Revisiting the most iconic Nokia phones, from sliders to flippers

Smartphones may have become a piece of everyday technology today, but some of us are old enough to remember a time when not every kid in school had an iPhone, or any phone for that matter. This was the early 2000s, when landline telephones were mainstream, and mobile phones were only reserved for those who could afford them.

However, mobile phones quickly started growing more popular as people started looking away from fixed landline phones. As a result, the market was quickly full of brands begging for attention, and with their performance limited by the technology at the time, companies focused on another aspect to set themselves apart – design.

While these phones were not as smart as today’s smartphones, what they lacked in function, they more than made up for in form, and the 2000s were full of creative mobile phone designs. From boring brick phones, to flip phones, swivel phones, sliding phones and more, there seemed to be no end to phone design. One brand, however, would permanently etch its name in the minds of tech enthusiasts with some of the craziest phone designs, year after year – Nokia.

From the iconic Nokia 3310 which has today been immortalised by the internet meme community, to the Nokia N9, one of the most beautiful smartphones ever made, here’s a trip down memory lane looking at some of the most iconic Nokia phones over the years.

Nokia Talkman (1985)

Starting way back in 1985, we have the Nokia Mobira Talkman, which may look like a mini luggage bag today, but one of the more compact communication tools back in the day.

Barely making it to the definition of ‘mobile phones’, the Nokia Talkman (which rhymes with another iconic product, the Sony Walkman), was a large suitcase with a button-laden main body coming out of it. Though massive and heavy, the Talkman was still a boon for those on the move and would sell for about seven years till 1992.

Nokia Cityman (1987)

Looking a lot like the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, the Nokia Cityman was a big step up in terms of portability. Still a far cry from the compact phones of today, the Cityman was much more portable than devices like the Talkman. It came with no suitcase-like big attachments and became one of the earliest compact phones of its time.

Nokia 8110 (1996)

If you watched The Matrix back in 1996 when it launched, among the iconic scenes from the film that are now permanently etched in your memory, is the scene where Neo dramatically opens his spring-loaded Nokia. This was the Nokia 8110, one of the first phones with a sliding form factor, even making a nickname for itself – the banana phone.

Nokia 9000 Communicator (1996)

The Nokia 9000 Communicator honestly needs no introduction. A classic in the realm of the retro, the 9000 Communicator was one of the first Nokia phones to look downright futuristic. With a full keyboard that could slide out from under the screen, complete with arrow keys, a Caps Lock key, a Shift key and a Ctrl key, the phone was a haven for those who texted a lot. It also made a name for itself by appearing in movies like The Saint and Bad Company.

Nokia 5110 (1998)

The Nokia 5110 was not a standout phone by itself. A compact body, an antenna stub on the top, and classic numeric keys don’t really help this phone stand out like some others in this list. However, what made the Nokia 5110 awesome was the first appearance of a game that all Nokia users adored and would adore for years to come – Snake. The game would go on to be the face of pre-smartphone mobile gaming and would become one of the most popular phone games across the world.

Nokia 3210 and Nokia 3310 (1999 - 2000)

While the Nokia 3310 gets all the credit for being one of Nokia’s most signature devices of all time, the concept started with its predecessor, the Nokia 3210, which launched a year ago in 1999. Being one of the very first phones to support a hardware-level of customisation, the Nokia 3210 featured replaceable back covers with vibrant colour options. This continued with the 3310 which also featured a very sturdy build and some truly insane battery life.

Nokia 7650 (2001)

Back in 2001, you would be forgiven for thinking the Nokia 7650 was a piece of technology straight from the future. With a form factor that looked drastically different from the phones of the time (without being too abstract), the 7650 featured a sliding screen which would go upwards to reveal the numeric keyboard. This same sliding mechanism would hide and open up Nokia’s very first integrated camera on the rear.

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The Nokia 7650 was also the very first Nokia phone to sport SymbianOS, a more advanced operating system that opened the phone the capabilities of the phone. In its subsequent versions, SymbianOS would go on to make upcoming Nokia smartphones some of the best, most capable smartphones around before the Android-iOS era.

Nokia N-Gage (2002)

With the rise of the Nintendo Gameboy, a popular handheld gaming console, Nokia tried its hand at making a landscape-oriented phone. The N-Gage was built like a handheld console, supported games, and could also be a phone when you wanted it to be. While the phone didn’t really take over the GameBoy, it did showcase Nokia’s ability to create unconventional phone designs, something the brand would make many more of in the years to come.

Nokia 7600 and Nokia 7280 (2004)

In 2004, Nokia also stepped into the fashion market, launching devices like the teardrop-shaped Nokia 7600 and the lipstick-shaped Nokia 7280. While these phones didn’t reinvent much when it came to the capabilities of phones at the time, they did showcase Nokia’s fearless approach towards bolder, unconventional designs. Not many brands have the legacy the Finnish phone-maker has when it comes to statement phones.

Nokia N90 (2005)

One of our personal favourites of all time, something we’re sure a lot of readers would also agree with, was the Nokia N90. With a unique swivel form factor, the N90 solidified Nokia’s position in well-designed phones. The N90 could switch between three-to-four different modes. It could look like a regular phone when you wanted, but also switch into a camcorder mode and let you hold the phone vertically with the screen in landscape for capturing and reviewing media.

Nokia 5300 XpressMusic (2006)

Nokia’s XpressMusic series honestly comprised a lot of iconic phones. But the most memorable was perhaps the 5300 XpressMusic. This sliding phone had dedicated music playback-controlling keys on the side, a compact form factor, and could open up to reveal the keyboard. It also came in some youthful colour options, making it a hit among students.

Nokia N9 (2011)

Considered to be one of Nokia’s best overall smartphones to date, the Nokia N9 was the first smartphone to feature the MeeGo operating system. It was packed with top-notch specifications, and also a design that was a perfect blend of minimal, colourful and sleek, partly thanks to its near button-less design.

Despite all its perks, the N9 was not released in many major markets of the world, including the US and most of Europe, making it kind of hard to get your hands on one, something that would only make this limited availability device even more of a novelty.

Nokia 808 Pureview (2012)

One of our favourite Nokia devices of all time was the Nokia 808 PureView. Marking both a first and a last for the brand, the 808 PureView was the brand’s last SymbianOS phone, which Nokia would replace with the Windows Phone operating system in the following years.

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The phone was also the first in the PureView series, featuring a large 41MP camera that would even beat some camera sensors in terms of pixel size a decade later. The camera also sported clearer, more durable Carl Zeiss optics.

Nokia Lumia 1020 (2013)

While the Nokia Lumia series launched a bunch of cool phones between 2011 and 2016, perhaps the most impactful of the lot was 2013’s Lumia 1020. With a matte-finish, yellow, plastic back, a large camera island on the back, and the legendary 41MP PureView camera, the Lumia 1020 was one of the best smartphones at the time for mobile photography. The phone also came with an optional camera grip that serious photographers could attach to the device, while a later software update would also enable the phone to capture RAW photos which captured a lot more information.

Nokia 5710 XpressAudio (2022)

The last phone in our list is the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio. An ode to the signature XpressMusic phones, the phone was a feature phone that wasn’t really rivalling the smartphones of its time. Rather, it was built for retro-tech lovers who wanted an XpressMusic phone in 2022.

While it looked like the nostalgic XpressMusic phones, the highlight of the 5170 XpressAudio was a slide-out mechanism that revealed a pair of TWS earbuds neatly tucked into the phone. You could pull out the earbuds directly from the phone at any point and listen to music without worrying about forgetting your TWS case at home.

That brings us back to the present. Today, Nokia isn’t the phone brand that makes many bold, iconic designs, but the company has made quite a footing for itself in the retro space thanks to phones like the new Nokia 2660 Flip. With part of the brand now dedicated to bringing back some of the best retro designs, we hope we continue seeing more classic Nokia phones in with a set of modern specs for those of us who still prefer funky designs over boring old bars of metal!