Nokia relaunches 8110, ditches headphone jack on four new smartphones

Nokia isn’t doing MWC 2018 by halves. It has used the show to announce a total of five new handsets, including four new smartphones and the relaunch of an old Nokia classic.

Following the return of the Nokia 3310 last year, Nokia has confirmed it’s bringing back the 8110 – the curved-body “banana phone” that famously featured in The Matrix.

Nokia isn’t missing a marketing trick either, delivering it in a striking “Banana Yellow” hue alongside a more traditional (and indeed, Matrix-like) black.

The revamp of Neo’s phone of choice thankfully doesn’t come with the £1000 price tag it carried in 1996 either, with much humbler specs than its smartphone siblings.

Still, it comes with 4G, which is more than its predecessor can claim, and (of course) you’ll be able to while away the hours on a good game of Snake too. It’ll be available in May for around £80.

The company also launched the Nokia 8 Sirocco flagship, with claims to be one of the toughest smartphones on the market - it features a stainless-steel frame that’s 2.5 times stronger than aluminium.

It comes with a with a curved edge-to-edge 5.5in POLED 2K display (2560 x 1440) for next-to-no bezel, a 12MP/13MP dual-camera system for covering off both wide-angle and 2x optical zoom shots, and the ability to offer wireless charging thanks to the phone’s Gorilla Glass 5 finish.

It also comes running pure Android, as does the rest of the Nokia smartphone range.

The company has, however, made the increasingly popular manufacturing decision to ditch the headphone jack - so you’ll need to go wireless or use the USB-C adapter in the box if you want to use the 8 Sirocco as your music player.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 is Nokia’s processor of choice for running things under the hood, which is supported by 6GB RAM and a generous 128GB storage. It’ll be available for around £700 (SIM-free) in early April.

If you’re looking for something a little more midrange, the Nokia 8 Sirocco is joined by the Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 6 devices. These are packing 6in and 5.5in full HD displays respectively (although the 7 Plus has an 18:9 ratio, so fits into a similar-sized chassis).

The 7 Plus also boasts the slightly more powerful Snapdragon 660 processor (compared with the Snapdragon 630 in the Nokia 6) and 4GB RAM.

The Nokia 6, on the other hand, gets 3GB RAM in its 32GB version at launch, with a 64GB version launching later offering 4GB.

Finally, the Nokia 1 is the range's entry-level option, with basic specs and a cheap price tag to match. Offering a specially designed version of Android, optimised for phones with less than 1GB RAM, it’s running on a 1.1Ghz MediaTek processor, and features a 4.5in display, 8GB of storage and a 5MP camera.

As the icing on this rather nostalgic cake, the Nokia 1 also marks the return of Nokia’s customisable Xpress-on covers, offering a number of colourful, polycarbonate designs to make it your own.

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Verity Burns

Verity is a freelance technology journalist and former Multimedia Editor at What Hi-Fi?. 


Having chalked up more than 15 years in the industry, she has covered the highs and lows across the breadth of consumer tech, sometimes travelling to the other side of the world to do so. With a specialism in audio and TV, however, it means she's managed to spend a lot of time watching films and listening to music in the name of "work".


You'll occasionally catch her on BBC Radio commenting on the latest tech news stories, and always find her in the living room, tweaking terrible TV settings at parties.