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The Nokia 8110 4G is smarter than your average dumb phone
HMD Global did something special at last year's Mobile World Congress, stealing the show with... a feature phone. By making ingenious use of the Nokia name, having snapped that up the previous year, it 'relaunched' the Nokia 3310. The internet swelled with a nostalgia-driven fervor as HMD put on a masterclass in brand awareness. As expected, the company returned to the mobile show this year with another retro handset in tow, and for some reason waited six months to put it on sale. But the Nokia 8110 4G, aka the "banana phone," is now here, and it's not just another marketing exercise. Thanks to a jump in software, it's not your typical feature phone. But it's not quite a smartphone, either. Instead, it's something in between.
Google invests in OS that will put its Assistant on feature phones
Google has just invested $22 million in KaiOS, the company that built an app-packed operating system for feature phones. The move, which gives Google access to previously-untapped markets, will see KaiOS integrate Google services such as maps, Assistant, YouTube and search into devices, which are considered mid-point phones between basic phones and smartphones.
The Nokia 8110 Reloaded is HMD's latest retro feature phone
Many companies descend on the annual Mobile World Congress event to plug their first smartphone launches of the year. It's an established routine, but HMD Global undeniably stole the show in 2017 with, of all things, a new feature phone. Flexing its newly-acquired license to the Nokia brand, HMD put on a marketing masterclass by announcing a re-release of the iconic Nokia 3310. This year, it's attempting a similar trick, preying on '90s nostalgia with the new Nokia 8110 Reloaded.
The new Nokia 3310: What’s changed?
Who knew stringing four numbers together and slapping it on a feature phone could evoke such a strong consumer reaction in 2017? Ever since HMD Global won MWC by announcing the new Nokia 3310, millennials have been frothing at the mouth in anticipation. The hype is somewhat understandable. For many people, the original Nokia 3310 would've been a totem representing their first taste of freedom. An unsupervised connection to friends; a plaything for idle hands. Many things have changed in 17 years, of course.
The new Nokia 3310 is too basic for 2017
Nostalgia's a funny thing. It makes us leave the house in the dead of night to imprison a wild Clefairy and scramble over each other to buy an NES Classic Edition decades after we sold our original consoles for a pittance at yard sales. Companies are always finding new ways to push our sentimental buttons, and for HMD Global, that means launching a new Nokia 3310 more than 16 years after the original made its debut in 2000. But does anyone really have fond memories of a cellphone that was only good for calling your dad to come pick you up from school?
Dumb phone prices are no longer used to measure inflation
The UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) measures inflation by looking at price increases among products the majority of consumers are spending their hard-earned on. And every year, the lists of stuff the ONS cares about keeping track of, called the "baskets of goods and services," are revised to reflect changes in our spending habits. Over the past few years, music and video streaming services, set-top boxes, digital game downloads and PS Plus and Xbox subscriptions have all been added to reflect their broad popularity, while sat navs and rewritable CDs/DVDs have been bumped due to their dwindling relevance. This year there's only one notable change, with dumb phones being dropped from the list of influential tech products.
Say hello (again) to the Nokia 3310
The rumors were true. The Nokia 3310 is back. Courtesy of new brand owner HMD, the phone is returning with a mixture of 3310 charm and some specification upgrades. The good news: It's cheap (around $50), it has Snake, along with those nostalgic ringtones of yesteryear, and it seems pretty darn indestructible. It's an iconic phone, but one that's over 15 years old. That's a long time in mobile. Still, a lot of people are going to want one. Do you?
Microsoft sells Nokia's feature phone business to Foxconn
Microsoft has signed a deal with FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn to sell what used to be Nokia's old feature phone business. The outfit, that still produces low-end handsets like the 222 and 230, has been sold to FIH Mobile for $350 million. It'll now come under the control of the manufacturing giant that produces (pretty much) every device you can think of. Microsoft is also handing over a manufacturing plant in Hanoi, Vietnam, as part of the deal. In addition, 4,500 employees responsible for producing the devices will be given the opportunity to join the Foxconn family.
Microsoft keeps the candybar dream alive with the Nokia 222
There was a time when, if you'd told me I could buy a connected MP3 player with a camera that makes calls, for $37, I'd have suggested a little less "jazz" in your cigarettes. Today, in 2015, that's called the Nokia 222. Of course, this isn't really a media player, it's a feature phone aimed at developing markets. Despite the obvious limitations of a "2.5G" candybar running a bespoke OS (Nokia Series 30+), there are some features -- like month-long battery life -- that remind us that fancy-pants flagships can have their drawbacks.
Explaining Japan's feature phone fetish
The world's biggest mobile tech show has just finished. You were probably poring over all those new big-screened smartphones, but you still remember what came before those all-screen oblongs, right? When was the last time you saw a flip phone being used? Not a Nokia clamshell buried away in a drawer, or a Motorola RAZR dusted off by an older relative who charges it once a month, but in a train station, at a bar -- in public. For me, it was a few hours ago. I live in Japan (Hi!), and people here still carry a torch for the feature phone -- or at least, their version of it, the gara-kei, short for Galapagos keitai. ("Galapagos" refers to Japan's curious tech ecosystem that gave birth to devices that only seemed to appeal to its home country. Oh, and keitai means phone.) Last year, shipments of feature phones increased, while smartphone figures fell. Experts said this was more a one-last-hurrah boom than a new trend, but still, over 10 million of these simpler phones shipped in 2014. How are these phones clinging on in the face of obviously superior hardware and functionality? And who's still buying them?
This transforming phone is all heart, no brains
In Japan, people still use feature phones. But despite the smartphone revolution, dumb phone innovation is not dead. Not when a phone can magically, (Transformer-ly) convert from a heart shape into something approaching a chubby handset you can actually talk into. Imaginatively titled "Heart", it'll come to Nihon in both red and black options, and according to our Japan team, weighs a mere 54 grams. Curiously, it doesn't launch until after Valentines' Day (late March), but when it does arrive, the phone will also come with in a special Sailor Moon iteration, with magical wand dangly accessory and livery.
Microsoft's Nokia 215 is its cheapest connected phone yet
Since Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's smartphone division, it's shied away from debuting flagship handsets in favor of more affordable devices. That trend continues today with the launch of the Nokia 215, a $29 Series 30+ phone that Microsoft says is its most affordable smartphone to date. Unlike other handsets in the company's low-end range, the Nokia 215 can run apps like Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, Bing Search, MSN Weather and Opera Mini, giving first-time smartphone owners the chance to browse and share while on the move.
Japan: the country where flip-phones refuse to die
The buttons are easier to type on, the battery lasts longer, it's familiar. No, we're not talking about BlackBerry this time, but the Japanese feature phone. Glorious, folding forefather to the smartphone, and the form-factor that gave birth to gara-kei, a shorthand phrase for "Galapagos phones". It's a negative term pointing to devices that simply wouldn't survive outside of Japan. However, it's not stopped the country's biggest carrier, NTT Docomo, from revealing two new feature phone models (and a refreshed paint job for an older phone) just last week. Our Engadget Japanese colleagues were told by Docomo's spokesman that these phones are still so popular with some customers that they practically sell themselves -- many still enter their stores looking for a new flip-phone, not a smartphone.
Nokia is reportedly unveiling its low-end Android phone this month
If you're eager to get an officially sanctioned glimpse at Nokia's rumored Android cellphone, you may not have to wait long. Sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal claim that Nokia will unveil the low-end handset, currently nicknamed Normandy, at Mobile World Congress later this month. The tipsters haven't shed new light on the hardware itself, but they support beliefs that the device's customized interface will revolve around Microsoft and Nokia services while stripping out Google content. If the leak is accurate, Microsoft may be in an awkward position once it closes its acquisition of Nokia's phone business -- it might have to sell a phone using the very platform it has been trying to destroy. [Image credit: @evleaks, Twitter]
Cat's super-rugged B100 is pretty cool for a feature phone
I know, I know, it's a feature phone. But still, pretty cool as far as these things go. Granted, though, when we played around with the Cat B100, we had to get ourselves back into that pre-smartphone mindset (a phone without a touchscreen? Whaaa?). Like its older sibling, the B15, the B100 is as rugged as you'd expect of a device bearing the Caterpillar branding and a black-and-yellow color scheme. The B100 feels solid, owing much to its metal sides. The phone can take up to a 1.8-meter drop, and thanks to covered ports, can survive being submerged in one meter of water for half an hour. In place of the 15's touchscreen is a large-button keyboard, which you should theoretically be able to operate while wearing work gloves while on the job. On the rear is a three-megapixel camera and flash, along with a large speaker -- or you can just open up the headphone jack located on top of the phone. As for availability, well, we know it's coming to Germany and other parts of Europe this year. No word on if/when it'll be available here, though a rep assured us that more news would be forthcoming on that front later this year. Nicole Lee contributed to this report.
Google streamlines Gmail for featurephone web browsers
Google may focus much of its attention on smartphones, but it knows that featurephone owners deserve a good online experience as well. Accordingly, it just launched a revamped Gmail web app for devices where modern browsers and touchscreens aren't guaranteed. The new client requires fewer button presses to read and write messages; users can reply to email directly from the thread view, for example. While the need for basic webmail is disappearing as smartphones get ever cheaper, those who need (or prefer) a simple cellphone can try the new Gmail page today.
Nokia announces the 515, an aluminum Series 40 phone for $150
Do you have a hankering for an elegant featurephone but disappointed by the lack of attention the market pays to your particular demographic? Nokia's here to rescue you with the 515, a candybar Series 40 handset which has a chassis crafted with anodized aluminum, a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD panel covered with Gorilla Glass 2 and a keypad that features a new type of polycarbonate resin. The device measures 11mm thick and offers a 5MP rear camera with LED flash, 256MB internal storage, microSD support up to 32GB, Bluetooth 3.0, HD Voice and USB tethering, and will begin its global rollout next month in Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Poland. It has dualband HSDPA (900 / 2100) and quadband GSM / EDGE and will come in both single and dual-SIM flavors. The suggested retail price for such a package? 115 EUR ($150), which makes it more expensive than most Asha phones and featurephones currently on the market. It's interesting to see Nokia push pricier models with a premium feel, but if there are plenty of places in which this kind of phone is wanted and encouraged, why deprive consumers?
Nokia announces the 207 and 208: 3G data and month-long standby for $68
Smartphone sales may have surpassed featurephone sales earlier this year, but that's not stopping Nokia from releasing devices like the 207 and 208. Both feature a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, 3G (HSPDA, up to 7.2Mbps) connectivity, a stand-by time of over 30 days and a $68 price tag before taxes and subsidies. Where they differ is that the 207 has no camera (for security-conscious work places) and only comes in a single-SIM variant, while the 208 features a 1.3-megapixel camera and is also available in a dual-SIM flavor. Nokia wants to point out that these devices use microSIM cards, not traditional full size SIM cards, making them ideal as a second phone for when you want to "leave your smartphone at home." Meanwhile, if you're willing to sacrifice 3G, the 110 and 112 are even cheaper. Or, if you don't mind spending a little more, Firefox OS phones deserve a look too.
iPhone popular among first-time smartphone buyers
Believe it or not, many new iPhone owners are not customers switching from Android, but customers who have never owned a smartphone. These first-time smartphone buyers are choosing the iPhone, especially older models, at an increasing rate, says a report in GigaOM. According to data from Kantar Worldpanel Comtech that was given to GigaOM, an impressive 31 percent of new iPhone owners upgraded from a feature phone. This is up from the 9 percent reported in the previous year. Kantar analyst Mary-Ann Parlato told GigaOM that this large increase is due to the iPhone 4 and 4S, which are being offered for free or at discounted prices through carriers. iOS isn't the only platform attracting first time smartphone owners, Windows Phone is doing very well with this segment of buyers. Of those who bought a new Windows Phone, 42 percent upgraded from a feature phone. This figure isn't surprising as Windows Phone is priced competitively and marketed towards new smartphone owners.
These boots were made for talkin': O2 teams up with artist for 'walkie talkie' footwear
Sorry, Ms. Sinatra, but the headline parody was all too obvious to ignore. As part of its mobile device Recycle program, which allows users to trade in old handsets for cash, British telco O2 has commissioned local designer Sean Miles to give discarded featurephones a new lease on life. The end result? Four footwear designs - made from the likes of Christian Louboutins, Nike Airs, Hunter Wellingtons and a classic Brogue men's shoe -- replete with a fully functional phone embedded in the sole. We know exactly what you're thinking: Why would anyone want to hold a shoe to their face? Whether it's for the love of the arts, a penchant for public ridicule or a closer whiff of the ground below, we can't say for sure. What we do know is that this truly "mobile" kit(sch) will be up for auction later in March at a planned exhibition. But that won't be the last you'll see of Miles' unholy meshing of tech and apparel -- the artist also plans to branch out into gloves and handbags as part of the fuller O2 Recycle Collection. You paying attention, Weird Al? This one's for you!
