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Old skool HPs making comeback


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Old-school mobiles make comeback with consumers paying top dollar for Nokia brick phones
  • NETWORK WRITERS, WIRES
  • AFP
  • MAY 26, 2014 2:15PM
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Nokia Lumia under hammer test1:47
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A Nokia Lumia 900 is put to the test of being hammered on with nails and more.

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Back in time ... handsets like the Nokia 3310 allow just basic text messaging and phone calls. Source: News Limited

THEY fit in a pocket, have batteries that last all week and are almost indestructible: old-school Nokias, Ericssons and Motorolas are making a comeback as consumers tire of fragile and overly-wired smartphones.

LEAKED LETTER: Is this the end of Nokia?

With no apps, video calls or smiley faces, handsets like the Nokia 3310 or the Motorola StarTec 130 allow just basic text messaging and phone calls.

But demand for them is growing, according to reports out of Europe, where some of these second-hand models are fetching prices as high as 1000 euros ($1500) a piece.

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The Nokia brick ... tired of your smartphone’s low battery life? You can always go back to using a trusty Nokia 3310 - but it will cost you. Source: News Limited

“Some people don’t blink at the prices, we have models at more than 1000 euros. The high prices are due to the difficulty in finding those models, which were limited editions in their time,” said Djassem Haddad, who started the site vintagemobile.fr in 2009.

Haddad had been eyeing a niche market, but since last year, sales have taken off, he said.

Over the past two to three years, he has sold some 10,000 handsets, “with a real acceleration from the beginning of 2013”.

“The ageing population is looking for simpler phones, while other consumers want a second cheap phone,” he said.

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Niche market ... old-school Motorola phones are also proving popular. Source: News Corp Australia

Among the top-sellers on the website is the Nokia 8210, with a tiny monochrome screen and plastic buttons, at $90.

Ironically, the trend is just starting as the telecommunications industry consigns such handsets to the recycling bins, hailing smartphones as the way ahead.

Finnish giant Nokia, which was undisputedly the biggest mobile phone company before the advent of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy, offloaded its handset division to Microsoft this year after failing to catch the smartphone wave.

But it was probably also the supposedly irreversible switch towards the smartphone that has given the old school phone an unexpected boost.

 


And I found my old sckool toys. I find my 3310 in a bit...hahaha

 

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Moderator

we had a thread on this somewhere......and all agreed that the 8850 was de best

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Hypersonic

anyone here willing to pay 1000 euros for such phones?

 

if yes, i will get lazy ass off to search for my stash in the storeroom

 

and see what i can come up with

 

:D

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Turbocharged

Going to dig in drawers now!! [grin]

 

Actually my mom is a gadget freak and has a drawer of old phones because she liked to buy the limited/special edition ones. Dunno got simi Prada phone, Swarovski phone etc etc. I wonder if got demand bo, I should ask her go dig out all her old phones and sell to angmohs.

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Turbocharged

we had a thread on this somewhere......and all agreed that the 8850 was de best

 

Had one but it was the 8890 (with extendable antenna).

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Supercharged

wahh... E90. that was a phone i used for a short while.

damn solid phone.

 

the other favorite is the N70, N72, N73.

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Luckily I still hold on onto one of my fav Nokia hp. Small, chrome and slim in size that perfectly slot into my pocket. This one dunno can worth how much??

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I still have my Motorola StarTec and Nokia 8250 ..

 

Got time find them and post some pictures for all to have a feel of the good old time phone technology.

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Hee hee, my little collection,

 

 

Never have a habit to sell my things so these are all the old phones that I have used before

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th-3.jpeg

 

Nothing beat this....can use for chilli crab too

i remember my friend had those motorolas back in 89/90. We got drunk and he had to tie the phone using his belt.......damn funny sia! Kns....it cost 3k and was charged 20¢/minutes for incoming or outgoing!
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Turbocharged

Hee hee, my little collection,

 

 

Never have a habit to sell my things so these are all the old phones that I have used before

Keep for another 20yrs and you could sell it for a million dollar ... Hehe...

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Hee hee, my little collection,

 

 

Never have a habit to sell my things so these are all the old phones that I have used before

 

i see a Treo, me have one too. [flowerface]

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