The MicroTAC, released by Motorola on April 25, 1989, was the smallest and lightest phone available at the time.

The badge on the front flip had a raised metallic Motorola logo, and "Micro T.A.C" in small blue letters above the display.

A numerically organized menu allowed the user to select options for phone operations.

In addition to the standard 12-button keypad, the MicroTAC had buttons for Power, Function, Name/Menu, End, Send, Clear, Store, and Recall.

[3] Several variants of the 9800X existed, most notably models that featured a 10-character alpha-numeric liquid crystal display (LCD), which had a green backlight.

These uncommon variants were made for the Norwegian Storno and Italian SIP networks in the early 1990s.

They kept the "MicroTAC" Blue logo on the screen, the same black housing, but had different metallic badges in addition to the LCD.

The original models can be distinguished by their elongated antenna base, white-translucent keys and gray keypad background.

Light or dark gray in color, the phone featured a green or orange 7-character segment LED display.

Early DPCs of the 9800X-era featured the elongated antenna base, round-top side grips, and white-on-gray keypad.

The phones shipped with either a green backlit single-line LCD or a red dot matrix LED display.

1994 saw the introduction of the MicroTAC Elite and the "International" series, the then smallest and light-weight model available at the time.

There were also separate LED indicator meters for signal strength and battery, as well as a Menu Icon Display.

The phone's software offered advanced menu features, and each category, when accessed, was indicated with green icons at the bottom of the display.

The success of their analogue microTAC handset blinded Motorola to the implications of the emerging GSM standard.

The Select models had large-format backlit LCDs, similar to those found on the MicroTAC 3000e and A725, which operated on CDMA networks.

A more expensive model, the MicroTAC DPC 650E received the StarTAC 3000's 10-character LED display with separate battery and signal meters.

However, due to its large size and weight, many owners of the phone upgraded to smaller models like the StarTAC.

[10] It offered unrecoverable, encrypted communication and was purpose-built in 1998 for the Secretary of State (then Madeleine Albright) and other officials.

The fate of these units is currently unknown; presumably most of them would have been destroyed for security reasons but at least one example survives as a museum exhibit.

The TeleTAC and Flare phones used the same core body, antenna, screen, keypad, and batteries, but lacked the flip-lid cover.

This Profile 300e phone was also called Metro1, the model on the sticker was S7956A and featured a 2.5 mm headset jack.