Nokia 8210, WAP and Snake: What 2000s phones did better

2000s phones: two weeks of battery and built-in FM radio

In the summer of 2001, a Nokia 8210 with an 8 Kb modem and infrared was enough to make you feel like you were browsing the home computer. WAP promised internet on a monochrome screen, and the 7110 introduced the sliding cover that became famous in Matrix. The comparison with current terminals, suspiciously identical to each other, has peine the question: were those phones truly better, or do we simply remember them with a polished memory?

From the Nokia 8210 to Matrix's 7110

Those devices were bought for their design, not their technical specifications. The 8210 boasted infrared and an unbeatable price; the 8850 was the same phone with blue backlight and a titanium casing; the 7110 added WAP and a scroll joystick that Nokia copied from the mechanism the movie Matrix used for the 8110. Each model had its own personality, and brands took risks in new formats.

Why did 2000s phones last two weeks on battery?

Because they didn't drag on with screens staying lit, constant notifications, or background applications. Waiting two weeks was normal; there were warning LEDs, built-in FM radio, and the battery could be replaced in seconds. Part of the analysis holds that the disappearance of the 3.5mm jack, LED, or radio was due to deliberate decisions made to shorten the device's lifespan and increase consumption.

The 2-megapixel camera and fine print

The enthusiasm comes with a cost. Anyone wanting decent photos and videos needed to buy a separate digital camera, which wasn't cheap at the time. SMS messages cost around 0.20 cents, browsing WAP was expensive, and the numeric keypad wasn't exactly agile. Some dismiss the discussion by calling those phones useless gadgets and attributing all the merit to nostalgia.

And that's where it hits a snag, because no one takes the reverse step: WhatsApp doesn't work even on KaiOS, much less Symbian or J2ME, and it doesn't run on Android below version 6. You can miss the past. Going back to it, for now, not really.