How to spot a fake Nokia 3310 (2017)

It’s crazy, but it’s true: Nokia’s newest 3310 phone may be a few months away from local launch, but the copycats are quick enough to replicate the device and sell them as the real deal in cyberspace. Here are a few tips on how you can actually spot the difference between the imitation and the genuine product.

Design

The Nokia 3310 design is iconic, and the newer device has taken cues from the original one back in 2000. There’s the bib-like white area that houses the direction keys and buttons and has a rich rice-like white color while you’d get a more muted or off- white hue on the questionable unit. The new Nokia 3310 is available only in four colors: Warm Red and Yellow in a glossy finish, and Dark Blue and Grey colors painted in matte. These colors not only are present in the back but also in the front, around the white area.

Prying open the back cover is the removable battery and the slots for two SIM cards and a microSD card tucked nicely at the middle-right area. Removing the keyboard, too, gives you a glimpse of the electronic circuit used to drive the daily tasks of the phone. The LED light accompanying the 2-megapixel camera is smaller in size, too, and the speaker is rectangular, not square, in nature.

Its display is curved, so you actually get to see that there’s a bit of depth on the display visible enough to be distinguished. This is in contrary to the fake ones displaying themselves with flat display panels and protective glass.

The keypad is reminiscent of the old ones used but is slightly updated to give it a modern look. As such, the keypad is almost in level with the phone’s front surface, save for the middle parts which are slightly bumped up to give you a better keypad feel. This is very unlikely with imitation products, where the whole button is protruding from the surface. The choice of the backlight, too, differ — the original 3310 has a white backlight that does a good job of lighting the keys up, while copycats opted for a blue LED backlighting which does bleed and can be seen on the directional area.

As for the OS, the 3310 is using Symbian Nokia’s own Series 30+ mobile operating system which is easily distinguished. The battery is at the upper right corner of the screen, and information about the two SIM Cards are detailed at the upper left area before the time. As you browse through menus, the battery is replaced by the device time. This is unlikely with knockoffs which use ordinary where all information are seen at the upper line — time, battery, and SIM signal information, and the SIM names are placed in the middle of the screen.

You can actually check a live demo of the Nokia 3310 in our video here:

Just like you, we’re also ecstatic to get our hands on Nokia’s new devices such as the 3310 when they officially launch in the country for a quick spin and a review. We hope to help you with these tips when you happen to see a floating 3310 device being sold on online channels and social media selling groups. Always remember, the best rule is to always check the label before purchasing anything.