Throwback Thursday: a very special hands-on

There’s no doubt that the mobile phone industry has changed considerably since the turn of the century and in 2002, the concept of a smartphone was considerably different to the powerful beasts we know and love today.

Back then, three companies ruled the industry – BlackBerry, Motorola and Nokia – and for the latter of these, one handset would introduce a feature that would be iconic even to this day. Today, we’ve got something ultra special for you – hands on with the grandaddy of the smartphone: Introducing, the Nokia 3410!

The other day, I was searching through an archive of mine and I found this phone in PRISTINE condition, having been used for just a few days before I put it away 13 years ago. The handset itself is one of the most iconic ever made by Nokia for a plethora of reasons but 13 years later, how does Nokia’s flagship of 2002 stack up in today’s rather-more-demanding environment?

Let’s kick things off with the display and this display is SO impressive, there’s no official classification for how big it is. The monochrome display supports 6 lines of text and has a resolution of 96 x 65 pixels which was considered impressive for a phone from this era.

Beneath the display we have this iconic T9 keyboard that lights up in yellow like the display and the keys themselves are quite easy to press, although they do take a lot of getting used to compared to today’s touch screens.

Thinking back to mobile phones of this era, there’s a common misconception that they were heavy and thick bricks. I’m also guilty of this but what is quite surprising is that while the Nokia 3410 is thick, it’s quite light compared to today’s flagships.

At a weight of 114 grams, it’s lighter than almost all smartphones of today’s era, except for something like the vivo Air LTE, which weighs under 100 grams. The word brick is definitely apt though as at 22.5mm thick, it’s almost the same thickness as the Galaxy Note 5, Xperia Z5 and the Nexus 6P combined!!

Moving to the back and phones of this era had no cameras or speakers on the back. Instead, we had removable XpressOn covers that allowed you to customise the design of your phone. Under the back, we’ve got a removable 825 mAh battery that lasts for a lot less time than current handsets and a SIM card slot. Look at the SIM cards from that era compared to SIM cards used in current handsets and you can see how much technology has changed in the past decade.

The Nokia 3410 was definitely a firm favourite of mine in the past but looking back on it now compared to modern smartphones, there’s only one feature I think that I’d like to have in all its glory. I am, of course, talking about Snake II!

Be sure to check out the video above for a hands on demo of Snake and if you’d like to see how the game has been reinvented for the modern world, check out Snake Rewind for Android!

So there you have it, a very special hands on in honor of one of the most iconic mobile phones ever made. Did you have the 3410 in the past? What other old phones did you have and do you have any that still work? Let us know your views in the comments below guys!

We’ll leave you with the flagship specs list: