The New Nokia 3310 Is Back. But Is It Worth The Hype?

3 min read By eCompareMo on February 28, 2017

It has been 17 years since Finnish communications company Nokia released one of the most iconic tech products of all time: the 3310. Much loved for its near indestructibility and month-long battery life, the 3310 has stood out as a reliable mobile phone even in the smartphone era.

And so, after almost two decades, Nokia is poised to take back the lion’s share it once had with the re-release of the classic piece of tech through HMD Global, the company that now holds the license for the brand.

But is the Nokia 3310 still worth buying now as it was before?

The old and the new

Aside from its cult status (read: an endless subject of jokes and memes on the internet), what makes the 3310 worthy of being resurrected from the vault of forgotten tech milestones?

The 3310, despite its bulk, was known for its numerous features. Durability and battery life aside, it was among the first phones to introduce the capability of sending longer text messages, new games (Snake!), a calculator, and a stopwatch.

With the intent of reliving its glory days, the new Nokia 3310 packs the same features—and then some. While it sports the same unmistakable candybar body, the new Nokia featurephone ditched some of the old tech and now comes with better features.

The clunky LCD has been replaced with a bigger screen, the button layout has been slightly altered to add four-directional navigation, and the overall body leans toward a slenderer design.

To live up to the hype its big brother enjoyed, HMD promises that the new Nokia 3310 will be as durable as the old one, minus the bulk.

And yes, the 3310 will also have a standby time of one month. The battery, a removable 1,200-mAh unit, may pale in comparison to the ones today’s smartphones carry, but its longevity in the hands of a no-frills featurephone makes a one-month standby time, quite ironically, an unheard-of feature in 2017.

The 3310 also sports the following additional features:

• 2MP camera for photos and video recording
• FM radio
• MP3 player for up 51 hours of playtime
• microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB
• Voice recording
• 2.5G connectivity
• Games, including Snake
• Most important: replaceable “housing”

The Nokia 3310 is now available for P2,490. That’s more than half of how much it cost back in 2000.

Everyman’s phone in 2017?

So who is the Nokia 3310 for? The features of the phone may seem prehistoric in the age of Snapdragon processors and LTE networks, but the new Nokia handset can just be for everyone. If you’re into the following perks, then the 3310 is for you:

Get only the mobile phone basics. Whether you’re a technophobic geriatric or a Luddite who doesn’t want all the glimmer of today’s smartphones, then get yourself a Nokia 3310 since it only has the basic features.

Ditch social networks. Want to disappear from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram but can’t resist the openness of smartphones? Get the 3310 since you won’t have access to Google Play or the iTunes App Store.

Use a traveler-friendly phone. The Nokia 3310 is not friendly to those who post every single moment of their lives on social media, but it can be a nifty tool for people on the go who just need a phone to keep them reachable.

The new 3310 is not a phone made to go head-to-head with the likes of the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy line. In fact, the Nokia handset is the antithesis of the smartphone: basic, cheap, and reliable when you need it the most. So, are you going to make the switch back to a featurephone?