Nokia 3310 Relaunches - and with even longer battery life - Dispatch Weekly

Twenty one percent of smartphone owners have a cracked screen. According to Digital Trends 50% of the global population have experienced a broken screen, and the average battery life on a smartphone provides five hours of talk-time, and 150 hours of power.

If this sounds all too familiar, you may find yourself wondering what ever happened to those phones with batteries that lasted for days, no matter how many games of Snake you played. Phones that seemed resisted to even the strongest of falls, and never even saw a scratch. Most people associate these fond memories with one phone in particular, the Nokia “brick” 3310. Well, good news is on its way, Nokia announced only days ago that it’s re-launching this model. 

The Nokia 3310 first launched in 2000. Some of its most memorable features included 2.5 hours of talk-time and 296 hours of standby battery, a resistant frame, and the sought after ‘Snake’ game. Now HMD global, the company currently holding licensing rights for Nokia, is giving the phone a new and improved relaunch, aimed at providing customers with a cheap, back-up burner phone for texts and calls.

The updated model will keep its design with some improved changes in shape; including the position of buttons, an increase in screen size to 2.4 inches that now includes a full colour display, and a microUSB entrance for compatibility with modern chargers. Staying true to what customers fondly remember of the 3310, HDM has focused on minor improvements that boost the performance of the original model, with its most notable development being the extension in life-battery, now at:

22 hours of talk time and a month long stand-by battery-life.

HDM has also added a newly included 2MP camera, upgraded its resolution to 240×320 to include a colour screen, a mircoSD up to 32GB, and redesigned the product to weight an impressively low 79.6 grams.

Though the model will lack wifi connection, it will have Bluetooth a music player, and a newly added 3.5mm headphone jack to allow the function of audio listening and songs put on a microSD card. The phone has the operating system of Nokia series 30+ and comes with its originally famous Snake game, a nostalgic add that original fans of the phone will surely enjoy. 

Although nostalgia and support from customers who loved the original Nokia 3310 is ensured, how the model will perform in the modern market is still a point of debate. The model sticks to basic needs, allowing only a 2.5G broadband speed compatibility that rules out 3G or 4G data speeds, and forces a very basic browsing experience.

The model does includes a newly added camera, but the resolution and quality of images is limited, meaning the phone will mostly be used by those in search of a back-up handset, a burner-phone, a travel phone, or a simple retro buy.

Image source: Inquisitor.com 

The Nokia 3310 comes in a selection of four colours, including matte dark blue and grey, and bright yellow and red. The price has been set at €49 (£41) and although the official unveiling of the phone happened over the weekend in Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), the official market release date has yet to be set. Stating that the phone will be available during the second quarter of 2017 – sometime between April and June – HDM revealed how the launch of the new Nokia 3310 along with the Nokia 3, Nokia 6, and Nokia Arte Black is the beginning of a new line of mid-range modern smartphones.

Announced during the MWC, the three models are part of a future global portfolio of smartphones by Nokia. In comparison with the thousands of android powered smartphones in the current market:

Nokia is taking a unique approach by making its trio of devices include Google’s Android Nougat OS in its purest form

Maning no bundled third-party apps, no UI customisations, and regular security updates. The company believes their solid designs, pure android feature, and straight-forward products will push competitive advantage and raise them above competition, perhaps appropriate given the recent upsurge against increasingly “smart” smartphones as a result of digital addicts.

The re-launched Nokia 3310 joins a worldwide launch of a new generation of Nokia phones this year.