Nokia 3310 (2017) hands-on preview: Is it worthy of the legendary name?
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
The new 3310 is decidedly thinner than the original
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.
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.
That's right folks, Snake is back! But it's quite different from the original
The new Nokia 3310 comes with only one game pre-loaded, and yes, it is Snake, but it isn’t the original. It is a colorful 2D re-imagining of Snake II, developed by Gameloft, that is also more forgiving and smoother to control than the original. Unfortunately, none of the other classic 3310 games have made the transition, meaning that you won’t be blasting aliens in Space Impact or playing Bantumi on the new 3310.
On the upside, the phone comes with a lot of classic Nokia ringtones pre-loaded. All of them are polyphonic, which can either be considered an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on your point of view (and the thickness of your nostalgia goggles). There are no twangy, ear-piercing, monophonic ringtones like the ones you would find on an original 3310.
Hardware, camera and other features
Battery
The new Nokia 3310 has a 1200 mAh battery, which may not sound like a lot, but it’s actually capable of providing around 22 hours of talk time and a staggering 30 days of stand-by. To put things into perspective, that’s about twice as much as the original 3310 on both counts! That’s perfect for a phone that’s likely to sit in your glove box for prolonged periods of time.
Camera
The new Nokia 3310 has a 2MP primary camera with an LED flash and no selfie camera. The rear-facing shooter can take stills and record video. That’s about as much as we can say about it.
Internal storage and playback capabilities
The phone comes equipped with 16 MB of storage, which can thankfully be expanded to 32 GB via the SD card slot. The phone also plays video and MP3 files, and has a 3.5 mm headphone jack. FM radio is a plus.
Conclusion
The new Nokia 3310 has no WiFi, no 3G, no GPS, no front-facing camera, no high-resolution display. It is not a 3310 in the sense that it tries to be groundbreaking and revolutionary like the original, it is a 3310 just because HMD Global says so. It doesn't do for the mobile world of today what the original did 17 years ago, but instead relies on its name to garner attention. The new 3310 is just a regular Nokia feature phone, crammed into a shell that bares merely a passing resemblance to the design of the original 3310. There, we said it.
Things that are NOT allowed: