Nokia 1011 (1992)

While mobile phone technologies had been developed before this point, they were all quite limited, very expensive, or infamously unwieldy prototypes. The Nokia 1011 was the first time the world saw what a mobile phone really could be, and nothing else would be the same afterward.

It’s also notable for being the first mobile phone that could be used around the world, thanks to – you guessed it – GSM: the Global System for Mobile Communications, commonly thought of as “2G” and a technology that would be pivotal for cell phones moving forward.