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Nokia N95 8GB

GLOBAL – Nokia has never been one to be backwards in coming forward with new handsets, so picking my three favourites was a mammoth task. Musing on my hat-trick took me down memory lane, from the brick-like black and white Nokia 3330 to the modern day Nokia N900. However, neither of those made it onto my personal podium. Read on to find out which devices reside in my all-time top three.

Nokia 1100

I’ll start with a golden oldie, and my first ever mobile phone (and possibly everyone else’s), the Nokia 1100. This phone accompanied me through school and university, and it still works to this day. Bringing mobile phones to the masses, launched in 2003, the 1100 was the first Nokia that we all had to have. You could make calls, send messages and included a surprisingly handy flashlight that saved me a good few wasted hours trying to locate my keys. It did everything that I needed a phone to do and had Snake to boot.

Nokia N95 8GB

A decade on, including a stubborn year trying to get to grips with the Nokia 7373, brings me to my next choice, the mobile phone that does it all, the Nokia N95 8GB. This phone laughs in the face of “just making calls” and raised the bar just prior to the army of smartphones. The first glimpse of this phone had me hooked, decked out in black and festooned with features this remains my favourite Nokia phone ever. Inside its muscular frame lurks more gigabytes that I’ve ever managed to fill, a satnav that works, and both HSDPA and Wi-Fi. What did I do before browsing on the go? I still get my fix of news, Facebook and Twitter using my trusty N95.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

For my third and final choice I’ve picked a phone that often gets overlooked and lives in the shadow of many prolific Nseries devices. It’s the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. Admittedly it doesn’t come adorned with features, but what it can do is music. Really well and better than most standalone MP3 players. It’s swiftly become my indispensable portable music machine, and even manages to make my daily commute bearable. Who doesn’t want unlimited Comes with Music tracks blasting out tunes all day long? Small enough to fit in the skinniest of pockets, but big on sound quality and volume, this little muso earns a worthy third and final spot in my all-time top three Nokias.

Now to put them in order. I’ve already admitted that the Nokia N95 8GB is sitting pretty at number one, but the other two? The Nokia 1100 is my guilty secret and if someone took it away I may have to resort to calling on the services of a well known auction site to replace it. So, I’ll have to leave it at that – number one is the N95 8GB and in joint second place both the 1100 and the 5310 XpressMusic.

Would you replace your MP3 player with the 5310 XpressMusic? What’s your guilty Nokia secret? Let us know below.