THREE new Nokia smartphones — the international variant of the Nokia 6, the Nokia 5, and the Nokia 3 — were announced by HMD Global at MWC 2017, the year’s biggest phone show. But it was the Nokia 3310 reboot (click for complete specs), a dumb phone like the version from almost 17 years ago, that had the tech community talking during and after the event, for better or worse.

You can’t blame the media. Nostalgia is a powerful feeling. More importantly, it sells. The old Nokia 3310 was known for its swappable casings and almost laughably insane durability and battery life and affordability. And arguably the most memorable mobile game of all time: Snake.

Nokia 3310 reboot’s official video

The new 3310 touts all that, plus a 2.4-inch color screen and a web browser that can access your Facebook and Twitter accounts at a press of a keypad button. There’s also a camera on the back for when you absolutely need to snap a photo of something, and your smartphone isn’t around.

SEE ALSO: It’s official: BlackBerry KeyOne is first true phone for Crackberries

The 3310 is as spartan as handsets come (and as you remember it to be); it doesn’t have WiFi and GPS built into it, and it doesn’t have an app store.

The upside is that battery life should be pretty stellar — roughly 22 hours of talk time or one month on standby. It’s plenty cheap, too, with a price tag of 49 euros (about P2,600 or $52). It’s priced to be an impulse checkout, an entry point into the entry point of handsets, or simply a phone that doomsday preppers would purchase and store in their bunkers, hopefully never to be seen again.

The relaunched Nokia 3310 is expected to drop sometime in the second quarter of 2017. If you’re going to bet on nostalgia, as opposed to a dirt-cheap smartphone that can make your life more enjoyable and convenient, it may as well come in a Nokia box, right?

Main image via Flashfly

---