The Nokia 3310 has a reputation of being one of the most indestructible devices ever crafted by humanity. It’s also woefully out of date and only usable in a handful of countries that still maintain a GSM network. It might not be easy to bring it into the 5G era, but you can at least convert it to work with modern chargers, thanks to [Andrea].
You might think this is a messy, complicated mod, but [Andrea] engineered it as a drop-in upgrade. He’s combined a USB-C port with a small plastic adapter that enables it to sit in place of the original phone’s charge port module. Contact between the port and the rest of the phone is via spring-loaded contacts. The only additional step necessary is popping out the mic from the original charge module and putting it in the new one. You need only a screw driver to disassemble the phone, swap out the parts, and put it all back together.
If you want to upgrade your own handset, [Andrea] is more than happy to provide the parts for a reasonable price of 25 euros. It’s almost worth it just for the laughs—head around to your friend’s house, ask to borrow a charger, and then plug in your USB-C 3310. You’ll blow some minds.
Once upon a time, it was big news that someone hacked a USB-C port into the iPhone. Video after the break.
I’ve often thought of buying a Nokia 3310 and using it for phone calls (for the novelty really), then I remembered, it’s very rare I get an actual phone call these days…
The only calls I get are wrong numbers and scam attempts. Everyone who knows me know I am deaf and can’t answer the voice part anyway. I get messages in text or email only.
I wonder if hearing aids come with USB-C ports
I only use phones for banking 2fa. it’s such an expensive pain to have to buy one and keep topping it up, then changing the number when the sim expires. they think we all need to be tracked at all times if there’s a murder in the area, can’t have the lower classes getting uppity and demanding privacy.
100% true.
Now show us something useful like putting a barrel connector on a smartphone.
That poor used-to-be bulletproof 3310.
Have you considered using Google Voice instead? The google voice numbers can get SMS messages.
There are know security issues with using GV for 2FA. More so than SIM cloning/swapping.
Sadly carriers have been dropping support for 2G networks and operating in frequencies that aren’t supported by these older phones. Most likely already would not function as phones on today’s networks.
Looks like old AMPS phone.
Anyone remember the old OKI-900 and the “hacks” for it ?
It was a level converter, custom firmware and a PC program.
Allowed you to listen in and track calls.
3310 was a gsm phone, aka 2G, not amps
Indeed, the ‘zines heralded the OKI-900 as the easiest way to do that… But I also remember listening to AMPS traffic on my Ericsson DH318 w/o a PC. Inputting the commands was a real PITA and you couldn’t track calls, but it was fun nevertheless. At least for my young 13-14y law-unaware self!
My Motorola PT550 “Digital Personal Communicator” was helluva tough too. It took a couple of falls from my car when I forgot I left it in the roof to search for my keys, got in the car and peeled off. I would have kept it but the wife says I’m like a crow and made me part ways with my olden phones starting with one pretty 8000.
Oh, and pretty easily hackable too. All was needed for the PT550 was a little piece of tinfoil to short two contacts and that was it and the MicroTac was even easier, needing just one special code dialed into it to put the phone in promiscuous mode. Endless hours of fun.
very cool! I wonder if someone did a display mod for it
I recently found my 3310 in the pocket of an old jacket.
It still had two bars of battery ;-)
Until Verizon shut down their old network (December 2022), I used a Motorola V60s flip phone. It would do AMPS and CDMA. I miss that phone since now I’m suckered into carrying around a modern smartphone. I’d almost find it worth it to go to a country that would still allow me to use my old phone just so I could use it one more time. At least I had enough foresight to record the ringtone and text tone from my V60s and it’s set up as my current tones on my phone.
Ah yes, the cheap Nokia phones of the early 2000s.
The Gameboys of the mobile phone world.
I remember how class mates had such models, those plastic bombers.
It was the time when those Jamba ring tones were all the rage in my country and when SMS was still a thing.
The richer kids in town had Sagem cellphones, I think.
Mean time, I still had been used to quality GSM phones made in early 90s.
Such as Siemens, Motorola, Philips or Hagenuk cellphones.
You know, those business models with PC link, internal data/fax modem and external antenna port.
It was weird watching the transition from well-built car phones to those cheap, little plastic things.
That being said, the Nokia Communicator was a noble exception here.
It was available since mid-90s and one of the first “smart phones”.
What were the models of those early 90s quality GSM phones, just out of curiosity? Those early ones were absolute bricks of a phone, or in some cases, several bricks of a phone. And the batteries were awful, unless it was a carphone connected to the car battery. There was nothing better about them compared to the early 2000s phones.
Normal people had no use for anything other than being able to call and send sms, the ring tones were just a bonus. The Communicator cost the same as a decent used car. I was able to have my own phone as a 16 year old when I moved for vocational school because Nokia and others made them cheaper.
Hm. Good question.
Right now I remember Motorola MicroTAC, Hagenuk MT-900 and MT-2000, Siemens S3 or similar, Philips Fizz etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_MicroTAC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagenuk_MT-2000
https://nat.museum-digital.de/object/199639?navlang=de
https://mobile.softpedia.com/phones/Philips/Philips-Fizz.shtml
There also were those cheap cell phones from Alcatel, I recall.
I remember them from ads of the time. Something like that:
http://www.altehandys.de/mobile/smartphone/phones/haupt-a-c/alcatel/oteasy.html
They were cheap, but still of better build quality than the famous Nokias that came afterwards, I would say.
On a second thought, the ordinary people of the time had no real need for quality cell phones in first place, maybe.
Having one was more of a gimmick, a toy, a gadget to them. A lifestyle item.
They had pagers and telephone cards for public telephone booths already, which were good enough for them.
So these Nokias were probably more than what they’ve deserved, not sure. 🤷♂️
How were those phones better than the Nokias that were available at the same time? And how were they of better build quality?
Normal people just needed phones that could make calls, and in some cases, send sms messages. No gimmicks there.
“They had pagers and telephone cards for public telephone booths already, which were good enough for them.”
Huh?
“So these Nokias were probably more than what they’ve deserved, not sure. 🤷♂️”
Double huh?
“How were those phones better than the Nokias that were available at the same time? And how were they of better build quality?”
Not better per se but they’ve felt like real handsets, for example.
The buttons were nice to use. They had metal plates and screws inside, not just plastic shells. They’ve felt worthy and well made.
Nokias felt like stuff from the bubblegum machine, by comparison.
Even back in year 2000, it felt strange to me to watch serious mobile phones to turn into oversized Tamagotchis.
When I got my own, modern cell phone in mid-90s it still felt like a slimlined wireless phone in terms of ergonomy (good).
It felt nice in the hand. It didn’t creak when being held.
The buttons were large and responsive and the display text wasn’t being pixelated.
It also was “stylish” or elegant by the standards of the day.
Not some brick that most people would think of.
“Huh?”
Kids/teens in 90s and early 2000 still could use pagers just as well.
The infrastructure for pagers was still there. Same goes for public phones.
In an emergency they could receive a message on their pager and go to the next pubic phone and do call back.
Aside from sending SMS “for fun”, there was no strong need to own a cell phone yet.
There were still alternatives everywhere.
“Double huh?”
Ordinary people didn’t need cell phones that did compare to business phones in terms of quality.
Mobiles were not mandatory to them yet, either.
Landline phones were everywhere.
It was a more analog world, still, at the time.
Why speaking about the 3310 Nokia??? The greatest nokia was at the 90’s ending the 3210… The first real unbreakable phone… 3310 was the next GMS model by Nokia…..
My first phone was a sagem RD431 and after a communicator 9110 and after a communicator 9210.. I finished the Nokia’s list with the N95-8Gb…
Now i only use real full chinese smartphones (Xiaomi), better than iphones ans samsung….
By doing this you disable serial communication and wired headset options. If there only was a way to replace those signals with usb-c as well…
Ah yes, I forgot those cheap models even had a serial connection.
Wasn’t there some Win95 software to design your own logos, animations and pictures?
I vaguely remember that the kids had sent such cheesy little “i love you” picture messages with a pixelated heart, a big pair of lips or teddy bear or something.
The software was called “LogoManager” or something.
More information on these historic sites:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040901093137/http://www.freefonefun.co.uk/ff/3310screensavers/
https://web.archive.org/web/20040803130918/http://64.202.114.141/freefonefun/en/uk/dip/picmsgs
Considering my Nokia 3310 port still works why would I want to upgrade it to a usb c that ends up messing up a few years down the line.
Did someone actually received it? I’ve send him payment on 19.02 and nothing yet…
no soldering required. imagine that.