After the successful debut of Nokia 3310 in its full nostalgic glory, HMD Global – makers of Nokia-branded phones, decided to bring yet another classic back from the dead. The popular "Banana Phone" from Keanu Reeves' The Matrix film – Nokia 8110 – was re-launched at the lauded MWC 2018 in February but the curved slider phone made its debut in India just this month.
After a long wait, Nokia 8110 4G is finally available for purchase in India for Rs 5,999. The handset comes in two colours, the iconic Banana Yellow and Traditional Black, and it can be picked up from offline and online stores. Since the revamped edition of Nokia 8110 is a 4G handset, HMD and Reliance Jio are offering up to 544GB worth data free for its buyers.
With the Nokia 8810 4G, HMD is playing on the same level of nostalgia as it did with the Nokia 3310. But it is also offering some latest features that fully justify the price tag and current user requirements.
Nokia 8810 4G is powered by KaiOS, just like the JioPhone and JioPhone 2, which allows it to run apps like Gmail, Outlook as well as the classic Snake game. The smart feature phone comes with a 2.45-inch QVGA curved display, a slider that covers the physical keypad, and a 2MP rear camera with LED flash.
Under the hood, Nokia 8110 4G features a 1.1GHz dual-core Snapdragon 205 chipset, 512MB RAM and 4GB fixed internal storage. The handset supports 4G VoLTE with hotspot, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, FM and 3.5mm headphone jack for headphones. The phone packs a 1,500mAh battery, which the company says is good for up to 9 hours of talktime on VoLTE and 25 days 4G standby.
Clearly, Nokia 8110 4G cannot serve the purpose of a primary phone for most smartphone users, but it can be a classic secondary phone you'd like to show around among friends. And if that's the case, there's a lot cheaper alternative to the Nokia 8110 4G.
A device by the name BlackZone Neo 8110 (we see what you did there with "Neo") sports an uncanny resemblance to the Nokia 8110 4G. As for the price, it is 5 times cheaper than the Nokia handset, costing just Rs 1,049 on Flipkart.
But the low price comes at a cost. The features of BlackZone Neo 8110 don't even come close to what Nokia 8110 4G has to offer. Firstly, it's a 2G feature phone with a chipset clocking 1MHz, and 10MB RAM and 10MB storage. There's a microSD card slot to support up to 32GB, which is missing from the Nokia handset, but the in-built storage is good for saving messages and calls at max.
There is a 0.3 VGA rear camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microUSB port for charging. The features are pretty basic but it is hard to recommend buying this identical clone even at such low price due to the unfamiliar brand name.
