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TACS mobile selection

Motorola 4500X

Image of a Motorola  4500X

Released in 1988

Network = TACS

Weight = 4200 g

Dimensions = 265mm x 120mm x 180mm

Battery Life = unknown

The Motorola 4500X transportable mobile phone became available in 1988 and was derived from earlier car phone designs. It was portable but weighing 4.2kg it took a strong arm to carry it any distance. Most of the weight came from the battery however, you were lucky to get more than one hour of talk time and the battery needed regular charging. This model is branded as British Telecom and had a red LED display, a standard 12 digit numeric keypad and 5 additional keys that provided PWR which turned the mobile on and off, END which was used to terminate calls, SND which initiated dialling once the telephone number had been entered, MUTE which turned the microphone off and FCN which, when used in combination with other keys, gave access to range of secondary functions such as call timers. On the side of the handset is a button for controlling the speaker and ringer volume.