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Neither new Nokia 3310 nor its cheap Chinese knockoff on Flipkart is worth buying

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DailyBite
DailyBiteMay 23, 2017 | 15:33

Neither new Nokia 3310 nor its cheap Chinese knockoff on Flipkart is worth buying

Is a phone even worth its salt unless it does not have a Chinese knockoff available within a week of its launch? If that's the set standard, then the rebooted Nokia 3310 has definitely arrived.

Earlier this year, the Finnish company launched a number of smartphones at the Mobile World Conference, but the one phone that stands out, is not an Android device – something that Nokia should have come up with years ago – but is a reboot of one of its most iconic feature phones, the Nokia 3310. The indestructible phone from our childhood now comes with a slew of features that were not possible 17 years ago, when it was launched. 

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The new 3310 has a 2.4 inch, 240x320 pixel display. The phone lets you use the internet with its 2G band and an Opera Mini browser. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a MicroSD card slot, expandable up to 32GB. The 3310 reboot has a 1200mAh battery that offers 22 hour talk-time and month-long standby time. The phone also comes equipped with a 2MP camera.

The phone that has been priced at Rs 3,310 in India (it kind of adds to the novelty factor of this nostalgia model) is slightly steep when you consider how other feature phones are priced in India. But worry not. A Chinese company called Shenzhen Darago Technology Ltd has introduced a  phone in the Indian market that looks like the 3310, has similar features and costs about less than a quarter of the price.

Darago is a mobile company from Shenzhen in China. It was established in 2012, and it works on developing, manufacturing and marketing mobile phones. On their website, they say, “We focus on the goods’ quality, we care about our customers, we think about what customers cares. So far, our products are exported to all countries across the world. The qualified quality, competitive price and satisfied service gained a good reputation and trust for us from our clients.”

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Photo: DailyO & Flipkart

Of course what they don’t mention, at all, is the fact, that they do rip off major phone brands. One of their smartphones looks like a not so subtle rip-off of the HTC One. Then again, subtlety is not their strongest suit. Case in point:

Darago’s Nokia clone device, which is also called 3310, is available on Flipkart (although it is out of stock right now), comes with a 1.77-inch display, a 10150 mAh battery, 1MB RAM and 8GB of expandable storage (microSD card) The phone has a 0.3MP rear camera, and support 2G internet. The clone also comes with a micro USB port (just like the Nokia 3310) and looks almost identical.

The best part, the phone costs only Rs 799. But is it worth it?

The out-of-stock message on Flipkart is a bit of an indication that at that price, people probably don’t care. But perhaps they should. According a report in the Economic Times, feature phones continue dominating the Indian market with a more than 55 per cent share. This is because people in small towns and rural areas have little need for or money to buy smartphones. 

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According to Preeti Desai, the country manager of Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), "India is still an anomaly compared to other markets when it comes to basic phones. As per our study, 75 per cent of feature phone users were from upper SECs (socio-economic classification) - middle-class section of the society, unlike popular belief that these phones are used only by rural sections. 

And when companies like Reliance Jio, Lava, and Micromax start offering cheap feature phones with VoLTLE services, these are products, one should definitely consider before investing, even when it is a product as inexpensive and common as a feature phone.

Ultimately, neither the 3310, nor its knockoff are worth a buy. 

Last updated: May 23, 2017 | 16:00
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