HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, had earlier this year proudly announced a classic re-imagined Nokia 3310, perhaps Pakistan’s favorite phone, in partnership with Jazz from 16 June 2017. What followed was an influx of Pakistanis raving about the revamp and sharing their sentiments online.
The hammer / brick / wall hole maker is back
#Nokia3310isBack pic.twitter.com/NJELuzJMon— Hamza Yazdani (@HumzaYazdani) June 20, 2017
#Nokia3310isBack guyssssss ?
?????? pic.twitter.com/fgbaUVNyyP
— Sadiya Azhar (@SadiyaAzhar) June 20, 2017
The Nokia 3310 long regarded as the indestructible cellphone, at least as far as the internet is concerned, is one which has gathered a die-hard cult following through memes, social media and image boards to the point that it has become a legendary piece of tech representative of everything tough and long lasting. It’s a trait that is especially notable in the modern world of disposable smart phones which are high in power but often low in durability.
But was the Nokia 3310 really all it was cracked up to be. What led to it becoming such a symbol of robust mobile tech to the point that Nokia and HMD tech introduced it as a brand new feature phone in 2017.
Fast forward a decade from the release of the phone in the early 2000’s and one could see a huge influx of images regarding the 3310. One would assume that the Nokia 3310 was the most popular phone at the time, if not all time, given its cult following and legendary status, but it turns out that it is not even in the “Top 10 Best-Selling Mobile Phones” List, coming in at number 12 or so. If this is the case, then why isn’t the Nokia 1100 the subject of all those memes? The 1100 seems the more worthy candidate, warranted by its sales numbers alone.
When comparing the two side by side, the 1100 seems to be just as well built a phone as the 3310. Though they were released a few years apart, their feature sets are mighty similar including many of the same exact applications games and technical abilities. The 1100 even has a leg up in terms of resolution and world wide network availability. Which led to it being a main stay of low cost network providers up until 2009, while the Nokia 3310 could only maintain this status till around 2005.
Furthermore, one of the very first indestructible Nokia memes from 2001 actually shows the 1100 instead of the 3310.
However, it should not really matter what exact model of Nokia Phone should warrant said legendary status, as a huge demographic of people from a certain age have had some experience with a Nokia phone that looked pretty similar. As all of them shared the same design language, features and more often than not the iconic game “Snake”. It is fact that most of us have at least had, or encountered someone with, a story of the phone stubbornly holding its on in the face of destruction.
Whether it is being flushed down a toilet, falling off the roof of a building, or stopping a bullet, there’s seems to be no dearth to Nokia Phone stories surviving absurd odds. This warranted a huge sense of Pride for the company, especially given the fact that the Nokia 3310 got its own exclusive emoji in Finland in 2015 called appropriately enough “the unbreakable”.
The 3300 series can be seen as a time capsule, reminiscent of a more innocent era in technology. Wherein even the most basic electronics were still thrilling. Even if these things were relatively cheap and plentiful, one could play snake and even make custom ringtones on the device.
Collective memories and a hefty dose of nostalgia is why the phone matters. The 3310 may not be the best selling, the most robust or the exact handset you had but it represents all of these things in one concise package. The 3310 is a lot like the floppy disc in pop-culture these days, more of a symbol than it is and absolute truth. The floppy disc is the international symbol of saving despite its unreliability and the 3310 is the international symbol of indestructibility tech, despite there being better selling Nokia phones and more durable Nokia phones.
If nothing else, it’s a fascinating thing to see a modern remake of a classic phone in this day and age which arguably wouldn’t have happened if it was not for anonymous internet users posting and sharing memes, perpetuating a single idea. Whether or not the 2017 remake of the 3310 turns into anything is yet to be seen, but regardless the original 3310 phone is one for the history books and will no doubt remain a symbol of indestructibility in our collective consciousness.
