New Nokia 3310 will be practically unusable in many countries, including US

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/nokia-3310-2017-supports-old-gsm-frequencies-will-be-useless-in-the-us-and-canada-1664424

by Liriel • 9 years ago

37 53 9 years ago

gadgets.ndtv.com

ro_sharp• 9 years ago

Is anyone aware of an alternative (with a similar budget price, maybe something marketed in the developing world?) that can be used on a modern phone network?

jamiethompson3• 9 years ago

Nokia 105. Works for me.

shalmanese• 9 years ago

The 105 is also 2G only and won't work in the US, Canada or Australia.

adunar• 9 years ago

I was just shopping for a new unlocked candy bar feature phone that supports 3G at 1900 MHz. The best one I could find was the Nokia 301.2 for $130.

The Kyocera Rally is another 3G candy bar feature phone with more of a budget price ($20 from Amazon but locked to T-Mobile).

lottin• 9 years ago

Nokia 130.

joecool10296• 9 years ago

Go to ebay and buy a featurephone from around 10 years ago.

I have a Sony Ericsson K850i that's quadband GSM and works on HSPA 850/1900/2100 (meaning it'll work on AT&T and T-Mobile's 3G networks as well as a good chunk of international 3G networks)

throwaway642012• 9 years ago

Nokia 3310 is going to fail in the markets it's being launched at, i.e. India. The biggest reason for it's (possible) failure is that the people have simply moved on to Android/4G.

Nokia's were a rage when the mobile market was nascent (2004-2010), and carriers flooded the market with cheap SMS rates. With loads of cheap Android phones available, and no WhatsApp on Nokia devices, it's a DoA device. And it doesn't even look as durable as the original classic.

LostWanderer• 9 years ago

I guess not!

There is still a huge population which wants basic phones as a backup atleast. There are places in india where electricity is not so easy to get and the monthly salary is still under 100$ The senior citizens even though have migrated to smartphones stil are in the dire need of a durable small phone.

I feel apple may also jump in with a luxury feature phone,Just a matter of time

vatotemking2• 9 years ago

This! Low-end Nokia phones are not meant to replace Android phones, but as a backup(supplementary) phone.

Might not be apparent in Silicon valley but in third-world countries its:

* Snatcher deterrence. It would be less likely targeted than say an iPhone when used in risky public areas.

* Ideal for people who'd only use a phone for texting and calling (eg. older people, farmers, laborers).

* A phone that does not need baby sitting: long batt life, doesn't care if it falls on the floor, when it rains just wrap it in plastic.

* And the one thing that I miss the most in smartphones: Texting without ever looking at the screen.

pizza234• 9 years ago

I have the same opinion amout that market segment, but bear in mind that the 3310 costs twice as much as the cheapest mobile phones; considering this, the lack of 3G (/4G,...) could be considered a significant omission.

I had to buy a cheap phone, and to be precise, the 3310 costs 3 times the cheapest (an Alcatel).

fnordfnordfnord3• 9 years ago

There is still a huge population which wants basic phones as a backup atleast.

I don't just want a basic phone as a backup. I want real sim card portability/functionality. I want to have a smart-phone when I need it, and I want a lightweight, rugged, long battery endurance phone I can pop the sim card into for activities where I'm willing to compromise features for durability (or speed/ease of use).

The senior citizens even though have migrated to smartphones stil are in the dire need of a durable small phone.

I still can't believe that nobody has done this. I attribute it to my cynicism about dealing with telecom middlemen (data providers).

mseebach• 9 years ago

It's not like Nokia are pioneering dirt cheap feature phone, they even have a few themselves. When people are bearish on the 3310 launch, it's not because there isn't a market for feature phones, it's because this market is already well served (including by Nokia), and most of the people who remember the 3310 fondly has owned fully featured smartphones for a decade.

plainOldText2• 9 years ago

I was talking to a friend, and I was making more or less the same points.

Also, a phone has now become an indispensable tool for the modern man, a tool which augments your capabilities and allows you to expand them via new software.

There are plenty of cheap Android phones to choose from, that give you a better camera, proper connectivity, and a worldwide app ecosystem; with the new Nokia 3310 on the other hand, you get a 2G, 2 Megapixel camera, 2 inch screen phone with no software ecosystem. To me this seems like a no brainer.

pjmlp3• 9 years ago

Many people don't care about software, they just want to make phone calls, send SMSs and take an ocasional picture.

walshemj2• 9 years ago

to be blunt who cares its a phone for those of us that want multi day battery life

Nokinside2• 9 years ago

Globally feature phones and dumb phones were still majority in 2015.

Smartphones still sell less than feature phones or dumb phones in India.

3310 market is poor people in developing countries.

timonoko• 9 years ago

This is exactly what a retro-phone should do. Originally a standard GSM-phone worked everywhere else except in USA and some clueless South American countries, like Chile.

bonzini• 9 years ago

I remember my European cell phone also didn't work in South Korea in 2006, because they used CDMA.

jamiethompson3• 9 years ago

I'm in the UK and I've already scratched this itch by replacig my iPhone with a Nokia 105 (https://www.nokia.com/en_int/phones/nokia-105)

All the features of this new 3310, but even more authentic, and they're selling for 10-20GBP

Edit: did I mention that it only needs charging once a week?

fnordfnordfnord3• 9 years ago

Had one like it in China in 2008. It was a decent phone. Crappy camera though.

jamiethompson3• 9 years ago

No camera on the 105

dang• 9 years ago

Url changed from https://thenextweb.com/mobile/2017/03/03/nokia-3310-unusable..., which points to this.

papul1993• 9 years ago

How expensive would it be to manufacture a feature phone that is compatible with 2G, 3G and 4G LTE with VoLTE support? I think there is a good market for such a product.

joecool10296• 9 years ago

Getting cheaper but those radios are still comparatively power hungry, costs of certification are high, and it's really up to the carrier if they want to allow it on their voLTE network. 3G/2G featurephones do exist.

Try buying an international phone with the correct band support and put it onto a US network, it'll kick down to 3G or 2G to make the call. No point really in having the extra data speeds a featurephone won't need (for most people). I personally would like to have a small, durable, and low powered featurephone I could also use as a usb modem.

ChuckMcM• 9 years ago

Interesting question, is 2G dead because people don't want 2G or is 2G dead because phone companies don't want to support it? Or something else.

dagw• 9 years ago

The phone companies don't want to support it, or more specifically, they want to reuse the 2G spectrum to build out their LTE network.

joecool10296• 9 years ago

LTE is more spectral efficient, but it's expected that GSM will outlive 3G technology (WCDMA, ie. UMTS/HSPA) due to the low cost of deploying and ability to run on very small spectrum slices (200khz, can be done with only about 1Mhz of spectrum so long as the network is planned carefully due to channel reuse)

Carriers that can get away with running GSM in their guard bands often do to support legacy M2M devices and international roaming customers.

fnordfnordfnord3• 9 years ago

I never really considered that they would simply make a clone of a Nokia 3310 with an updated display. Why no modern radio? I think people would buy this if it weren't crippled by obsolete hardware.

Theodores• 9 years ago

My mother is not able to use a modern Android or other phone, she really does need the phone numbers and some small address book facility, 1: daugher 2: brother 3: son 4: her best friend 5??? After that then it is paper phone book and typing digits. The turn of the century never happened!!!

We have tried getting special phones for my mother but the UX is always worse than worse. They are unusable to people! So maybe if this Nokia actually worked on 3G it would be perfectly suited for her, a landline style phone that worked without the landline. There is definitely a market for such a phone that has a good brand, e.g. 'Nokia' is nice and shiny with lots of colours and just works.

The other feature I think is needed is mobile wifi hotspot. Ideally you just press a button and the display shows the SSID and access code, again that being some easy code.

Again, my mother can use a computer perfectly fine for online shopping, if she just had to press a button on the phone and that meant her computer was online then that would be something she could do herself. Her hands are too arthritic to do web surfing on a handheld device, she needs a keyboard and trackpad. The right Nokia could have enabled this.

walshemj2• 9 years ago

Well DUH its well known the USA went there own way and ignored GSM either for NIH or NTB

maxerickson2• 9 years ago

AT&T was using GSM back when it was Cingular, before the 3G rollout.

So did the progenitor to T-Mobile.

I think on different frequency bands, limiting the usefulness of international phones.

mikeash2• 9 years ago

And CDMA, while not as commonly used as GSM, is an international standard used in many countries.

The idea that the US somehow uniquely snubbed GSM is a tired myth.

joecool10296• 9 years ago

AT&T was using GSM back when it was Cingular, before the 3G rollout.

They were using it up until the end of 2016. https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM10848...

So did the progenitor to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile still uses GSM1900 nationwide and GSM850 (not well known that they do) in Myrtle Beach, SC.

I think on different frequency bands, limiting the usefulness of international phones.

You don't know what you're talking about, stop spreading misinformation. There are small rural/regional carriers that still use GSM1900 or GSM850 in areas, I can think of Indigo Wireless out in west PA as one of the companies.

drej• 9 years ago

Anyone saying this phone is destined to fail miserably - don't look at it from your viewpoint, but from your (grand)parents'. My mum can't stand touchscreens from an UX perspective, plus she hates the constant charging. All she ever does is call her friends and family and send the occasional text to check on us.

There are currently phones that serve her well (e.g. Nokia 230). This is another one.

mikeash2• 9 years ago

I can definitely see the utility of a simple device. It seems like a niche market, but there's nothing wrong with being niche.

However, you'd think they would update the radio so it would work in more places....

icebraining• 9 years ago

I still see quite a few of them even among the 30-50 years-old range. Here in the lowest rungs of the developed world, the choice is often between a featurephone or a very cheap Android, and the latter are often unusable crap. Personally, I use a 20€ Wiko Lubi4 and a tablet instead. Smartphones are jack of all trades, but not really satisfying for any.

That said, even my Wiko does support four networks. Seems shortsighted to be selling these nowadays, even in the markets they're targeting.

Nokinside2• 9 years ago

3310 market is poor people in developing countries.

That said, it's just marketing trick.

I have Nokia 108 (dual sim) phone I use in weekends. It's smaller and the battery lasts 31 days in standby mode.

http://imgur.com/a/HOlOk

headShrinker• 9 years ago

I love the idea of a stripped down "basic" well designed phone. I was just talking to my friend who is much older, about it. We were romanticizing the days of the Motorola StarTAC. I don't want a browser, email, apps, social, or a big screen, just a phone and contact list. The StarTAC was simple sleek, had a dial pad and contact list, and the battery lasted 5 days.

In todays terms, for me that is like StarTrek technology.

joecool10296• 9 years ago

Woulda been nice if they could have put GSM1900 in it. It would have worked on T-Mobile.

I'm in the DIGITS beta and have a sim that's basically a clone of my main smartphone line, I use the clone on a 2G featurephone cause the battery lasts a week. It's also funny to have the old ringtones go off.

New Nokia 3310 will be practically unusable in many countries, including US

Related Stories