- [Michael] This.
This is so many things.
It's a blockbuster public relations grand slam.
It's a shameless appeal to the nostalgia
of a connected generation.
And it's the cornerstone of an old name's fresh beginning.
Under it all, of course, it's just a simple,
little dumb phone, but to me,
and probably you, it's also irresistible.
This is the Nokia 3310, again.
(techno music)
If you owned a phone around the turn of the century,
you might already know the 3310.
It's the pebble shaped cell phone
that lasted forever on a charge, and seemed indestructible.
If you haven't heard of it, the Saf has a great
throwback review over at SuperSaf TV,
which you should totally check out.
Anyway, at some point between its launch
and its 126 millionth sale,
the 3310 became an icon of reliability in communications.
Flash forward to today.
I'm at a party in Barcelona
hosted by the current custodian of the Nokia brand.
Heritage hangs from the walls.
Phone talk is echoing through the halls
and anchoring the room beyond the various
modern smartphones bearing the Nokia label
is the new 3310.
I don't even have my camera with me,
but I get so excited, I decide to shoot
the thing with a smartphone.
This is no prototype or demonstration one off.
It's a real mobile phone being offered
to real people, really soon.
And if my fawning hasn't already given it away, I adore it.
It's tiny, just like the old one,
but modernized just enough to make it clear
that this is a 2017 homage, not a dusty antique.
The display has been enlarged
and promoted to color from black and white.
There's now a camera, albeit a very basic one,
and the phone is about 40 percent lighter.
Put it beside one of today's moderately sized smartphones
and it's striking just how much
our priorities have changed since 2000,
when portability and battery life were everything.
Speaking of, Nokia promises 22 hours of talk time
and over a month of standby on the new device.
It's amazing what kind of endurance you can squeeze
out of your phone when the most complex
game you can play is Snake.
The 3310 is just like a lot of dumb phones
in that the keypad is cramped and tough to use,
which also makes texting kind of nightmare,
until you get re-used to the old predictive text.
That kind of ties in with the whole theme here.
Yeah, there's a browser, and a media player,
and micro SD, and an FM radio,
and a handful of other features,
but the most complicated thing you're really expected
to do with this phone is send the occasional text.
That means it's not likely to become
anyone's primary device, nor is it likely
to sell in huge numbers as some kind of backup phone.
More than anything else, this is a throwback
built for lovers of retro culture,
debuting under one of the most beloved brands in mobile.
Some people scratch their glory days itch
by buying a $550 Blackberry.
Others get a $150 Star Trek Communicator.
And now, still others can buy a tribute
to one of the building blocks of modern mobility
for about 50 bucks.
The Nokia 3310 goes on sale in the second quarter.
It'll be available in four colors for 49 euro.
I'll drop a link in the description
where you can sign up on the same email list I'm on,
so you'll be one of the first to know
when it goes on sale.
Drop a comment below with your fond memories
of feature phones or flip phones passed,
and stay tuned for much more from MWC 2017
as Mr Mobile's week in Barcelona rolls on.
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'Til next time, thanks for watching,
and stay mobile, my friends.