Before there was the iPhone, there was the Nokia 3310. The classic phone was ubiquitous in its heyday, and thanks to Reddit’s meme-makers, it became well-regarded for its near-indestructibility. I own one personally, and apart from the battery (which needs replacing), the phone definitely lives up to the hype—provided that you only use it to take calls and messages.
It’s now rumored to be making a comeback thanks to HMD Global, a Finnish company that acquired the license to produce Nokia phones. According to mobile news leaker Evan Blass on VentureBeat, the company plans to relaunch the 3310 for a low price of $60 and show it off at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2017 later this month.
If it’s true, then the memes brought it back to life.
While the phone may be extremely durable, it doesn’t offer much in terms of features. It’s just a basic phone with a monochrome display capable only of taking phone calls, text messages, and playing Snake II—the simple mobile game that consumed hours of every “gamer on the go” until the App Store became a thing.
If anything, it might come in handy if you need a second phone sitting around the house. There’s no word on whether the rumored 3310 will carry the same old specs or come with improvements to battery life and other modern advances. But for $60, we can’t really ask for much.
The market for the Nokia 3310 may be limited, given the relative affordability of most smartphones. That said, it may be part of an effort to tap into the consumer rebellion against smartphones with too many features, primed for users who want to return to the basics.
Beyond the 3310, Nokia is set to showcase the Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3 smartphone lineup, which come with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from an Android-powered device.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.
