The evolution of the cell phone

1983: Motorola DynaTAC 8000x

The first commercially available mobile phone in history was introduced by Motorola in 1983. It cost $4000 and was approximately the size of a shoe box.

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1986: Motorola 4500x

A few years later, Motorola released another "mobile" phone. This one featured a handset attached to a 7.7 pound battery box. The 4500x was considered a luxury item at over $2000 retail.

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1989: Motorola MicroTAC 9800x

By 1989, phones were already getting smaller. This Motorola flip phone was designed to fit in a shirt pocket.

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1994: IBM Simon

This PDA-and-cell-phone hybrid is considered to be the precursor to the smartphone. In addition to working as a phone, the Simon had features like email, calendar, calculator and could even send and receive faxes.

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1999: Benefon Esc

This was the first phone to feature built-in GPS. It was never commercially available in the United States.

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2000: Nokia 3310

This phone has become something of a cult favorite since its release because of its durability. In fact, there's so much nostalgia surrounding this phone that it was recently reimagined.

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2002: Samsung N620

This was the first phone to have polyphonic ringtones, which was a huge deal at the time.

Samsung

2004: Motorola RAZR

Millennials across the country have Myspace photos floating around the annals of the internet with Motorola RAZRs clam-snapped to their clothes. The super-slim design and color screen launched the RAZR into a special place in cell phone history. It remains the best-selling clamshell phone in the world to date.

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2006: Samsung X830

The music industry was already completely disrupted by the iPod by the time Samsung released this twist-open music-focused cell phone.

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2007: iPhone

In 2007, Apple brought rich-text email, full internet access via Safari and all of the functions of an iPod Touch to one device -- the iPhone. Previous phones were only able to access plain-text email and parts of the internet via rudimentary WAP pages.

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2008: HTC Dream

A year after the iPhone was released, HTC introduced the first smartphone to run the Android operating system. It also featured a sliding screen that opened into a full QWERTY keyboard.

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2008: BlackBerry Curve 8330

BlackBerry Messenger would let you know every time your other BlackBerry-toting friends were ignoring you. This was also (and continues to be) the phone of choice for many concerned with cybersecurity.

Amazon

2009: LG Xenon

Ah, the LG Xenon... It was a pre-iPhone phone in a post-iPhone world. A quick look at the archive of Amazon reviews of this phone reveal a few common issues including a finicky LCD screen and a tendency to snap in half.

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2010: iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 was truly tiny and came in a futuristic, snowy white. The battery life was the best in its class when the iPhone 4 was released.

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2011: Samsung Galaxy Note

Samsung took the phablet to the mainstream with its nearly tablet-sized Note. The Note series of cell phones hold a stylus called an S Pen in the body of the phone.

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2011: iPhone 4S

Just a year after releasing the redesigned iPhone 4, Apple released the 4S with integrated personal assistant, Siri.

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2013: Motorola Moto X

The Moto X was the first Motorola phone released after Motorola was acquired by Google. It was received with generally positive reviews.

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2015: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+

In the mid-2010s, Samsung began wrapping the screen around the sides of their Edge series of smartphones.

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2017: Nokia 3310 (again)

The Nokia 3310 has been reimagined for anyone who is nostalgic for a simpler time, way back around 17 years ago. The feature phone now has a color display but the 2017 phone still uses T9 texting, the camera is still 2 megapixels and, most importantly, you can still play Snake.

Shutterstock / catwalker

2017: iPhone 8

Comps of the 10th anniversary iPhone suggest that Apple will ditch the home button altogether in favor of on-screen navigation. Speculation and excitement continue to mount as whispers from Palo Alto suggest big improvements from previous iPhone models.

Also see

• Gallery: The iPhone's journey to its 10-year anniversary
• Why Microsoft is partially responsible for the first iPhone, and other origin stories
• iPhone turns 10: Why it's still the smartphone to beat
• 10 years supporting Apple's iconic iPhone: An IT consultant's reflections

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