If your first phone was an iPhone or a Samsung smartphone, chances are you haven’t heard of Nokia 3310 phone. But if you were a previous owner of the legendary Nokia 3310, or even any Nokia dumb phone for that matter, the resurrection of such phone at this hour will definitely bring back memories of those predictive text, ringtone and of course – the Snake.
Nokia had actually sold a whopping 126 million of its original 3310 phone since it was first introduced back in September, 2000. Before the iPhone, Nokia ruled the world the same way dinosaur walked the Earth. And just like the resurrection of the ancient Volkswagen Beetle, the layout of the new Nokia 3310 isn’t exactly the same as the original 3310.
Holding the new 3310 in your hand, however, is like bringing you back to the past where you faithfully used it to chat and text your girlfriend or boyfriend. The feeling is unmistakeably Nokia. It brings back Nokia’s tagline – “Connecting People“. There’s a rectangular D-pad in the middle rather than the up and down keys of its predecessor.
Known as the “brick”, the new 3310 is no longer as heavy as its predecessor. It’s a little smaller, lighter and thinner. But something remains the same even though it’s been almost 17 years since the 3310 first came out. Its 1,200-mAh battery removable battery lasts 31 days in standby time, or up to 22 hours of talk time. None of the smartphone today can beat this capability.
Unlike 17 years ago, the maker is no longer Nokia but HMD Global, a private equity-backed firm created explicitly to make new Nokia phones. The 3310 is the first model that HMD restores to its former glory as the company re-launched the phone as a “One More Thing” at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And unlike smartphone, the 3310 requires very little introduction.
HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela only needed to say 3 selling points – its battery lasts a month, it has Snake (equivalent to today’s Angry Bird), and it has the Nokia ringtone. He then disappeared. Still, the new 3310 isn’t a pure dumb phone. It has a very basic Opera web browser. Weighing less than three ounces, the new 3310 has a 2-megapixel camera.
It also has a 2.4-inch QVGA, 240×320 display screen, which is hilariously small and low-resolution when compares to today’s lowest-spec smartphone, but still a huge improvement over the original 3310 though. You might laugh at its 16MB (not GB) of storage space but it comes with a microSD card so that you can push up to 32GB, something that was non-existent 17 years ago.
Running Nokia’s Series 30+ software, an operating system for feature phones with colour screens, the 3310 has more colour option to choose from – glossy yellow and red colours, and matte grey and dark blue models. However, the 3310 has no Wi-Fi. You can still download limited basic apps and games, but unfortunately there’s no WhatsApp.
The new 3310 comes with FM radio and MP3 playback (39 hours of FM radio listening and 51 hours of MP3 playback). There’s one catch though. The 3310 only supports 2G networks so don’t expect to be downloading videos. Because countries like the US, Canada and Australia are shutting down the aging 2G networks; the 3310’s lifespan may be short.
But the real markets for Nokia 3310 are Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, India, and the Middle East, where 2G networks are still in wide use. But why do you need to waste money on a Nokia 3310, aside from bringing back those good old memories? This phone is a must to have if you live in a country where money, data, and battery life are precious commodities.
HMD is planning to make the new Nokia 3310 available in Q2 this year for €49 (US$52; £41; RM230). Because it’s cheap, 3310 is a good candidate as a burner phone. Before you laugh your head off, your boss might get this phone for you, especially if you’re a support staff who needs to be on 24-standby. With 3310, you have no excuse of being unreachable due to running out of battery juice.
If 3310 is too complicated for you, there’re 3 other Nokia smartphones – Nokia 3, 5 and 6. Costing US$150, Nokia 3 is a 5-inch smartphone made of aluminium and polycarbonate which comes with an 8-megapixel camera and a 720-pixel display. For $50 more, the Nokia 5 offers an all-aluminium body, a 13-megapixel camera and a 5.2-inch 720-pixel display.
At the top of the range is the $315 Nokia 6. An all-aluminium device with a 5.5-inch, 1080-pixel screen, the Nokia 6 is bundled with a 16-megapixel camera on the back. All three models – Nokia 3, 5 and 6 – run a clean, untouched version of Nougat, the latest version of Android, which HMD says will be true for all Nokia phones going forward.
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February 27th, 2017 by financetwitter
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