We've seen a wave of nostalgia lately, from Sonic the Hedgehog Lego to Tamagotchi smartwatches, and now Nokia's getting involved. Along with two new smartphones, the Finnish brand is launching a revival of its classic flagship phone, the 6310 – which was about the best mobile phone money could buy in 2001.
HMD Global, which owns the Nokia brand, has come up with a remake that's as compact and cheap (reportedly around $50 / £50 / €40) as you'd expect. It also looks almost as indestructible as the original while offering improved readability and accessibility. However, it's taken a few liberties with the updated design (if you're looking for a more advanced phone, see our guide to the best camera phones available now.)
It's not the first time Nokia has revived one of its old models from back when the brand was one of the biggest players on the market. The previous phones in its "Originals" family have been fairly faithful revamps of the 3310 and 8110. But this time around, the similarity to the original phone is more tenuous.
Gone is the original's three-tone look (in fact, in dark green, yellow, black and also light blue in India, the colours are completely different), the shape of the curved body and display are different, the display is a lot larger, and the layout of the buttons has been changed. It does, however, have Snake.
The specs are probably more along the lines of what you'd expect, i.e., nowhere near as groundbreaking as the original was back in 2001. The 6310 was Nokia's first phone with Bluetooth connectivity, making it the phone of its era for business people who needed to get things done.
By today's terms, the specs for the remake (opens in new tab) are stunningly basic: a 2.8-inch display, a numerical keypad, 8MB RAM, 16MB of storage (32GB with microSD cards), a 0.3-megapixel camera on the back and FM radio. Perhaps the strongest feature is that with such basic features, the 1,150mAh battery can "go for weeks" just like the original.
Nokia's launching a couple of new smartphones at the same time. It's giving us the rugged XR20, which can survive submersion in water for up to an hour and has Nokia's toughest screen yet thanks to Gorilla Glass Victus. That one packs 4/6GB of RAM, 64/128GB of storage and a 48/13 megapixel camera. Then there's the C30, an entry-level Android Go device with a big 6.82-inch display and a huge 6,000mAh battery, which Nokia says can last up to three days. All three models are due in August 2021.
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