A retro alternative to modern smartphones, the Nokia 3210 is preparing to make its return on the occasion of its 25th anniversary

The Nokia 3210 will be reborn in a more modern form in 2024. Courtesy of Nokia/Michael Brandtner/Wikipedia

The iconic Nokia 3210, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and which has sold some 160 million copies worldwide at the time, is getting ready to be reborn in a (slightly) more modern form. It will delight fans of "dumbphones", these phones with functionality reduced to the strict minimum.

It marked its era, with its attractive price but also its interchangeable shell, its customizable ringtones and its pre-installed games : the Nokia 3210 is back. S& rsquo;it will retain its original design, the 2024 version of the 3210 should however have a slightly larger screen (2.4 inches, compared to 1.5 inches originally) and color, a 2 megapixel photo sensor and a USB-C port for charging.

It will be 4G compatible and can accommodate a microSD card to improve its storage space. The icing on the cake is that the phone will still offer the famous Snake video game. Its release should be made official during the month of May.

The Nostalgia Map

This is not the first time that Nokia, now owned by the Finnish group HMD Global, has played the nostalgia card. For several years, the brand has increased the number of releases of revisited iconic models. This has already been the case with the 3310 and the 8110, each time slightly updated.

If this type of device is primarily aimed at those nostalgic for the brand's history, they also appeal to all those wishing to do without a time-consuming smartphone .

Hence the small success in recent years of dumbphones ("idiot telephones" in French), devices offering only basic functionalities, i.e. calling, sending and receiving SMS, benefiting from a calendar and some pre-installed games, a calculator and a camera.

These phones are aimed at anyone who wants to disconnect from notifications of all kinds and social networks. However, detoxifying from networks has today become a real marketing argument. Just like nostalgia.