At the turn of 2002 and 2003, a color display in your pocket was a luxury reserved for executives. But then the Finnish giant introduced the Nokia 3510i and the rules of the game changed overnight. This legendary chubby phone brought color, polyphonic ringtones and, above all, mobile gaming, which immediately conquered the school corridors and the hearts of the generation of that time.
A color display for everyone and illuminated sides
The Nokia 3510i was based on the earlier black-and-white 3510 model, but with the letter “i” in the name it brought a revolution. The passive CSTN display offered a modest resolution of 96 × 65 pixels and could display only 4,096 colors. Although it was almost impossible to read in direct sunlight and there was a noticeable delay in redrawing the image, it didn’t bother anyone at the time, because the display in this mobile class had color.
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The charm of the phone was also underlined by its unmistakable design with interchangeable Xpress-on covers. A typical distinguishing feature was the translucent rubber sides, which flashed orange furiously when a call or alarm was received. The phone was practically unbreakable, it fit perfectly in the hand, and its four-part polyphonic melodies sounded incomparably fuller from the rear speaker than the old beeping of the Nokia 3310.
Java and gaming madness on display
However, the most important thing happened in the Games menu. The Nokia 3510i had support for technology Java (MIDP 1.0), which was a revelation in this price range. Users were no longer limited to a single built-in title.
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Classics such as the arcade game Sky Diver, the logic game Triple Pop or backgammon were waiting right on the phone, but the real mania began with downloading other games. Despite the slow WAP and GPRS technology, various hits began to be downloaded into the modest memory of a few hundred kilobytes. Players devoured platform games, led by the legendary Prince of Persia, racing games, football and arcades, which until then they had only known from game consoles in their pockets.
The soft-touch keyboard did get a little stiff during intense gaming sessions.ancIt took a lot of work, but the phone withstood everything. The Nokia 3510i became a symbol of a carefree era when, for the first time in history, we exchanged the monochrome snake for colorful virtual worlds. Believe it or not, this phone was given to my great-grandmother, who “inherited” it sometime in 2007. The sad thing was that she had a better phone than me, which, as an enthusiastic mobile gamer, “pissed me off”. At the time, I had an Alcatel OT 735, which, as far as games were concerned, was very stupid. But it had a joystick, which was a great gadget at one time.
