The Nokia 3210 debuted in 1999, going down in history as one of the most durable mobile phones ever created, its popularity being surpassed only by the model released the following year, the Nokia 3310.
What’s really funny is that the Nokia 3310 has already been (re)launched twice, in 2017 and 2018, with the latest iteration even offering 4G connectivity. Thus, the Nokia 3210 is just the next “cash cow” for HMD, the Chinese manufacturer that acquired the rights to use the Nokia brand, which will exploit for the third time the nostalgia of Nokia fans for the “old” mobile phones. The problem with the Nokia 3310 “refresh” is that apart from the (debatable) external resemblance to its predecessor released almost 20 years before, HMD has not made the slightest effort to reconfirm the “Nokia 3310 legend”, the newly launched product being anything but a mobile phone with minimal features, sold at an overpriced price. Beyond the color screen and the inclusion of a kitschy version of the Snake game, nostalgic buyers didn’t get much in exchange for the €60 price tag.
Adjusted for inflation, the starting price of the Nokia 3210’s predecessor will be €89, with buyers opting for a mobile phone in the once-familiar shape of the half-eaten bar of soap, considered the pinnacle of ergonomics 25 years ago.
And if you didn’t live those days, you know that the Nokia 3210 had no camera, no headphone jack, and the Li-ion battery was the pinnacle of technological evolution, the magic that allowed you to get up to 200 hours of talk time on a single charge. The phone had no color screen, only backlit, plus three pre-installed games: Memory, Rotation and the legendary Snake. The internal antenna was still relegated to the “innovations” chapter, after the expansion of GSM networks made it possible to abandon overly technical solutions to maximize signal stability.
It seems hard to believe that HMD will learn from the mistakes made with the Nokia 3310 “refresh”, spending enough to make the new Nokia 3210 the indestructible “brick” that fans have been waiting for. But we can be sure that we will see those inevitable improvements, such as a much larger color screen and modern connectivity (eg Bluetooth for wireless headphones, microSD slot, 4G for Internet access, mp3 ringtones, recent calls list and more of 8 records, contact book that is not limited by the SIM card memory, etc.). It looks like we’ll also see USB-C connectivity, for charging the 1450mAh battery.
At the risk of not following the historical model’s specifications “to the letter”, HMD also includes a camera, but a 2MP one, so you feel like it’s 1999 when you take pictures with your new €89 dumb-phone.
