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Photos: 10 years of bananas, flips and candybars
Iconic mobiles since the late 90s...

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Friday 17 October 2008

1996 Nicknamed the banana phone because of its curved shape, the Nokia 8110 is also known as the Matrix phone - owing to a starring role in the eponymous 1999 film (albeit in Matrix green, rather than the lilac version pictured here).

Mobile product placement never looked back after the 8110 slipped from Keano Reeves' grasp, giving the camera an eyeful of Nokia goodness before tumbling towards the tarmac. Who wouldn't want one?

The Mighty Finn dominated the late 1990s with many more vanilla offerings than the 8110 so no wonder its launch press release claimed a 'first' for ergonomics: "It feels good in the hand and fits into any pocket. The revolutionary curved design fits the natural shape of your face... The mouthpiece, which has a microphone embedded within it, both protects the keypad and slides forward to fit the contour of your chin."

Touting mobile hardware in the mid-1990s meant shouting about its chin-hugging ergonomics rather than reeling off an acronym soup of tech specs. How times have changed.

Photo credit: Nokia