Nokia innovations in mobile: old versus new

Published by Adam Fraser on April 30, 2012

Nokia-innovations

GLOBAL – We’ve all got them. Those old Nokia phones at the back of the drawer that have been left to gather dust. But how do they compare to today’s Nokia phones? We’ve delved into the darkest depths of our cupboards to compare some of the newest members of the Nokia family with the some of the oldest to see how they differ.

Nokia 7650 meets Nokia 808 PureView

Nokia 7650 Nokia 808 PureView

In 2002 Nokia created the Nokia 7650, the first Nokia cameraphone capable of capturing images with its 0.3-megapixels sensor.

At the time this was revolutionary. It meant people could go out and take photos without having to charge up the stand-alone compact camera: something we all take for granted these days.

In just ten years, Nokia has continued to develop and create amazing cameraphones, culminating in the arrival of the Nokia 808 PureView – Nokia’s latest and greatest cameraphone with a 41-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Our first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Be a part of it.

Side-by-side, the two phones look really quite different. The Nokia 7650 was square, and almost sharp to the touch. It was very angular. The Nokia 808 PureView is smooth, rounded and moulded to fit the hand – it’s definitely ergonomically designed.

We’ve taken a photo using a Nokia 7650 and compared it against an image from the Nokia 808 PureView to show how far Nokia has come since first combining a camera and a phone, only ten years ago.

Nokia 7650 example
This was taken by a Nokia 7650.

Nokia 808 PureView example
This was taken by a Nokia 808 PureView.

Nokia 8210 meets Nokia 700

Nokia 8210 Nokia 700

The Nokia 8210 grew to be a big seller for Nokia back in 1999. This was partly due to its size and the new trend at the time of having interchangeable front covers.

At the time, this was Nokia’s smallest and lightest phone on the market weighing just 79 grams. Additionally, the Nokia 8210 could only hold 250 numbers and offered very limited space in terms of storing text messages.

Thirteen years on, Nokia created the Nokia 700 – the smallest smartphone in the world. It’s capable of holding all your contacts and all the text messages you’d ever need while giving you more space in your pocket.

Nokia 7110 meets Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia 7110 Nokia Lumia 900 on AT&T

Ah, my first Nokia phone. The Nokia 7110 became an icon with sci-fi fans as it first appeared in the 1999 film The Matrix. Or that’s what everybody thought. It was – in fact – a modified Nokia 8110, but let’s not digress.

The Nokia 7110 was the first phone to come loaded with a WAP browser and also the first phone to offer predictive text, something many of us couldn’t live without these days.

WAP allowed people to connect to the Internet, sort-of, in a reasonably speedy manner, for the time – transferring black dots to a phone doesn’t really take up much time.

As much of an innovation as that was, it’s almost comparable to the super-fast speeds that the Nokia Lumia 900 boasts with its 4G connection. 4G – or LTE as it’s also known – offers speeds of up to 100mbps.

You’ll no longer have to wait when you flick from one page to the next on the Web. WAP seems like a bad dream compared to the present day. Fancy graphics, streaming music, movies and smooth video calls are now possible – thanks to other advances in technology.

Nokia 3510i meets Nokia 701

Nokia 3510i Nokia 701

When you buy a smartphone nowadays, it will boast an amazing colour screen. And why shouldn’t it? However, it’s not always been this way. There was a time when all phones had black and white screens – although these were in fact green and black. That all changed with the Nokia 3510i in 2002.

The Nokia 3510i was an entry-level phone with a screen size of about 1.8 inches, a resolution of 96 x 65 pixels and stunning 12-bit colour.

The Nokia 701 is a mid-level smartphone with a 3.5 inch ClearBlack display, a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels using IPS-LCD and 16 million colours with a 160º viewing angle while still offering the brightest screen on a smartphone.

That little coloured screen from 2002 has come a long way; it’s hard to imagine going back.

How long have you owned a Nokia for? How does it compare to today’s Nokia phones? Let us know, in the comments below.

Comments

  • Anonymous

    Where am I? Truly Nokia Product and not some Microsoft shit?!

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      What would be the 90s/noughties comparison, do you think?

  • http://nokia-news.com/ Joao Luis

    Seeing the 7110 here brings back so many memories – one of my favourite Nokia devices I have had the pleasure to own.

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      I loved the Nokia 7110, it’s what got me started on my Nokia journey.

      • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

        I had one too. Not my first Nokia – I had some work edition 6000 models. But the first I bought with my own money.

        • Anonymous

          Nice look back and see some classics, I still have a few myself.

          • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

            It’s hard to get rid of them, isn’t it? which ones do you have?

          • Anonymous

            I’ve all the 3series models and I’m sure I’ve the 7110 stashed away I only found my two N95s recently.

          • Anonymous

            I’ve all the 3series models and I’m sure I’ve the 7110 stashed away I only found my two N95s recently.

          • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

            It’s hard to get rid of them, isn’t it? which ones do you have?

        • Anonymous

          Nice look back and see some classics, I still have a few myself.

        • Anonymous

          Nice look back and see some classics, I still have a few myself.

        • Anonymous

          Nice look back and see some classics, I still have a few myself.

      • http://nokia-news.com/ Joao Luis

        Oh so wished I had kept all my Nokias for remembrance - landed up passing them on at some stage or other. Good entry phone by the way, Adam – out of interest, do you still have it??

        • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

          I do. It’s doing well after all these years

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      I loved the Nokia 7110, it’s what got me started on my Nokia journey.

  • Karen Bartlett

    Great comparisons Adam, brings it all back. Actually that photo you took still looks ok

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      It looks like someone applied the 1970s filter in Molome.

      • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

        That was my first thought when I saw the photo. It’s modernly-retro.

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      It looks like someone applied the 1970s filter in Molome.

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      The photo did come out really well, didn’t it? I managed to grab some sunshine through the rain clouds.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mohdfitri.jck Mohd Fitri

    when n8 update more….add function like crazy

  • http://www.facebook.com/mohdfitri.jck Mohd Fitri

    when n8 update more….add function like crazy

  • http://www.facebook.com/agent0bean Winsly Jucar

    …i missed my 7650, it was good phone until my nokia 500 came…now, i want the lumia… =)

  • http://twitter.com/sebaastr seb

    i still have my 3310 ,6100 , 8310 , 8800 ..grand parents of my N8,N9,asha200 that i cannot sell

  • http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hradayesh Nimavat

    I still have my Nokia 6630,super phone at its time, and that 1.3MP camera “hump” on 6630′s back really signifies Nokia’s pace of innovation in camera tech when compare to big “hump” of 41mp Nokia 808 Pureview. 

  • http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hradayesh Nimavat

    I still have my Nokia 6630,super phone at its time, and that 1.3MP camera “hump” on 6630′s back really signifies Nokia’s pace of innovation in camera tech when compare to big “hump” of 41mp Nokia 808 Pureview. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/code565472 陳政文

    I still prefer this type of phone rather than smart phone.

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      Is that the Nokia 7390? The L’Amour collection looked really unique.

      • http://www.facebook.com/code565472 陳政文

        Yes, it’s 7390, last one and most beautiful one in the L’Amour Collection. I always waiting for a L’Amour Renaissance, even though it might never come.

      • http://www.facebook.com/code565472 陳政文

        Yes, it’s 7390, last one and most beautiful one in the L’Amour Collection. I always waiting for a L’Amour Renaissance, even though it might never come.

  • Anonymous

    Ah, again the currently best Nokia smartphone, the Nokia N9, not mentioned. Very sad, Nokia. 

    Will Nokia become the next Kodak? :(

  • Anonymous

    Ah, again the currently best Nokia smartphone, the Nokia N9, not mentioned. Very sad, Nokia. 

    Will Nokia become the next Kodak? :(

  • Matej Polšak

    I started with 8210, have N8, waiting for 808… Cheers!

  • Matej Polšak

    I started with 8210, have N8, waiting for 808… Cheers!

  • http://twitter.com/joepann Kitab

    Wonder what iApple would brag about in 2017; We released the iPhone in 2007, and look here, our “new” iPhone still look the same as it was then:):) what an innovation!

  • Anonymous

    Started my Nokia journey with 2110 and gave up on Nokia with X-6 when crappy Symbian miserably failed the touch test. Wanted to buy N8 but didn’t as I wanted a smartphone and not a camera alone. With Nokia phones I have always sent them (each one) back at least twice under guarantee period for re-flashing. This is how bad Symbian is. Try multi-tasking Symbian and the screen would start flickering.  I’ll return to Nokia when Lumia 900 is launched locally. Symbian fanboys’ I do not need your rhetoric. You cannot convince me against my own experience. Cheers.  

  • Anonymous

    I started with a 6110, lived some years within this series with devices like the 6310i and switched later to the N95, my first Smartphone. It was nice, but had a lot of drawbacks. It was in the end only a phone.

    The reviews of the N97 were very bad, so I skipped this phone and later I switched to pocketable Computer, Nokia N900. Since then there is no way back for me to simpler phones. It is great to have always a full featured computer in my pocket. The successor N9 is not perfect. So the keyboard is missing. But the direction is exactly what I want. Will see who will sell me the next device after the N9. I can’t see anything compareable on the market at the moment. Perhaps my first none Nokia mobile which is very sad because Nokia had so far the best hardware design. :(

  • http://twitter.com/ch4mpi Dario Oddera

    My first Nokia was a 3650, Crazy design from Nokia, but I love it.

    Now I am using a Lumia 710. Browsing on internet using IE9 is amazing.

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

      I also had one of those. A UK operator gave it to me as a press gift. I loved the design but texting on it was a nightmare!

      Also – it’s still in my kitchen drawer – I picked it up and the thing weighed a ton. Never noticed that at the time, though.

  • Anonymous

    Any news about the release of the 808? Dates and markets? Or are you going to wait until the interest is gone (as pr normal Nokia procedure)?

  • Anonymous

    Any news about the release of the 808? Dates and markets? Or are you going to wait until the interest is gone (as pr normal Nokia procedure)?

  • Anonymous

    Any news about the release of the 808? Dates and markets? Or are you going to wait until the interest is gone (as pr normal Nokia procedure)?

  • Anonymous

    Any news about the release of the 808? Dates and markets? Or are you going to wait until the interest is gone (as pr normal Nokia procedure)?

  • Anonymous

    I have to admit, that  the Kenzo-inspired  13 years
    old Nokia 8210 (especially the red one) still looks better than the Nokia 700. I think this design, or it’s butterfly-esque twin, the 8250 would sell with colour screen and top-notch Asha interior. 

    After being dethroned by Samsung both in sales volume and in profit, maybe it would be wise to review the strategy that leads there. Samsung is still selling premium designed basic phones with slim profile. For example the S5610 is a quite nice Nokia copy-cat. And it sells since there’s still need for physical keyboards and even clamshell design. Long ago Nokia-branded gadgets were available in every price and design range. Now only Samsung follows this strategy. And seems to be successful with it.

  • Anonymous

    I have to admit, that  the Kenzo-inspired  13 years
    old Nokia 8210 (especially the red one) still looks better than the Nokia 700. I think this design, or it’s butterfly-esque twin, the 8250 would sell with colour screen and top-notch Asha interior. 

    After being dethroned by Samsung both in sales volume and in profit, maybe it would be wise to review the strategy that leads there. Samsung is still selling premium designed basic phones with slim profile. For example the S5610 is a quite nice Nokia copy-cat. And it sells since there’s still need for physical keyboards and even clamshell design. Long ago Nokia-branded gadgets were available in every price and design range. Now only Samsung follows this strategy. And seems to be successful with it.

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      I actually owned one an 8250 for a while, too. I just loved the blue lights and the butterfly keypad. Unfortunately, that one managed to escape from my collection.

      • Anonymous

        I bought a Nokia 6510 instead. Ice-blue light, well-designed keypad and very compact body. There’s nothing similar in the current portfolio. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002843298240 Sebastian Gunn

    i had the old 3510i for many years and than i get the amazing n97 now i wait for an wp8 nokia :D

  • Samarth Singh

    I’ve started with Nokia 6670 (a modified office version of 7610). Amazing phone with hellish durability. Dropped it from my bike but nothing happened. 7 Years later, my dad still uses it today.
    Then, I went on to N91 in 2006. It was a Music powerhouse. I loved it like anything. In college, girls were always after my N91…

    Then in 2007, I sold it off to get the 8GB version… And damn!! It was discontinued…! And its spares became scarce too.Meanwhile other phones like N80, N73, N75, N78, N82, etc. did not have the music quality of N91, only Camera quality. And this frustrated me: Either Camera or Music quality, why can’t we have both?


    Now, I have an N8 but I just can’t forget my N91′s music quality and the package:1. It used to play music between an incoming call if you pressed the play button,
    2. It might have been slow, but its music playback never hanged even when other apps were running,
    3. Its scrolling speed, music quality, music software, volume control, etc. were Top of the line!!…@ Nokia Staff: They say Nokia Conversations is for interaction between company and the customers. So, I’m saying it here:
    Can’t Nokia reform and relaunch the legendary N91, with better display, camera, OS, hardware, etc. while keeping the music elements the exact same or better? Is it too much to ask?Please, Read this post by a popular site to understand that I’m NOT ALONE in expecting a N91 upgraded’s relaunch: http://blog.gsmarena.com/nokia-where-is-the-next-nokia-n91/
    Or use Google. The world wants it, so why is Nokia not giving it? Any reasons?

    • http://twitter.com/alfydunhill alfred msungama

      get a Nokia N9…it will blow you away.

  • gigily

    i think there is a mistake in the article: you said that ”
    The Nokia 701 ……. still being the smallest smartphone in the world.” 
    but i think Nokia 701 has the brightest display in smart phones not being the smallest smart phone.

  • gigily

    any one there? please correct the text:
    Nokia 701 has the brightest display in smart phones not being the smallest smart phone. 

    • http://conversations.nokia.com/ Adam Fraser

      Corrected. Thank you Gigily.

  • http://twitter.com/kofteburger Mehmet Kıvanç Özel

    still have 3510i and 3510