Top 10 Most Popular Nokia Phones of All Time

Nokia Lumia 920 gained fame as a smartphone developed by Nokia running Windows Phone 8. It was announced on September 5, 2012, and first released on November 2, 2012. The device features a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait processor, a 4.5" IPS TFT LCD display, and a highly responsive capacitive touchscreen covered by Gorilla Glass. The phone includes a PureView 8.7 megapixel camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), marking it as the first smartphone to implement this technology. It also supports Qi wireless charging. The phone has 32GB of internal storage but no expandable memory.

Lumia 920 was met with mostly positive reviews upon release. Many critics considered it the first Windows Phone 8 device that could truly compete with Android and iOS in terms of hardware, boasting high-end specifications, Nokia's PureView camera, and unique features like wireless charging. It was frequently listed as a top smartphone of the time, often compared to heavyweights from Apple and Samsung.

This was the first time a Windows Phone device was considered powerful and impressive enough to qualify as a truly high-end flagship. Features like the ultra-sensitive capacitive screen and wireless charging were later adopted by premium Android phones. Lumia 920 went on to win 12 awards.

When Nokia unveiled the N95 at the Open Studio event in New York in September 2006, the company had already reached a global market share of 35%. The N95, part of the Nseries family, was considered the pinnacle of Nokia's mobile journey, launching just months before Apple announced the iPhone. In its press release, Nokia described the N95 as an all-in-one multimedia computer. Beyond the traditional numeric keypad found on other sliding phones at the time, when you slid the phone the opposite way, a set of multimedia keys would emerge.

Music and videos could easily be controlled, and the multimedia mode naturally oriented the phone horizontally, making it perfect for watching video on its 2.6-inch QVGA screen with 16 million colors, enhanced by its built-in stereo speakers. The N95 also included a special cable in the box to connect to the mm headphone jack and could output composite video for connecting to a TV, allowing users to view images or videos. Additionally, the N95 supported document editing on a larger screen. A standout feature was its integrated GPS, located beneath the '0' key on the keypad. To use the GPS, users had to slide open the keypad and avoid blocking it with their hands.

Nokia N91 is a smartphone developed by Nokia as part of their Nseries mobile line. It was announced on April 27, 2005, alongside the N70 and N90 as the first three Nseries devices. The N91 ran on the Symbian S60 Version 3 platform (the first to run on Symbian 9.1). It was also the first phone to feature a 4GB hard drive, capable of storing up to 3,000 songs (with an 8GB version released later). The N91 focused heavily on enhancing music functionality, with dedicated music playback keys on the front that slid open to reveal the keypad. The phone also featured a standard mm headphone jack and was seen as a major challenger to Apple's iPod dominance. The N91's design was made of stainless steel with a matte finish.

Despite becoming one of the most anticipated phones of 2005, its release was delayed multiple times. Originally expected to ship in late 2005, it was delayed to 2006. In February 2006, the release was postponed again due to software issues, pushing it further into the second quarter. The N91 was finally released to consumers in April 2006, a full year after its announcement. However, it won awards for 'Most Creative Product' and 'Most Advanced Technology' in recognition of its truly multimedia music experience, paired with the capabilities of a premium smartphone.

N-Gage is known as a smartphone that combined the features of a mobile phone with a handheld gaming system, developed by Nokia. It was officially announced on November 4, 2002, and released on October 7, 2003. The Nokia N-Gage ran on the Series 60 platform with Symbian v6.1. N-Gage aimed to attract gamers away from the Game Boy Advance by adding phone functionality, but it struggled, partly due to its poorly designed buttons that were not ideal for gaming. The N-Gage was initially described as resembling a taco, which led to the mocking nickname 'taco phone.'

In 2004, Nokia introduced the N-Gage QD, a redesigned version of the original N-Gage 'Classic,' addressing the widely criticized design flaws. However, the new model failed to make an impact, selling only 2 million units over two years. Both the N-Gage and its QD version failed commercially, unable to challenge their rival, Nintendo. Production of the N-Gage ended in February 2006, with Nokia shifting its gaming capabilities to selected Series 60 smartphones. The platform was later rebranded as N-Gage 2.0 in 2007. Despite its commercial failure, the N-Gage remains one of Nokia's most beloved models from that era!

Nokia 9000 Communicator is recognized as the first device in Nokia's Communicator line, unveiled at the CeBIT event in 1996 and officially released on August 15, 1996. This large and heavy phone, weighing 397 grams, was still one of the most powerful mobile devices of its time. It featured a 24 MHz Intel i386 CPU, with 8MB of memory split into 4MB for applications, 2MB for program memory, and 2MB for user data. The operating system was PEN/GEOS 3.0.

The Communicator was one of the earliest smartphones to hit the market, only preceded by the IBM Simon in 1994 and the HP OmniGo 700LX, a DOS-based handheld computer with an integrated stand for the Nokia 2110 mobile phone, which debuted in late 1995. The Communicator was an advanced device, capable of sending and receiving emails and faxes via a 9.6 kbit/s GSM modem, as well as browsing the web and running business applications. It featured a clamshell design that opened to reveal a monochrome LCD screen with a 640 × 200 resolution, along with a full QWERTY keyboard, much like a Psion PDA. Upon its release, the device was priced at £1,000 in the UK, equivalent to £2,000 in 2021.

Nokia 1100 (along with closely related variants such as Nokia 1101 and Nokia 1108) is a basic GSM mobile phone produced by Nokia. Over 250 million units of the 1100 have been sold since its launch in late 2003, making it the best-selling mobile phone in the world and the best-selling consumer electronics device at the time. The model was announced on August 27, 2003, and production ceased in September 2009. The first billionth Nokia device sold was the Nokia 1100, purchased in Nigeria in 2005.

The Nokia 1100 gained immense popularity, despite being released at a time when more advanced devices had already entered the market. It was targeted at developing countries and users who did not require advanced features beyond making calls and sending SMS text messages, alarms, reminders, etc. The Nokia 1100 was the company’s most affordable mobile phone at the time of its release, making it ideal for the developing world.

The features of the Nokia 1100 were similar to the 5110/3210/3310 models, which were among the most popular mobile phones of their time before handheld devices incorporated new features such as cameras, polyphonic ringtones, and color screens. The Nokia 1100’s casing was designed at the Nokia Design Center in California and was patented by American-born Bulgarian designer Dimitri Mehandjiysky in the U.S.

Nokia 6600 is a smartphone launched by Nokia on June 16, 2003, with a retail price of around 600 euros when it was released in October 2003. It was a premium model in Nokia's Classic Enterprise 6xxx series. At its launch, the Nokia 6600 was the most advanced device Nokia had ever produced, running on the Symbian 7.0s operating system (Series 60 2nd Edition). The phone also featured a VGA camera, music and video player, Bluetooth, and expandable memory via a memory card, marking it as the second device without support for communications (after the Nokia 3650).

Nokia 6600 remains in use in various parts of the world and has proven to be a durable product. Many users consider it a trend-setting phone, representing a significant milestone for its maker. The model was designed to replace the popular Nokia 6310i, a favorite among business users in Nokia’s lineup. It should not be confused with later models like the Nokia 6600 fold, Nokia 6600 slide, and Nokia 6600i, which share some similarities but are distinct. A variant of the Nokia 6600 was released in the United States as the Nokia 6620. Over its lifetime, the Nokia 6600 sold 150 million units, making it one of the most successful phones of its era.