"Are ya 087 or 088?" - Retro Phones

Professey Chin

Taking a dig around and its been a long time since this reared its head in here. So howd you get started?

1st mobile I would have gotten was this beauty of a thing - Panasonic GD30

http://www.gsmarena.com/panasonic_gd30-122.php
Good old Esat Digifone Night Owl plan (with 20p text messages O_O )

Monochrome 4 line screen and space for 50 phone numbers. Plus a screw off aerial :pac:

Ah simpler times. No WAP here :pac:

Triangla

I had the one on the left, with no aerial after a month.

Delirium

^^

Now that's a real retro phone :P The dad had one on the 088 network.

My own first mobile was an 087 GD30:)

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I had a 3210 and then upgraded to a 3310 after a few years - wish I had stopped there. I'd gladly own a 3310 again, sure I only use the feckin' thing for calls and texts anyway. Plus I'd have Snake II

Stuxnet

Ha I was eircell 088, some bastard Motorola !!
I've often been credited to be the first person in Ennis to get a mobile phone back in 1997/98 ! :-p

Ruu

Ah the Motorola brick. We had Eircell Ready to Go on 087, it was an Alcatel. Lorry drivers in the nearby furniture factory carried 088 phones.

lord lucan

Another who had the Motorola on Eircell,around 1998 iirc.

MagicMarker

087 is retro?

Professey Chin

MagicMarker wrote: »

087 is retro?

I couldnt think of a different question from when phones started becoming anyway commonplace

SimonQuinlank

Had one of these for work in the early 90's,around 94 iirc.



Was 088 on Eircell and weighed a tonne.Was cool having a phone on the move all the same though.

That lump was upgraded to one of these a few years later, which I thought was the bees knees at the time.

And then an Ericsson GA628 which was very innovative as you could actually change colours of the keypad backing!

And finally a Nokia 5110 that had ringtones and proper text messaging.

Avns1s

I had a NEC CM3 carphone on 088 in 1994

Handset looked like this.

Still have it somewhere along with all the other mobiles I've owned. Part of the plan to open a museum!! :-)

Truckermal

I had a Motorola micro tac duo around 1994 iirc.

cabledude

Loved the Panasonic.

This is my mobile phone history.



Starting with the analogue NEC P7 on the 088 Eircell network. . Excellent machine and easily cloned.



Then I went digital onto the 087 network. TEXT MESSAGES......YAY!!!!



I thought this one was the business. They all had them on the telly and to me, it looked like one of the tricorders used on Star Trek. Nerd, I know.




This phone was the first to come with snake IIRC.



Or maybe it was this one. I'm not too sure.



Animal of a phone. Had this for around 3 years. It was rumoured that this phone could get service in areas where there was no service. Urban legend, but, I believe this one



This was one of my favourites of all...... First phone with proper email functions.



The camera on this was just phenomenal.





Then I went smartphone.....




My mind was blown.......:shock:




And we are up to date.

The Red Ace

my first phone was the Panasonic G 450 on the digifone network, the damn thing would burn the ears off you if the call lasted any length and of course they robbed you with the price of calls and texts

SimonQuinlank

Remember you could get free texts for a while in 98 or 99 before it became popular and they started charging for them.

cabledude

SimonQuinlank wrote: »

Remember you could get free texts for a while in 98 or 99 before it became popular and they started charging for them.

Are you sure you have this one the right way around. From my memory, texts were always charged per text. Then they became part of bundles and promotions.For example, on Vodafone,for €20 you can get free VF to VF calls and texts. And still have €20 for making other network and landline calls and texts.

I remember having to pay 10p for a text in 1998/99

Professey Chin

I remember around 2000 there was a work around for free texts that routed them through some message center in somalia or somewhere. Only problem was you could send it and it might arrive straight away or it might arrive 2 days later :pac:

cabledude

Professey Chin wrote: »

I remember around 2000 there was a work around for free texts that routed them through some message center in somalia or somewhere. Only problem was you could send it and it might arrive straight away or it might arrive 2 days later :pac:

Maybe thats how so many people get phishing texts from African princes asking for bank account numbers to deposit lottery winnings into! :eek:

roadsmart

Motorola Microtac, 1993/4. 088 with a 6 digit number. I still have the same number today.

Mycroft H

A 6 digit number?

I'd one of these bad boys. Could only fit a line of text on the screen at the time.

cabledude

roadsmart wrote: »

Motorola Microtac, 1993/4. 088 with a 6 digit number. I still have the same number today.

088 5xx xxx. I just missed the 6 digit numbers. When I got my first phone, the numbers had just moved to the seven digit.

KKkitty

My first phone was a Motorola D520 with pull up aerial. Battery lasted ages but limited storage space for contacts and messaging. Names didn't appear when someone text you so it was great for your memory having to remember whose number was whose.

PippaChic

roadsmart wrote: »

Motorola Microtac, 1993/4. 088 with a 6 digit number. I still have the same number today.

A colleague of mine had similar in 1996, and I used to borrow it off her for on-call. The battery lasted about 6 hours, it was big and bulky and you fitted it on at the back of the phone (there were 2 batteries in the pack, one was always kept charging while the other was used). Everytime I put it in my handbag the battery would come undone from the phone, it was frustrating!

My first phone was Nokia 5110, and I was with Eircell billpay - phone calls cost 60p per minute at peaktimes and 20p off peak!

cabledude

PippaChic wrote: »

My first phone was Nokia 5110, and I was with Eircell billpay - phone calls cost 60p per minute at peaktimes and 20p off peak!

It became an art to have a telephone conversation started and completed in under 1 minute!!!

Truckermal

Mycroft H wrote: »

A 6 digit number?

I'd one of these bad boys. Could only fit a line of text on the screen at the time.

Ericsson GF768 I think they were about 500 quid at the time iirc!!! I had one as a work phone back in the day.

Mycroft H

It was the later Ericsson T10. I got it for nothing as off my uncle when he upgraded.

roadsmart

Mycroft H wrote: »

A 6 digit number?

I'd one of these bad boys. Could only fit a line of text on the screen at the time.

Text? Spoilt rotten, you was.

PippaChic wrote: »

A colleague of mine had similar in 1996, and I used to borrow it off her for on-call. The battery lasted about 6 hours

You'd be lucky to get 4 hours out of a battery LOL. There was a really fat battery you could get that would do it alright, but you couldn't leave it down or it would be swiped! Used to carry 3 to 4 batteries, they were almost as good as cash! Come to think of it, it's come full circle, as now I carry at least one spare for my galaxy s3:rolleyes:

L1011

cabledude wrote: »

Then I went smartphone.....

The two Nokias before this *were* smartphones. Lack of an app store (which the N95 got later on) didn't mean it didn't have a huge suite of applications available for it and every other thing you can use to define a smartphone.

I had the Panasonic from the opening post, then an NEC horror when it died for a while, then a 3210, 3330, 6210 (two player snake; if someone else had one, and you did it flat on a table), an Ericsson flip that I can't remember the number of, a Sagem myC2, then a Nokia 6670 - a proper smartphone a decade ago, a Samsung flip when it got washing machined; and then a constant upgrade cycle of Nokia's latest - N72, N95, N97, N8, 920.

wnolan1992

Well f*ck yiz anyway, saw this thread earlier and have duly spent a good chunk of my Saturday cataloging my phone history...

My first was a Siemens C25. Got it from my Dad in '02/'03 when he upgraded his. Didn't really use it for much, I was 10 like so who was I gonna ring like?
It was also my Dad's first phone. Still remember him bringing it home, it came with a free CD single of Westlife's Flying Without Wings where they were all on the cover holding phones to their ears. :pac:



Was given my brother's old Nokie 3310 in early '04, started texting more, Snake addiction went into overdrive... Still in my top 3 of phones I've owned to this day.



In late '04/early '05 there came a big leap forward, a phone with a COLOUR screen! AND IT COULD SURF THE INTERWEBS! At that time we barely could surf the internet on our crappy Eircom 56k modem because it was so slow. And the wonder that was POLYPHONIC ringtones. Sooo much better than crummy monophonic. :P
I remember being introduced to some very vulgar websites that I took no pleasure in downloading pictures and videos from at all... The Nokia 3510i was the first phone I had that was mine.



I had that phone up until about the end of '05, and I can't even remember which order I got these next two in, but I suspect it was the following order:
The Nokia 3200 is without a doubt the worst phone I've owned. Horrible buttons, ugly yoke, all round bad. First camera phone I had though, so I guess it's sort of a landmark...


Quickly moved on from that to the Nokia 3220. This was alright, the lights on the side were cool and would light up in time with the ringtones you had, but they also fell off pretty quickly... Also had a nice enough camera and a decent voice recorder which I used to record clips of TV shows. Simpler times.



And then, in mid '07, came what is without a doubt my favourite phone of all time. It was so good I bought a second one when my first one broke. The Nokia 6300, my first phone with Bluetooth and a USB slot. Sleek design, nice feel to the metal on the back, great screen. Only downside was the cover of the micro-usb slot broke very easily, in fact it was that that killed my first one because it came off and damp got in.



Then the era of Smartphones, which I won't spend too much time on.
The Samsung Galaxy Spica was my first intro to them in 2010.


The Samsung Galaxy MINI:


The Sony Xperia U:


And finally, my current phone, the Samsung ATIV S. My favourite smartphone by a long way, bought super cheap following a tip off here on Boards. It ranks #2 on my list of favourites.



*sigh* I'm all nostalgic now.

roadsmart

Don't worry, some day you'll own a decent phone.

Professey Chin

roadsmart wrote: »

Don't worry, some day you'll own a decent phone.

Bit harsh!
The Nokia 6300 was a thing of beauty. One of the best built phones ive ever had the pleasure of using.
Id have to agree on the 3200 though. Had one aswell as it was a complete cretin of a thing.

bassy

Funny this thread should pop up,I just got hold of a old in mint condition with charger Motorola international 3300 brick phone from the early 90,s.
Done some research on the net and it seems the 3300 model is a very rare and sought after phone for collectors,the 3200 are quite commonly for sale on fleabay,but not a sign of a 3300 for sale.
Wonder how much the 3300 is worth?.

roadsmart

Professey Chin wrote: »

Bit harsh!.

Twas but a joke.

Seamus1964

My "Honey I'm going out for a quick pint" phones

Motorola mg14c11 - beautiful phone, works with 4x AA batteries.
Nokia 3110 - basic, simple and small. I'm using it when going abroad
Nokia 1611 - my favourite "pub" phone. 5 ringtones and up to one hour talking time.. Got brand new double sized battery last year from ebay.de

bluemachaveli

Got one of these badboys on Esat when I was around 15.
Was a pure **** of a thing for texts. I think it was about 10-12 characters per line with only 2 lines on the display!

I later upgraded to the Nokia 6110. Basically a better looking 5110 with a fancier interface and IR port :eek:

wnolan1992

roadsmart wrote: »

Don't worry, some day you'll own a decent phone.

Ouchies. :pac:


Professey, I still have my 6300 on my bookcase at home. When I was looking for a new phone last year, I genuinely considered just going back to it. Twas a joy of a thing to use.