Mobile Phone Museum

Directions Website Contact the organisation

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

25/09/2026

Announced on 24th September 2001, the R600 was one of the last phones announced by Ericsson before the Sony Ericsson joint venture began.

The R600's biggest claim to fame was a brief appearance in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. It is used by the character Mollaka Danso during the intense parkour chase sequence in Madagascar to receive a text message with the code name "Ellipsis".

#007

16/09/2026

Announced on 13th September 2006, the BlackBerry 8703e was designed for use on Verizon Wireless' Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network,. Customers could also use the handset as a modem via a simple cable connection from the BlackBerry 8703e to a laptop.

Part of the Electron series of BlackBerry devices, the 8703e was a relatively bulky design, featuring a full 35-key QWERTY keyboard and a high-resolution LCD screen. As well as supporting the BlackBerry “push” email service, it also offered web browsing and other mobile data applications.

08/09/2026

The Lobster 700TV phone, aka the tellyphone, was ahead of its time, in a period when people didn't really watch much video content on their phones. The use of Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) technology was groundbreaking. It offered access to only three TV channels, but the real breakthrough was the 50 digital radio stations users could access.

It will also be remembered for the tie-up with Baywatch star Pamela Anderson to support a £2.5m TV campaign. Sadly, it was short-lived, and the service was switched off within a year.

Although broadcast technology made a lot of sense for video distribution the advent of streaming services ultimately became the dominant way to access TV and video content.

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

Address

South East
Reading

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mobile Phone Museum posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to Mobile Phone Museum:

Shortcuts

Share

Category