by josephernest on 12/16/24, 12:03 PM
Pro tip: don't buy the new versions "Nokia 3210 2024" and similar models.
I did, two times, with slightly different models, and they are of exceptionally poor quality: dead after one year, very buggy firmware. The customer support is an AI with no real answer. They recommended to install an app "from the Google Play app store" which is nonsense for a dumbphone.
They are very cheap noname phones, branded with the name Nokia, but I am sure no Nokia R&D team was involved in these products.
by blixt on 12/16/24, 10:20 AM
I was hoping to find a part 2, but since part 1 was written over 2 years ago I guess there's not much chance of that...
by rob74 on 12/16/24, 11:15 AM
>
While the Memes generally refer to the 3210 or the 3310, the classic 5110 is no less a condender for most robust general use mobile phone available.The reason for that (I think) is not that the 5110 is less robust, but that the 3210 and 3310 were much more widespread - they came onto the market when mobile phones really started to become widespread, while the 5110 (their predecessor), with its stub antenna and bulkier size, looks a bit like the last representative of the previous era...
by apetresc on 12/16/24, 11:46 AM
I'm not too well-versed in hardware - is it really that easy to swap out a 2G modem with a 4G modem and have it "just work" without touching the drivers? Even if the baseband/modem chips miraculously do conform perfectly to some I/O protocol at the hardware level despite being multiple generations apart, wouldn't the difference in timings break whatever firmware the Nokia 5110 has, which was expecting only a single very specific hardware configuration? Or is the author planning to also hack the drivers?
by NoboruWataya on 12/16/24, 6:58 PM
Given the lack of a Part 2, I'm guessing some of the optimism in the article about how easy it would be was misplaced. I know very little about this stuff but presumably he would need to write some code for the SIM7600SA that would allow it to interface seamlessly with the UI board, which sounds far from trivial (unless maybe the UI board is very well documented)?
by palata on 12/16/24, 2:04 PM
What I learned with this article is the English idiom:
"Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched."
Which in my language translates to:
"You should not sell the bear’s skin before killing it."
Not that it appears in the article, but rather because the author wrote the blog post before doing the thing. Which results in a blog post essentially saying "here is the cool thing I plan to do", which was apparently never done.
Anyway, I'm happy to know about counting chickens now :-).
by shahzaibmushtaq on 12/16/24, 1:15 PM
HMD (Human Mobile Devices)[0] has exclusive rights to produce phones under the Nokia brand.
Now, HMD has decided to drop the Nokia name from the new phones because it's not helping them. Nokia has lost its glory, and HMD took the right step to use its name.
People who have old Nokia phones should keep them as it is like a lost meaningful art.
[0] https://www.hmd.com
by j_leboulanger on 12/16/24, 10:13 AM
Sound incredible !
I like the word "simply" in this sentence
> i will simply be able to recreate the baseboard with the new 4G module, a microcontroller, and some audio processing and power management circuitry and it will be able to seamlessly fit inside the phone.
Seems like a bigger project than the author would let us think ! But I hope to see the PCB soon !
by sourcepluck on 12/16/24, 2:52 PM
Are there any not outrageously expensive, tough, battery-goes-for-weeks, does calls and SMS and wifi hotspot and maybe even F-Droid but a small screen, and maybe has at least LTE so that it is safe to be used for years, type devices?
I've looked once or twice, and found two categories: one was expensive phones leaning in to the "super slick minimalist" thing, which looked like they could be good devices and cover what I'm looking for, but again, 300 dollars or more type range.
The other was remakes of the "old classics", which were cheap, and claimed to cover roughly what I was hoping for, but are actually horrible quality, as another commenter said.
Maybe there's no solution, and those expensive ones are the only good option. Exceptions, or surprises, please throw them at me!
by hackertux on 12/16/24, 8:52 AM
Looking for someone who can breathe new life into old phones, like Singer does with some Porsche models.
by michalhosna on 12/16/24, 12:21 PM
> The Nokia 5110 is a 2G telephone, meaning it uses the original 2G mobile network to communicate. This network has long been decommissioned in most western countries, including Australia.
In Europe, 3G is shutting down, but 2G as a fallback seems to be staying for years to come.
> However, 2G networks were still available as of 2023 in most parts of the world, while notably excluding the majority of carriers in North America, East Asia, and Australasia.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G
AFAIK, in the US, T-Mobile still has a 2G network.
by grujicd on 12/16/24, 11:16 AM
My old Nokia 6310i from 2003 was in use until a year or two ago with my mother in law. And with the original battery lasting for days! Then finally on/off button broke. While nowadays phones not only have a glass in the front, which is understandable, but in the back too. So fragile. What would grandpa Nokia say to his ancestors?
by qiqitori on 12/16/24, 10:51 AM
The Quectel BG95 is a similar modem chip. If you want to add low-bandwidth connectivity in a project you can just get a BG95 or this Simcom as a devkit and e.g. a 1NCE SIM card, hook up the UART pins to your microcontroller and you're off to go. (You may need a logic level converter in between)
by pfych on 12/17/24, 4:17 AM
It's a shame that even if OP did complete this project the phone would likely not work in Australia where their based post 3G shutdown! The government mandates that telcos block all phones that cannot make VoLTE emergency calls, and instead of figuring out how to do this, the telcos maintain a whitelist of phones. This has led to a large amount of even modern 4G & 5G phones getting bricked[^1].
[^1]: https://medium.com/@jamesdwho/australias-3g-shutdown-why-you...
by rtchau on 12/20/24, 3:46 AM
Some say this brave adventurer met his end when the 5110 fought back against the insult to its sacred internals.
Others say bestowing the power of 4G on a device as formidable as the 5110 opened a portal to realms hitherto unknown, to which our hero travelled, and we'll meet him again someday.
But my guess? He's still out there, trying to make the dream of a 4G-enabled 5110 a reality. And I still have hope for a "Part 2".
by klauswunderlich on 12/16/24, 11:42 AM
by IndrekR on 12/16/24, 11:27 AM
5110 was fantastic. I did not realize this before, but about 10 years ago needed a replacement phone quickly and had an old 5110 in storage. Charged up, powered up, switched on and in less than 10 seconds could make a call. Fantastic booting speed, very fast phone.
Found a video where the boot-up speed/usage are shown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d40KwKvCGZo
by grishka on 12/16/24, 11:48 AM
It's such an odd problem from my perspective as someone who doesn't live in a western country! We still have 2G on all carriers and seemingly no plans to shut it down. So, if you want to use an old (GSM) phone, it's a non-issue, you just pop your modern SIM card into it and it just works :)
by dclowd9901 on 12/16/24, 2:24 PM
I was excited to learn the new word "eniminable", but I think you meant "inimitable", OP.
by wwoessi on 12/16/24, 11:12 AM
I would pay for a Nokia 5110 that is exactly like then except for the 4g call/sms part
by 404mm on 12/17/24, 2:27 PM
I know the 5110 is one of the unbreakable OG’s but I’d much rather see 6210/6310 brought back to life. That phone looks cool even for 2024 and the ergonomic design is still usable. 5110 was so bulky!
by upofadown on 12/16/24, 5:27 PM
I think that you would still end up with the inferior battery life of 4G. That was the killer feature of those phones. Our technology seems to have degraded in that regard over the years.
by haunter on 12/16/24, 11:15 AM
Just a wishful plan, nothing happened as it seems (post is 2 years old)
by wslh on 12/16/24, 11:03 AM
I recenly bought a Nokia 6300, not as a main mobile phone but because it includes Tethering, it is very light, changeable battery, practical as a mobile hotspot. It also has WhatsApp though.
by zoomablemind on 12/16/24, 2:37 PM
Should be marked as [2022].
Indeed, the announced Part 2 has not been linked so far...
by m4tthumphrey on 12/16/24, 12:07 PM
The 5110 was also my first phone and still probably my favourite ever. I racked up a £300 bill on month 1 and had to essentially do my paper round for free to pay it off. Good times!
by fuzztester on 12/16/24, 11:48 AM
around the same time that the original 5110 was getting popular, I bought my first mobile phone, a used Motorola Amio.
It was quite big, with big buttons, and looked somewhat like a walkie talkie. I liked it and used it for about a year, before I got another make of phone.
I searched and found some images that look something like it:
https://www.google.com/search?q=motorola+amio+phone
by windex on 12/17/24, 2:55 PM
I have one of those beautiful n900 phones lying around. It's even today one of the sturdiest phones Ive used. I need to find a battery
by grubbs on 12/16/24, 10:47 AM
Wonder if this would be possible for my Kindle DX 3G? It has no Wi-Fi but I still hold onto it.
by amoorthy on 12/16/24, 8:35 PM
Sorry for tangent but any recommendations for small smart phone (i.e. <6" screen)?
I like my iPhone 12 mini with its 5" screen (though it is glitchier than one would hope) but now all phones seem to be 6"+ which is hard to fit into a pocket or even manipulate with one hand.
I know the Samsung ZFlip 6 and Motorola Razr+ are small, though rather pricey at $800-1000. Any opinions from folks on reliability/usability etc of these?
I am embarrassed to say I have some Apple lock-in with earbuds and even basic conveniences like "find-my" working for my children's watches so not sure if these are worth staying with Apple for, even if I dislike their latest devices.
by insane_dreamer on 12/16/24, 6:06 PM
Bring back the 9210!
by Aeglaecia on 12/16/24, 11:57 AM
this was on the back burner for so long , very glad to see someone get it done. the amount of e waste caused by dropping 2g and 3g is insane.
by yapyap on 12/16/24, 12:11 PM
lol so he made this part 1 Nov 28 2022 and then disappeared