Retro 5|10: December 2004 and 2009

11th December 2014

December is usually a quiet month as manufacturers concentrate on shipping already-announced products to the shops in time for Christmas, but there were a handful of announcements five and ten years ago.

December 2004

Ten years ago, Sharp was leading the pack when it came to screen and camera resolution, but most devices were exclusive to Vodafone. The Sharp TM200 was only the second two-megapixel camera on the UK market, and the other one was the Sharp 902. Despite this, Sharp didn't really capture the public imagination, which seemed to be a curse facing the Japanese mobile manufacturers.

Another Japanese handset this month was the Sanyo S750, a capable enough device but in a slabby and unattractive package which must have lacked shelf appeal in the shops. Sanyo didn't stick around in the market for long.

Motorola on the other hand kept pumping out variations of the same clamshell, and the Motorola V330 was yet another example of this. Despite a lack of imagination, Motorola sold quite a lot of these attractive but somewhat unfriendly devices.

December 2009

The original Nokia 6700 Classic was a tasteful feature phone.. until Nokia covered it in some sort of yellow metal and called in the Nokia 6700 Classic Gold Edition. It was either a must-have fashion accessory or deeply tacky, depending on your point of view. We will let you make your own mind up.

Rather less garish was the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition which was a GPS-equipped Series 40 feature phone, bringing budget satnav capabilities at just over €100. Of course, it was never going to be as easy to use as a dedicated navigation device or modern smartphone.

Two phones that attempted to be more environmentally friendly than average, the Sony Ericsson Elm and Hazel came with reduced packaging and a higher level of recycled plastics, but they didn't really address all the problems and met with a cool reception from consumers.