The grandmother of mobile phones is making its comeback to Singapore.

Nokia 3310 will go on sale here from October 14.

It retails at $99 and is available in two colours: Warm Red and Charcoal.

(Photo: HMD Global)

Finnish company HMD Global Oy (HMD) owns the rights to create Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets.

HMD said that the phone will be sold at M1, Starhub, Courts, Harvey Norman, Challenger, Sprint Cass, Mustafa, 3Mobile, www.handphoneshop.com and selected A-Mobile authorised retailers.

The buzz it has generated in recent weeks has been rather unexpected. After all, it doesn’t boast state-of-the-art features and novel functions.

Perhaps what’s propelling this, is nostalgia. For certain generations of Singaporeans, Nokia was their first phone and Snake, their first mobile game.

Its revival means re-living that simple life – hours manoeuvring a long pixel line to pick up edibles and avoid rocks.

Fast forward to present day – what are its highlights?

Impressive battery life. The Nokia 3310 3G can provide up to 6.5 hours of talk time and an impressive up to 27 days of standby time.

Storage. It has 64 MB storage plus a MicroSD card slot with support for up to 32 GB. This is on par with that of many smartphones.

The legendary Snake updated with colour screen.

But will these be enough?

Let’s look at the target audience.

Kids. But kids nowadays are very picky, according to my parent friends. Kids are exposed to the latest phones via their parents or even through their friends. So, they want in on the latest games, probably not Snake.

Elderly. Considering that my aged relatives watch YouTube videos on their smartphones, some may not be keen on a basic phone.

Travellers. The Nokia 3310 3G uses a 3G connection, supporting basic web-browsing, Facebook and Twitter.

Given that it’s got a 2 Megapixel camera, it may not be that ideal to take travel photos for uploading to said social media platforms (which makes us question why the need for so much storage).

Moreover, a 3G connection can be rather slow. Most travellers prefer a smartphone, with a better interface to surf recommendations and for google maps. (Unless you are going camping.)

The alpha numeric system of typing can also take its toll.

But overall, it’s still a sturdy phone that offers value for money, impressive battery life with the basic functions of a smartphone.

And if all else fails to excite, with its virtually indestructible brick-like body, my friends say this is the phone you can throw at people you dislike.