30 years on and life looks a lot different in the world of mobile phones

The Mobile Phone Evolution

It has been over 30 years since mobile phones first reached the hands of consumers, with the launch of Motorola 8000x, and it is incredibly hard to imagine life without mobile phones supporting us in our everyday life.

Some of us cannot even comprehend what life was like before mobile phones and would be extremely frustrated with a mobile phone that cannot fit in the pocket of our skinny jeans.

There has been a vast selection of mobile phones over the last 30 years, starting with the Transportable Vodafone VT1 weighing 11Ibs to the most recent iPhone X weighing at 0.38 lbs.

Before mobile phones it was hard to keep tabs with your kids’ whereabouts’, keeping in touch with friends wouldn’t take seconds and accessing the internet on your mobile was unheard of.

The evolution of the mobile phone has enabled us to access the internet and news almost instantly and we can now even track the location of our family and friends. However, life with a mobile means less privacy and social media competition. With phone addictions becoming the norm it is no wonder that our phones have affected our social, shopping and internet habits.

Our Teams Phone Evolution

The dramatic phone evolution of the last 30 years made us want to find out what The Just Brand team had for their first mobile phone. The answers have led to some very varying results.

Nathan, Founder & Director

Blaupunkt Handycom 582

“This phone had a massive slide-off battery that had to be charged in a separate docking station for hours! The aerial was extendable like my car aerial was at the time. Signal was rubbish and the sim card was the size of a credit card. I brought it in Halfords and paid about £500 for it. Each dialling key had a different tone. The display could only show numbers and less than my calculator!”

Brian, Founder & Director

The Nokia 8110

“This was the first mobile I ever had. The reason I got this phone is mainly because I thought it was cool!”

Ivan, Full Stack Web Developer

Siemens m55

“This was my first phone when I was around 8 years old. I remember being obsessed with the games, especially the very popular snake game. The phone didn’t even have a camera, very different from my current iPhone 7+.”

Kallum, Paid Advertising & SEO

Nokia 6233

“I really struggled to remember my first phone! I had this phone ages ago when I was probably 10 years old. This phone had everything I needed at the time, calls, texts and of course games. The difference from my iPhone is crazy.”

Lucy, Graphic & Digital Designer

Motorola L6

“Crazy to think that this was my first phone. I remember the nostalgia of multiple button pressing and I can actually remember saying “I’ll never get a touch phone”.”

Sarah, Digital Content & Social Media

“This was my first phone, very basic and was on Pay as you Go! It had no camera, no colour screen and I got good at quick texting by pressing each button several times to get the correct letter! Those were the days!!”

Paul, Finance & Accounts

Nokia 3310

“I remember that the phone was so small that I struggled to use the buttons and this meant I constantly mislaid it so many times. I ended up ringing it to find it more than actually using the phone.”

Kate, Client Services Administrator Vodafone Maxon MX3204 “My mum bought me and my sister a Vodafone Maxon each for Christmas when I was 17. It was a novelty, no games and I rarely had credit. After getting this phone, I stopped wearing a watch because I used the phone to check the time more than my wrist! Even now, my phone is mostly used for its alarm clock function!”
Luke, Junior Developer Nokia 5210 “My first phone was a Nokia 5210, Nokia said it could bounce….. It couldn’t on a school gym floor, it broke that day, then it also went through the washing machine and started to work again. It did have snake and space impact and they were fun little games, also it could call and text, what more could you want?”
Francois, Web and App Developer Nokia 3310 “My first phone was a Nokia 3310. It was a classic. Loved to play snake on it and create custom ringtones. They also use this phone for a reference of strength in the meme world.”
Haydn, Junior Developer Motorola Razr “The first phone I ever had was one of the original Motorola Razr’s. My dad gave it to me when he went to get a new one. I loved playing with the flip screen and got the phone confiscated off me in school for having it out too many times.”