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I’m sure we all remember a simpler time in tech, when gadgets just did the most basic things you needed them to do, the main case in point are the mobile phones of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Nowadays iOS and Android reign supreme but back in the day Nokia were the undisputed champions.

So imagine my joy when I read right across the tech news that HMD, the Finnish company that owns the rights to the Nokia mobile brand have announced that the iconic 3310 will be re-released at this years Mobile World Congress. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it and I have no need for it in my life, but god I want one of these.

The rumours have been surfacing over the last few weeks but it really looks like this is going to happen and it got me thinking that for the time just how awesome this model was even compared to the computers in our pockets that we carry around today. The amazing thing about these early phones is the sense of freedom they gave you. Without telling you how old I am I remember a time when phone calls were so expensive that my parents would look at their watches if I was on the blower for too long. Failing that it was the search for a payphone in such a secluded location that you wouldn’t have someone waiting for you to finish and listening in on your deepest and darkest secrets.

My first phone bought for me by my parents was a Vodafone pay as you go, I don’t know what it’s origins were, all I cared about is that I could talk to my friends via voice and text whenever I wanted. Fair enough the tariffs were high and the allowances were poor but I don’t think that anyone cared.

I soon moved my my first Nokia, which for me and I am sure many was the 3310. It was robust, reliable and the battery lasted forever, something that we have sacrificed for the devices we rely on today. It did the most basic things, it held your contacts, made calls and the killer app of messaging which in those days was limited to 140 characters, which is exactly why Twitter has this limitation as this is how we first engaged with it. And if you had some spare time on your hands you would train and train so that you could embarrass your friends with your score on Snake.

Now the re-release of such an iconic gadget is not a new thing and I think that Nokia is going the right way about it. Think of the hype that was generated with the release on the NES classic and even retro games on our modern smartphones.

The word on the street is that the phone will sell for about 50 quid and I’ve always thought of having a reliable phone for the family car just in case we ever get stuck in the wilderness and run out of battery on our daily drivers.

There are a lot of concept renders going around the web which suggest improvements to the design but ultimately I hope that the leave it alone.

What do you think? Is this a good move? Did you own a 3310 or equivalent Nokia phone? Do you have any fond memories from when things were a little simpler? Hit us up in the comments below.

Author

Paul Wright

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