Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-Nokia has released a revised version of its iconic 3310 though the news has been received with sceptic views in a smartphone infested and oriented global village.
The 3310 returns 17 years after its initial debut when it became an iconic phone due to its popularity and sturdiness and 126 million were produced before it was phased out in 2005.
The new 3310 isn’t the retro feature-phone many expected when the news began to filter that HMD Global was going to unveil something special at the end of this year’s Mobile World Congress in Spain.
It relies on 2.5G connectivity- which has slower data speeds than 3G and 4G- and is powered by the S30+ operating system, which allows web browsing but has a much smaller range of apps than Android or iOS.
Its single camera is also restricted to two mega-pixels and its single biggest advantage over more powerful handsets is its battery life which has 22 hours talk-time.
One critic called the revised creation “an unoriginal marketing trick”.
“Yes it’s true, there’s a new Nokia 3310 in town, one that’s so special to HMD Global that it was unveiled only at the end of an otherwise great press conference that showed us a brand new bold version of Nokia”.
“Nokia’s one more thing moment was for better or worse a great albeit unoriginal marketing trick”.
“What better way to fire up the dormant Nokia fans out there than by reviving an iconic phone that became the go-to device for instant communications for millions of people around the world?
“The new handset has a cleaner design, a bigger display, more colours, better battery life (22 hours talk time) and what feels like a smaller footprint”
“But for the time being the Nokia 3310 isn’t the phone one should buy”, he said in an article by Yahoo News.
However another critic hailed the move.
“The 3310 was the first mass-market mobile and there’s a massive amount of nostalgia and affection for it. If HMD Global had just announced three Android devices they would have barely got a couple of column inches in the press”.
“So, the 3310 is a very clever move and we expect it will sell in significant volumes”, he said.
Nokia no longer makes phones itself, but manufactures telecoms equipment, Ozo virtual reality cameras, and health kit under the Withings brand.
Meanwhile Nokia has also announced three new Nokia smartphones, the Nokia 6, 5 and 3 which shall be manufactured by Taiwan’s Foxconn.
Foxconn has previously worked with Samsung and Apple.
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