Seventeen years ago the world changed: Nokia’s 3310 was released. It was a simpler time when our nights were spent on MSN Messenger, MySpace was the only social network worth having and all our free time was spent chasing our high score on Snake. In an attempt to dial back the years, Nokia’s parent company, HMD Global, are relaunching this OG brick phone. Priced at a very reasonable 50 quid (€59) it has us practically gagging for the old days. If you’ve been inspired to retire your smartphone and cash in on the 3310's endless battery life and its Dom Joly potential, ready yourself by remembering the 3310’s perks…
1. You Didn’t Need A 'Genius' To Fix It
Unclipping the back plastic panel and switching it for a cheapo you picked up down the market repaired any cracks or chips. And if your problem required a more high-tech solution, then popping out the battery and letting it cool down for a hot second usually did the job.
2. Space Impact
Yeah, yeah, snake was fun. But, Space Impact…
5. Phone Charms
Like a new phone case but miles better. They dangled out of your pocket and showed off your <3 for the latest Sanrio character.
6. Clip-On Full-Body Cases
Forget customising your iPhone’s background, you could literally flip off and makeover the phone’s entire case.
7. Txt Talk
In the days when getting a contract was a laughable phenomenon, a vocabulary of abbreviations spawned a new language. Obviously every txt ended with ‘TB’ or when things got desperate ‘PTB’ and you knew what ‘ROFL’ and ‘QT’ actually meant. Even today, over a decade later we can still understand this sentence without any difficulty: ‘how r u? wot r u doin later? I'm hanging out w my bf, we mite go sk8in :`) tb’.
8. Phone Stands
Admittedly, they were quite pointless, but they were shaped like a hand that lit up when your phone rang.
9. It’s Glare-Free Screen
Try reading your smartphone under the bright glare of the sun. Actually, don’t bother, we can tell you it’s impossible. There’s something to be said for the b&w, lo-fi screen and it’s called ‘visibility’.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.