free and a "RTG KickPack" or some absolutely stupid name Eircell had for getting a sim card then. When it eventually died I replaced it with a NEC DB25, brick with a pop up extendable aerial!

My uncle had a car-mounted carphone in the very early 90s, I may be misrembering things but I think it had an actual tape based answer machine with it..

Duff

*Lees* wrote: »

I remember seeing an ad in a magazine for 'pay as you go' mobile phones!The ad showed a mobile phone with a coin slot on the top and I actually thought that pay as you go phones would be like that!!
I was the last of my friends to get a mobile phone! I remember when I got mine (an Alcatel M3888 i think?) I used to write out text messages as quickly as I could because I thought you would be charged for the length of time it took to write one!!
Here's my 1st phone!

My da had that as his first phone, was huge, it would give ya a dead leg if it vibrated in your pocket!

misseducated

The first phone I ever had was one of those Motorola bricks. I got it when I was in 5th or 6th class and had it for two years. I hated that phone so much that I tried to smash it after I'd gotten a new phone. I threw the phone off my mate's 4th floor balcony to the concrete floor below but the bugger survived the fall and still worked.

eamoss

I remember when I was about 7 (94/95) one of my friends dads had a mobile in his car I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Moonbaby wrote: »

Nokia 5110

Also my 1st phone, got it off my sister. Out of all of my friends only me and two girls had mobiles. Got bored with it after a month ended up giving it to my sisters boyfriend.

Then my 2nd phone was the Nokia 3330 this one I used and by this time most of my friends had mobiles.

Great phone love it. Can remember going on to freephonetones.com or something and typing in the numbers for a tone. Also thought changing the operator logo was the coolest thing but cant remember what I had for mine. Think I got them off boltblue.com dam rip.

So my phones ive had
Nokia 5110
Nokia 3330
Nokia 3200 - Crap phone
Nokia 3220 - Crap phone
SE W800i
SE K850i

Between the time I had 5110 and 3330 I was giving an 088 brick by my aunt, dam thing never worked.

Also only have ever had two numbers the one I got with the 5110 and the 2nd one which I still use today with the 3330.

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

My first mobile (around 1998) was one of these:



Was actually a pretty good phone - even if the battery life wasn't great,
and it had something Nokia have only in the last 2 years added as standard... a proper security code lock.

Ha that was one of my mates 1st phone, brings back memories.

hiscan

the very first ready to go motorolas with eircell where phonecalls cost 80 pence per minute and the battery lasted about one hour,i think you could put four batteries in the back as well

dfx-

whiskeyman wrote: »

That's the one...had Siemens phone ever since:cool:

mcquickerson

It looked the sh!t

ztoical

don't recall what make it was but I do remember it was a black brick and you had to take the battery off and click it on to the plug to recharge it.

Cantab.

Motorola Star Tac

I was soo cool when I had that! Back in 1999 I think!

My first phone I got back in 1996, an 088 Nokia 1610 or the "brick" as everyone used to call it. Don't have the phone anymore but I do still have the manual, receipt and contract.

_blank_

Trium for me, then moved on to the Nokia 3210 I think.

I had that for a good few years, then moved to Sony Ericsson T630, which is a lovely little phone tbh, and I still use it as a second phone.


The I moved up to another SE, can't remember the number, but they are very popular still, lots of people have them still.

Now I use a Nokia N73, which is a nice phone.

eve

Mine was the Panasonic G450 http://www.cellular-news.com/phones/Panasonic_G450.php

Very basic but did what I wanted. Had it for about 3 years till I got a free Siemens from Metoer when I started college.

Kintarō Hattori

I had a Nokia 5110 which I reckon I got in about 1999. Back then if you hada mobile you were kinda embarrassed when using it in public as most people didn't have a mobile and it always drew stares when you'd be yapping away.
It was a pretty indestructable phone and I'm sure I would have had it for a while longer had I not lost it on the bus.

Peared

hiscan wrote: »

the very first ready to go motorolas with eircell where phonecalls cost 80 pence per minute and the battery lasted about one hour,i think you could put four batteries in the back as well

That was my first one too! Even slightly younger people dont believe me now when I tell them I used to be able to put 4 double A batteries into my phone. It had no caller ID, just said "call" and there were no text messages til about 6 months after I got it. Not sure of the year, 97 maybe? Weighed about as much as a 3 year old child too.

Solarball10

Biff11 wrote: »

I had a Ericsson GA628. 179 pound when when GSM first hit the shops. Quality altogether

Ditto! I loved it! hehe

JIZZLORD

had this heap of crap

deemy

Got a motorola when i got my first job back in 98 i think it was. Its the size of a brick. still have it cause there is no way grandkids would believe the size of it. Was on the eircell 088 network. No texting/ simcard. I think it was around 80p a minute for a call at the time. I refused to get a new one and eventually was given a free one by the provider when they phased out the 088 network

Doctor DooM

Nokia 5110. I held out after everyone else in college, because I thought they were something people bought to look trendy.

Ironically enough, I ended up working for O2 for 2 years.

Doctor DooM

Cantab. wrote: »

Motorola Star Tac

I was soo cool when I had that! Back in 1999 I think!

Widely attributed as inventing the flip phone... I wonder though. Motorola ar enot known for their originality!

barneysplash

SDooM wrote: »

Widely attributed as inventing the flip phone... I wonder though. Motorola ar enot known for their originality!

The design of the StarTAC was influencecd by the Communicator out of The Original Series of Star Trek:




The TAC in StarTAC stands for Total Area Coverage.