The Nokia 3310 is a GSM mobile phone announced on September 1, 2000, and released in the
fourth quarter of the year, replacing the popular Nokia 3210. The phone sold extremely
well, being one of the most successful phones with 126 million units sold worldwide. The
phone has since received arguably the biggest cult status of a mobile cell phone, and is
still widely acclaimed today. Several variants of the 3310 have been released,
including the Nokia 3315, 3320, 3330, 3350, 3360, 3390 and 3395.
Design The 3310 was developed at the Copenhagen Nokia
site in Denmark. It is a compact and sturdy phone featuring an 84 × 48 pixel pure monochrome
display. It has a lighter 115 g battery variant which has fewer features; for example the
133 g battery version has the start-up image of two hands touching while the 115 g version
does not. It is a slightly rounded rectangular unit that is typically held in the palm of
a hand, with the buttons operated with the thumb. The blue button is the main button
for selecting options, with "C" button as a "back" or "undo" button. Up and down buttons
are used for navigation purposes. The onprofile button is a stiff black button located on
the top of the phone. Features
The 3310 is known for having many features that were rare for the time. These include
many utilities, such as a calculator, Nokia network monitor, stop watch and a reminder
function. It has four games: Pairs II, Space Impact, Bantumi, and the hugely popular Snake
II. The Snake series of games had been popular on Nokia handsets since the late 1990s.
The 3310 was popular for SMS text messaging because it allowed long messages three times
the size of a standard SMS text message, at 459 characters. It also featured threaded
SMS writing, SMS Chat. The phone also has voice dialing for the quick dialing of selected
numbers. Customization
The Nokia 3310 can be customized with interchangeable covers, and thousands of different designs
have been produced by various companies. It also has over 35 ringtones built in with space
for seven custom tones. These can either be downloaded, or can be composed by the user
using the tone composer. The phone has different "profiles" which can adjust the phone to different
sets of preferences. For example, there is silent mode where the phone will not ring,
useful for situations where it is inappropriate to do so. Screensavers can be made from received
picture messages. Variants
3120, 3315, 3360, 3390, and 3395 An enhanced version of the 3310 is the Nokia
3315 which has some additional features: A picture editor to edit pictures for use
in SMS Picture messaging & screensavers on the phone
Timed profiles Could use received ring tones as SMS tones
Fixed some of the bugs found in the 3310 Automatic keypad locking after specified time
Peanut-like inter-connected silicon keymat Singaporean and Malaysian sold 3315s also
had a blue backlight for the LCD screen and keypad, as opposed to green.
Similar design to its successor The 3315 was also released in Australia. Most
versions of the 3310 could be upgraded to include the additional features of the 3315
by using a data cable. There are two North American variants of the
3310; one is the Nokia 3390, which operates on GSM 1900. The Nokia 3395 is an updated
version of the 3390 which includes the additional features of the Asian 3315 model, and it has
poor reception if you are in a GSM 850 area. WAP-enhanced models
The Nokia 3330 added a CSD-based WAP capability, animated screensavers, a pinball game named
'Bumper' and phonebook with a 100 entry capacity to the model. It also has the capability of
downloading Java MIDP apps via WAP. An Asia Pacific-only version, known as the
Nokia 3350, was in essence an improved 3330 with WAP, rhythmic backlight alert, animated
screensavers, two-way Navi-Key, dedicated call and hang buttons, Chinese lunar calendar
and a 96×65-pixel screen. Some 3350s have back covers that feature a photo-insert window,
allowing users to put personal pictures from photographs, magazine cut-outs, etc.
AMPS/D-AMPS-based versions The Nokia 3360 and 3320 are related models
designed for the U.S. and Canadian markets respectively. They are externally similar
to the 3310 and 3390, but use Digital AMPS/AMPS technology rather than GSM.
Like the Asian 3350, they include two dedicated call and hang buttons and two soft keys. They
also feature an infrared port. Unlike the 3390, the 3360 and 3320 do not support voice
dialing. At 136 gram each, they are also slightly heavier than the 3390, which weighs
119 gram. Display
The LCD is frequently sought out by hobbyists for use in micro-controller projects. These
are graphical LCDs, and include a Philips PCD8544 controller which is easily controlled
using an SPI bus. Many popular micro-controllers have libraries for this display. The display
is also used in "Gamebuino"; users of that platform have managed to coax the device to
display 3-level gray scale and to do optical data transmission via modulation of the back
light LEDs. The mobile phone features an MBus and FBus.
References and footnotes
External links Nokia 3310 Phone - details and support at
Nokia.com How to reuse Nokia 3310 display Tutorial to
reuse the Nokia 3310 display For your Projects. Nokia 3310 LCD Interfacing with PICAXE microcontroller