I switched back to a Nokia 3210 and found out dumbphones aren’t the problem

Nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool. There are certain trends, fads, fashions and products that can tap into our yearning for the past and our youth, no matter how old we are. When it comes to consumer technology, nostalgia marketing is relatively uncommon because companies usually try to convince you to buy the latest, most advanced products.

That’s why there’s a new version of the Nokia 3210, a phone trying to firmly tap into your fondness of yesteryear – 1999 to be precise. But the Scuba Blue 3210 (also available in Y2K Gold and Grunge Black, moody millennials) I’ve been testing only bears a passing resemblance to the mobile phone that may well have been in your pocket back when we were all worried about the millennium bug. The new device has Nokia branding, but is actually made by a company called HMD that licences the Nokia name (Nokia exists but no longer makes phones).

HMD is also trying to tap into the growing market for so-called ‘dumbphones’, mobile phones that can’t do an awful lot. The company claims: “the Nokia 3210 feeds into the increasing popularity and continued resurgence of feature phones as growing numbers of young people switch off and embrace the digital detox movement.” High aspirations for a phone that costs £74.99.

Would I be able to put my SIM in the 3210 and detox the heck out of my digitally addled brain? I gave it the best of goes. It’s harder than it sounds.

I’m disappointed the Nokia 3210 doesn’t look much like the original. That old phone was revolutionary at the time for not having an external aerial poking out of it, but many will remember it for the first time they ever played Snake, one of the most beloved mobile games. Though the old phone’s looks haven’t much translated into the new, sleeker 2024 version, thankfully a colourised version of Snake has.

A larger colour screen is even an upgrade here compared to the tiny monochrome display of the 90s model. You can see more lines of text, and SMS messages even come in threads so you can scroll through your conversation with someone – if you recall, this wasn’t possible on the first 3210 or many phones from that era. All text messages were individually stored, and you probably had to delete your whole inbox every few weeks as the phone’s memory filled up. Ah, that sweet nostalgic hit.

The new 3210 version has a comparatively beefier (but still tiny by today’s standards) 128MB storage you’ll struggle to fill up when all you can do is call and text. I did use the 2MP camera but it is quite bad – you can send these pictures if you want, though. Thankfully, call quality over 4G is great and this connectivity means this phone will remain usable when the UK’s 3G networks get shut down.

The whole point of this phone is to only be able to call and text and not be pulled into the time-suck world of colourful social media, news and games apps that everyone is constantly glued to, ruining their posture and mental health to boot. I reluctantly count myself as digitally addicted, and it proved a difficult transition to put my SIM in the 3210 and go cold turkey.

In the UK, many of us now rely on WhatsApp as our main texting app. That means I couldn’t just carry on as normal – the 3210 doesn’t have WhatsApp. It doesn’t have apps at all. It is a dumbphone by name and by nature!

Now, I don’t have a problem with that. But in 2024, no one calls me when they need me. And if they want to call, they probably WhatsApp me first. Or WhatsApp call me. This meant I was receiving WhatsApp messages to my still-logged in smartphone that was stowed in my drawer, but unaware and unable to respond.

Anyone wanting to go ‘dumb’ long term will have to explain their decision to their friends and family and make them all use SMS – text messages – again. I mentioned it to a few people and had some awkward conversations – many people like the idea of not having a smartphone, but when I told them what I was doing, many looked at me like I was from another planet (or at least time travelling from 1999).

I had to retrain myself to text using T9 again, but with predictive mode built into the phone I was actually pretty speedy. I waved goodbye to emojis though, and was no longer part of any group chats. I dealt with some acute FOMO at first but after about three days, I sort of forgot they existed. When I checked my smartphone later, I hadn’t missed anything important, but I realised I missed texting with my friends.

One thing I wasn’t concerned about was the phone’s battery life. With a modern USB-C port, the 3210 can be charged with the same cable I have for my smartphone and laptop, but I didn’t have to charge it until my fifth day of use, and even then it wasn’t that close to zero percent. It turns out phones still have great battery life if they don’t really do anything.

HMD has put a web browser and link to the Facebook website in the menu of the 3210 but they suck so much that I did not use them. The most I used this rudimentary internet was to look up the address of a pub, and it took forever. If you want to put a very effective barrier between yourself and internet use, this phone will do the trick.

I ended my time with the Nokia 3210 by convincing myself that I need my smartphone for work. I’m a tech journalist after all! My editor calls me on WhatsApp! I need to see what’s happening on Reddit! Actually, I could get round all that. The annoyances were more to do with not being able to easily access train tickets, my digital Tesco Clubcard, the Monzo app to move money. Podcasts. I even dug out my old iPod to get around not having Spotify to hand (that last part I actually loved, to be honest).

Give a dumbphone a go if you want. There are lots of them, and though the new Nokia 3210 is one of the better ones, you can find others for as little as £20. You’ll probably find that you can do without the internet and apps in your pocket to the betterment of your mental health. But the real hurdles are getting others to understand what you’re doing, and being able to go without the modern conveniences that smartphones have ingrained in our lives. It’s got to the point where it feels I can’t even decide to not have a smartphone, and that’s the real problem.

You can buy the new Nokia 3210 from HMD.