Top 10 Mobile Phones > Reviews (6)

The top ten greatest phones in no particular order.
Its always a hard one this, phones are getting to be a more personal thing these days, there isn't really an ideal phone anymore for everyone.

1: Ericsson R310s
This has to be one of the most novel phones of all time. My wife used to work for a reseller of phones. The party trick for this one was having a pint of water on the table, put the phone in it and ring it about 30 minutes later.
The R310 was water proof, drop proof and generally indestructible. I still have mine with its fashionable bright orange cover and rubber bits all over the place. Best of all is the rubber shark fin aerial. So other than that, green screen, no pictures or camera.

Might sound bad but if your out mountain biking don't leave home without one, way better than the Nokia efforts.

2: Motorola MICRO TAC Classic
With the weight of a small baby kangaroo this phone is obviously dated and must be at least 10 years old. Now having said that I firmly believe that it was one of the first phones to offer the flip idea. I bought one of these off EBAY for some reason. Its an old black analogue handset. It lights up like a Christmas tree when you touch the buttons but hey. If you had one of these when they came out you were a rich man.
Quickly superseded by the newer digital versions the TAC lived for quite a long time, setting new trends in design and technology, whilst still weighing a ton.

3: Ericsson T29
I bought one of these to replace a damaged T28 at a small cost of £400 the day they came in to the shops. This was the first decent phone to come out that was small enough to loose in your pocket. Great phone, next to no durability but looked cool. It was always a little difficult to use because of the size of the screen, think it was only a 2 line display. There were a few differences to the T28, main one being the T29 didn't crash so much. These were the first Ericsson phones that started to look good and get away from the mars bar ericsson effect.
4: SONY CM-R111
This phone was the first phone I ever bought, so long ago. Must have been 12-14 years ago. It was the smallest phone I had ever seen and by todays standards still very small. It was a small black unit with a flip down arm, for some reason reminding you of a star trek communicator. There wasn't much durability there as even touching the arm the wrong way risked a break. Still cool though, despite the fact that it didn't have a screen at all. There was one on EBAY for a while, cant believe someone bought it for 99p.
5: MOTOROLA 4800X TRANSPORTABLE
My wife had one of these she used to carry and use in the car, way back some time. The case for these resembled a womens handbag, yes that big…..who would have thought that something that big would have developed into the phones we have today.
6: Wall Glass
You could never beat the good old wall glass, only my Mum could beat me when she found out I had broken it, now that always created a good reception.
7: Orange SPV C500
I was always a fan of this phone.

One of the better offerings on the market that offered the all round options of a PDA in a smartphone without being overly complicated, way better than the E200 version. It's the closet thing you'll get to actually having a handheld PC. Like a PC it required systematic maintenance to keep it from crashing. Its been replaced now with the 550 and that soon to be replaced by the 600. Still, the 500 was still a ground breaker, good high quality phone, just needed to be a little more user friendly.
8: Samsung E720
When this first came out I was way impressed. Slim sleek design, looked like it was really good quality and didn't let you down. With a flat keypad and double screen (one on out side and one on inside) it offered a load of great Samsung features. It seems to have set the standards for the Samsung flips and also proved to be the one to beat amongst the other makers. For me it was the first Samsung flip to look like a flip phone should do but also have the camera and features to go with it.
9: Samsung A800
To me this was the granddad of all flip phones. The screens were all black and white LCD and there was no camera. But that didn't matter. It seemed to be the first flip that didn't resemble a rock on the beach. Small functional and did what it was supposed to do whilst not weighing your pocket down in the process. The silver finish was not particularly durable but that never really mattered. Great phone.
10: Two plastic cups and a piece of String.
This did it for me as a child. Seemed to work well, but then that could just have been my imagination. The one problem I always had was that I never new how long to make the string to give me the best reception. I guess the mobile phone makers for todays 3G phones have the same problem…….

Sorry, no Nokia's here, have had a few over the years and just don't get on with them………