Antoine Naaman is really into Nokia phones. And we mean really into Nokia phones.

Sure, he’s worked for Nokia in both Beirut and here at Microsoft Silicon Valley. But, in his free time, he also writes a personal blog Allaboutnokia.com and is the proud owner of one of the largest individual collections of classic and contemporary Nokia handsets.

Born in France and raised in Lebanon, Antoine’s interest in phones started when he was just ten years old. And the advent of Nokia’s sleek, smaller handsets in the late ‘90s took his passion to the next level.

“Whenever I saw an adult with a new type of phone I would always ask to hold it and learn about its functionality,” he remembers. “I dreamt that one day I would have my own phone company. When I came to understand how hard it would be to actually start a new phone company, I set my sights on working for the company I most admired: Nokia.”

At the age of 14, Antoine got his first phone, a Nokia 3210. He says, “It was so cool and everyone thought that the internal antenna was like ‘sorcery.’”

He read all of the new mobile reviews and became a go-to resource for his friends whenever they needed to purchase a new phone. As few ring tones were available for download in those days, he also became an expert at creating ring tones using the phone’s keypad. Friends would ask Antoine to re-create their favorite songs on their phones and he was soon known as “The Phone Guy.”

He went as far as keeping his phone inside of a hollowed-out schoolbook to get around the ban on mobile devices in the classroom.

Antoine studied Computer Science at university and then went to work for T3 magazine as the editor-in-chief for its Middle East circulation. During this period, he got access to all sorts of new phones and started to build out his collection. He says, “As the product cycle got shorter, I also upgraded my own phone every six months. But I made sure to keep my old phones too.”

Through this role, he met contacts at Nokia and often asked them about job openings. In 2010, his dream came true when Nokia offered him a product marketing manager position covering much of the Middle East.

From there, Antoine’s phone collection ballooned. He smiles, “Many of my phones are still in their boxes and have barely been used. When I see someone trying to recycle a rare phone, I say, ‘Wait a minute, could I have that?’”

After a couple of great years traveling all over the Middle East for Nokia, Antoine got the opportunity to move to Silicon Valley for the company. It was a huge step as he had been based in Beirut for most of his life. He says, “I couldn’t pass it up as Silicon Valley is heart of everything mobile. Being here and seeing everything launching first is really amazing.”

He explains, “And now it is an exciting time because we are streamlining the manufacturing and creating a better phone experience with hardware and software sitting under the same roof. Now we’re one Microsoft team and will continue to produce better products.”

And Antoine is not just drinking the Microsoft Kool-Aid. He says, “I use our devices as well as competitors’ phones on a daily basis. I like testing apps and different features on all platforms and compare them to ours. The reason why I love Windows Phone is because it is a unique OS – it is daring, different and introduced a completely new UI.”

He especially appreciates the tiles that continuously push information to him. “And I also love how all of my Microsoft devices are interconnected and back up my work to OneDrive,” he notes. “I can work on a presentation on computer, edit it further on my tablet, and even pick up my Lumia while on the move and continue right where I left off.”

As an employee, he enjoys the exposure to all of the brainpower at Microsoft Silicon Valley. “Just to know that on the 8th floor someone is working on Cortana, which I use on a daily basis, and knowing that someone in Palo Alto is working on Skype, which I also use on a daily basis, is inspirational,” he says.

As for his collection, it is now in the range of 150 phones. There may be a larger private collection somewhere out there, but we sure haven’t heard about it. To learn more about Antoine’s collection, check out his great photos on Instagram or read his updates on Twitter.

This article was originally posted on Microsoft Silicon Valley and reposted on AbsoluteGeeks.com