Seeking old school GSM phone

[gunterm]

Ideally I'd like to have one of those old basic Nokia candybar phones with the stubby antenna, but I can't figure out which models work in the USA.

Any other GSM candybar phones with stubbys or extendables? I know this seems like a weird request, but I like the look of those phones

[gunterm]

No one? I must be asking in the wrong forum.

[alpinestars]

Haha, I was hoping for an answer too.

[Ian Brantford]

If you just want an awesome phone but aren't hung up on the antenna, try the Nokia 8801.

The problem with shopping for an old phone with an external antenna is that they often broke. There might be some sitting in a drawer somewhere, just waiting for a replacement battery. Try craigslist.com or kijiji.com to get people's memories working.

[Fafne]

I managed to buy me a three Ericsson phones
T28, R320, and a R380.
They are all from early 1999-2000.
The T28 and the R320 can switch battery with each other. all three have interchangeable external antennas (With the Ericsson T28 came both a long and a short antenna).

The R380 is Ericssons first Smart phone but hands on heart an ordinary low-cost dumb phone has more features than the R380.
Batteries are still available and having no problem with modern SIM-cards with these oldies.

If you looking for an Antique Ericsson phone you should look for mobiles that has the "World" or "m" at the end of the model number (They still won't work with a 800/850 band provider, as they only cover the 1900 band).

You will have better luck with SonyEricsson phones, Checking for Quad-band or phones with an "a" (a=America)
after it's model number (ie. SonyEricsson J20a Hazel). Stay away from J20i(i=International/Europe) and J20c (c=China).

A great but discontinued, old school phone is SE T280a slim and great but lacks external antenna.

[howard]

Oh wow, the R380. I remember that phone. I never actually tried one but it had a flip down keypad that exposed more of the screen right?

Another old smartphone that you should try to locate is a Magcomm

[gunterm]

By way of looking at the Ericsson phones I discovered the Nokia 5190, which appears to work here in NA. Although only on the 1900 band, it should work with both GSM networks here. Does AT&T and tmobile have service on the 800/850 bands anyway?

[howard]

Oh nice! The 5190 was my first GSM phone. I still have one though I need a new battery.

As for GSM on 1900Mhz I'm not sure.

Have you looked at the 6190, 7190 and 8890? Those are all contemporaries of the 5190.

[gunterm]

By the looks of replies in other threads, the 5190s and similar old phones won't work with the new SIMs, however on the plus side there are tri mode CDMA ones that will still work with pageplus or Verizon. I assume this is true for even tmobile sims?

[cmstlist]

Does AT&T and tmobile have service on the 800/850 bands anyway?

T-Mobile doesn't own any 850 except in one tiny area I believe. So all their GSM is 1900. But they're farming lots of that off for HSPA, so you might start to lose compatible cell sites.

AT&T uses a mix of 850/1900 depending on how much of which they own in each geographical area.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using HowardForums

[hertz088]

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

[howard]

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

Is there such a thing as a DynaTac with GSM that works here in North America?

[hertz088]

Is there such a thing as a DynaTac with GSM that works here in North America?

possibly

per Wiki :
"The International series, however, will still work, but only on GSM 900 cells. "

its a cool phone tho
cost like 4g's back in the day

[cmstlist]

possibly

per Wiki :
"The International series, however, will still work, but only on GSM 900 cells. "

its a cool phone tho
cost like 4g's back in the day

There is no such thing as a GSM 900 cell signal in North America.

[gunterm]

So has anyone with a modern SIM tried it in one of those old nokias?