I probably wouldn’t be wrong if I said that everyone remembers the exact time when they had an encounter with the Nokia 3310. I sure do remember the time I saw one for the first time. It was spring 2001, and my good friend finally managed to get his hands on one of those groundbreaking GSM mobile phones. Everyone at that time were impressed by the design that the 3310 had, and they couldn’t believe how slick and elegant it was, with the most important thing at the time – it lacked an antenna!
Just as always when the tech is considered, what was once cutting edge before now it turns into something nostalgic, and that hasn’t changed in this case either. Thanks to the news that HMD Global is going to relaunch the Nokia 3310, (a successor to 3210) which is without a doubt one of the best phones ever produced, made us all eager to have it and in order to do that we will even more eagerly part ourselves with the new price tag of €59.
But this isn’t just because it is about the Nokia 3310, it is also because the market for “festival phones” (ones that won’t break when dropped, that are cheap, with a long-lasting battery and so on) is on a huge rise. The fact is that we have replaced those granulated and squarish screens for these HD ones now and that we replaced the SMS with instant messaging apps, but the fact is that a good phone is going to resist time successfully and a great one will most definitely make a comeback, eventually.
The Nokia 3310 had many other advantages beyond the obvious – its reliability, its ring tone composer or the “Snake II” game. Those benefits reflected through in-depth personalization that seems out of date now but were more than groundbreaking then. If you recall, you could easily change the wallpaper on the phone (most of us opted for those “mad” eyes) and improve the overall look of the phone with those Xpress-on covers – front and back. If the Nokia 3310 gets relaunched it will question the usefulness of smartphones and the fact that they excel at almost everything but the basics which are battery life and durability.
Those hi scores in “Snake” are replaced by Play Store and iTunes or whatnot, then our privacy which everyone had abundant of with the 3310 is replaced with smartphone technology that knows when you move, tracks your location, tracks your phone calls, and God only knows what else. As the time progress forward, together with the tech that is bringing us bigger and more expensive devices, the era of 1990’s and 2000’s seem more appealing every day. That is why you shouldn’t be surprised if you hear that famous 3310 ringtone blasting inside of somebody’s pocket on the bus/train.
