BARCELONA // Before the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy, there was the Nokia 3310. It wasn’t smart, but it was virtually indestructible and the battery lasted for ever – and now it’s back.
The revamped version will be sold by the Finnish company HMD Global, who launched it on Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The original 3310 was the first mass-market mobile phone, with 126 million sold from its launch in September 2000 until it was discontinued in 2005. The new version will cost less than Dh200, and HMD believe it will fly off the shelves when it goes on sale this spring.
“It’s almost like a digital detox or a holiday phone,” said HMD’s chief executive Arto Nummela. “If you want to switch off to an extent but you still need to have a lifeline, it’s a brilliant solution.
“Why wouldn’t you buy it like candy? If you see it hanging on the shelf at the checkout, you’d just buy it as an accessory.”
The 3310 has limited 2.5G connectivity, which means slow data speeds, and it uses Nokia’s S30+ operating system, so there are very few apps compared with Android or iOS. The big advantage is battery life. HMD promise 22 hours of talk time and a month on standby.
For nostalgia fans, it even comes loaded with an updated version of Snake, the classic mobile phone game.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
