There was a time when the phones in our pockets didn’t look nearly identical to one another. Before the iPhone ushered in an age of rectangular, monotone devices, cellphones came in all shapes and sizes. Many offerings were colorful, some were innovative, some were absolute disasters—and some of them never saw the light of day.
Few companies better embodied all of these possibilities than Nokia. At its peak, the Finnish telecom giant comprised 40 percent of the entire mobile phone market and generated four percent of the nation’s GDP. Phones like the Nokia 5510 and 7210 became cultural touchstones, while its NSeries models paved the way for Apple’s camera-enabled smartphone features. Nokia’s influence began to wane not long after the iPhone’s 2007 debut (as well as a disastrous attempt to compete with Nintendo over handheld gaming dominance). While not the phone giant it once was, Nokia still provides wireless networking and backend technologies for clients around the world.
This week, Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland launched the Nokia Design Archive, a free-to-use, digital trove featuring 700 “exhibits” documenting the company’s history, influence, and products. Here are just a few looks at the tech aesthetics of the 90’s and Y2K eras.
(Click to expand images.)
The Nokia 252 quickly became one of the most recognizable pre-Y2K cellphones after its release in 1998. Available in multiple colors, the 252 was also one of Nokia’s last products to use the 1G wireless network.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
The 6110 might not look like much, but precursor to Nokia’s 3110 “Brick” phone occupies a pivotal spot in pop culture history: The 6110 is the first phone to ever feature the video game, Snake. The easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master game was also accompanied by the time-wasters, Logic and Memory puzzlers.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
Codenamed “Starship” during its development, Nokia intended the N-Gage to cut into the handheld video game market firmly dominated at the time by Nintendo’s GameBoy Advance. Nokia’s target teen demographic didn’t go for it. instead, they nicknamed the unequivocal failure the “taco phone” in honor of its odd, clunky shape.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
Not all of Nokia’s concepts made it to store shelves, and the Morph might be one of the best examples. But there’s a pretty good reason why people never got a chance to try out the extremely green, flexible wearable—the “nanotechnology” underpinning it still doesn’t exist.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive unknown
While this Nokia-Microsoft Moonraker project got closer to reality than the Morph, it still ended up in the dustbin of device history in favor of Microsoft’s ill-fated Band.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
Details are sparse about Nokia’s early VR/AR plans apart from a couple of conceptual renderings like this one. It’s also difficult to know exactly when the company first considered investing in the technology, although the archive estimates it is from circa 1999.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
The Nokia 8110 debuted in 1996, but it wasn’t until three years later that the cellphone became entrenched in Y2K culture thanks to its (slightly augmented) cameo in The Matrix.Credit: Nokia Design Archive
Designed as the casual user’s alternative to the more business-friendly 6110, the 5110 featured an 84×48-pixel monochrome LCD screen illuminated by four LED backlights. It was also the first to feature colorful, swappable “Xpress-On” faceplates in a bid to appeal to younger demographics.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
The 3G wireless network’s introduction in 2001 offered previously impossible internet connectivity options for cellphone owners. Pictured is one of Nokia’s concept devices intended to illustrate a phone’s new capabilities, including internet access and GPS maps.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
Nokia’s Fun Camera released around 2003, long before the ability to take high-resolution photographs was a smartphone prerequisite. The standalone digital camera accessory relied on AAA batteries, and could transfer pictures to a cellphone using a wire cable.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
Nokia only briefly waded into the smartphone era before the iPhone cornered the market for years to come. While executives at the time intended to give Apple a run for its money as seen in this opposition presentation slideshow, the iPhone signaled the end of an era for the company.
Credit: Nokia Design Archive
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