Nokia Reportedly Relaunching 3310 Phone 17 Years After Debut

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Dubbed “the most reliable phone ever,” the Nokia 3310 is supposed to be a pretty big deal—but I don’t think I was old enough to even have a cell phone when it debuted, so I can’t really elaborate. An updated version is reportedly coming out for $60, but it is hard to say whether it can live up to its predecessor’s legendary status. Here is a related article on the classic phone’s charm.

…perhaps the most interesting of these devices, at least from the perspective of mobile enthusiasts, is not a smartphone at all, but a modern version of a classic workhorse of a feature phone, the Nokia 3310. Known primarily for its plentiful battery life and nearly indestructible build, the 3310 was released at the turn of the millennium as a replacement to the also-popular 3210. At just €59, this new incarnation seems priced competitively enough to win over nostalgic former owners for use as a second phone. HMD is holding its launch event on February 26 in Barcelona. It’s explicitly targeting the European marketplace, while distribution plans for other regions — namely North America — weren’t immediately known.
 
That's cool.

I'm guessing it's for developing markets? Or maybe for old people?

Who do they expect to buy it?

I never had one of those Nokia phones, but I saw them everywhere in the late 90's/early 2000's.

My first cell phone (in 1996? or was it 97?) was the Ericsson GA628. It came with three faceplates you could swap out, blue, (pictured) green, yellow and red. I guess they really liked primary colors.

232158_p1638_28-07-10.jpg
 
Every Nokia I ever owned was a giant hunk of shit. Horrible speakers and mics that made both parties sound like they were yelling in a wind tunnel.
The Motorola Star TAC > all other dumb phones.
 
$60?

I got a number of windows phones for that and less, full blown smartphone. They were hardy, took lots of abuse, very snappy for having bottom range HW, something I give major props to windows for doing. And would go 3 days on a single charge, the best one I had I forgot in my car (used as backup and gps) I came back from a trip and never took it out, opened my glove box 5 days later and remembered about it, hit the power button....IT WAS STILL ON!
 
I had one of these way back. Had an extended battery in it that would hold a charge for a few weeks at a time. Sound quality was very good vs what was around at the time. (including that piece of crap Moto was selling... yes the StarTac wasn't all that great.) I repaired phones back then in my youth and I saw tons of those stupid motos with broken hinges and broken bat clips ect. The nokias where darn near unkillable.

Honestly if all you want to do is make phone calls and text message. An updated 3310 would be pretty sweet. Charge it once a week and get used to using T9 again. In those days I could msg using T9 faster then most people can text pecking at the on screen keyboards today. Heck I could even do it with out looking at the screen, and it didn't matter if the sun was blazing ect. For the price I would be tempted to pick one up.
 
Domingo said:
Every Nokia I ever owned was a giant hunk of shit. Horrible speakers and mics that made both parties sound like they were yelling in a wind tunnel.
The Motorola Star TAC > all other dumb phones.
Click to expand...

I don't recall ever having a complaint about any of my dumb phones, but I never owned a Nokia.

I started out with that Ericsson Ga628 above, then I had two generic flip phones, I can't remember what they were. Maybe they were LG's? Then I picked up a first gen Motorola Razr about a year after they first launched, once the price dropped to something more reasonable. The price was insane and apple-like at the initial launch. I used that until the first gen iPhone launched in 2007.

I wasn't going to buy the first gen iPhone. I thought it was cool, but WAY too expensive, but then my girlfriend at the time (now ex-wife) decided she had to have it and bought one. Now I couldn't not have one, so I bought one too. About a year later I upgraded to the iPhone 3g, and then two years after that, the iPhone 4, but when my contract was coming to its end I was getting really tired of AT&T, dropped calls, and the locked down Apple ecosystem, so I switched to Verizon and got a Galaxy S3. Later upgraded to an LG G2, and after that a Droid Turbo. Briefly used a Asus Zenfone 2 as a cheap burner phone while traveling in Brazil, then back to the Droid Turbo when I got home.

At this point I was getting tired of Verizon and their shit, so I ate my ETF, bought a Nexus 5x, and signed up for Project Fi. Upgraded to a Google Pixel phone on launch, and have been very happy.
 
Domingo said:
Every Nokia I ever owned was a giant hunk of shit. Horrible speakers and mics that made both parties sound like they were yelling in a wind tunnel.
The Motorola Star TAC > all other dumb phones.
Click to expand...

My mother used the Motorola Star TAC as her business phone in the mid 1990s -- never had a problem in more than 8 years of constant usage, and could hold calls in the subway even when other phones would quickly lose their connection.
 
My first cell phone was from 2004 or 2005. I didn't even really want it, but it somehow came with a plan my mom hopped on when I was at college. It was an NEC and it looked like a slightly smaller "Zac Morris" phone. The call quality was actually pretty good on it, but it was huge. Plus, our calls were expensive as hell back then. Something like $1 a minute and we only had like a free hour of talk time for my whole family.
From there I went to a pair of Nokias. One was the 3310 above. The other was a small precursor to flip phones where the flip part was really just a cover for the keypad. Both were garbage. The microphone placement made both pick up too much ambient noise, especially if someone wasn't holding them right. Plus, the max volume for both was pretty low. Speakerphone wasn't really a thing back then so it was a shouting match if both parties were on one. I couldn't get away from Nokia fast enough. Luckily, both were free since you could renegotiate contracts yearly in those days.

I had a StarTAC for several years and loved it. It sounded just like a land line for both parties. I would have kept it until the age of the smart phone but I ended up moving to an area that didn't support non-network phones. I ended up replacing it with a Sony that looked a whole lot like a smart phone. Instead of flipping, you actually twisted it to open it. It was pretty awesome and it had a camera that was better than just about anything else on the market for a long time. Unfortunately it broke and AT&T just sent me a free Razr knockoff from LG to replace it. I kept that until the iPhone 3G came out.

Since then I've gone from the iPhone 3G to the 4 and 5. I then jumped ship and went to a Galaxy S5 Active and am now on a Moto X Pure. No clue what I'll go with next. Hopefully whatever it is only runs a vanilla'ish version of Android.
 
I had one of these when they came out and I can attest to their reliability and durability. not only was it dropped down numerous flights up stair but then...
one day I was fishing off a pier in a pond, dropped it into the pond, couldn't find it. life goes on. two weeks later I'm back there and theres a kid in there trying to find his rod. so I'm like hey, I dropped my phone, youre already in there want $5 to look for it? "hell ya!!" so he shuffled around the spot for about an hour then screams he found it and sure enough he did. so I take it home, rip it apart, clean it up as theres dirt everywhere and it starting to rust. let it dry for a couple days, put it back together and it worked! I used it until I upgraded during the xmas sales that year!
 
Poor little snowflakes will complain that its too heavy and wont fit in their ultra tight jeans pockets.

I was more a 3210 fan myself. Thats a truly solid phone.
 
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Unless I am missing something, price seems a bit high
 
i've got my old 3310 sitting right here on the desk :D What a brick! But a solid bit of gear for its time! However... i took way to long to retire it. The painful lack of memory for TXT's and inability to look at pictures really soured the last few years i used it (yes.. i mean i really took way to long to retire it).
 
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lol used to have one of these baby. tempted to get it just for the nostalgia haha. but this kind of phone are amazing for texting. as someone said above you can do it very fast even without looking at the phone at all.
 
Its the phone (or those like it) that you grab when disaster strikes.

Got my Nokia...I'm good for four weeks communication at least.

I keep a 6310i charged with a loaded PAYG SIM in it. Fuck smartphones when it all goes to shit.
 
I had that phone if not one extremely similar. It was my first cell phone. Never had an issue with it. Had a cool aftermarket case on the front. Some people could type on t9 like you wouldn't believe. It was truly a skill to behold.
 
It's definitely before my time. The Razr was during my time, but I was sporting one of them fancy Japanese ones. Docomo P901is, made by Panasonic. That thing was rugged and did all kinds of things that I couldn't use, since it was all in Japanese.
 
daglesj said:
Poor little snowflakes will complain that its too heavy and wont fit in their ultra tight jeans pockets.

I was more a 3210 fan myself. Thats a truly solid phone.
Click to expand...
Poor little snowflakes wouldn't buy this to begin with.
 
I rocked the Razor V3 for 3 1/2 years back when Altel was around. First thing Verizon did was screw me out of my unlimited text perk and jack my price up $30 dollars over the following months. of course this was 10 years ago but I'm still pissed lol.

I rock a custom rom'd Nexus 6 now with Pure 7.1 and looooooooooove it. Huge display, 64gb storage, faaaast, Google assistant, 4k video, wifi calling. tap to wake, stereo speakers, wireless charging, etc etcI have 4 cell numbers on one phone, main number, and 3 x voip numbers.
 
I had one of these phones in college. It worked well and you could drop kick the sucker with no damage.
 
Nostalgia? I've never been nostalgic over an old phone before. My first phone was an old green sony erricson, I can't even remember what the model number was but I remember using the little "joystick" on it to play some puzzle game on it's tiny little green lcd. It was a solid phone and I never had a problem with it, but I don't miss it one bit.

Games - Check

Toys - Check

Tv Shows/Movies - Check

Old cell phones that can do little more than make a call for $60 - Nope.


EDIT: It was like the Ericsson t86i but it had only one color, green. Like an old Gameboy screen.
 
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I wonder if they're targeting some sort of hipster clientele that's too cool for a smartphone or something. Those things don't even make calls as well as like 99% of smartphones and it's not like many people are going to take a step back to one thanks to how cell plans work.
 
Yea I personally just don't see a huge market for this. Maybe if they can get the carriers to sell them free with contract (seems anymore now if you want a non-smart phone it costs you more out of pocket up front) otherwise side by side, its advantages would be outweighed by its disadvantages. Maybe the target group is the same people that buy bluetooth rotary phones (even though they are too young to have ever actually used one) lol.

I think it is just a small cost project they are using to actually get headlines since they can't compete in the market anymore directly.Maybe they have something in the works but want to get their name out there again first. *shrugs*

I don't miss the small monochrome screens and T9 or having to scroll through phone lists with a button.
 
This doesn't surprise me at all. I don't believe they stopped manufacturing the little LCD's for them in all this time.

You can find the LCD's everywhere and they are supported on just about every piece of hobbyist electronics out there like Arduino.

Honestly, I would not mind having one of these as backup as long it was updated to use modern SIM cards, fully unlocked, could connect to all frequencies be it GSM or CDMA, and accepted a micro-usb charger. It would also need to do 3G voice in case carriers drop 2G.
 
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I had a Nokia similar to that but it was smaller, would actually fit in a pocket. 1998 maybe?

I've had cell phones since 1994 so all these old ones kind of look the same after a while. First one I bought myself was a Radio Shack phone but pretty sure it was a rebranded Nokia 638. $300 out the door and $50 bucks a month for 100 minutes of talk time with free long distance? Hell yeah sign me up. Don't go over that 100 minutes though or it goes up to like $3 a minute. I was a rock star back then because all my friends had terrible credit and couldn't get a phone. I rocked that phone until... 1998 when I got the Nokia on AT&T wireless through work I think. Was still $50 a month but work paid for it.

I saw some StarTac mentioned in this thread, my *then Girlfriend* now *the Mrs* bought one of those in 98 I think for like $500, but somehow got work to pay the bill. That was a pretty sexy little phone... until the RAZR came along. She went through 2 of those. I had a PEBL which was a smaller, rounded RAZR. Wow... flashbacks to 2003 there. Back then every year the phones were all different... now they're all the same..
 
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