Sorry for linking to a long picture (why this isn’t an article I don’t know, but bear with me for a second), but this is an excellent overview of some of the crazy hardware experiments Nokia has performed during its golden years. For me, this is the best device Nokia ever made – and also, my personal best and favourite mobile phone I’ve ever owned. You hear people talking about how solid the iPhone 5 or the HTC One X feels? Fisher Price compared to the 8800. They don’t make ‘m like that no more.
Yeah, Nokia used to be pretty cool.
The one phone that I absolutely loved was the Nokia 6310i. I would exchange my current smartphone in a heart beat for a new 6310i.
This article right here. This is why Nokia was always kind of mocked in the USA. Side-talkin’. A gaming device that requires a battery pull to change games. A leaf phone. It was never cool to have a nokia.
Remember this is the list of “weird” phones, for every one on this list, they brought out 5 to 10 more “normal” phones, each of which was rock solid. The point is, Nokia weren’t afraid to innovate
True, but you also have to remember that the only nokia phone marketed in the US from about 2000 until the lumia was the N-Gage. Its not reality, but perception based on Nokia’s marketing.
Thinking about it, I don’t recall seeing any marketing for anything other than the NGage here (The UK) either, but somehow they managed to be #1 for most of the decade. And that marketing was almost exclusively to gamers, trying to lure them from Nintendo and Sony rather than trying to lure phone users from Ericsson or Motorola
I think it just became the safe choice for most, like the old “no-one ever got fired for buying IBM” mantra, I think everyone who didn’t want to take a risk on a new platform got a Nokia, knowing it would be easy to use. Perhaps this is what led to their downfall, not knowing how to market themselves to people to switch from whatever they were previously using, so once people began to switch to the new platforms (iOS and Android) they had no clue how to get them back.
The Nokia 7650 was the coolest phone to own back in the day. Nokia N95 was also pretty cool, but only for a few months, before the iPhone appeared.
+1 to 6310i: battery would last weeks, solid as a rock, os was still a version of symbian designed for the hw specs it was actually running on (i.e. fast and zippy)
6310i used S40, maybe S30 – which are most certainly not Symbian, but run on a separate Nokia OS ( http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/6310i/ plus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_OS & its links)
Edited 2012-10-12 20:09 UTC
+1 from myself and a few people I know.
You can easily buy refurbished Nokia 6310 models on ebay for about $40.
Their toys are practically indestructible. I’m not sure what your point it.
Indeed. Fisher-Price was (and still is) a byword for indestructible toys. Thom’s got it precisely arse-ways on this one.
If a new phone was released today with no brand name on it then you’d be hard pressed to know who made it or what O/S it ran. They all look pretty much the same. Bring back the days of innovation with a mixture of designs. It would be great to have another Communicator type device.
I prefer the old candy bar models. My son uses my old 1101:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_1100
It’s a phone and not much more, but it’s very easy and quick to use, simple. Just grab it, press ‘n’ hold a speed dial number and it makes a call.
You also never had to worry about making it to the end of the day with the battery.
So, when will we see shell replacements for dominating crop of smartphones, bringing back that 1100 (or 3310 …Series 30 generally) kind of experience?
Who knows, maybe they’ll have better luck than Litestep and such from a decade+ ago…
Keep an eye on Chinese sellers on eBay! My wife gets their stuff from them. Certainly iPhone covers, they have a huge selection.
Including shipping costs a lot cheaper than here in a shop. It just takes some time to get here.
What? I believe you misunderstood what kind of shells I mentioned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_shell_replacement
(unless you took what I pondered further, and you suggest that smartphone covers will have tactile “bumps” on the front, on top of the screen, so that the simulation of 1100 will be more complete ;p )
PS. Generally, while mentioning Nokia 1100, you really should also point out that it has an integrated torch… (came in handy, few times, when I was using a borrowed 1100 for a week or two)
Edited 2012-10-12 21:38 UTC
The torch was a feature I ridiculed when I was about to get my 1101, but it turned out to be a great thing!
The 8800 was bloody expensive when it first came out, if memory serves me right, and I think there was one model that came out after that was even better built. Can’t recall the number, but it was similar to the 8800 but had a sort of matte titanium/gunmetal grey finish. Didn’t smudge as much as the 8800.
But yes, I agree for the most part. Nokia made very solid hardware back in the day. the amount of abuse/accidents my banana-phone (sorry, can’t recall the number… the one they used in the first Matrix film) went through in 3 years of ownership would have decimated an iPhone or Galaxy in 3 days.
Actually, they probably even make decent hardware nowadays, at least in the high-end segment. The girlfriend just got an iPhone5, and it doesn’t even feel quite as well built as my N9 (made in Finland, btw). Shame they abandoned Meego, though.
It’s possible you’re thinking about… 8800 – it seems there were a few styles of the exterior (for example http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/8800_C… but expand the list)
BTW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_8110
That phone in the first image sure doesn’t look like 5110…
And boy did I hate it! (bet y’all thought I would reminisce how great it was :-p)
Then I got a Nokia 6110 which was literally indestructible… and played Snake all day, telling everyone they copied it from the Apple ][ Snake Byte.
Edited 2012-10-09 20:38 UTC
My all time favourite Nokia product is not even in the picture. Here you go: http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/821844/18115802/372659636.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M61_gas_mask
I never really liked any of the Nokia phones apart from the 3310 and the 6300. I was more of an Ericsson kind of guy.
Speaking of which, the Ericsson T28 remains – to this very day – my favourite phone. Everything else I’ve tried since then feels like a let down.
I had one. Great phones but very expensive.
They had tablets years ago. The n700, then the n800, then the marvelous n810, later one with wimax 4g years ahead. Sunlight readable transflective screen. Browser, bluetooth, wifi. And then the n900 phone which led to the n9. My samsung galaxy player finally comes close. And the n950 – the n9 plus slide-out real keyboard, like the n900 and n810. Oh, the n810 had a kickstand so didn’t need an easel.
Then came ++Elop…
I’m awaiting Jolla. They could sell the n950 tomorrow and blow Lumia sales out of the water.
Nokia sure used to make some great phones. I used my 7110 literally for 10 years and had to change it very reluctantly when it started developing problems. Even after 10 years, it looked none the worse for all the abuse it took.
The Nokia 888:
http://www.nokia888.net/
The Nokia Morph:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Morph
Those 2 phones just show how much our current phones, be them smart or dumb, suck ass.
If Nokia would release the Nokia 888 it would get back it’s #1 status instantly and for 10 years.
Non-existing “phones” show how much our current phones suck ass – existing phones which are actually practical, useful, and overall doing their job?
(NVM how its debatable if those two concepts will ever be very practical; humans tend to be quite horrible at predicting the future http://www.osnews.com/permalink?523521 )
Though, funny, the UI of Nokia 888 is not only quite a bit in the spirit of Windows Phone & Metro …also one of the messages resonates with “What do you want to do today” Microsoft slogan
I must admit that my Nokia was^H^H^H IS a rock solid device.
I owned a 3310 which I left fall almost 20 times. Breaks into small pieces, rebuild it in the dark like a gun @ the army.
But the indestructible one is my Alcatel One Touch Easy.
Still working with AAA accumulators. As big as a cabin.
Fall in the water, no matter. Fly from the window of my car ? No matter (really true, I was leaving a parking lot and the phone goes out the car!).
This phone can almost block the wheels of a truck stuck in a steep street.
… although I really did but the relationship did not last forever. Used 5110, 7710, 6210, 6310i and so on. But as much as I loved them the later models became less and less stable/usable. Mother’s Nokia locks up, crashes in so many ways you wouldn’t believe. And they continue to sell the model. I believe it’s C3-05. One basic model 3000 something would not even charge properly. They never fixed it. So much for the glory of Nokia.
The most indestructible phone I ever had was a Nokia 6250, which was basically the same as the venerable 6210, but completely waterproof and shock proof.
There have been a lot of splash-proof phones since then, but this was the only phone I have ever seen where the instruction manual said if you get it dirty, then run it under the tap for a few seconds.
Unfortunately it died after I used it for about 5 years.
my favorite Nokia “concept”
http://www.mobilitysite.com/2006/10/nokias-aeon-full-surface-screen…
(few months before introduction of iPhone)
and later, after iPhone introduction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-gTobCJHs
go, go Power Nokia! …
…so sad.
I also enjoy in Nokia phones System 80 – they was really great!!
after shuting down System 80 phones, Nokia E61 was my last Nokia that I used and only than I realize how much System 80 was superior to System 60…
Edited 2012-10-10 18:34 UTC