The remake of Nokia’s 3310 is currently topping newsfeeds as people reminisce over a time when mobile phones could do little more than call and text; batteries would stay charged for days on end; and the prospect of dropping our phone didn’t fill us with fear.
For those of us who ride bikes there’s another side to the story though and that’s the fact Nokia may have just built the perfect rider’s phone.
The bare bones functionality, astonishing durability and enduring battery lives of phones like the original Nokia 3310 made them perfect for stowing into saddlebags or riding packs.
That’s in harsh contrast to today’s phones, which without even dipping into data heavy applications can struggle to pull through a single day without being connected to the mains.
Then there’s the durability of modern smartphones, with a single drop often being enough to shatter the fragile touchscreen devices. In comparison, the original 3310 was almost comically strong and built itself a bombproof reputation that’s still the subject of a many an internet meme.
Expected to retail for just £42, the 3310 is a fraction of the cost of Nokia’s original 3310 and remains cheaper than many of the fancy cases available for today’s smartphones.
HMD, the company behind the new Nokia branded device promises 22 hours of talk time or an entire month of standby time (!) from a single charge of the new 3310.
If those claims are correct then that means you can talk on the new 3310 for almost 10 times as long as the original, while the new phone’s standby time is nearly triple that of its predecessor.
Running Nokia’s Series 30 operating system, the new handset takes a huge step over the original phone in terms of spec. There’s now a colour screen, a four-way direction pad for easier navigation as well as Bluetooth connectivity. A 3.5mm headphone jack means you’ll even be able to listen to music fed in through a microSD card too.
You won’t be able to access WiFi networks, but data contracts can see the new 3310 shuffle through web pages on its in-built Opera web browser, though speeds will be limited to 2.5G.
Those who aren’t quite ready to ditch social media will find relief in forthcoming support from Facebook and Twitter apps.
Another feature the original never possessed is the 2MP camera built into the back of the new 3310, which should provide functional rather than fancy snaps. Though that’s probably all you’d want considering the low resolution 240 x 320 pixel screen on the other side.
In all honesty, there have been plenty of phones that’ll do what this Nokia does (and more) for less cash, but the resurgence of this popular model name has managed to bring the idea that a dumb phone could well be what plenty of us are after.
Can you see yourself dropping your 4G touchscreen GPS in favour of one of these or perhaps you’re a long-term dumb phone user who considers yourself ahead of the curve? Let us know in the comment box below.
P.S. Yes, it still has Snake.
