Nokia Brings Iconic 3310 Back from the Dead

Nokia has raised the dead — at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company announced that it would launch an updated refresh of its iconic Nokia 3310 phone, first released almost 17 years ago.

Features

The new 3310, although obviously a thoroughly nostalgic device for many consumers, has been updated for modern use. It’s both lighter and available in more colorful options. Despite that, it only features a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 2-megapixel camera, and a barebones Opera Mini browser that can handle some basic web surfing — but, on the other hand, the 3310 won’t have any GPS capabilities. It’ll feature a built-in MP3 player, which you can use to listen to music loaded onto an microSD card, as well as the ability to receive FM radio. And yes, before you ask, there’s even a modernized version of Snake.

Battery Life

One of the bigger selling points, of course, is its battery life — which is incredibly impressive when compared to today’s power-guzzling smartphones. The 3310 refresh can last 22 hours of active use, and nearly a month on standby. We can’t speak to the phone’s durability, due to its slightly different and modernized design, but if it’s anything like its original predecessor, it’ll probably be able to handle a drop better than, say, a Galaxy or an iPhone.

But Who Would Want It?

Though not a smartphone by any stretch of the imagination, the updated 3310 might hit all the right marks with the dumb phone niche. With its impressive battery life, the 3310 might make a good device for those in developing markets who don’t have consistent access to electricity. Similarly, it could function well as a temporary “burner” phone, or a secondary backup device for travelers. Other possible markets could be those who want to digitally detox, older users who only need to talk or text, or budget-minded consumers who might balk at the $700 price tag attached to a modern flagship. Though, ostensibly, the 3310 refresh could be a good starter phone for children, its lack of GPS would make it hard for parents to track down their kids if they are lost.

Still, as Bloomberg’s Leonid Bershidsky points out, the re-release of such an iconic device is likely little more than a marketing gimmick for HMD Global’s Nokia comeback. Indeed, over the weekend, press coverage of the 3310 nearly drowned out news of the three Android-based, Nokia-branded smartphones that were launched alongside the iconic refresh. Which is a shame. The 3310 refresh feels more like a novelty than not — it’s kind of ugly, doesn’t offer much functionality, and is pretty much guaranteed to elicit laughter if pulled out in public.

Though we might be nostalgic for the golden era of indestructible, feature-spare dumb phones, I think we take for granted how much value our smartphones have added to our lives. They’ve certainly changed the way we communicate, consume media and obtain information. And while they may have had some negative consequences, smartphones, in my opinion, have largely changed society for the better. If anything, the new 3310 might be a good indicator of just how far we’ve progressed in just 17 years.