For a while now, HMD Global has been trying so hard to win back the Nokia fans of old by bringing back all the memories with reincarnations of the Nokia brand’s past hits.
That’s how we’ve had the Nokia 3310 2017 model with improvements being made in the way of network connectivity options (3G that barely existed two decades ago). That’s why we’ve seen a re-emergence of the then-popular Nokia C series, this time as smartphones powered by Android.
The latest classic Nokia phone to get a new lease of life is the popular Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. That device, unveiled 3 months ago, is now available for purchase in Kenya for Kshs 5,000.
For that amount, unlike with the C-series devices, you’re not getting much since you’re in feature phone territory and your expectations shouldn’t be a lot. There’s no Android anywhere (Series 30+), let’s get that out of the way first, just in case such a story appearing on an Android-centred publication already had your antenna up.
Then, there are the 8 megabytes of memory, 16 megabytes of storage you’re getting that can be doubled with a microSD card, a tiny 2.4-inch display that is nothing to write home about – as is the VGA camera (hey, it has a flash you can always use as a… flashlight when Kenya Power does its thing or such circumstances).
The upside, which may make it appealing to anyone who’s already on the smartphone side of things, is its music-centred focus which combines with highly rated endurance to ensure you may never run out of juice to listen to your favourite tunes or radio show (there’s a whole new media player – remember when that used to be exciting to hear?).
Should you not be working as a mobile money agent and actually get it to make calls, you are guaranteed over 20 hours of talktime and a similar number – of days, this time around – when on standby.
You see, it’s hard to view the Nokia 5310 (2020) objectively at a time when efforts are being made to narrow the gap between smartphone and non-smartphone users in the country. Even more, that it has dual-band 2G, which makes it a good fit for most of our rural folks and certain use cases, that still eats into the agendas of those trying to get everyone on the 4G-side of life by all means.
Then there’s the bit where for its asking price, Kshs 5,000, one is not lacking in the way of options from the likes of Safaricom (the Neon series), itel and others.
