Nokia 3310 review

Nokia’s revamped 3310 is here, Snake too, but is it as good as you remember?

The biggest hit from the Mobile World Congress, the revamped Nokia 3310, is here much to the delight of retro-tech fans everywhere. It’s not quite it’s the same old year 2000 model, but it is a refreshing burst of nostalgia in today’s smartphone-dominated market. So, is it any good?

No, is the answer to that question! It’s not very quick, it has buttons (actual physical buttons) and a 2 MP camera to capture nothing clearly. But, that is missing the point. It’s a ‘feature’ phone, the section of the market Nokia has claimed, and can only really be compared to other phones like it.

Having failed to make any kind of notable smartphone ever Nokia have instead gone for the nostalgia play and brought out the early noughties in everybody. They haven’t got the know-how to produce anything as sophisticated as the Samsung S8, or even the iPhone 7, so it’s quite bold to just recreate one of their greatest hits.

But somethings don’t need recreating and despite the nod to the old the ‘new’ version is just not the iconic original. Those wanting an exact replica of the classic 3310 will have to get on eBay as some ‘improvements’ have been made. The QVGA screen is bigger at 2.4in and in colour. The handset is half the thickness of the original with a sleeker design and comes in red yellow and blue rather than the standard grey of old.

It has the much-loved game Snake, but not as we know it, as it just doesn’t look the same and the default is set to a time mode rather than the survival version and you can move diagonally – which seems to defeat the point a little.

On a plus note, the old-style pin charger has been changed for a USB and that’s pretty much where the worthwhile modernising ends. Everything else to love is a specification from 17-years ago. The back cover slides off to reveal a removable battery which in turn reveals a microSD slot and a micro sim tray (the old kind that needs the bigger bracket) and not a nano-sim.

The battery life is almost longer than my own life, reportedly a month on standby, and after five days’ full use it finally drains. Anyone with a smartphone that needs to be charged again by lunch time can appreciate the pure joy of not worrying about battery life for nearly a week.

It has 2G internet, which is so utterly slow they may as well have not bothered and it states 16GB of storage but after taking five pictures you’ll use it up – so the SD card is a must but that was the life in 2000, we didn’t know any better.

The 3310 does the job; taking us back long before touch screens and voice assistants, but we should only look back briefly as the real excitement is in front of us.