A man in the UK is currently claiming to be the proud owner of the “oldest working mobile phone in Britain”. This may stand as a bold statement but not when you realize that the phone in question is a Nokia 3310.
Released back in 2000, the 3310 may be the source of jibes for current owners but it has proved to be an indestructible model thanks to its hard exterior and never ending battery life, especially for 49 year old Dave Mitchell who claims that his trusty companion has survived not only the washing machine but a full tour of Iraq. The phone was originally manufactured in Finland and in 2015, the country chose the Nokia 3310 as one of the first of three ‘national emojis’ deeming it The Unbreakable. Now, with the rumor mill beginning to churn over a new Nokia release, we’re left wondering whether or not we’ll see a nostalgic revival of the 3310 although certain facts surrounding this remain sketchy.
Nokia’s last N-series phone, the N9, was released back in 2011 with a tablet launch in 2015. Now under the control of the Finnish firm HMD Global, Nokia made a comeback to the smartphone game recently with their Nokia 6 launch in China that went on to be a huge hit. The latest rumors surrounding the Nokia brand is that we may see a resuscitation of not only the N-Series but possibly the 3310 too. So where have these rumors come from? A photo recently leaked online that showed the new N-Series logo and although this photo was later deemed fake many claim that the news is not. Furthermore, a poster found on Baidu claimed that the product had already passed its initial stages of development and that target sales could reach up to 500,000.
What we do know is that we won’t see any new announcements until the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 26th, when it is heavily rumored see a launch of a high-end flagship device, the Nokia P1. This phone is said to come with a Snapdragon 835 or 821 chipset, 6GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. YouTube channel ConceptCreator has released a video that shows how the P1 could look when it finally hits the market. According to this, we could see a metal frame with a lack of bezels and a small home button that doubles up as a finger sensor. Other potential features could include a Carl Zeiss lens in-built camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C charging port and dual stereo speakers.
Who knows? A revival may come sooner rather than later but in the meantime, those like Dave who still own the classic 3310 model can continue to bask in the nostalgia of games like Space Impact and Snake II.
