Do you remember the Nokia 3310? According to legend, the phone stopped bullets, survived 1,000 foot drops, and produced more than its fair share of memes. The Nokia 3310, launched on September 1st, 2000, turns 20 today. The smartphone industry has come a long way since then, but it's hard to ignore the impact the Finnish symbol has made.
Here are some known and lesser-known facts about the Nokia 3310.
The Nokia 3310 was developed in Denmark
Although the Nokia 3310 is a Finnish icon, it was designed in Denmark by the Nokia team in Copenhagen. However, production took place in both Finland and Hungary.
The phone spawned a few flavors, like the 3330, which could be used to review WAP-based websites, animated screen savers, and an expanded phone book that could store a whopping 100 entries right on the phone.
SMS-style instant messaging
We may take thread messages for granted today, but the Nokia 3310 popularized the idea. It worked exactly as you can imagine, and you can continue SMS conversations on a single thread by scrolling through a crowded inbox.
The Nokia 3310 has gone one step further and lets you send messages up to 459 characters long. This was almost three times the size of a standard message. Of course, the message was delivered through three separate texts, but other Nokia 3310 users would pick it up as a single thread. Very clever.
AOL chat for the mobile age
Smartphones and apps were still in the distant future, but the Nokia 3310 brought another trend-setting feature with it. With the Nokia FriendsTalk service, 3310 users can log into chat rooms and create groups of friends for live SMS. The service is based on SMS technology so it works on most carriers, but even supports WAP in the US.
We have come a long way since then, and you might be interested in trying out some more modern messaging services.
Snake II: Legendary gaming
Nokia 800 Tough Review plays Snake
The phone came with four different games preinstalled. These included Couples II, Space Impact, Bantumi, and Snake II. The latter was a refreshing take on the '80s classic, Blockade, and was an instant hit.
The popular game was so popular that it was shown as part of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012. You can find clones of Snake II on the Play Store these days, but they don't quite make the feeling of clicking the tiny little buttons on the Nokia 3310 again.
Xpress-On with infinite customization
These days the only way to customize your phone is by using a wallpaper, case or skin. However, the Nokia 3310 has taken this to a whole new level. While Xpress-On covers debuted with the Nokia 5110 in 1998, the 3310 really took it to the next level. Thousands of covers have been released by various companies to capitalize on the success of the phone.
Between the interchangeable front and back panels, this was a phone that really let you make it your own.
National emoji of Finland
When Finland decided to choose its national emojis, the choices were obvious. In 2015, the tiny nation with the highest density of metal bands, saunas and the history of making one of the most famous smartphone brands chose a rocker, a sauna and the Nokia 3310 as their first emojis. The emoji was rightly called "Unbreakable" to channel the mind about how tough and resilient the phone was.
Since then, the legacy of the Nokia 3310 has lived on in redesigned modern remakes like the one released by HMD Global in 2017. However, none of these phones has captured the zeitgeist like the original 3310.
