Nokia 3310 (2017) hands-on preview: Is it worthy of the legendary name?

Originally introduced way back in September of 2000, the Nokia 3310 has since sold a mind-boggling 126 million units, and cemented itself in the hearts of many fans as the “best phone ever”. Thanks to its amazing durability, stellar battery life, customizable design, and, of course, the legendary Snake II, the Nokia 3310 has gained a cult following like no other phone before or since.

Really, we can’t stress enough how much of a big deal the 3310 was for mobile phones back in the year 2000. It may seem funny to some of our younger readers, but at launch, the 3310 offered many rarely seen features, such as a calculator, a stopwatch, reminders, and SMS text messages three times the then-current standard – a staggering 459 characters!

The Nokia 3310 is a legend that will forever remain in our collective memory as one of the best phones ever. In fact, if anyone had asked us a couple of months ago whether we would like a new 3310, a successor to the legend, we would have answered negatively, for no device — past, present or future — could ever do these four digits justice. Alas, no one asked us, and HDM Global is now bringing back the 3310 from a long and well-deserved retirement.

Enter... Nokia 3310

Yes, it isn’t the NEW Nokia 3310, or the 2017 Nokia 3310, it’s just… Nokia 3310. So, apart from bearing the legendary name of the original, what does this new phone have to offer?

Design

At first glance, the new Nokia 3310 looks similar to its predecessor – it retains the iconic oval outline of its older brother, has a similar whitish border around the screen, and its keypad is almost a carbon copy of the old one in terms of shape and ergonomics. However, when held, the new Nokia 3310 reveals itself as decidedly lighter and a lot thinner than the original. It also doesn’t feel anywhere nearly as sturdy as its venerable predecessor.

Although we’re not doubting that the new Nokia 3310 would be able to survive its fare share of drops, it comes off as a bit hollow and a tad too plasticky.

The new Nokia 3310 ditches the bidirectional navigation button of the original, in favor of the four-directional “square” button we’ve seen on Nokia feature phones over the better part of the last decade. It’s neither very comfortable to use, nor is it very precise. As far as the keypad goes, it is somewhat on the soft side, with some, but not great, feedback when typing.

As we said in the beginning, the original Nokia 3310 was famous for its swappable Xpress-On front and back covers. Well, there’s none of that in the new 3310. Although it comes in a variety of colors (red, yellow, blue, and gray), the new Nokia offer nothing in the way of customization, with only its back cover being removable for providing access to the battery.

Software & interface

The user interface of the new Nokia 3310 bares no resemblance to that of the original, which is something that didn’t surprise us one bit. The original 3310’s horizontally scrolling menu has been substituted by a cookie-cutter Series 30 interface with a 3 x 3 icon grid.

As far as the pre-installed software goes, you have everything you’d expect from a phone like that, including a rudimentary web browser and an app store, though their functionality is severely limited by some of the phone’s technical shortcomings that we will be getting into in a moment.