Nokia
8110

The Nokia 8110 (type NHE-6BX) was introduced in 1996 and was the company’s first slider phone. The ergonomically shaped sliding cover offered several benefits according to Nokia.  When ‘closed’ it protected the keypad but when extended, it allowed the 8110’s microphone to be placed in the optimum position in front of a user’s mouth. It quickly gained the nickname “the banana phone”. It featured a monochrome graphic LCD which was considered quite revolutionary at the time as it allowed a graphical interface, but more importantly, the display of Asian languages in addition to English. It also meant that the text size could be changed on the phone. Despite having a curved design, the circuit board was flat and was the same as the Nokia 3110 which was introduced in 1997. The phone was immortalised through a starring role in the first Matrix movie in 1999.  However the model used in the film was actually a modified version of the 8110 with a custom spring-loaded mechanism that was never offered on the commercial variant of the 8110 family. This feature was only available on the 7110, a product that was launched in the same year as the film. The 8110 had many of the same features as the Nokia 2110. It could also be used in conjunction with a mobile data card and was enhanced through the use of infrared adaptors that allowed a wireless connection between the phone and the PCMCIA card. One ongoing challenge was the risk of dust and dirt getting into the contact rail on the sliding mechanism. This sometimes resulted in the microphone not working. It was easily fixed by snapping off the slider, cleaning the rails and replacing it.