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This really was a kind of hybrid phone for Nokia – which transcended the push into more ‘modern’ designs for the market (such as the Nokia 3210) and the old ‘brick’ style phones. Here’s the other things that made this phone special and a worthy entry into the phone museum:
Sleek Design: We’re convinced that the phone would still look fine today. The curvature of the handset when open (the slide moving downwards) earned the name: Banana phone, even though it wasn’t particularly yellow, or looked like a banana. But the slight curve was enough, compared to the straight lines of everything else at the time.
Messaging System: We kind of take SMS for granted nowadays, but the Nokia 8110 was one of the first phones to actually use the messaging system in it’s current guise. The monochrome multi-line screen allowed phone messages to be displayed with ease, instead of merely scrolling across.
Intelligent Menu System: Nokia had developed a very intuitive menu system which would survive for several years and as the de facto industry standard for the base handsets. It’s origins were certainly before this phone but allied to the good design, this became a very popular handset for many markets.
Battery Life: It was also at this stage where mobile phones (which previously suffered from bad battery life comparable to today’s smartphones), started to come of age as technology improved. To this end, Nokia actually bundled two batteries with the phone: a slimline battery and a standard one (which gave extra performance time). This practice was popular with some manufacturers, for instance Samsung to target both business and leisure.
What Happened to the Phone? The phone was originally released in 1999 with an amazing price tag of almost 1000 EUR. In time, this came down as the phone became more successful and as networks took it on, there were several iterations of this phone, NK502/NK503, Nokia 3110 for instance, although differential network naming was largely phased out after this. The phone perpetuated for a long time, it’s ‘banana’ status giving it extra longevity before Nokia started the successful push into the mainstream markets. The Nokia 8110 was truly replaced by the Nokia 7110 just a while later.
Availability: There still are some kicking around, but after a previous price dip in the mid-2000′s they really have taken back it’s vintage status, with models now on Ebay for £50+.
Buy Nokia 8110 on Ebay – Click Here!
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