Mobile Phone Museum

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Mobile Phone Museum

Collection of 2000+ individual mobile phones from 1984 onwards covering all major brands including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC, Huawei and more

06/08/2026

The MicroTAC Lite was an analogue based mobile phone introduced on 6 August 1991 which was derivative of the original MicroTAC 9800X phone that was introduced on 5 April 1989.

Market research and focus groups revealed that early mobile phone buyers did not trust a phone without a visible, traditional aerial. Consumers equated a physical pull-up antenna with better signal reception and power, even though internal antenna technology was already capable of handling the connection. So, Motorola included the dummy extendable plastic stick so users would feel comfortable and familiar with the device.

#1991

31/07/2026

In May 2005, Vodafone launched its Vodafone Simply range starting with the VS1 and VS2. It was a service designed to provide an easy-to-use mobile experience for customers who only wanted basic voice and text services to keep in touch with family and friends.

By 31 March 2006, Vodafone Simply was launched in 17 markets around the world and Vodafone Simply devices were in use by nearly 400,000 customers. In July 2006 the lighter weight VS3 and VS4 models were launched.

The Vodafone Simply lineup was developed in partnership with French phone maker Sagem and was designed with an emphasis on the most commonly used functions such as voice calls and text messaging.

15/07/2026

The Sun newspaper, In conjunction with mobile network operator O2, retailer Carphone Warehouse and phone-maker Alcatel, was offering an Alcatel OT-206 “England phone” as part of a promotion linked to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

09/07/2026

The Mobile Phone Museum team were invited to the House of Commons to help Mobile UK celebrate it’s 10th anniversary. We curated 60 key devices from the last 40 years to showcase the astonishing evolution of mobile phones to distinguished guests at the event.

Standout devices included the phones used to launch the mobile networks in 1985, milestone products offering technology breakthroughs, including advanced features we take for granted today such as; integrated cameras, Bluetooth & GPS.

Additionally, some of the latest & greatest foldable phones released in 2006 were also on display to capture the attendees’ imagination.

We loved the inspirational artwork featuring some of the legendary devices from the museum’s collection.

26/06/2026

The Motorola F3, known as the Motofone, was initially launched in India in 2006. Ultimately not as commercially successful as Motorola had hoped, the Motofone was designed to take on Nokia in the ultra-low cost segment. In the press release announcing the device, the company stated that the phone used "innovative materials and finish processes combined to make a device that's beautiful and affordable for everyone around the world." It was also Motorola's thinnest phone to date at just 9mm.

The Motofone had a large, high contrast electrophoretic E Ink screen which Motorola branded as a "ClearVision display". This had several benefits including outstanding battery life and being easily readable in direct sunlight - both characteristics that were well-suited to the emerging markets customers that Motorola was targeting.

Despite these benefits, the display proved restrictive as it only allowed two lines of six characters plus fixed icons despite its 34 x 43 mm size. These limitations severely affected the user interface which drew criticism for being difficult to use.

#2006

11/06/2026

The Nokia 2110 was a pivotal device in the history of 2G GSM technology and a significant handset in Nokia’s history. It was the first Nokia phone to feature the iconic ringtone. Designed by Frank Nuovo, the head of Nokia at the time, Pekka Ala-Pietila, was reportedly concerned about the sales of such a radical and innovative device.

From a technical perspective, the Nokia 2110 was a breakthrough product as it was able to receive text messages. Following a software update it could also support “mobile-originated” text messages and the device was widely used in the early testing of the SMS text message service.

The award winning device was voted the outstanding phone of the year at the GSM World Conference in Cannes. Other awards included the iF design award in 1995 and a cellnet Caesar Award for best performance.

The Nokia 450 has strong designs similarities to the Nokia 2110 and was designed for NMT 450 networks. When it was launched it was the smallest and the lightest device available for use on NMT network.

It was offered in several European networks. This was the THF-7C variant which was offered on the EuroTel NMT 450 network in the Czech Republic. The "C" at the end of the model number represented the country where it was offered. There was also a THF-7H variant for the Hungarian market.

04/06/2026

The PP800 was a branded device for Peoples Phone, a UK mobile phone service provider and retailer in the 90s. We believe it was manufactured by Panasonic.

The screen displayed 2 lines of 8 characters, a battery icon and a signal strength. In addition to the standard 12-key keypad, it had 9 function keys and a range of timers for monitoring the duration of calls.

#1996 #30

22/05/2026

Derived from earlier car phone designs, this British Telecom branded variant of the Motorola 4500X became available in 1986.

It was portable but weighing a whopping 4.3kg it took a strong arm to carry it any distance. Most of the weight came from the battery and you were lucky to get more than one hour talk time before it needed recharging.

Given the cost of calls at the time, which were typically billed in one-minute increments, it was also possible to set an “Audible Call Timer” which provided a warning tone 10 seconds before the end of each minute of a call.

#1986

15/04/2026

Great to see the Mobile Phone Museum featured on BBC News Business Today as part of a broader piece about tech becoming obsolete (related to Amazon's decision to discontinue support for older Kindles).

27/02/2026

Ericsson described the T29s as a “high quality and performance dual band phone”. Originally released for the Asian markets, the T29s quickly became popular in Europe due to its stand out feature, the Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), making it possible to add pictures and sounds to text messages using the existing SMS service & related infrastructure.

The T29s was available in two colours featuring different “deep-coloured inlays” - amethyst purple or sapphire blue (the variant included in the Mobile Phone Museum collection). It also had an “active flip” which allowed users to start and end calls by opening and closing the flip on the front of the phone. Ericsson added small “wings” to the active flap to make it easier to flip it open and shut.

Address

South East
Reading

Website

http://mobilephonemuseum.com/

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