Motorola StarTAC (1996)

The StarTAC was the first mobile phone to establish that design matters as much as functionality, leading to today's profusion of stylish cell phones--most notably the Motorola Razr (#12). No phone of its era was more portable than the StarTAC: You could clip the 3.1-ounce unit to your belt and go anywhere, which made carrying a cell phone a lot more appealing. The StarTAC let you plug in a second battery to extend your talk time, and was the first phone to sport the vibrate option used in Motorola pagers (#13). Another plus: As the first clamshell-style phone, it looked a little like the communicators from Star Trek. Beam us up, Scotty. Photo courtesy of the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center and Prismark Partners.