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h, the classic flip phone that
everyone owned in 1996. No,
hang on, what’s this abomination?
The Motorola Razr, with that
satisfying ‘SNAP’ when it closed, remains
forever lodged in the public consciousness.
But it was no pioneer when it rocked up in
2004, eight years behind Motorola’s own
StarTAC. And although the older phone might
not be a looker to modern eyes, in 1996 it was
revolutionary. It was practically wafer-thin
(19mm), weighed less than half an iPhone 11,
and had the added advantage of looking like
a Star Trek communicator.I’m not convinced that is a bonus. So why
was the StarTAC so good, then?
Now and again, a piece of new tech instantly
makes everything that came before it look
a bit rubbish – like when Apple hacked the
keyboard off mobiles with the iPhone. Before
the StarTAC, phones were mostly brick-like
monstrosities, not svelte slices of must-have
gadgetry. Motorola itself started the revolution
with its compact (for the day) MicroTAC, but
the StarTAC was the model that blazed into
the future. For a start, you could fold the thing
in half and shove it in a pocket – without it
then pulling down your trousers.Sure, it was lightweight and it folded in half.
But what else could it do?
The StarTAC came out in 1996. Back then, we
were still five years away from the Game Boy
Advance and people were cooing over the
Nokia 9000 Communicator – which was
chunky enough to bean someone with.
And yet, along with making calls, the StarTAC
could receive SMS texts and vibrate rather
than ring if you needed to be discreet. We
remember it here because it was influential.
And if you question that, just think how many
smartphone makers are currently trying to
make their phones fold in half.
[^ WordsC
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ig^Grannell^ ]RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES 1996Motorola startac
A
Kick out
the clams
Motorola reportedly sold
60 million StarTAC phones. In
2010, French company Lekki
reissued the phone in bright
yellow. Stuff is willing to
bet they didn’t sell
60 million.