The aboriginal Nokia 3310 was appear 18 years ago today, and its acceptability for backbone fabricated us admiration why best new smartphones are not as tough.
Kevin Steinhardt
On September 1, 2000, Nokia appear a phone that would go on to become not aloof one of its best accepted handsets, but one of the best accepted adaptable phones ever.
Made of two layers of plastic, the allegorical Nokia 3310 concluded up affairs a absolute of 126 actor units (combining sales of the aboriginal 3310 with its several variants) over its lifetime. Fun fact: the aboriginal 3310 was never accessible for auction in the U.S., although variants like the 3390 did accomplish it to North America.
The architecture of the Nokia 3310 charcoal one of the best iconic in adaptable phone history. Its appearance accustomed anyone to get a acceptable solid grip. In an account with Metamag.org, the artist of the 3310, Tapani Jokinen, declared that the phone was created with what he alleged “a able iconic smile element.” You can definitely see that in the 3310’s keys and user interface buttons, all of which assume to smile as they attending aback at you. Jokinen said this was done to accomplish the phone attending added friendly.
In 2017, HMD Global, which now sells phones beneath the Nokia brand, appear it would absolution a new adaptation of the Nokia 3310. It retained abundant of the “smile” attending of the aboriginal but swapped out the baby connected affectation for a beyond 2.4-inch blush QVGA screen. Sales of the phone were allegedly acceptable abundant for the aggregation to barrage a 4G adaptation beforehand in 2018.
As accepted as both the aboriginal and rebooted Nokia 3310 accept become, the aboriginal became belled for its appearing indestructibility. Indeed, in the aftermost decade the appellation “indestructible Nokia 3310” has become one of the best acclaimed memes in the tech industry.
The meme got its start, like abounding added memes, in a Reddit thread. In December 2011, in the r/geek subreddit, a altercation labeled “The Terminator of cellphones” got started, with a being announcement an angel of the earlier Nokia 1100 phone, and claiming the alone way to abort it is to booty it to the fabulous volcanic lava of Mordor. In response, addition being acquaint an angel of the Nokia 3310 and alleged it “the Witch King,” a advertence to leaders of the Nazgul, Mordor’s angry ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings.
Reddit
The meme absolutely got activity after that ages in addition Reddit thread, “Nostalgia,” area a being acquaint an angel of an iPhone abutting to the Nokia 3310. The angel captions said the iPhone would “break the screen” if it fell to the floor, while the Nokia 3310 would artlessly “break the floor.” The acknowledgment got the absorption of assorted YouTube creators about the world, who bound acquaint “tests” to see how abundant corruption the phone could absolutely take. Videos assuming off the durability of the phone abide to this day.
Some of these tests were added acknowledged than others. One from 2017 shows a Nokia 3310 on the amiss end of a afire hot hydraulic press. Ouch.
The Nokia 3310 isn’t as “indestructible” as the funny internet memes suggest. However, there’s no agnosticism it’s actual abiding and can booty a assault and accumulate on working. So, area are the avant-garde “indestructible” smartphones?
There are absolutely smartphones out there advised “rugged”, like the ones from Caterpillar. They and added phones are rated as IP68 for dust and baptize resistance, which agency they should accomplish alike while placed in 10 anxiety of baptize for up to an hour. They should additionally survive avalanche of up to 6 feet.
However, lots of smartphones over the years accept bootless what’s alleged the “bend test.” This trend started a few years ago, after Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus started bending with accustomed use. Thus, the “bend test” was clearly born, and YouTube tech video creators still put out videos angle new smartphones. Some avant-garde smartphones anesthetized and others (ahem) didn’t. A few association filmed the angle analysis on the aboriginal Nokia 3310, and as accepted it stood up to the corruption acutely well.
However, with the barring of smartphones fabricated to be rugged, best avant-garde smartphones are artlessly not advised to booty a lot of abuse. Smartphone makers appetite to accomplish attenuate and ablaze phones, which agency application abstracts like aluminum and glass. That’s why there’s such a huge bazaar for smartphone cases — bodies accept learned, sometimes the adamantine way, that best smartphones are fragile.
Also, phones advised advisedly to be asperous are usually abundant added big-ticket than accustomed smartphones with the aforementioned accouterments specs, and they are fabricated for a specific audience: action and business users who booty phones to sometimes chancy locations. Those asperous phones additionally tend to be abundant thicker and added than their accustomed counterparts.
It’s accessible to accomplish a avant-garde smartphone as “indestructible” as the Nokia 3310, but it would booty a lot of assignment to accomplish article as boxy and absorb the thinness and weight we’re acclimated to.
University of Manchester
A actual band-aid answer for smartphones for some time is the use of graphene. First apparent in 2004, this “wonder material” is fabricated out of one-atom-thick bedding of carbon. Back layered appropriately it becomes abounding hundreds of times stronger than steel, but still acutely light. It’s been answer as a way to accomplish smartphones added durable, displays added flexible, and to accomplish batteries aftermost longer. However, so far its affiance has remained mostly in the laboratory, and there’s no adumbration back that will change.
Modern smartphones won’t be abnormally able or abiding for some time. The “indestructible Nokia 3310” meme will acceptable abide advisedly by annihilation avant-garde for a continued time — at atomic until a phone application added avant-garde abstracts assuredly causes a new trend in YouTube videos as bodies try to abort it.
Hopefully, the delay won’t be too long.
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