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Photos: UK's favourite mobile phone named - give us an 'i'...

Brits vote for their top 10 iconic mobiles of the last quarter century
By Natasha Lomas, Contributor
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1 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Brits vote for their top 10 iconic mobiles of the last quarter century

Apple iPhone The iPhone may be a relative newcomer to the world of mobile - launched in 2007 - but the shiny touchscreen slice of hardware has come top of a poll of the nation's favourite mobile devices of the last 25 years.

The University of Salford polled 2,000 Brits to ask them to vote on the most iconic mobile, and Apple's modern classic - designed by Brit Jonathan Ive - grabbed the largest share of hearts and minds, with 13.5 per cent of the vote.

"The Apple iPhone is a design classic and has truly transformed the design of mobile phones," said professor Nigel Linge, head of the Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research department at The University of Salford.

"Personally I'm nostalgic for the Motorola StarTAC, which was the world's first clamshell phone but it fell outside of our top 10, being in 12th place," he added in a statement.

So what other mobile devices have lodged in the nation's mind since the mid-1980s? Click through the following pages to see the best of the rest...

Photo credit: Apple

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2 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Nokia 3210 Second place in the iconic mobile poll goes to the Mighty Finn's humble 3210 with 8.5 per cent of the vote. Humble by today's flashy standards with its miniature monochrome screen.

The 3210 was released in the late 1990s and sold very well indeed - which probably explains how it earned its place in our hearts: via our pockets. With SMS and Snake as its most advanced features, an iPhone this was not. But it was a trusty voice and text machine for many mobile users.

Photo credit: Nokia

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3 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Nokia 6310 Almost as fondly lodged in the national psyche is another Nokia device - the 6310 - with 8.4 per cent of the vote, making it third in the poll.

The device launched a few years after the 3210 and shares its classic candybar styling.

Photo credit: Nokia

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Nokia 5100 range Nokia grabs fourth place with another candybar form-factor - the Nokia 5100 range garnered 7.8 per cent of the vote.

The striking devices had a rubberised and ruggedised casing with changeable coloured shells. They also boasted a colour display and an FM radio.

Photo credit: Nokia

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5 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Motorola Razr V3 A phone that everybody seemed to own gains fifth place in the poll, with 6.5 per cent of the vote.

The clamshell Razr was launched in 2005 and sold by the truck-load, shifting more than 50 million units in a year. And it went on selling and selling with various colour and name tweaks. Safe to say, Motorola has not yet managed to out-do the success of this design classic, and perhaps never will.

Photo credit: Chris Beaumont/CBS Interactive

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6 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

BlackBerry 8300 Curve RIM's BlackBerry 8300 Curve gains sixth place in the poll - with 5.7 per cent of the vote.

The curvaceous 8300 launched in the same year as Apple's iPhone and along with devices such as the BlackBerry Pearl was one of the first few BlackBerrys to be targeted squarely at consumers, rather than being designed solely as workhorse emailers for business users. As such it packed a camera, a colour screen and multimedia playback features.

Photo credit: BlackBerry

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7 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Motorola 8000 range It may be about as deep as the iPhone is wide - and plenty fatter too - but this blast from Motorola's past is remembered fondly. The 8000 range - aka DynaTAC devices - grab seventh place in the poll with 5.1 per cent of the vote.

The first DynaTAC device was the first mobile from Motorola to be sold commercially - all the way back in 1983.

Photo credit: Motorola

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8 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Nokia 9000 Another serious chunk of hardware that has won the nation's affections is the Nokia 9000 - aka the Nokia Communicator - gaining eighth place with five per cent of the vote.

While simply massive by today's mobile hardware standards, the 9000 was marketed as being "so small it fits in your jacket pocket". Launched in the mid-1990s, the chunky candybar form factor hinged open to reveal a screen and full Qwerty keyboard.

The 9000 can be seen in all its glory in the following unboxing video:

Screenshot: YouTube

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9 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Motorola MicroTAC Yet another retro hunk of hardware has wormed its way into the nations' affections. Moto's MicroTAC - on the market in the early 1990s - was a step on from the DynaTAC being the company's first flip phone. The stylish device gained 4.7 per cent of the vote.

Photo credit: floorsixtyfour via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence

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10 of 10 Natasha Lomas/ZDNET

Nokia 7110 Last but not least in the top 10 is another Nokia handset - the Finn's fifth in the list - which introduces a new form-factor: a spring-loaded slider door. The 7110 took 4.5 per cent of the vote.

The 7110 design classic was launched in 1999 as the follow up to Nokia's 8110 - aka the Matrix phone, which was used by Keano Reeves' character in the eponymous film.

Photo credit: Nokia

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