Nokia relaunches the iconic 8110 mobile device
Finnish startup HMD Company have rebooted another iconic and classic mobile device from the 90s.
The Nokia 8110 4G, a new, updated version of the classic 20-year-old phone. Comes in the market exactly a year after the same company relaunched another 2000-era cell phone successor to the popular Nokia 3210.
First launched in 1996, the original Nokia 8110 popularised the “slider” phone and in 1999, it appeared in the iconic sci-fi action movie The Matrix.
Like the original 8110, you can answer calls on the new 8110 4G by flicking open the case, and hang up by snapping it shut – which is, for anyone who wasn’t around in the ’90s – the most satisfying thing.
The phone, which is offered in banana yellow and black, will retail at Sh10,000 and it comes loaded with a new version of the game Snake.
‘BANANA PHONE’
It was released along with other four new Nokia phones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The classic model’s curved case also earned the nickname “banana phone”, which Nokia alludes to in the bright yellow colour of the new model.
The 8110 comes with 4G, and a handful of apps, including Google Maps, Facebook and Twitter. But it doesn’t have a flashy operating system and users won’t be able to download other popular apps.
Nokia marketed the original 8110 as “the first of its kind in terms of its ergonomics.” Its battery lasted up to six days, and it was able to store 16 ring tones and up to 324 names and numbers and the rebooted version can go up to 25 days in standby mode.
Nokia used to be the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, but it struggled to adapt to the era of smartphones and compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung.
Microsoft purchased the company’s handset business in 2013, but later unwound the deal.