HMD Global announced it’s bringing back the Nokia 8110 feature phone at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress.
The “slider phone,” which was first popularized because of its appearance in the 1999 film “The Matrix,” is following the footsteps of the 3310, the other historic phone Nokia brought back last year.
The Nokia 8110 is not meant to compete with the rest of the smartphones in the market, but it’s still packing some modern technology, which might make it a nice companion to a more full-fledged device.
Business Insider went to Nokia’s booth at Mobile World Congress to take a closer look at the “bananaphone” – here’s what it looks like:
The phone has actually a slick design.
When you first pick the phone up, the slider is closed, hiding the numeric keypad.
Half the phone shines in its yellow color, while the black top is only tarnished by the Nokia logo up top.
The dual-tone, as well as the curvature, give it a distinct look, which is certainly different from that of most modern smartphones.
Slide the cover down to reveal the keypad.
When you slide the cover down, the phone "elongates" revealing the keypad.
This move, which effectively works as the phone's substitute for the sleep/wake button, will also turn the screen on.
The yellow colour helps the phone look like a banana.
This is what the phone looks like from the side...
It looks even more like a banana when the slider is down.
There are features even modern flagship smartphones lack.
Up top there are two features rarely seen on modern smartphone, for better or worse.
The new 8110 charges via micro-USB, which has been almost entirely been replaced by the more modern USB-C.
But there is a headphone jack, which works both for listening to the built-in FM Radio as well as MP3s users can load onto the available 4GB of storage.
There's also a camera.
Don't expect to one-up your mobile photography skills with it, but the 8110 has a flash-equipped 2-megapixel camera around back.
The interface is rather simple.
As expected, the user interface (UI) - based on a proprietary operating system, KaiOS - is rather simple.
There are a few apps, like messages, camera, calendar, and contacts, which are arranged in a 3x3 grid, and users will mostly navigate the UI with the central button.
The processor inside the 8110 is a Snapdragon 205, which Nokia says will guarantee for 9 hours of talk time and over 3 weeks of stand-by time.
The app catalogue isn't as small as it might seem.
There are also more modern games and apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Maps, which will take advantage of the built-in WiFi and 4G technologies, as well as HTML5 support.
Yes, you can play Snake.
But of course the one game everyone will be obsessed with is Snake - which is indeed present, and as fun as always.
There's also a browser!
Users will probably not spend much time on the web, but there is a browser if you want to.
Nokia doesn't have an exact launch day, but the phone will go on sale this May.
The initial markets will be Europe and China, with a launch price of €79 (£69/$99).