Retro review: Nokia 6310i

Few mobile phones in history have been as dominant in their time or as sought after as the Nokia 6310i. It represented everything people wanted in a mobile phone at the time; it was fashionable, practical, solid as a rock and above all never stopped working. Take a look at the picture below- on the right you will see the battery indicator which is showing a 50% charge left. I had not used this phone for over nine months and still it can hold a charge for months on end with no problems. Also, I was given this phone by my employer just after they were released in 2002 and it has the same battery 8 years later (explains the dogged appearance in the photos as well). No phone before or since has held a candle to the battery capabilities of the 6310i.

The 6310i was released before smartphones were invented and before PDAs discovered any form of communication and so a standard phone like this was needed to talk to others on the move. This phone, and other models, gave Nokia a reputation for quality, stability and a user experience that no other company could match. It’s rare that I can say this, but every single feature of this phone worked perfectly. The huge battery life keeps it going for weeks of heavy usage, the screen is viewable in all conditions, the keys are easy to use and comfortable for long periods of texting and it feels perfect in the hand of next to your face.

I cannot emphasise enough how good this phone was, and remarkably how good it still is today. Find me another phone from 2002 that you can carry today and not feel stupid using- there is not one. It deals with email and supports the super fast HSCSD standard- when I say fast, 38.4 kbits/s was quick at the time. It has Bluetooth built in, WAP and Java support and can deal with picture messages. The monochrome screen is of course not suitable for media as such, but no other phones were at the time either.

There is not much I can write about a mobile phone from 2002 which was designed for voice calling and text messaging, but to this day no phone has come close in terms of practicality. It is the ultimate mobile workhorse and still sells for north of £60 on eBay. The Nokia 6303i is the nearest Nokia has come to replicating the good things found in the 6310i and is the best phone you can buy today if you need serious talk time and rugged performance. With 515 hours of standby, 8 hours of talk time and 30 hours of music playback you won’t be running out of power at the wrong time. However, 6 years ago was a lifetime in the mobile industry and I still marvel at how Nokia made something so perfect that is still cool in 2010.

I said that I would be looking at mobile devices that shaped what we use today in these weekly retro reviews and to me no standard mobile phone has come close to the 6310i, and probably never will.