Engaging with Communications

Motorola 8500X

Released in 1987

Network = TACS

Weight = 730 g

Dimensions = 270mm x 40mm x 85mm

Battery Life = 60 mins talk time and 780 mins standby

In the USA, Motorola revolutionised the design of the mobile phone with their Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage (DynaTAC) 8000X range. Introduced in 1983, the Motorola 8000X was the culmination of 15 years of research by Dr Martin Cooper and Rudy Krolopp and it established the mobile as a genuinely hand-held and portable device. Miniaturisation had come at a price though with talk time reduced to 30 minutes and 8 hours standby time. Its price tag of some £2,500 also placed it out of reach of the average person and so it became synonymous with the yuppie in the UK and is also affectionately known as the brick phone. However, more than any other phone design, the Motorola 8000 has come to epitomise the mobile of the 1980s. The Motorola 8000X was available in three colour schemes: dark grey, tan and grey, or tan and white.

The Motorola 8500X shown here was introduced in 1987 and became extremely popular in Europe. The screen displayed up to 7 digits of a telephone number and included an In Use indicator to show that a call was in progress, No Svc to show that you were out of network range and Roam to signify that your mobile was trying to connect to a different network. In addition to the standard 12 key keypad 9 keys provided access to special functions. These included RCL used to recall numbers from memory, CLR to erase the last digit entered, SND to initiate a call, STO to store numbers in memory, FCN to access secondary functions, END to terminate a telephone call, PWR to turn the mobile on and off, NAME to store and recall alphanumeric names from memory and VOL for adjusting the volume. In total 99 telephone numbers and associated names could be stored in the address book memory. A range of timers were included for measuring the duration of calls and the signal strength could be displayed by pressing the FCN key twice.