A free phone future?

With smartphone ownerships levels near saturation point in Western markets, manufacturers and network operators are busy looking for new ways to entice customers, while at the same time extending their presence into emerging markets.

In those developing spaces (and in the budget market in the West), it's a race to the bottom to bring costs down – and the end result could be a free smartphone, complete with free calls, texts and data.

Meanwhile, marketing and advertising agencies around the world are experimenting with increasingly audacious schemes in a bid to get their products and ads in front of consumers in a highly competitive landscape.

Many believe we could be heading towards a revolution in smartphone provision, with technology and marketing converging to the point where your future smartphone could cost you absolutely nothing.

Users are now accustomed to seeing adverts on most websites and apps – and it could eventually be possible to support the cost of both a smartphone and a network plan simply by including adverts on the lock screen or launching apps.

Can I get a free phone right now?

Well, no – although there are smartphones out there that are becoming so cheap that the cost borders on negligible. And there are signs we're heading to a no-cost future.

In July, Indian manufacturer Ringing Bells outlined plans for a smartphone – the Freedom 251 – priced at just US$4 (around £3 or AU$5).

With manufacturing costs of around US$20 a unit, this incredibly low price seemed to defy reality, but would be made possible by the company taking a loss of at least US$2 on each unit sold, with the gap in funding filled by a variety of software companies whose apps would be preinstalled on each device sold.

The hype around such a cheap smartphone has since abated, however, and Ringing Bells has revised its grand plans of shipping 2.5 million units – it may now only ship as little as 5,000 units.

It's easy to suspect the whole thing was a publicity stunt, designed to generate free advertising for the Indian startup, which is now offering a range of more realistically-priced smartphones costing between around US$60 (£45, AU$80) and US$65 (£50, AU$90).

Another Indian brand has been trying to do something similar. The Docoss X1 was announced in April 2016, and came with a price tag of just Rs. 888 (£10 or US$13), but – like the Freedom 251 – it's failed to materialise after the initial launch.

In the Western world, a free smartphone simply isn't feasible right now, due to the higher expectations of device quality and capability, and a high resistance to pre-installed software or advertising.

But, while they may not be free, usable pay-as-you-go handsets such as the Vodafone Smart First 7 in the UK and Alcatel Pixi 3 can be picked up for as little as 1/25th the price of a basic iPhone, illustrating how dramatically the cost of producing a smartphone has fallen in recent years.

Could accepting advertising save you money?

The simple answer – if you're happy to go with a certain network – is yes. In the UK, supermarket giant Tesco has worked in partnership with an Australian firm called Unlockd, which built the Tesco Mobile Xtras app that shows pre-approved adverts as soon as you unlock your phone.

You can dismiss the ads fairly easily, and they won't interrupt you at important times, but if you view at least one advert each day for 21 consecutive days, you'll get £3 (US$4 or AU$5) off your bill at the end of the month.

"Ads that are useful, timely and interesting will engage customers and that interaction is ultimately what will make this service work," says Tesco Mobile CEO Anthony Vollmer, who believes that serving customers with appropriate adverts is key.

He added: "It's also important that consumers can choose to engage as much or as little as they want."

While this might only put a dent in more expensive contracts, when you consider that Tesco's plans start at around just £7.50 a month (around US$10 or AU$13), then bringing that down to £4.50 a month (around US$6 or AU$7.50) for watching a few adverts becomes an attractive proposition.

Unlockd offers similar savings to Sprint customers in Australia and the US through Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint. Its Boost Dealz app works in exactly the same way as Tesco's app, and offers users $5 off their bill for viewing ads.

Of course, Unlockd is only testing the waters of subsidising the cost of owning a phone through advertising. CEO Matt Berriman told TechRadar there's more to come from the Australian startup in new markets.

"Core to the opportunity for Unlockd is to 'connect the unconnected'," he said. "We are in discussions with large-scale mobile carriers in Asia and developing markets, where our platform will be able to fully subsidise internet access or mobile phone handsets for the unconnected population."

According to Berrimen there are no plans to offer Unlockd's ads-for-cash initiative on any other networks at present, although he did tell us: "We are currently in advanced discussions with various carriers, and anticipate several new market launches in the next six months."

Could app developers offer free phones?

For now it appears that the prospect of a free phone from your favoured network carrier will remain a pipe dream, but could app developers one day make it a reality?

We asked Eric Seufert, an expert in mobile marketing and user acquisition with a specific interest in the freemium product economy, whether he thought app developers could bridge the gap between hardware costs and retail pricing.

"[Free phones from app installations] seems unlikely, at least in the near-term future," he told us. "While it's true that app developers are ever-more desperate to get their apps onto the phones of potential users, they're not really coordinated in the way that this would require."

Seufert added that it would also take more than just a single developer to underwrite the costs required, and even then, he said, the possibility of developers working together in harmony isn't very realistic, because "they're [just] far too competitive".

Hasn't Facebook got deep enough pockets?

With billions of dollars in revenue and fingers in almost every advert that is served on smartphones, it would seem logical that one of the large digital advertising networks would be perfectly suited to this kind of advertising-backed model.

Suefert thinks that even the likes of Facebook shy away from offering subsidised or free phones. "This would be hugely costly and probably suffer from adverse selection," he said. "The users most open to accepting a free phone (which would almost certainly be technologically inferior to high-end phones), would be those users advertisers are least enthusiastic about reaching with ads."

And if past forays into Facebook-branded hardware are anything to go by, the social media giant would likely shy away from another failed hardware offering.

The HTC First, widely referred to as the 'Facebook Phone', was a flop from the start, and even at $0.99 on an AT&T contract, failed to resonate with buyers.

In July 2014, the Amazon Fire Phone was unleashed. With billions in the bank, a mature content platform and advertising revenue that topped US$1 billion in 2014, rumours quickly spread that the Fire phone could be the first truly free smartphone.

Unfortunately, after arriving with a disappointingly high price tag, the Amazon Fire Phone had no impact on the industry, and was forgotten almost as quickly as it arrived.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos admitted that "it's going to take many iterations" to get the Amazon Fire Phone right, and while Venturebeat reported we would be seeing the second Fire Phone in 2016, there have been no further rumours to back this up.

Google, meanwhile, is testing the waters of the Asian markets with its Android One program. While there's no suggestion yet that it will offer a free handset in the range, the program makes quality smartphones more accessible because Google manages the design, development, marketing, and support of each handset, allowing manufacturers to offer handsets at a lower price while maintaining a standardised level of quality.

And while it's fairly clear that Facebook isn't ready to offer users a free phone, its Facebook Zero initiative shows that there's an untapped market of consumers simply looking for a device with which they can get on the internet, rather than an all-singing smartphone.

The text-only version of the social media network is available in conjunction with networks in more than 50 countries worldwide, who don't charge customers for any data usage while they're using the 'lite' site.

It's a crucial way for Facebook to deliver content to developing nations where smartphone adoption is still in its infancy, and where data costs are still prohibitively expensive for most users.

It's these kind of accessibility initiatives that may well end up putting a free smartphones in the hands of consumers in developing countries, where many potential customers are simply looking for a way of getting regular internet access, long before we see something similar in Western markets.

Free phones are still on the cards

Lock screen advertising or pre-loaded apps are the best ways to drop the cost of a phone, and with the rapidly falling price of capable hardware, and competition amongst advertisers to deliver their content, it's not inconceivable that a free phone will become a reality in the near future.

As it stands, Western users demand high-end smartphones that are simply too costly to fully subsidise. However Unlockd CEO Berriman believes it's only a matter of time before the landscape changes and consumers agree to 'rent' their attention. "We can absolutely see a day in the near future when consumers might opt to access entirely free, ad-funded phone plans," he says.

If free phones become a reality in emerging markets, there's nothing to say the similar schemes couldn't catch on with Western customers. After all a free smartphone, whatever the quality, along with free usage might be hard to turn down...

• Can an uploaded brain live forever?

A waterproof future

Our smartphones are our lives, the portal to the virtual world we're all tethered to, whether we like it or not. And as the importance (and cost) has escalated, so has our desire to keep them safe, leading to reams of cases and millions of pounds spent on insuring our treasured possessions.

In recent years, manufacturers have made progress in making these phones more "life proof" by using tougher materials, stronger glass, and some manufacturers - such as Sony and Samsung - even making some of the phones in their range fully waterproof.

Sony – an early water-resistance trend-setter – is keeping up the practice of making its top phones waterproof, and Samsung has doubled-down on waterproofing, including it as a headline feature on its latest flagship phones.

There are rumours, too, that Apple will be entering the arena shortly with the iPhone 7, which could well have the same water-repelling qualities as the Samsung Galaxy S7 - and if not this year, it's very likely to appear on the iPhone 7S.

But below the glitzy smartphone surface, there are also a group of companies that are aiming to make almost every device waterproof - without having to suffer any compromises in design or weight to achieve it. Does this mean you could make your current Nokia 3310 waterproof? Is it really possible? Well, we've dived into the deep end to find out.

What is Ingress Protection?

To better understand the requirements when it comes to shielding smartphones and other gadgets from the elements, it's important to know how manufacturers measure the level of protection on offer.

When we refer to smartphones, their water resistance rating – known as an Ingress Protection (or IP) rating – is usually mentioned. The rating is followed by a number that rates its ability to repel water or dust, with the first number dictating how protected the smartphone is against solid particles and the second number indicating how repellant it is to water and other liquids.

Although some phones claim to be "waterproof", they are almost always water resistant. This means they can withstand water for a period of time, and to a certain depth, but they shouldn't be deliberately submerged beyond the stated maximum.

If the IP rating starts with a 6, then you can be sure that the device is totally sealed, and solid particles will not be able to find their way in. If the rating starts with a 5, then small particles of dust may be able to find their way in, but won't affect the operation of the smartphone.

The second number needs to start with either an 8 or a 9 to be able to fully withstand submersion in water continuously, though manufacturers tend to provide more cautious guidelines than the official rating would suggest. If the number starts with a 7, then the phone will be resistant to rain and mild splashes, but won't survive full submersion in water.

Can I make my phone waterproof?

Bad news if you've got a phone that's not waterproof - it's not currently possible to retrofit the technology.

You can pick up cheaper sprays to cover the exterior of a phone in a waterproof coating, although these are usually temporary solutions. Some companies have offered solutions to retroactively coat smartphones in a protective layer, but so far no one has succeeded in making it a viable reality.

Most of the companies we've spoken to are set on protecting smartphones and other devices at the manufacturing stage – apparently the most cost-effective and consistent solution, which could mean the next iPhone or Google Nexus comes with water-resistance as standard - but there are other options too for non-smartphone gadgets.

WaterFi

WaterFi is a US company offering solutions on a variety of devices. They offer a patented process that helps a selection of gadgets resist the wet, including the Apple Watch and Fitbit Blaze.

It relies on the use of a rubbery insulator that is injected into the chosen device along with an extra layer of protection that helps resist corrosion or chemicals.

Waterfi's Marketing Manager, Gabe Hagstrom, believes waterproofing can be liberating for a gadget lover: "The cost of our waterproofing doesn't just save the customer from paying for a repair or replacement," he told TechRadar.

"It actually frees the customer to use the device in ways and places they never thought possible."

"They take their iPod swimming and surfing, the Kindle to the beach and wash it off in the ocean if it gets sandy, and take the Fitbit scuba diving."

WaterFi's waterproof iPod Shuffle Swim Kit ($155 / £118 and includes waterproof SwimActive Headphones) is a perfect swimmer's solution, and the range has recently expanded to include multiple Fitbits such as the Blaze and Alta, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, and the Apple Watch. If you live in the US, it can also coat your pre-existing Shuffle, Kindle, and Fitbit for a lower price ($99 / £75.42).

When asked about waterproofing smartphones, Hagstrom explained that WaterFi " will probably stay out of that for now; there's too much variation in hardware making it unfeasible to create an affordable waterproofing solution.

"[In the future] we see devices that are unlocked and affordable without a contract, like the newest Nexus phones, which we would then look to waterproof and offer brand new on our website to save all the hassle of sending in a phone that's in use and going a few days off the grid."

Will the next iPhone be waterproof?

We've spoken to multiple smartphone manufacturers and most have considered adding waterproof technology into their handsets at some point in the future - and it's definitely possible that Apple could be a customer of one of the following brands, although they're remaining tight-lipped on the subject.

This type of waterproofing won't be an afterthought, or something you'll have to consider as an additional expense, but will instead be baked into the manufacturing process, just like with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

But that technology needs to come from somewhere, so we spoke to three companies leading the way in this field about where they see the market heading and how long before swimming pools will be freely littered with all manner of smartphones.

P2i

British company P2i isn't in the retail market and doesn't offer a service to protect your device post-purchase, but has instead decided to go down the route of being a part of the manufacturing process itself.

P2i's waterproofing technology can be found on the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus, and is also being used by the likes of Timberland and Kangol for their waterproof clothing.

If you are familiar with some of Motorola's more recent devices including the Moto E, then you'll have already seen some of P2i's splash-proof technology in action. It's also present on some of Motorola's other handsets, including the Moto G4 and G4 Plus.

Dr. Stephen Coulson, who invented the technology at Durham University in the early 2000s, explains further how it works. "The coating works to alter the surface layer chemistry of the device so that instead of encouraging water... to stick, it simply beads up and rolls away." he told us.

"Now, instead of being pulled into the device through capillary action, any accidental splashes or spills onto the device are repelled away from the circuitry.

"This is extremely important in protecting devices from corrosion and electrical failure brought on by moisture, sweat or accidental liquid splashes and spills."

"Most of the top ten [smartphone manufacturers] have worked with us to some capacity before, and so it's simply a case of looking into a new project." Coulson said.

Earlier in 2016, P2i celebrated the milestone of 100 million nano coated phones, though the details of exactly which manufacturers make up that massive figure are being kept a secret.

HzO

Back across the ocean in the US, HzO uses a chemical vapour to coat the device, protecting the components against damage by water or any more potentially corrosive liquid without changing the look or feel of the handset.

Like P2i, HzO's technology is implemented at the manufacturing stage, and according to Marketing Manager Jared Matkin, that's where it plans to continue to focus its efforts rather than offering an aftermarket solution.

"We are working directly with OEM's/manufacturers to integrate our licensable technology into production lines so that when products come to market they already have our coating on them," he told us.

"I can say that our nano-coating protects against full submersion, and while we don't recommend people live an underwater existence with their nano-coated device, that protection in most normal, 'real world' scenarios will last the lifetime of the device."

HzO has recently been working with Rakuten to waterproof their next generation of e-readers, the Kobo Aura One. Other partners include Dell and Motorola, but they have yet to put their name publicly on any waterproof smartphones.

Semblant

Semblant is a more recent addition to the waterproofing world, and offers a similar solution to P2i and HzO, but claims to be targeting their nano-coating technology specifically at phones and other electronic devices.

Simon McElrea, CEO of Semblant believes its solution offers a superior way to protect smartphones, calling for "a much more elegant solution" rather than just spraying chemicals.

Semblant's coating technology coats every single internal component of the treated device, covering the circuit boards, ports and other delicate parts with a hydrophobic nano coating that – once applied – is a permanent solution.

"Water WILL get into the phone" says McElrea, "so the trick is to deal with it once it gets in there."

The current trend found in with recent phones such as the Samsung S7 is to seal the phone shut to make it easier to waterproof the internals. Whilst this method does work, it makes the devices incredibly difficult to repair.

Semblant's MobileShield technology protects internal components from liquid damage, whilst allowing smartphones to be more easily repaired and reused, rather than simply being discarded.

McElrea believes there is currently a "paradigm shift" in waterproofing technology: "Old fashioned methods such as glues and sealants, hydrophobic exterior coatings, and gaskets...are all repurposed technologies that were not designed for the complexity of electronic devices, and particularly smartphones (which are the most abused!)"

"What we will see going forward is a combination of simple gaskets, smart port design (I.e. perhaps doing away with the types of connectors/ports that allow the greatest liquid ingress, and swapping them with close-ended connectors), and internal nano-coatings on the PCBA.

"I would expect to see this strategy going into several of the largest phone companies over the next 1-2 years, including the rapidly growing Chinese handset manufacturers."

McElrea was keen to point out that some of the hydrophobic coatings that have been used for quite some time to cover clothing, footwear, pots and pans etc. have typically contained harmful substances like PTFE, PFOA, and PFOS. It is an unfortunate tradeoff that materials which repel water are often toxic (even carcinogenic) and non-biodegradable.

Leading companies like Nike, Apple, Goretex, Patagonia etc. have outlawed these materials and they are in turn being banned by state and national governments across the US, so companies like Semblant could hold the key to making waterproofing more sustainable.

No more watery graves

Whether you are after a waterproof phone, or want to do something to protect your existing handset, there's a variety of solutions out there. It looks certain that the future will be full of waterproof gadgets, thanks to the technologies being developed by P2i, HzO and Semblant - and the costs of adding in this feature are offset by the increased consumer confidence in the device.

Put simply, it'll be a hygiene factor: when most brands offer it, phones that don't repel water will be seen as useless.

There's little needed to convince consumers that it should be a default feature of any future smartphone, and of course manufacturers are striving for better device reliability to give us a longer-lasting product.

It's a safe bet that in the near future, virtually every new smartphone will come bearing some form of the liquid-guarding technology. But that's just the start of it - the techniques that save our phones from drowning will make us healthier and keep our phones looking smarter, according to Dr. Coulson of P2, who sees a big future in nanotechnologies and other protective coatings.

"This is just the beginning for invisible coatings on electronic devices. The future will see the likes of anti-scratch, anti-fingerprint and even antimicrobial coatings as standard – all applied at such a tiny scale that you won't even know it's there" he told us.

And the best bit: you won't even notice it's there.

Motorola Razr V3: the greatest phone of all time

Motorola was there at the beginning, introducing the world's first mobile phone - the Motorola 8000x - back in 1983. A symbol of new communication and fast-paced modern business, the 8000x became somewhat of a status symbol, with an eye-watering price of £3,000.

Motorola's highly-successful MicroTAC came to market in 1989 and was the first mobile phone that looked less like a brick, and more like a modern mobile phone, with the StarTac claiming the title of 'world's smallest' phone to date in 1996.

In the late 90s, whilst the rest of the world was switching to GSM, and Nokia was becoming increasingly popular, Motorola made the mistake of sticking to the analogue phones that had made its fortune, and needed something special to put the American giant back on top.

Its most popular handset to date - the Motorola Razr V3 - was that phone, selling over 50 million handsets between 2004 and 2006, and becoming the world's biggest selling clamshell phone in the process.

• Or, is Nokia's 3310 the greatest phone of all time?

Not since the aforementioned StarTac, had Motorola pulled off such a trend-setting handset design. The phone was notoriously difficult to get hold of, drawing long lines, quickly selling out, and inspiring a tidal wave of imitations that followed suit, spawning the obsession with slim phones that continues until this day.

After the Razr V3 shot to stardom, Motorola followed it up by painting it in every imaginable colour, and launching a number of upgraded models with additional features and tweaks such as EDGE connectivity in the V3re, and followed up with 3G connectivity and a 2 megapixel camera in the Razr V3x.

It even carried over the super-slim design over to a 'candy-bar' phone (the Slvr) and a 'slider' handset (the Rizr). Neither of these alternatives were quite as popular, and nowhere near as sexy.

The specifications

Honed from magnesium and aluminium the Razr V3 weighed in at a feather-light 95g, and measured just 98 x 53 x 13.99mm. It was one of the lightest, and by far the skinniest phone of its time, which inspired the razor edge-inspired moniker.

Although it wasn't the first phone to feature dual screens (the Samsung A300 held that accolade), the 96 x 80 pixel display on the outside, and a 2.2-inch 176 x 220 LCD screen on the inside were both colour.

The backlit keypad, d-pad and 6 other buttons were honed from a sheet of aluminium and almost completely flush, which despite a lack of definition was surprisingly tactile, and was especially popular among those fond of typing with the tips of their unusually long fingernails.

Other specifications included a VGA camera, video recording, MP4 video playback and compatibility with MP3 ringtones (though only a measly 5MB of memory was available); a 680mAh battery provided around 250 hours of standby and a talk time of close to 7 hours - not anything great by today's standards, but deemed pretty impressive at the time for such a svelte handset.

The top right edge was home to the volume key, and below that was a dedicated 'smart key' which activated a number of functions with the clamshell closed. On the opposite edge is the 'voice dial' key, which offered some of the hands-free calling abilities you'd expect of Siri or Google Now, now.

Other features included Bluetooth, IMAP and WAP 2.0 internet browsing, as well as the usual host of games and a contact organiser with capacity for 1000 entries.

The price

This was no cut-price handset, back in late 2004 you would have expected to pay the same kind of price that would get you a pretty hot smartphone today - around £500 in today's money.

If you had bought it on contract at launch, then you'd have to pony up £40 a month on Vodafone for years after stumping up £50 upfront... not cheap by comparison to many other - perhaps less desirable - premium phones around at the time.

Like with any smartphone well outside of its product life-span, as new handsets now be found at the bottom of eBay's bargain-big for less than £40 if you shop around, whilst luxurious 'gold' versions can be picked up for around £70.

Competitors, successors and Moto's new kids

The competitors

Sony Ericsson K700

A step up from the popular T630, Sony and Ericsson were still firmly joint at the hip at this point, and was producing quality phones with increasingly good cameras. For those looking for a candy-bar phone, the K700 packed plenty of features, including a VGA camera with 4 x zoom and a "photo light", a quality screen, support for video capture and playback and a built in FM.

Samsung D500

Featuring a 'slider' design rather than the Razr's clamshell, the D500 was - in many ways - Samsung's answer to the Razr. Yes, it was nowhere near as slim, but it packed a pretty good 1.3MP camera with LED flash, 96MB of memory to store quite a few pictures, and a host of other features including a large 1000mAh battery for well over 8 hours of talk time and a tiny plug-in speaker for your tunes.

Nokia N-Gage QD

The original N-Gage was billed as the ultimate phone for gamers, but ended up becoming more well known as a "Frankenphone" or "tacophone". It was followed up with the better looking 'QD' model that was smaller and rounder, but also lacked a bunch of the original's features such as FM radio and MP3 playback. Despite this, it had some features that were quite novel for its time, such as internet or local Bluetooth multiplayer gaming, and was home to a bunch of decidedly average games that ran at a pretty low frame-rate.

Nokia 7610

If you wanted a standard Nokia handset in 2004, you would have probably picked up the 6230, which went on to sell in excess of 50 million units. If you wanted something a little more classy with a more unusual design, however, you would have probably picked the 7610. It features an unusual keyboard, large screen and was ideal for music lovers, thanks to the expandable memory.

Orange SPV C500

Based on HTC hardware, the SPV C500 was exclusive to the Orange network, and despite its fairly average looks and hardware, it packed Microsoft's Windows Smartphone 2003 Second Edition - a snappy name for an operating system, I think you'll agree. This OS, however, meant that it was classed as a smartphone, meaning it was ideal for media and you could use it like a PDA by downloading a number of third party applications.

The Successors & Motorola's New Family

After the wild success of the Motorola Razr V3, it launched a huge number of successors - some looked similar but were considerably cheaper, whilst others - like the RAZR2 V9 - featured everything that was loved about the original Razr, but with bumped specifications.

With a long line of candybar, clamshell and Windows smartphones (such as the highly-praised 'Q') under its belt, Motorola struggled to equal the success of Razr V3 for many years, until 2009, when Android had started to properly mature and could start compete with the runaway success of the original iPhone and iPhone 3G.

Motorola attempted to put its own stamp on the operating system with the MotoBlur skin - much to many user's dissatisfaction. In October 2009, it bucked the trend of shying away from physical keyboards with the popular 'Droid', a Lucasfilm-licensed name that Motorola knew would guarantee it a degree of success. Other Droids followed, the best of which were exclusive the American Verizon network, but only really popular with those who couldn't bring themselves to purchase one of Apple's domineering smartphones.

At the beginning of 2011, Motorola was split into two parts: Motorola Solutions (to deal with enterprise and government solutions), and Motorola Mobility, which would stick to handsets and set-top boxes.

Motorola Mobility chose this time to try and resurrect the Razr brand, with two new slim Android 4.0 smartphones that had limited success. By 2012, it had been snapped up by Google for the princely sum of $12.5 billion, with many expecting big things from the two over the coming years.

Although the Moto X and Moto G were better than any recent handsets that had preceded them, sadly, it wasn't to be, and only two years later, Google passed on the company along with around 2,000 patents for $2.91 billion up front, with another $3 billion to follow over the following three years. Despite seemingly losing a few billion on this deal, Google retained the bulk of Motorola's massive patent portfolio, so it wasn't a total loss.

Lenovo clearly hopes that the acquisition of the legendary American technology brand will do what it did for them in the land of laptops after buying IBM's ThinkPad division back in 2005, a strong foothold in Western markets.

Though the Nexus 6 is a fantastic phone in many regards, we're still waiting for a design icon to rival the Razr V3.

Without the Razr V3, would we be as obsessed with slim phones as we are today? Would manufacturers be bothered with premium-grade metals that hadn't been seen in a mainstream handset prior to the V3?

If you are still using a Razr V3, we'd suggest you hold on to it, as its one of those phones that truly deserves its place in the hall of phone fame alongside the Nokia 3310 and Apple iPhone. It may not look quite as cutting-edge as it did back in the day, but it certainly was revolutionary compared to many of the overweight handsets of its time.

Nokia 3310: the phone we all love

After being bought and then ransacked for its mobile phone know-how by Microsoft, Nokia as we know it is gone. But there was a shining time in the final moments of the 20th century where we saw Nokia launch a string of successful handsets that, for a while, would lead it to dominate the mobile market.

Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, Nokia's line-up of straightforward mobile phones were loved by millions and made the Finnish telecoms company synonymous with class-leading mobile technology.

1996 saw the first of Nokia's 'smart' phones in the form of the 9000 communicator series that featured a data modem, internet access, email and more thanks to the built-in QWERTY keyboard and large 640 x 200 resolution screen.

It was in 1999 however, when the 3210 was born, that Nokia got the combination of price, size and features right for the mass market. The predecessor to the 3310, it featured usable SMS messaging, the beloved game Snake, and was the first affordable mobile phone to come to market with a fully internal antenna.

The success of the 3210 led Nokia to create the device that gets phone lovers the world over misty eyed: the 3310. This sleek, compact phone had all the features of the 3210, but in a smaller and lighter frame (133g vs 153g), many customisation options thanks to swappable front and rear panels, along with many other improvements to the internals and software.

It was the out-right resilience of this iconic handset that today puts it in the mobile phone hall of fame, that and the fact that it sold over 126 million units since its launch September 1st 2000.

The specifications

Measuring 113 × 48 × 22 mm and weighing in at 133g, the Nokia 3310 wasn't the lightest phone around, but became well-known for feeling distinctly solid, while its smooth lines were afforded by using internal aerials rather than pointy external alternatives.

Though the display might not look much next to pixel-popping quad HD screens on today's phones, the green-lit 84 x 48 pixel monochrome display was easily readable in bright light and had just enough detail to allow Nokia to add some character to the phone's UI and host playable games.

The top edge of the phone packed a wide power button, while the menu navigation is done through the up/down arrow keys, and menu selections chosen with the blue menu button.

The 'c' button acted as a 'back', 'undo' and 'delete' key, and the keypad always felt responsive - and could be easily cleaned if it didn't thanks to the removable facia.

Dual band 900/1800MHz support meant it would work on any European network, and though the 900mAh NiMH battery had an official standby time of 260 hours, most users of the 3310 will attest that it seemed to last almost infinitely between charges.

Alongside these ample specifications, a SIM-limited phonebook of 250 contacts, T9 predictive text input, 35 pre-loaded ringtones (and 7 slots for your own compositions) as well as a clock, stopwatch, timer, calculator and currency converter were all the 'smart' features you could ever want, or need, at that time.

The Price

Though it may not sound so incredibly cheap next to today's bumper selection of budget smartphones, the 3310 launched at £129.99 on a pay-as-you-go contract through the likes of Orange (now part of EE), Cellnet (BT's O2 predecessor) and One2One (which later became T-Mobile).

Alternatively Vodafone would let you pick one up for just £29.99 with a 12 month contract (honestly, they used to exist).

By the end of the 3310's popularity in late 2003, it was retailing for less than £45 in the new Tesco Mobile supermarket displays, and later went on to become a refurbished phone of choice to be distributed to the third world very cheaply.

The competitors and the successors

The Competitors

Motorola V8088: For those looking for a compact alternative to the 3310, Motorola's V8088 was the one. It featured voice dialling, WAP web browsing and came in 4 awesome colours. On top of that, you could even set a screensaver to preserve the pixels on the 96 x 64 resolution screen. Futuristic.

Ericsson T29: The T29 came along as an update to the popular T28 flip-phone, with an improved greyscale screen and an early version of WAP internet access. You could also answer the phone by flipping open the keyboard cover, which was incredibly cool.

Sagem MC920: Those on the Vodafone network in 2000 were heavily pushed toward the MC920, by French mobile phone company Sagem. They touted loud speaker phone and vibrating ringer as its major features, but the external aerial made it look considerably 'past it' compared to the 3310.

Nokia 8850: If you were a business bod with plenty of money, you would have probably chosen the 8890 over the 3310. Its chrome accents and sliding keyboard cover were very stylish for their time, and it was also smaller and much lighter than the 3310 'brick'.

Sharp J-SH04: Meanwhile in Japan, Sharp released the 'J-Phone', the first ever camera-phone with a colour screen and a 0.1MP sensor. The Sha-Mail infrastructure allowed for the first ever type of picture messaging. It was way ahead of anything Europe or America had seen.

The successors & Nokia's demise

After the obvious success of the 3310 across Europe, it went on to spawn many other siblings. These included the improved 3315 which had a blue LCD and keypad backlight, became popular throughout Asia. The 3390 and 3395 were launched as alternatives for Northern America, whilst Australia got the 3315.

In 2001 the 3330 and 3350 models brought with them WAP internet access, allowing you to download Java applets (mostly games) along with memory for a further 100 phonebook entries on the phone itself.

By 2005 Nokia had launched true 3G smartphones such as the Nokia N80 which ran on the Symbian-based S60 software, and for the time featured a really usable 3MP camera and a full colour screen.

In December of 2008, Symbian had already started to reach its peak and with the launch of the full keyboard-toting touchscreen N97 and candybar-style Nokia 5235 a year later, next to the iPhone and early Android handsets, the operating system was really starting to show its age.

The final swansong of Symbian came in early 2012 with a 41MP camera onboard in the form of the 808 PureView, which to this day is regarded as having one of the best smartphone snappers around.

2011 saw Microsoft launch its first modern smartphone OS in the form of Windows Phone 7, which Nokia was keen to jump aboard, launching the Lumia 710 and 800 models at the Nokia World Conference in late October that year.

Many more Lumia models launched over the following two years, but with Windows Phone never quite gaining traction alongside meteoric Android and iPhone sales, on September 3 2013 it was announced that Microsoft intended to acquire Nokia's mobile business for a deal totalling over US$7bn.

After rumours of co-branded phones fizzled out, Microsoft announced in October 2014 that they had decided to phase out the Nokia branding entirely, with future Lumia models to exclusively bear the Microsoft name and Windows Phone logos.

Longing for the good ol' days

The Nokia 3310 was truly a giant of its time. If you didn't know someone who owned one, frankly I'd wager you were either living on the moon, or in the deepest darkest depths of Antarctica.

It was the 3310, and its predecessor that brought a truly user-friendly, notoriously robust and affordable mobile phone to users the world over, and arguably was solely responsible for the massive popularisation in SMS messaging amongst teenagers and young adults in the early 2000s.

Without the 3310 where would we be today? Would our iPhones have pointy external antennas? Would the mobile accessory market be where it is today without Xpress-on covers? Would we be crushing candy on a daily basis without the genius of Snake?

If you've still got one of these glorious handsets tucked away in a drawer somewhere (or you gave it to your mum who is still using it), don't throw it away. You never know when you might need a phone that will survive the apocalypse. If that doesn't happen, it makes a great hammer, projectile or even body armour.