Ever since phones became smart, other people have been buying “dumb phones” to take a virtual vacation from the super-connected online world. Increasingly, the quiet, low-tech world of the “dumb phone” is proving to be a great escape, especially if you spend too much time in the social city of a smartphone.
“Dumb phones” — which in the past were known as “entry-level phones” until Gen Z rediscovered them (and renamed them) — are necessarily low-tech cellular devices that resemble the first mini cell phones (think Nokia 3310, Sony Ericsson W58oi, and LG). Chocolate). In recent years, they’ve reinvented themselves as virtual detox tools, and Nokia, a stalwart of the industry, recently joined the dumb phone trend by releasing a modern Nokia 3210.
The 3210 costs £74. 99 in the UK (it’s not on sale in the US) and is based on the same entry-level phone that Nokia introduced in 1999. It brings some new features, such as a camera and Bluetooth connectivity. , 4G connectivity and, interestingly, a news application compatible with YouTube Shorts; However, this updated 3210 is still a far cry from today’s most productive phones.
To see if the dumb phone (or basic phone, as I’ll call it from now on, because “dumb phone” is a dumb call) still has appeal, I made the decision to test the Nokia 310 for myself. I didn’t just look at it, but gave up my smartphone entirely for a week to put the Nokia 310 to the test; I didn’t just talk, I walked!
Below, I highlighted five things I enjoyed about this stupid Nokia phone, as well as five things I missed on my regular smartphone.
As a disclaimer, this is rarely my first virtual detox, it’s my first optional choice. In the fall of 2023, I went on a 10-day nature hike and, knowing that I would be miles away from the nearest outlet, I bought a fourth-generation Nokia 105 so I could check in and let everyone know I was still safe.
However, it was a very low-tech cell phone, even according to basic phone criteria (for context: it is a third of the value of the 3210) and I bought it out of necessity and not by choice. All this to say that I have delighted. In the world of basic phones, but the Nokia 3210 was my most complicated test with this type of mobile phone since I had one.
Hi, my name is Tom and I’m a junkie. I always want my phone to be as close to one hundred percent imaginable as possible before I leave the space or office, like dropping to 0% during my trips to stores, leaving me unable to afford my phone. Yes, my smartphone gives me a lot of battery anxiety.
This is something new for smartphones, as feature phones lasted a long time without needing to be plugged in, and when I returned to the Nokia 3210, I was delighted to be free of battery anxiety.
I could use the phone I was looking for and end the day with just a few pixels less on the battery bar; I only had to grade it once a week. This is in stark contrast to almost all fashionable smartphones, which require daily charging.
As I mentioned before, the Nokia 3210 is rarely my first entry-level phone, but it’s a significant improvement over my fourth-generation Nokia 105 model that I liked: it’s much more future-proof.
The phone requires a USB-C cable, which is the norm these days, but feature phones have been holding off on microSD upgrades for a while now. The brick phone I bought a year ago had them.
A USB-C port means I can use a single charger for everything: headphones, e-readers, computers or tablets, headphones, and also some smartwatches, without needing to carry a separate one for the Nokia. When moving images from the phone (more on this later), I can seamlessly connect it to my computer with the same cable I use for my smartphone and tablet.
By adding a USB-C port to the phone, Nokia has future-proofed its 3210 and I’ve enjoyed every moment stored thanks to its fast charging.
When I mentioned my favorite things about the Nokia 3210, Snake was the first to arrive; I just moved it to number 3 to make it look a little more professional.
Snake is an old phone game and one of the few things I like about having a feature phone when I was younger. It’s so undeniable yet so perfect, undeniable to master but hard to master. Playing on a big, bulky smartphone is rarely much fun. same
For a week, Snake took over my life. In my free time with my smartphone I watch things: news, social networks, casual games, dating apps, puzzle apps, etc. However, every time I picked up the Nokia, I opened one app and only one: Snake. I’m pretty smart about that, too!
The most productive and worst component of a basic phone is that it simply doesn’t perform the smart task of keeping you in touch with the rest of the world; The lack of WhatsApp or iMessage means that you may not be up to date with your friends’ text messages and messages.
For some people, that’s the point of a feature phone, and for others, it’s the reason they stay away. But one thing I surely haven’t missed is checking my phone for random messages from all sorts of people across a collection of messaging apps.
I basically use WhatsApp for any and all forms of communication, but since each and every app of those days has some sort of built-in communication tool, I’m inundated with random unwanted messages on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and any. form of email. Array Strava, the list goes on. But none of this in the Nokia.
No, to be successful on the Nokia 3210, you need to know how to text me, which means I can keep the “invitation list” on my phone very small. No more random spam messages that day; He may be the hermit he wanted to be.
Polaroids are great nowadays, not only among hipsters, but also among other people who are almost normal. There’s an appeal to “cool, old-school” photographs, which show the metaphorical folds of the generation that used to capture them. Basic phones don’t exactly fall into the “old school” or even “cool” category, but they do have some sort of low-fidelity charm.
The pictures I took with the Nokia 3210’s 2MP camera aren’t very good. The dynamic diversity is appalling, the slightest burst of light makes them explode completely and everything is so blurry and grainy that they look like shots you would find in a diary. of an adventurer who disappeared in the jungle, nothing taken from a camera released in 2024.
But that’s what I like about them: they’re artistic and open to interpretation. JMW Turner is not my favorite painter because his paintings are easy to distinguish, but because his expressionist dirt leaves room for interpretation. And the same goes for this Nokia (I bet anyone who likes art, even vaguely, hates this comparison).
You don’t get that on smartphones. With high-resolution cameras, AI equipment to modify images, and software designed to locate the “perfect photo” dictated by boring algorithms, smartphone images can look sharp. . . but also absolutely bland.
No, I’ll stick with my selfies taken with my mobile phone, which make me look like a black detective with part of my face shrouded in darkness, or with my impressionist landscapes where nothing is clear, on the boring simplicity of a smartphone camera.
I was surprised by what I missed most about having a smartphone. Surprised and a little worried by what he says about me. . .
The most productive and worst thing about the virtual age is that it’s easy to Google the answers to things you can’t when you’re on the go. I’m not talking about vital things: “which railway lines are closed today?” (I live in London, the answer is usually “everyone”) or “when does the next bus leave?”(you just lost it), but they’re stupid things that you talk about regularly or don’t talk about after a few drinks at the pub.
Many of those things arise from disagreements between two passionate people who are sure they are right (I am one of them).
But when I was Nokia, I couldn’t just Google whether Holland and France had the same flag (they do in terms of color, but the former has horizontal stripes and the latter vertical), or whether it was Donald or Kiefer Sutherland who died tragically. that day (the first) or if the pink food coloring is made from crushed insects (it is).
I clearly got 100 percent of those cases right and more, but I couldn’t do it because I only had a basic phone. And my friends refused to use their phones to check the facts because deep down they knew they were wrong.
And yes, there’s an internet app, but you’re about to find out why I’ve never fallen into an internet rabbit hole while. . .
Despite all that we’ve lost in our modern, futuristic super-connected world, one thing we’ve gained is all the time we used to spend texting people.
It’s not something I didn’t forget growing up, but old phone keypads, which require multiple keystrokes per letter, require a lot of time to use. You get tired of your thumbs hammering letter after letter, on keyboards that Victorian orphans would make obsolete.
This is a challenge. I discovered my previous virtual detox and almost stopped texting other people to let them know I was alive and well on the Nokia 105 (pictured below) because it was taking so long.
Note that you have to physically press the button, just tap a screen where the letter icon appears. What an effort!
When I turned on my smartphone again, I felt like crying with joy at how simple, quick, and painless it was to use the on-screen QWERTY touch keyboard. I also noticed that my texts had become much longer, as it was easy to write replies to my friends: I stopped being the direct texter I was with the feature phone.
It was pretty straightforward to give up as much of the entertainment apps I had on my smartphone when I switched to Nokia. As convenient as they were, I didn’t miss being able to use Netflix to watch TV shows on the pass or the New York Times. App to play small puzzles between series in the gym.
Anyone who’s noticed my Spotify Wrapped numbers knows that I pay attention to a disgusting amount of music both one and both years (many hours, no fuss) and spend a good bite of both one day while the tunes are playing, either directly in my ears. or in the background. Somewhere.
Not with the Nokia 3210, though – I found myself stuck in silence most of the time. The phone has a radio and you can download songs to it for use with the 3. 5mm headphone jack, but I’m 20 years old, so I don’t pay attention to the radio or my own virtual music.
No, I pay attention to Spotify, and without that (or any other music streaming service) on Nokia, I still had no option to go without music.
Of all the stupid arguments presented in this article, this is the stupidest explanation for why you miss smartphones.
When I’m on the go, I never lose my smartphone and I know where it is. It’s not as big as some cell phones, but it’s big enough that I can feel which of my many wallets it’s in. Not so much for the small and svelte Nokia 3210.
This small, thin, compact device kept disappearing around me. I couldn’t gently feel which of my wallet it was in only because of the sensation of it digging into my leg; I sniff and feel myself as if I were preparing for a flight.
And let’s not even communicate my repeated attempts to lose it in my bag; I deserve to rummage and rummage through my backpack purse like a spelunker looking to locate treasure at the bottom of a mine. I missed my giant Xiaomi Mi Note 10, which has called itself with its giant body.
I’ll end this list the same way dumb TV screens end, with some unwarranted nonsense: What I missed most about giving up my smartphone for my friends.
While I’ve said before that hiding from a constant barrage of messages is a smart thing to do, a point I stand by, it also means I’ve missed texts from the organization and well-meaning messages from other people who didn’t know what they were. T on WhatsApp.
These include last-minute arrangements, invitations to events, and general registrations – everything I would have liked to see.
Sure, I’ve told more people that I was only reachable via text, but even that wasn’t enough all the time. In some cases, the text messages mysteriously only gave the impression when I put my SIM card back in my smartphone; I think it was because they were RCS messages, but I’m not too sure.
If there’s going to be a better virtual detox phone, I think there would have to be a way that allows you to keep receiving WhatsApp messages, because otherwise, you still have to stay on your “right” phone to see who’s looking to touch you. you.
Tom Bedford, deputy editor of phones at TechRadar until the end of 2022, after rising through the ranks from the position of editor. Although it has specialized in phones and tablets, it has also ventured into other technologies such as electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile games. and much more. She was founded in London, United Kingdom and now works for the online entertainment site What To Watch.
She has degrees in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working at TechRadar, he freelanced in technology, gaming and entertainment, and spent many years working as a mixologist.
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