go back to TACS handsetsHere is the complete set of TACS handsets within our collection. Where possible a detailed description of each handset has been provided together with a summary of its main features.
The complete set of TACS handsets is ordered by the year in which each handset was released.
Nokia Mobira Talkman
Released in 1984
Network = TACS
Weight = 4700g
Dimensions = 105mm x 225mm x 250mm
Battery Life = unknown
In 1979 the Finnish company Nokia merged with Salora to establish Mobira Oy through which they developed mobile phones for the Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) network. In 1984 Nokia fully bought out Salora and changed its name to Nokia-Mobira Oy. The Nokia Mobira Talkman was one of the world's first transportable mobile phones which it was launched in 1984. The model shown here is actually branded as a Vodafone/Racal ME50T and is marked as Made in Finland for Racal. It was available for UK mobile phone networks.
Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile.
Technophone PC105T
Released in 1986
Network = ETACS
Weight = 531g
Dimensions = 185mm x 75mm x 30mm
Battery Life = 20 mins talk time and 360 mins standby
Technophone was a UK company set up by Nils Martensson in 1984, a Swedish engineer who had previously worked for Ericsson. His goal was to transform the mobile phone from a large, cumbersome brick into a portable, small and usable device. Technophone sold their mobile phones through Excell Communications branded as the Excell PC105T, M1 or M2. The Pocketphone PC105T shown here was released in 1986 and retailed at £1,990 but as the adverts showed, it did indeed fit inside a standard sized shirt pocket! It was promoted as the smallest, lightest, most advanced cellphone in the world. Technophone were soon selling 1000 Pocketphones per month.
By 1991 Technophone had become Europe's second largest mobile phone manufacturer with a turnover of £49 million but this was still a distant second to Nokia who were Europe's largest mobile phone manufacturer with a turnover of £330 million. However, in 1991 Nils Martensson sold Technophone to Nokia for £34 million. This acquisition helped propel Nokia to become the world's number two mobile phone manufacturer behind Motorola.
The Technophone PC105T Pocketphone had a major influence on the future of mobile phone design because of the advances made in miniaturisation. However, the phone did have a poor reputation for dropping calls thereby necessitation consumers to register their phones for use on both the Cellnet and Vodafone networks. Indeed the marketing for the Pocketphone said that it was the only cellphone that is approved to change networks at the press of a button. Battery life was also limited but you could buy a supplementary battery pack that plugged onto the bottom of the phone.
The example of the PFC105T shown here is missing its aerial. Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile.
Motorola 8500X
Released in 1987
Network = TACS
Weight = 730g
Dimensions = 270mm x 40mm x 85mm
Battery Life = 60 mins talk time and 780 mins standby
In the USA, Motorola revolutionised the design of the mobile phone with their Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage (DynaTAC) 8000X range. Introduced in 1983, the Motorola 8000X was the culmination of 15 years of research by Dr Martin Cooper and Rudy Krolopp and it established the mobile as a genuinely hand-held and portable device. Miniaturisation had come at a price though with talk time reduced to 30 minutes and 8 hours standby time. Its price tag of some £2,500 also placed it out of reach of the average person and so it became synonymous with the yuppie in the UK and is also affectionately known as the brick phone. However, more than any other phone design, the Motorola 8000 has come to epitomise the mobile of the 1980s. The Motorola 8000X was available in three colour schemes: dark grey, tan and grey, or tan and white.
The Motorola 8500X shown here was introduced in 1987 and became extremely popular in Europe. The screen displayed up to 7 digits of a telephone number and included an In Use indicator to show that a call was in progress, No Svc to show that you were out of network range and Roam to signify that your mobile was trying to connect to a different network. In addition to the standard 12 key keypad 9 keys provided access to special functions. These included RCL used to recall numbers from memory, CLR to erase the last digit entered, SND to initiate a call, STO to store numbers in memory, FCN to access secondary functions, END to terminate a telephone call, PWR to turn the mobile on and off, NAME to store and recall alphanumeric names from memory and VOL for adjusting the volume. In total 99 telephone numbers and associated names could be stored in the address book memory. A range of timers were included for measuring the duration of calls and the signal strength could be displayed by pressing the FCN key twice.
NEC 9A
Released in 1987
Network = TACS
Weight = 690g
Dimensions = 195mm x 62mm x 50mm
Battery Life = 80 mins talk time and 1200 mins standby
The Nippon Electric Company (NEC) was formed in Japan in 1898 specialising in the manufacture of telephones and switches which naturally meant that they would enter the mobile phone marketplace.
NEC launched the NEC 9A (NEC TR5E 1320-9A) into the UK in 1987 where it was well received, rapidly becoming the fastest selling mobile because it was lighter and offered more functions than its rivals.
In addition to the standard telephone functions, the NEC 9A included an address book that could record up to 60 telephone numbers and associated names. Its 3 line, 30 character LCD display had back light illumination, as did the keypad. A built in loudspeaker facilitated hands free operation. The NEC 9A could be fitted with either a quarter or half (shown here) wave-length antenna and included a five bar signal strength indicator with the recommendation that you should have at least three bars showing before making a call. The phone was turned on and off by a slider switch on the back and a standard 12 key keypad was supplemented with 6 additional keys, SND used to initiate a call, FCN to enable access to the telephone's features, END to terminate a call, STO to store a number in the address book, RCL to recall a number from the address book and CLR to clear the contents of the display.
Nokia Mobira Cityman 1320
Released in 1987
Network = TACS
Weight = 750g
Dimensions = 185mm x 40mm x 80mm
Battery Life = unknown
Motorola dominated the early development of the mobile phone but a challenge was to emerge from Finland. Nokia-Mobira Oy had been established in 1984 to produce transportables for the Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) network. However, the Nokia-Mobira Cityman 1320 was their first truly hand held mobile. It was released in 1987 and became a direct competitor to the Motorola 8000X range. By 1988 Nokia had secured 13.5% of the mobile phone market. The Nokia Cityman was released in three versions, the Cityman 450 for the NMT-450 network, the Cityman 900 for the NMT-900 network and this one, the Cityman 1320 for the broader European ETACS network.
Nokia-Mobira famously staged a photo opportunity with the then Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, making a call using a Cityman mobile from Helsinki to Moscow, which resulted in these phones being nicknamed Gorbas.
Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile.
Motorola 4500X
Released in 1988
Network = TACS
Weight = 4200g
Dimensions = 265mm x 120mm x 180mm
Battery Life = unknown
The Motorola 4500X transportable mobile phone became available in 1988 and was derived from earlier car phone designs. It was portable but weighing 4.2kg it took a strong arm to carry it any distance. Most of the weight came from the battery however, you were lucky to get more than one hour of talk time and the battery needed regular charging. This model is branded as British Telecom and had a red LED display, a standard 12 digit numeric keypad and 5 additional keys that provided PWR which turned the mobile on and off, END which was used to terminate calls, SND which initiated dialling once the telephone number had been entered, MUTE which turned the microphone off and FCN which, when used in combination with other keys, gave access to range of secondary functions such as call timers. On the side of the handset is a button for controlling the speaker and ringer volume.
Motorola 8900X-2
Released in 1988
Network = TACS
Weight = 520g
Dimensions = 270mm x 40mm x 60mm
Battery Life = 60 mins talk time and 780 mins standby
The Motorola 4500X transportable mobile phone became available in 1988 and was derived from earlier car phone designs. It was portable but weighing 4.2kg it took a strong arm to carry it any distance. Most of the weight came from the battery however, you were lucky to get more than one hour of talk time and the battery needed regular charging. This model is branded as British Telecom and had a red LED display, a standard 12 digit numeric keypad and 5 additional keys that provided PWR which turned the mobile on and off, END which was used to terminate calls, SND which initiated dialling once the telephone number had been entered, MUTE which turned the microphone off and FCN which, when used in combination with other keys, gave access to range of secondary functions such as call timers. On the side of the handset is a button for controlling the speaker and ringer volume.
Motorola Ultra Classic
Released in 1989
Network = AMPS
Weight = 570g
Dimensions = 340mm x 40mm x 60mm
Battery Life = 60 mins talk time and 780 mins standby
The Motorola Ultra Classic was released in the USA in 1989 and is the equivalent of the European 8900X. This particular example operated on the USWEST Cellular Network-now part of Qwest Communications International. The keypad layout is the same as the Motorola 8500X except for the fact that the NAME key on the 8500X is replaced on the Ultra Classic with a LOCK key which, it is assumed, locked the phone's keypad. It is also assumed that the remaining keys performed the same functions as those on the Motorola 8500X.
Motorola MicroTAC
Released in 1989
Network = TACS
Weight = 290g
Dimensions = 145mm x 60mm x 45mm
Battery Life = 100 mins talk time and 1440 mins standby
In 1989 Motorola once again redefined the face of the mobile phone with the launch of the MicroTAC. This brought major new advances in miniaturisation, style and usability. Whilst it may be regarded as large and heavy by today's standards, in its day it was simply amazingly light and small and influenced the design of a whole new generation of mobiles. The Motorola MicroTAC introduced the concept of the flip phone where a moveable plate covered and revealed part of the keypad. The small hole in the flip plate gave the impression of it being the microphone but was in fact false; the microphone remained firmly within the main body of the phone and the flip plate was entirely cosmetic. So too was the extending aerial. This was a piece of plastic but was included because market research had revealed that the public expected the phone to have an external aerial. In reality the MicroTAC had an internal aerial.
Maxon EPC590E
Released in 1989
Network = TACS
Weight = 488g
Dimensions = 285mm x 56mm x 45mm
Battery Life = unknown
Maxon Telecom Co., Ltd. was established in 1974 as Maxon Korea and changed its name to Maxon Telecom in 2000. Its headquarters were in Seoul, South Korea but the company went bankrupt in 2004. The Maxon EPC590E is believed to date from 1989.
Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile.
Nokia Cityman 100
Released in 1989
Network = TACS
Weight = 485g
Dimensions = 260mm x 60mm x 35mm
Battery Life = unknown
Following on from the success of the Nokia-Mobira 1320, the company was re-branded as Nokia Mobile Phones in 1989 and launched the Nokia Cityman 100 in 1990. This offered further levels of miniaturisation and improvements in portability.
Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile.
NEC P3
Released in 1990
Network = TACS
Weight = 440g
Dimensions = 345mm x 59mm x 30mm
Battery Life = 80 mins talk time and 1080 mins standby
The NEC P3 became available on UK mobile phone networks in 1990, retailing for £500 under contract. NEC claimed that the P3 was the first truly personal pocket phone being small, reasonably light (compared to other phones) and with good battery life. It succeeded the NEC 9A, being smaller thanks to a reduction in the internal circuitry and battery size but offering an improved performance. The battery offered longer talk and standby times, the address book was extended to store up to 99 telephone numbers and associated names and it had a built in clock with an alarm feature. The NEC P3 is shown here within its charging cradle.
RACAL EB-3601
Released in 1990
Network = TACS
Weight = 530g
Dimensions = 200mm x 60mm x 40mm
Battery Life = unknown
Racal was established in 1950 in Isleworth, London being formed by RAymond Brown and George CALder Cunningham and specialising in electronics. Racal was the parent company of Vodafone before the mobile company was sold in 1991. Ultimately Racal was bought by the French company Thomson-CSF in 2000.
This mobile is identified as a Racal EB-3601 and carries the Vodafone branding. However, it also states Made in Japan. Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile. However, it is assumed to date from the early 1990s.
Nokia 101
Released in 1992
Network = TACS
Weight = 280g
Dimensions = 170mm x 55mm x 27mm
Battery Life = 50 mins talk time and 660 mins standby
The Nokia 101 (firmware code THX-6X) was released in 1992 as Nokia's first candy bar design mobile; so called because of its resemblance to the shape of a chocolate bar. Nokia promoted the 101 as a phone designed to slip comfortably and unobtrusively into your pocket. Their advertising claimed that the Nokia 101 was the world's most portable phone. In addition to the basic phone features it provided an address book that could store up to 50 telephone numbers and associate names, single key speed dialling, call timers and both battery capacity and signal strength indicators.
Motorola MicroTAC Lite II
Released in 1992
Network = TACS
Weight = 210g
Dimensions = 145mm x 60mm x 35mm
Battery Life = unknown
The development of the Motorola MicroTAC continued with the launch of the Motorola MicroTAC Lite II in 1992. It was marketed as the phone designed to fit in a shirt pocket and was noticeably thinner and lighter than its predecessors.
Unfortunately nothing else is known about the features or performance of this mobile.
Blaupunkt HandyCom 582
Released in 1992
Network = TACS
Weight = 285g
Dimensions = 155mm x 60mm x 35mm
Battery Life = unknown
Blaupunkt GmbH was formed in 1923 as a wholly owned subsidiary of German company Robert Bosch GmbH. Based in Hildesheim, Germany, Blaupunkt became a leading manufacturer of car radio and audio equipment in the 1960s and 70s. Consequently the movement into mobile phones was a natural progression for the company.
The Blaupunkt HandyCom 582 was released in 1992. It provided all of the basic phone functions including redial, an address book memory that could store up to 99 names and telephone numbers and a range of feature menus that provided access to functions such as security, call handling, tones, timers and a signal strength meter.
That completes the collection of TACS mobiles.
Follow on social media .....