Nokia is resurrecting the 8110: The cool banana phone is back

Nokia’s popular banana phone, the 8110 has been resurrected by HMD Global. The phone was very popular in the late 90’s, especially after it being promoted by Nokia in the film The Matrix. Back then, Nokia was the world’s leading mobile phone supplier and getting Keanu Reeves to use the phone in the film was easy.

For the millennials, to look cool and hang out with cool dudes, buying a Nokia 8110 was a must. Those who couldn’t afford the 8110 would go with the 7110.

The slightly curved 8110 uses its slide mechanism to enable the slide up to answer calls and slide down to decline/disconnect calls feature. On the other hand, the 7110 used a spring mechanism, and oh boy, it didn’t have the cool factor.

HMD Global wants to bring back the cool factor of the 8110 even though people won’t actually use it as their primary phone (a very few might). Anyways, it’s a good idea to bring back the old phone, as it will allow the company to connect more with people and also connect people, following the old Nokia’s motto “Connecting people” (lol).

It’s kind of sad to say that we don’t have a phone like the Nokia 8110 anymore, that is funky, cool looking and a niche product. Apple’s iPhone was considered to be a niche product but not anymore, almost everyone’s got an iPhone which is good but what about the cool factor?

Especially what about the teenagers, they need something to show-off. I do agree that, the scenario has changed, teens of this generation focus more on showing off themselves as cool on social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. It’s just a generational change, and its normal, but still it would be great to see new products that actually offer something new.

By the way, the Nokia 8110 runs on Smart Feature OS, it’s got it’s own app store, a notable app mention was “Facebook”. Third party creators could add more apps in the future but it doesn’t seem very likely.

The phone has LTE connectivity which is great, it’s got a Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform processor, 4GB of storage, and 512 MB of RAM. It’s also got a 2MP QVGA camera on the back for your Instagram portraits (just kidding), and according to HMD, 25 days of standby time. As a bonus, the company has also added a revamped Snake game.

The Nokia 8110 also comes in a dual SIM version. It goes on sale in May for $97 (79 euros).