back to article Nokia's retro revival 3310 goes on sale and disappears immediately

If you blinked, you missed it. Nokia's "new" 3310 went on sale on 24 May, 17 years after the original, and was promptly cleared out. The retro-styled 2G handset has created extraordinary demand, something Nokia is struggling to fulfil. "We have been working with our partners and can confirm the 3310 will be available again …

  1. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Yeah, about Snake...

    Gameloft have screwed that one up, which is to be expected as it's Gameloft. I mean, just look at it.

  2. Mage Silver badge

    2G only?

    Yet in Ireland operators only have to give Comreg 6mths notice to cease 2G (presumably replacing it on 900/1800 with 3G/4G).

    Loads of cheap GSM only feature phones in shops about the €20 mark.

    So much for TWO years, SOGA.

    At this stage, you only buy a 2G only device as a disposable toy or display piece.

    1. James 51

      Re: 2G only?

      Perhaps when qualcomm release their 4g on a chipset we'll see a 3320. As I already have a 100, I'll levae it at that.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: 2G only?

        Yes, I was thinking that too. As an emergency phone it's OK, but with 3g or 4g hotspot capability it would be significantly more useful.

      2. Tom 7

        Re: 2G only?

        If you have a 3310 with 4g AND can use it to tether to then there is no need for their really expensive phone with all that lovely snooping android on it.

        Or in english, shit I was going to get one just for the above.

    2. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: 2G only?

      Yes 2G only and the 2G infrastructure gets phased out. Good job these are only £50.

      I'll wait for 3310i with 4G.

    3. Inspector71

      Re: 2G only?

      I suspect that 2G will hang around longer than you think, in fact I suspect that 3G might be the first to go in some places as 4/5G is a more direct replacment. A lot of comms still use 2G.

      As for the "new" 3310 personally I am waiting for a new 8810.

      "Hello Neo"

      1. Inspector71
        Facepalm

        Re: 2G only?

        Fat thumbed person means 8110 of course.

        1. AMBxx Silver badge

          Re: 2G only?

          6310 please

    4. Tronald Dump

      Re: 2G only?

      Shirley, that's where the stellar battery life comes from

    5. Snorlax Silver badge

      Re: 2G only?

      @Mage: "At this stage, you only buy a 2G only device as a disposable toy or display piece."

      Plenty of non-western-world countries out there using 2G.

      So much for TWO years, SOGA.

      You can't claim under the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act for losses caused by the action (or lack of action) of a third party. That's like looking for a refund on your car because there aren't any roads where you live.

      The network only has to give you notice that the service is being phased out in favour of another. You can accept the changes or be on your merry way. Remember when analogue was phased out?

      Hardly worth raising you blood pressure for the sake of £39, is it?

      1. Guildencrantz

        Re: 2G only?

        "losses caused by the action (or lack of action) of a third party."

        However the fact the phone will last 6 months in the country in which it's been sold, rather than the 2 years which a £50 2g phone ought, and the retailer knows, and the customer doesn't, is precisely a latent defect, of the category which good faith requires the retailer to disclose. SOGA stipulates durability and (which is the same thing) fitness for purpose over the expected lifetime indicated for the pricetag. Of course it's UK not Irish law, however unquestionably Ireland has its equivalent.

        £50 generally, and specifically for a £10 phone, is well outside the category of 'trifles' which the common law won't deal with. The fact you earn enough not to worry about it doesn't bear upon the legal position.

  3. frank ly

    eBay

    On eBay, you can get the new ones for about £100 and the original for about £23, at the moment.

    Consider this 'warning' on an eBay advert:

    "... and it also plays Snake! The version of the legendary game that comes pre-loaded on the device is not a carbon copy of the original, however, so keep this in mind if you're planning on buying the new 3310 just for it."

    Why did they make the game different and why did this eBay seller think it was important to make sure his advert mentioned it?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: eBay

      1) Ask Gameloft, 2) Avoid negative feedback.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF?

    Seriously, you've been able to get phones like this for £20.

    Fools and money....

    plus the 6310i was a FAR superior model

    1. William 3 Bronze badge

      Re: WTF?

      Actually fools are the ones complaining on forums about what other people spend their hard earning money on rather than the ones creating the products so fools can complain about them.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A £20 phone in a £50 shell :P

    Cracking up from the review here: https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/05/nokia-3310-review/

    "sold for a snake person-gouging £50. It is, for all intents and purposes, a fashion statement—a phone for the beard-grooming, braces-wearing festival set that think tapping out texts on a T9 keyboard is the ultimate irony."

    "I didn't think it was possible to ruin a game as simple as Snake, but apparently it is."

    "The 3310 doesn't take pictures so much as it creates an impressionist water colour of whatever you point it at."

    <3

  6. applebyJedi

    How much

    I really don't think Vodafone were offering 500GB of data, more like 500mb!

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: How much

      Yeah, like O2, they seem to think that 250Mb or 515Mb of data is HUGE.

      These companies need to think again.

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        Re: How much

        "These companies need to think again."

        No, people just need to not buy it.

  7. Electron Shepherd

    A Trick From The Apple Playbook

    Well, and lots of other businesses as well...

    1) Put something on sale

    2) Immediately remove it from sale, claiming stock shortage due too much demand

    3) Get lots of free publicity about the fact it's now on sale, with the implication that it's really good

    1. Phukov Andigh Bronze badge

      Re: A Trick From The Apple Playbook

      4) while making sure almost nobody has one to experience whether or not it's good or bad.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perfect for the kids, no iPhone for you as you've been naughty or broken the screen.

  9. caffeine addict

    If it had an app/feature on it so I could ping it and it would return its location it would make a fantastic glovebox phone. Leave it in there with a hardwired usb cable (car end) and it would be there in emergencies AND I could use it to work out where the hell my wife has gone with her phone on silent. Or where it is if some toerag nicks the car.

    1. Mark Solaris

      Your wife has been coming around here, to play my version of Snake.

      1. caffeine addict

        My commiserations.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh ..

    I'll stick with my original 3310. It does everything I need in a mobile phone, calls and SMS.

  11. Ilsa Loving

    744 hours standby time?!

    Daaaamn, with that kind of battery life, you have to wonder how many *minutes* that sale lasted before the phones were gone. I'm guessing 10.

    This is the kind of phone I want when the zombie apocalypse happens. If I can't get a signal, I can still beat the zombies to death with the phone.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Prisons

    I wonder how many of these will end up in nicks? Because the shape looks rather well adapted for concealment in a body orifice, and the long standby is an obvious plus when charging opportunities are few and far between.

    I hope Group 4 or whoever are on the case, though without much expectation of success.

    1. Berny Stapleton

      Re: Prisons

      I doubt that'll beat the BOSS.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Make it 3/4G, and give me a basics plan

    And I'd happily swap my iPhone for it.

    I'm pretty sure there is no 2G here.

  14. 2Fat2Bald

    so. a lot of people just want a mobile telephone, not a portable computer?

  15. Michael Felt

    Miss my Nokia...

    Well, obviously - I am too late. I will only have a smart(y)phone next month because it is getting pushed upon me. I do miss my nokia - (samsung something, no smart, no data) beltone. ;)

  16. David Lawton

    The old and new spec really highlights how much battery tech has come along. 3x longer standby. I know a lot complain they have to charge the modern smartphone everyday, but they forget its powering a massive high res colour screen, bluetooth, 4G , and god knows how many sensors. If the iPhone had been around when the 3310 had been we would be charging our phones 3 times a day with the battery tech of 3310 era.

  17. JJKing

    Why no 4G?

    So why didn't/couldn't they put 4G in this phone?

    Since others have mentioned their wanted revival, Nokia 8250 for me please. I used to charge it once a week. I wonder how long it would last with the new battery technology now?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    4G 6230i please

  19. Dafydd E Crochenydd

    So this isn't a Nokia 3310 in any way shape or form, it's just nostalgic exploitation of when things were better (not least of all battery life) and we loved technology more than we do now.

    This does rather raise the inevitable and quite correct question of when will there be a new Psion? I don't mean some gadget packing Windows XP or Windows 7 or Linux, I mean a Psion - An actual Psion for the 21st century.

    Perhaps you need to go ask your dad about that time in the 90s when he sent an email from the top of a double-decker bus via an Ericsson T610 and felt like he was on two grams of cocaine, but basically they were iPhones you could actually be productive on, rather than efficient consumer portals through which you could easily and rapidly deplete your disposable income (in part, to help pay for a series of mahoosive polished granite Steve Jobs monuments around the world, like a network of GPS crucifixes) as well as any dignity and personal information about yourself to some analytics pervert legally registered in the Republic of Ireland for tax purposes. Talking of which, whatever happened to Parthus Technologies?

    Come on, some lunatic out there bring back a new Psion off the back of this pervert and lie of a Nokia. It's not even a real Nokia, any more than that website is yer actual Woolworths with its alleged virtual pick & mix mistruth. It's just your typical millennial venture capitalist Sith (until recently thought extinct) licensing an otherwise unmoneytisable brand name in order to capitalise on a hipster desire for nostalgia because they have nothing of substance of their own.

    Last I heard, 18 Harcourt Street had been turned into an artisan bakers, selling loaves of appalling bread for £7.50 each. And as for what calls itself a pub down the road these days...

    June 1997 is when the Series 5 came out and EPOC flashed its wanger in front of all the pathetic CE inadequates for the first time - 20 years ago in a matter of days. Come on Orlowski! Time to rehash your history of Psion and Symbian articles.

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