Whether you’re interested in jumping on the bandwagon of one of the biggest ongoing trends of ditching your smartphone or you’re just not interested at all in such gadgets, grabbing a feature phone can be all you need, even in 2024. That’s because feature phones, which are colloquially known as dumb phones, can be extremely durable devices despite their age and the time when they were released.
One major difference between dumbphones and smartphones is that the former ones didn’t need to be charged daily. That’s because those much simpler mobile phones had nowhere near as much hardware power as smartphones have, and, therefore, they could last a lot longer after a single charge. Feature phones are usually a lot more stable than smartphones, as the former ones rarely have any lagging and errors. That’s why a lot of people still prefer feature phones today.
20 or 25 years ago, society was relying on feature phones instead of what we now know as smartphones, and guess what? Everybody was completely fine. Furthermore, people were happier, more connected to one another in real life, and a lot more honest.
Therefore, if you’ve decided to buy a feature phone, let’s find out some of the best models that you could opt for! Most of the phones mentioned in this article won’t be easy to find in stores, but you can definitely find them on commercial platforms such as eBay. Let’s cut to the chase:
Nokia 1100:
The Nokia 1100 was the bee’s knees when it came out more than two decades ago in 2003. This mobile phone was one of the first to have a flashlight, and it had basic but powerful features such as alarms, a stopwatch, and text messages. The phone was robust, intuitive, and had an amazing battery life of up to 400 hours. That means over 16 days of battery life, something that it’s absolutely impossible for any smartphone nowadays.
Nokia 3310 (original and the 2017 version)
The original and indestructible Nokia 3310 came out back in the year 2000, while HMD Global, the Finish company that bought Nokia in 2016, decided to make a bit more modern version of the legendary phone 17 years later.
The original Nokia 3310 was famous for its durability, as it was easily capable of breaking nuts, glasses, and pretty much anything without showing any signs of damage. The mobile phone, which will soon be a quarter of a century old, was a game changer back in the day. It was small, intuitive, and powerful. And yes, it had the legendary Snake game, which kind of pops into our mind that moment you pronounce Nokia 3310.
As for the 2017 version of the legendary Nokia 3310, it is also very durable. It has a color and larger display that can also run a Facebook app and some MP3 songs if you insert a microSD card in it. It’s practically a “must-buy” if you really want a feature phone in your life.
Nokia 5310 (2020)
The original Nokia 5310, which came out in 2007, was a very interesting feature phone for its time. It was dedicated to music lovers, and HMD Global decided to make a new version of that legendary phone in the pandemic year of 2020. The new version is obviously an improvement, as it is simple and straight to the point. It can run a lot of MP3 tracks if you add them on a microSD card, and it has two large speakers that can even emit radio channels without the need to connect a pair of headphones.
Deciding which one was the best feature phone of all time was certainly challenging, as there were a lot of models out there. Either way, the phones mentioned here are certainly among the best of such gadgets, and we’re glad to see that there are still people interested in buying such devices.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
