Nokia 3310 and Snake set to relaunch next month

Nokia 3310 and Snake set to relaunch next month
The new Nokia 3310 is smaller and lighter than the original and has some more up-to-date features.

Update: 03.05.2017: When the Nokia 3310 was unveiled at February's Mobile World Congress, manufacturer HMD was vague about its release date. And while the company is yet to confirm when the 3310 will go on sale, a technology retail site in Bournemouth has revealed a possible timescale. On the Nokia 3310 page on Clove's website , the delivery time is listed as "mid-June" and pre-orders are open now. It is unclear how reliable this is, and the price is higher than HMD originally announced (£59.99 up from £41), but does fit with HMD's "second quarter" claims.

The Nokia 3310 is back. Sort of. The iconic, indestructible phone has been redesigned 17 years after it first launched. The new Nokia 3310 is smaller, sleeker and reportedly has 22 hours of talk time with a one-month battery life on standby. And, of course, it comes with Snake.

There is a catch, though. While many of the phone's internals have been updated, the 2017 version of the 3310 will use 900 MHz and 1800 MHz – the frequencies typically used for 2G communications before mobile data and 3G became popular.
The Nokia 3310, complete with Snake

These are the bands used in most parts of the world such as Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia but they have been switched off in other regions – North, Central and South America typically use 850 MHz and 1900 MHz – and are gradually being phased out in other countries, too. This means the new Nokia 3310 won't work in regions where the frequencies have been disabled and could face problems in the future if they are turned off in regions where the phone previously worked.
Available in gloss red and yellow and matte blue and grey, the Nokia 3310 has a 2.4-inch colour screen, Bluetooth 3.0, an FM radio, LED torch, microSD card support up to 32GB and a two-megapixel camera. The 2.5G connection even lets you go online – albeit very slowly – to access Twitter, Facebook and other services through the Opera Mini browser.
The Nokia 3310 re-launch took place ahead of this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The handset is noticeably slimmer than the original Nokia 3310, which sold around 126 million units before it was discontinued in 2005. It’s also almost half the weight – the original was 133g, the new one is 79g.
The phone has been developed by HMD, which acquired a ten-year license to use Nokia’s brand name in May 2016. The company continues to sell a broad range of simple phones in developing markets, but the Nokia 3310 will be sold worldwide as a “digital detox” phone.
Priced at €49 (£41) the phone has a release date set for the second quarter of 2017. You can sign up to receive updates on when the phone is being released on at
nokia.com/phones . However, Carphone Warehouse has described demand for the new Nokia 3310 as "astonishing", adding it had seen an "unprecedented level of demand for a feature phone" in the week after the unveiling.
"There has been a groundswell of interest in the Nokia 3310 following the launch announcement of this reimagined classic," said Andrew Wilson, UK director of buying at Carphone Warehouse. "Levels of pre-registrations at Carphone Warehouse are incredibly strong, proving that it's not all hype and that consumers really want to get their hands on one."
Nokia 3310 specifications

∆  Size: 115.6mm x 51mm x 12.8mm
∆  Display: 2.4-inch QVGA screen
∆  Storage: 16MB storage with a MicroSD card up to 32GB
∆  Camera: 2MP camera with LED flash
∆  Connectivity: 2G, Bluetooth 3.0
∆  SIM: Dual SIM
∆  Ports: 3.5mm headphone jack and micro USB
∆   Battery: 1200mAh removable battery

The specifications of the original Nokia 3310 featured a monochrome graphic display, no memory card slot, no camera, no loudspeaker, no headphone jack, six ring tone levels, the option to store eight dialled, received and missed calls and a screensaver. The phone weighed 133g and measured 113mm x 48mm x 22 mm. It also didn't have Bluetooth, GPS or radio.
However, not everyone is enamoured by the new addition. Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight described the announcement as a "damning indictment of the state of the smartphone market that the world is so excited and obsessed with a retro feature phone that shipped 17 years ago.” Others have suggested Nokia has played a shrewd PR move by giving what is, in effect, just a new feature phone the name of an old handset.
It is part of a growing trend of 'retro' products making a comeback though. In recent years, sales of Polaroid cameras have increased (linked to the iCloud hacks and similar), flip phones have seen a resurgence and vinyl and record players are growing in popularity again.
Following Nokia's grand unveiling, Russian firm Caviar designed a model of the retro phone featuring a picture of Vladimir Putin. "The return of the iconic phone from Nokia has not gone unnoticed by the Caviar designers, who immediately after the appearance of official information about the new edition of 3310 introduced its own version of this phone design with gold, giving it a luxury, style and character of the Russian," the company said.
The back of the phone in the designs is black and a gilded image of Putin is engraved into its rear.