The first mobile I was aware of was a house brick sized jobbie used by an outdoor clerk from one of the big London legal firms who visited the Court Service office I was working in everyday with forms, cheques to pay in etc. He was still using it long after the much smaller digital handsets came in.
The first of my own was a Motorola MR20 obtained in June 1996 when my father was dying in hospital in Leeds and I got fed up with using station callboxes etc. One year contract with Orange for £15/pcm including 15 bundled minutes with any unused being rolled over to the next month. Thereafter 30p/minute but sparing usage meant I rarely busted 15minutes and usually had some time rolled over.
MR20 had a Ni Cad battery which, after a year, wouldn't keep charge for a day. Replaced with an MR30 which was a massive improvement. Subsequently replace phone only when performance drops off. Couple of Nokias then Sony-Ericcson models before current smart phone.
Still got the same number from 1996.
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