#HTE

Yea or Nay? Nokia Relaunches the Old-School Cell Phone

Retro designs have been successful with cars from the VW Bug to the Ford Mustang; but will the nostalgic approach work with a cell phone? HMD Global Oy, the Finnish manufacturer that’s licensed the Nokia brand, thinks so. This week they’ve relaunched Nokia’s iconic 3310, which was first designed way back in 2000.

The original 3310

It’s a bizarre move to be sure. Though the design has been tweaked, the overall form factor woudn’t have looked out of place 17 years ago. The screen is just 2.4", the camera just 2MP, and though there’s an MP3 player, the storage is just 16MB (admittedly expandable to 32GB with a MicroSD card). And it only works on 2G networks; in America, AT&T shut theirs down earlier this year, whereas Verizon and T-Mobile still support the aging standard.

The new 3310

In the plus column, the phone is cheap at €49 (USD $52). It has an FM radio, for the emergency-minded and “preppers” crowd. And the battery life is damn near absurd: 22 hours of talk time on a single charge, and will survive on standby for “up to a month.”

Then there are features (and a lack of features) that a minority of folks might consider a plus: Physical buttons, which I admit I miss, and the complete inability to check Facebook or Twitter.

You may remember that Punkt did something similar last year, releasing their Jasper-Morrison-designed MP 01 phone, which can only call and text. The MP 01 runs $295 and managed to sell out all of their pre-orders. Do you think the new 3310 will do as well? Would any of you consider getting one, and if so, why?