The Nokia 3310 was for many their very first phone, it was mine.
From the colors to the freedom a mobile represented, the Nokia really is one of my key memories of youth and was quite extraordinary worldwide.
Here we are going to look at 18 facts about this humble yet ground-breaking mobile phone.
Compared to today, the battery of the Nokia 3310 is quite literally awe-inspiring, my phone barely lasts a day without needing a full overnight charge. The 3310 was capable of 55-hours talk time, that’s more than 2 solid days, and 245 hour standby time, an astounding 10 days!
The average smartphone to date takes around 20 seconds to boot up from off to ready for action, the Nokia took a mind-blowing 8 seconds before you could crack open the messenger or the built in currency converter.
In Finland, the Nokia 3310 (called the indestructible) was inducted into their culture in the best way possible, the 3310 was chosen as a national emoji to represent the country alongside a rocker and a sauna. The Finnish have their priorities in order.
After 17 years, Nokia agreed to release a literal representation of every millennia’s childhood nostalgia. The new 3310 was a bit of let-down though, with its sleek lines and touch screen display, many people were less than pleased… on the plus side it does have snake.
Snake, the icon of mobile gaming during the 1990s, is officially the most played mobile game of all time, securing a Guinness world record in 2010 after achieving over 1 billion players. The game can be beaten though; in 2013, a GIF image appeared claiming to show an unknown Russian player’s amazing feat, but some question whether it was a hoax or not.
The Nokia 3310 has even saved lives according to social media. A soldier who was stationed in Afghanistan took a bullet to the chest only to be saved by his trusty 3310, the bullet remained lodged in the phone and the man walked away unscathed.
At its release, the Nokia 3310 was seen as the new face of technological development. With an internal antenna, the surface measurements smaller than the average house brick and all the latest technology, the 3310 was the face of business.
The ability to change the case, and a range of other settings just wasn’t enough for Nokia’s customizable dreams. Through a built-in app called ‘the composer’, the app told you to press different numbers for different sounds so users could make their own ringtones and learn a little musical knowledge along the way.
When the initial 3310 was released it cost $166 (£129), which would make the mind boggle today. On its revamp, it’s available for a mere $55 (£42) but it’s nowhere near as ground-breaking.
The 3310 really did break the mold in a range of ways, when it came to messaging the Nokia outdid all its rivals by having a messaging character limit of an unbelievable 459, that’s 3 times the normal limit for that era. The standard today is 160 characters.
The 3310 quite rightly holds the title of indestructible, if you drop a modern phone they’ll instantly shatter into a million pieces (or at least it feels that way). The 3310 has been run over by a train, dropped from eye-watering heights and even faced power tools and still prevailed.
Nokia were one of the first cell phone providers to offer the earliest version of an autocorrect system called predictive text input. Pressing a key gave a list of options, making messaging easy, but for many this functionality was infuriating, so documentation was released on how to turn it off.
When the iPhone went on sale it sold a colossal 25 million units, or you would say its colossal until someone tells you the Nokia 3310 sold over 400% more, at a whopping 126 million units!
The 3310 had one of the widest range of covers available to it, quite literally thousands. Made by an array of companies, the Xpress-On covers were a great way to show a person’s character and really make you look cool.
In the UK, The Sun newspaper released an amazing story of a man who had bought a 3310 when they first came out back in 2000 and now, 17 years on, the Yorkshireman is still using his trusty favorite and doesn’t even care about its technological inferiority.
The minimalist 3310 was designed at the Nokia Site in Copenhagen, Denmark with a strong focus on suiting to people’s needs, not forcing them to adopt a new way of life like many other big brands of the day were doing. Just look at the simplistic display and layout to realize this is true.
In 2012, the innocent Nokia became wrapped up in a violent riot. A Protestor in Jakarta, Indonesia, complaining about the abhorrent price of fuel, used the sturdy piece of tech as a projectile launching it at police.
The Nokia 3310 was the first phone to allow a user to internet chat, a daydream to most teens of the time. Debuted at numerous concerts worldwide, this little feature really did draw an immense amount of interest. When set in ‘chat mode’ users could send and receive messages in enhanced SMS format.
Like everything nostalgic, from penny sweets to the PS1, it’s never as good as you remember it.
If we loved our 3310’s so very much, why aren’t we all still using one?
Simple, we developed our technological ability and it became moot.
The newer 3310 was somewhat of a flop with many people cooing over its sentimentality but staggered by the price and minimalistic features.
One things for sure, if you revampers touch my Gameboy, I won’t be happy!
