Nokia 5310 (2020)

I have been in this business for a long time now, and while new products are always exciting, I do miss the days when Nokia was at the top of the mobile phone market and releasing devices that were designed to be nothing if not different. While those days are now gone, we’re starting to see signs of the renewed Nokia, and that old fire that put them on top. Nokia sent over the 2020 edition of the 5310, a popular device in its day, so we got to see if there’s room for a device like this more than a decade after the original hit the market.

- Ren Alcantara

DESIGN

The new 5310 is almost a straight throwback to the classic 5310 design. It’s not a 1:1 rehash, as the new one has a few aesthetic updates to make it a little more current, but it’s clearly cut from the same cloth. It has the same candybar form factor of the original, with a keypad for input, and audio controls on either side of the screen. Our demo unit came in a fetching black and red color scheme, though it is also available in a gorgeous white and red if that’s more your jam. The phone is curvy and slightly matte, with a little weight to it. It’s done entirely in plastic, but the heft keeps it from feeling like a toy.

HARDWARE

The Nokia 5310 is a feature phone with a few extra tricks. This is reflected in the hardware the phone has. The screen is a 2.4-inch TFT with a pixel density of about 167 ppi, it has an astounding 8 MB of RAM, and 16 MB of storage, and GSM + Bluetooth connectivity. The battery is a hefty (for its size) 1200 mAh deal, and it has a VGA main camera with an LED flash. It might seem like a throwback—and it is, but it does have an ace up its sleeve.

USER EXPERIENCE

It wouldn’t be fair to go into a review of a phone like this thinking to compare it with current smartphones, so we’re going to look at it for what it is: a feature phone that’s a little extra. To be fair, I did actually plop my SIM card in it to use it for a few days as a daily driver.