Nokia 3310, the indestructible mobile phone: why it became an icon of the 2000s

by Tiziano Toniutti

Sold in over 125 million copies, the Nokia 3310 it was the heir to the 3210 (the first mobile phone from the Finnish Nokia not to have an external antenna). The 3310 was launched in 2000 and managed to dominate the mobile phone market, which was still distant from smartphones at the time. The 3310 in 2000 was essentially the ideal product: it perfected the 3210 formula, offering a simple to use, responsive and fast phone, with functions and “proto-apps” such as the calculator and notes, at a fair price. There are many characteristics that have made it atechnological icon and not just for millennials: above all battery lifewhich easily reached a week on standby and above all the legendary one indestructibility (the web is full of videos in which the 3310 is tortured in every way, always coming out fine). This is why we remember it with the techno-affection that is reserved for very few other devices, and why even today it is a perfectly usable object (certainly only for making telephone calls and of course for playing Snake), at least as long as pre-4G networks continue to be supported.