[HN Gopher] Nokia 5110 - Back from the Dead (2022)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Nokia 5110 - Back from the Dead (2022)
        
       Author : hackertux
       Score  : 238 points
       Date   : 2024-12-16 08:52 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (opsbros.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (opsbros.com)
        
       | hackertux wrote:
       | Looking for someone who can breathe new life into old phones,
       | like Singer does with some Porsche models.
        
         | rbanffy wrote:
         | I'd kill for an EV 914.
         | 
         | Although I also loved the sound of that little engine.
        
           | Etheryte wrote:
           | While I really like the idea, I think we're still too far out
           | tech wise to make it a reality in a way that it would live up
           | to the dream. EVs of today are really heavy and even with a
           | fairly small range, I fear the weight from the batteries
           | would butcher any kind of driving experience for a car like
           | that. In time though, I hope we get plenty of old cars
           | retrofitted to be EVs as the tech becomes lighter, cheaper
           | and more standardized.
        
             | rbanffy wrote:
             | The 914 was always more toy than car anyway, so a short
             | range is not really a deal breaker.
        
             | toast0 wrote:
             | People have been making EV VW Beetle since forever. The 914
             | is just a weird looking Beetle. :P
             | 
             | Probably have to accept it would be a short range car for
             | going to work in warm but not hot weather and not a touring
             | car.
        
               | Etheryte wrote:
               | The point isn't that it can't be done, EV conversions
               | have been done for decades at this point, but that you'll
               | get a car that's a whale compared to the original.
        
           | jdietrich wrote:
           | https://canev.com/products/porsche-914-ev-conversion-kit-
           | wit...
           | 
           | https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/products/electric-
           | clas...
        
             | rbanffy wrote:
             | Now I need to find a 914 with a steering wheel on the right
             | side (because of where I live).
        
       | j_leboulanger wrote:
       | Sound incredible !
       | 
       | I like the word "simply" in this sentence
       | 
       | > i will simply be able to recreate the baseboard with the new 4G
       | module, a microcontroller, and some audio processing and power
       | management circuitry and it will be able to seamlessly fit inside
       | the phone.
       | 
       | Seems like a bigger project than the author would let us think !
       | But I hope to see the PCB soon !
        
         | trymas wrote:
         | Especially funny as article is from 2022 Nov.
        
           | xattt wrote:
           | Author conjured a primordial black hole by working on an
           | Nokia and was never heard from again.
        
         | zokier wrote:
         | Well, I wouldn't call it trivial, but it's not completely
         | outlandish idea. There is prior art in this Ringo kit, which
         | does almost 90% of what's required here:
         | https://github.com/CircuitMess/CircuitMess-Ringo
        
       | blixt wrote:
       | I was hoping to find a part 2, but since part 1 was written over
       | 2 years ago I guess there's not much chance of that...
        
         | roygbiv2 wrote:
         | Yeah, not really a complete story is it.
        
         | Rnewbs wrote:
         | It was not, infact, easier than he thought.
        
         | Double_a_92 wrote:
         | Yup. This is nothing more than "Hmm, this Nokia has its
         | physical UI on a separate board... maybe I could use that
         | somehow".
        
         | nuker wrote:
         | Yep, all bait, no meat
        
         | alnwlsn wrote:
         | > "Thanks mostly to the phones age, interfacing with the UI
         | board will be rather trivial"
         | 
         | I guess part 2 was left as an exercise for the reader.
        
           | rollcat wrote:
           | Not that difficult, DIY dumbphones are _mostly_ case,
           | buttons, display, etc.
           | 
           | https://web.archive.org/web/20190827183214/http://alumni.med.
           | ..
        
             | dotancohen wrote:
             | And a proprietary blob for actually communicating with the
             | tower.
        
       | grubbs wrote:
       | Wonder if this would be possible for my Kindle DX 3G? It has no
       | Wi-Fi but I still hold onto it.
        
       | qiqitori wrote:
       | The Quectel BG95 is a similar modem chip. If you want to add low-
       | bandwidth connectivity in a project you can just get a BG95 or
       | this Simcom as a devkit and e.g. a 1NCE SIM card, hook up the
       | UART pins to your microcontroller and you're off to go. (You may
       | need a logic level converter in between)
        
         | walterbell wrote:
         | Two annotated board-repair photos for Nokia 6110 / 5110:
         | 
         | https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YF5WDLLK2nA/RhE6QSReO7I/AAAAAAAAB...
         | 
         | https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YF5WDLLK2nA/RhE44SReO6I/AAAAAAAAB...
         | 
         | Disassembly video (2019),
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdhlOlx2gxY
         | 
         | Schematics: https://www.nodevice.com/service-
         | manuals/telephone/nokia/611...
        
       | wslh wrote:
       | I recenly bought a Nokia 6300, not as a main mobile phone but
       | because it includes Tethering, it is very light, changeable
       | battery, practical as a mobile hotspot. It also has WhatsApp
       | though.
        
         | rjsw wrote:
         | > It also has WhatsApp though.
         | 
         | Not for much longer.
         | 
         | I also got a Nokia 6300 to use for tethering and it works well
         | for that.
        
           | wslh wrote:
           | Good to know! Thankfully, WhatsApp is just a minor detail in
           | this context: tethering is the core feature. I'm curious, how
           | has your battery performance been while using tethering?
        
             | rjsw wrote:
             | You need to keep it connected to the charger when
             | tethering.
        
       | wwoessi wrote:
       | I would pay for a Nokia 5110 that is exactly like then except for
       | the 4g call/sms part
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | Well good news for you - Nokia still sells plenty of these
         | kinds of phones (just not in the USA). It'll be pretty easy to
         | import them from a developing market, on eBay or elsewhere.
         | E.g. see https://www.amazon.in/s?k=nokia
        
           | jdietrich wrote:
           | HMD do sell a few Nokia-branded phones in the US; most of
           | their international range is available on Amazon US.
           | 
           | https://www.hmd.com/en_us/nokia-225-4g?sku=16QENL11A04
        
             | dagoss wrote:
             | I've had four HMD phones, two feature and two Android smart
             | phones. The hardware usually feels really good, but all of
             | them have had poor phone quality (even on different
             | carriers). People would tell me if sound like I was
             | underwater or far away from the phone while not using
             | speaker), sometimes it would just drop the audio and I
             | couldn't hear the other person, etc.
             | 
             | I guess I still have nostalgia for some of the late Nokia
             | phones, like the n900 and e72.
             | 
             | My current Android HMD has been fine, but still has call
             | issues (people often don't hear me for like 5-8 seconds
             | when I call them; speak from just randomly stops working
             | during calls).
        
               | rjsw wrote:
               | I have had three HMD phones now, all have had very good
               | call quality when used in Europe.
        
           | hackertux wrote:
           | I think what parent meant is that he would be willing to pay
           | good money to anyone who could clone the 5110 to use 4g and
           | keep the same screen.
        
           | josephernest wrote:
           | These new Nokia models/re-issues are of very poor quality,
           | see my other comment.
           | 
           | They are not made by Nokia, but by HMD which has very low
           | standards of product quality.
        
       | rob74 wrote:
       | > _While the Memes generally refer to the 3210 or the 3310, the
       | classic 5110 is no less a condender for most robust general use
       | mobile phone available._
       | 
       | The reason for that (I think) is not that the 5110 is less
       | robust, but that the 3210 and 3310 were much more widespread -
       | they came onto the market when mobile phones really started to
       | become widespread, while the 5110 (their predecessor), with its
       | stub antenna and bulkier size, looks a bit like the last
       | representative of the previous era...
        
         | ljf wrote:
         | Totally! When I got my Nokia 5146 (still basically a 5110) -
         | you had to pay I think PS50 for the phone, plus the contract of
         | PS15 a month.
         | 
         | A month or two later you could get the 3210 for free, plus a
         | better contract from orange, that took advantage of the MMS
         | options - plus had the programmable ringtones which was soooooo
         | much cooler than the 5110.
         | 
         | I was lucky to jump from the 5110 to the 8210, and then to a
         | 8250 which I adored and used on an off through to 2007 - when I
         | moved to the E61 then e71 - which both still hold a very
         | special place in my heart!
        
           | dfox wrote:
           | 3210 did not support MMS, but EMS with some semi-proprietary
           | extensions. Sending images and ringtones over EMS was
           | generally not interoperable between different vendors.
           | 
           | MMS is much later technology where the user data go over
           | HTTP, which implies at least WAP support and GPRS to be
           | really practical.
        
             | ljf wrote:
             | You are totally correct - I was thinking of 'picture
             | messages' which this could send. I was only a little
             | jealous of the 3210 as i thought it was quite ugly really,
             | but the 3310 seemed a heap better, especially with the blue
             | led (which is what sold me on the 8250).
        
         | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
         | 3230
         | 
         | Was a joy to use the joystick hehe
        
       | haunter wrote:
       | Just a wishful plan, nothing happened as it seems (post is 2
       | years old)
        
       | grujicd wrote:
       | My old Nokia 6310i from 2003 was in use until a year or two ago
       | with my mother in law. And with the original battery lasting for
       | days! Then finally on/off button broke. While nowadays phones not
       | only have a glass in the front, which is understandable, but in
       | the back too. So fragile. What would grandpa Nokia say to his
       | ancestors?
        
         | lifestyleguru wrote:
         | I had this phone, sometimes from boredom I was tossing and
         | catching it and it occasionally fell on the ground. Try doing
         | this with these miserable fragile iPhones and Galaxies.
         | Unfortunately one day it cracked while falling and I regret so
         | much throwing it, the 6310i would have been working until
         | today.
        
       | IndrekR wrote:
       | 5110 was fantastic. I did not realize this before, but about 10
       | years ago needed a replacement phone quickly and had an old 5110
       | in storage. Charged up, powered up, switched on and in less than
       | 10 seconds could make a call. Fantastic booting speed, very fast
       | phone.
       | 
       | Found a video where the boot-up speed/usage are shown:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d40KwKvCGZo
        
       | klauswunderlich wrote:
       | Nokia 5110 but with Android and full QUERTY keyboard:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7VOflsuVS4
        
       | apetresc wrote:
       | I'm not too well-versed in hardware - is it really that easy to
       | swap out a 2G modem with a 4G modem and have it "just work"
       | without touching the drivers? Even if the baseband/modem chips
       | miraculously do conform perfectly to some I/O protocol at the
       | hardware level despite being multiple generations apart, wouldn't
       | the difference in timings break whatever firmware the Nokia 5110
       | has, which was expecting only a single very specific hardware
       | configuration? Or is the author planning to also hack the
       | drivers?
        
         | grishka wrote:
         | These phones didn't have the modern smartphone architecture
         | where there are separate CPU cores for the user OS and the
         | modem. It's one single CPU core that does both the UI and all
         | the low-level stuff required for communication with the tower.
         | They were going to replace the board that contains that CPU and
         | all the radio circuitry with one they were going to design from
         | scratch around that 4G module.
        
         | Double_a_92 wrote:
         | I think the idea here is to basically create a new phone, but
         | use the original case, buttons and display.
        
           | hackertux wrote:
           | I just wish I could buy a phone that has the same look and
           | feel (sound, screen, etc.) as the 5110, is compatible with
           | modern networks, and has a modern battery.
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | No, of course not. That's why this article is two years old
         | without an update.
        
         | numpad0 wrote:
         | No, it's like reusing keyboard and monitor for a new PC. This
         | phone uses those parts fully separated from the computer part
         | that the author argues it should be possible to remake just the
         | host computer part to recreate the experience.
         | 
         | 4G doesn't even have a proper voice call support, and
         | substitutes that with a carrier grade Discord type thing called
         | VoLTE(oversimplification). Zero chance old firmware could work.
        
           | wolrah wrote:
           | > 4G doesn't even have a proper voice call support, and
           | substitutes that with a carrier grade Discord type thing
           | called VoLTE(oversimplification).
           | 
           | That "carrier grade Discord type thing" is more or less
           | standard SIP VoIP, just over a prioritized data channel
           | similar to how DOCSIS has PacketCable which is more or less
           | MGCP VoIP over a prioritized data channel.
           | 
           | It's absolutely proper voice call support, the majority of
           | calls you make or receive in 2024 have been connected over
           | SIP at some point along the path.
           | 
           | > Zero chance old firmware could work.
           | 
           | The sorts of modules like the author was proposing using can
           | be interacted with over relatively standard AT commands, so
           | it's actually plausible that if there were a separate
           | application processor it might be able to perform basic
           | functions like placing/receiving calls without any firmware
           | changes. The module handles all the VoLTE stuff and just
           | exposes it as if it were any other modem.
           | 
           | That said it's not uncommon for "dumbphone" type applications
           | to run the application code on the baseband processor, in
           | which case obviously it's incredibly unlikely that this new
           | module is even a related family of processor, much less
           | compatible with existing code.
        
             | upofadown wrote:
             | >That "carrier grade Discord type thing" is more or less
             | standard SIP VoIP, just over a prioritized data channel...
             | 
             | It is completely restricted to one SIP provider. Which
             | raises an interesting idea for improved competition. Make
             | it possible for the user to choose their SIP provider.
             | Force the phone companies to allow the use of that priority
             | to any SIP RTP stream and otherwise make those companies
             | just sell data service.
             | 
             | That would make a project like the one in the linked
             | article come down to getting a magic module that provided
             | an internet connection...
        
         | amyames wrote:
         | No. This phones keypad , controller, and screen are on a
         | separate board.
         | 
         | This would be like plugging your monitor and keyboard into a
         | new computer.
         | 
         | There are some lorawan handheld communicatiors using surplus
         | blackberry cases and keyboards from blackberries that never
         | were, that they got for pennies.
         | 
         | Except this dude wants to drop in a roll-your-own cellphone
         | board with a basic os, instead of a lorawan radio and basic os.
         | Same idea. But he will have to design this.
         | 
         | Whereas You can get schematics to build a lorawan communicator
         | with blackberry parts, and there are community supported roms
         | for that
        
           | unosama wrote:
           | Your reply is less insightful than the original commenter.
        
         | toast0 wrote:
         | As a sibling says, this likely won't work for a Nokia feature
         | phone, because it's an integrated design and there's no
         | separate modem.
         | 
         | For a design with a modem module and a ux module, it might
         | possibly just work to swap things out, but it would depend on
         | how VoLTE is supported. If that is all managed by the modem
         | module, then you're probably good.
         | 
         | These modem modules are generally a serial port that speaks
         | Hayes (AT) protocol. Plus some analog lines for mic and
         | speaker. Some 4g modules might be serial over USB and may leave
         | VoLTE entirely up to the application module, that's going go
         | look different.
         | 
         | Some of the modules are a qualcom SoC that runs headless
         | Android. Which works, I guess, but seems bizarre.
        
       | fuzztester wrote:
       | around the same time that the original 5110 was getting popular,
       | I bought my first mobile phone, a used Motorola Amio.
       | 
       | It was quite big, with big buttons, and looked somewhat like a
       | walkie talkie. I liked it and used it for about a year, before I
       | got another make of phone.
       | 
       | I searched and found some images that look something like it:
       | 
       | https://www.google.com/search?q=motorola+amio+phone
        
         | ljf wrote:
         | I remember that Motorola, I was opening a student bank account
         | and they offered a free 3 year student railcard (to buy
         | discount tickets), a camera or that motorola - I was just about
         | to get it when the lack of Snake and also the pretty poor
         | contract it came on made me jump for the Railcard.
         | 
         | But still felt wild at the time that they were 'giving away' a
         | mobile phone.
        
       | grishka wrote:
       | It's such an odd problem from my perspective as someone who
       | _doesn 't_ live in a western country! We still have 2G on all
       | carriers and seemingly no plans to shut it down. So, if you want
       | to use an old (GSM) phone, it's a non-issue, you just pop your
       | modern SIM card into it and it just works :)
        
         | shitloadofbooks wrote:
         | My country (Australia) in the past month shut down 3G and 2G
         | was shut down in 2017.
         | 
         | The 3G shutdown was ...problematic:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIJavqEzEIw
        
         | Roark66 wrote:
         | In my country (Poland) a bunch of networks recently switched
         | off 3G and a lot of 4G services in favour of LTE only... A
         | pretty good mobile service I enjoyed at my country home for
         | over a decade had suddenly turned to crap... (at least I have
         | faster Internet access now, but I can't strap a directional
         | antenna to a mobile phone).
        
           | voytec wrote:
           | > bunch of networks recently switched off 3G and a lot of 4G
           | services in favour of LTE only
           | 
           | You mean 2G and 3G in favor of 3.95G LTE, AKA 4G.
        
       | Aeglaecia wrote:
       | this was on the back burner for so long , very glad to see
       | someone get it done. the amount of e waste caused by dropping 2g
       | and 3g is insane.
        
       | josephernest wrote:
       | Pro tip: don't buy the new versions "Nokia 3210 2024" and similar
       | models. I did, two times, with slightly different models, and
       | they are of exceptionally poor quality: dead after one year, very
       | buggy firmware. The customer support is an AI with no real
       | answer. They recommended to install an app "from the Google Play
       | app store" which is nonsense for a dumbphone.
       | 
       | They are very cheap noname phones, branded with the name Nokia,
       | but I am sure no Nokia R&D team was involved in these products.
        
         | jcul wrote:
         | Yeah I bought a Nokia 2660.
         | 
         | After probably a month or so the hinge brackets broke from
         | normal use.
         | 
         | Nokia refused to refund / repair it saying that only a drop
         | could have caused it.
         | 
         | I replaced it with an AGM M8 which is a great dumbphone.
        
           | ninjin wrote:
           | Thank you both for the warnings. I have been looking for a
           | "dumb" phone and arrived at the Nokia and now I am eyeing up
           | the AGM M8 FLIP Security+ [1] instead.
           | 
           | [1]: https://www.agmmobile.com/products/agm-m8-security
        
             | 0_____0 wrote:
             | I'm noticing that the pricing is completely different on my
             | desktop and mobile - I'm seeing the M8 Flip Security+ for
             | $79 on mobile and $116 after sale cuts on desktop. I don't
             | _think_ it 's a currency issue, I think it's a "my VPNs are
             | set to exit IPs in different countries" thing. High in CA
             | (with currency set to Global US$), low with Swedish IP.
        
               | ninjin wrote:
               | Try AliExpress, the prices there look unbeatable and are
               | from AGM official stores at that.
        
             | stuaxo wrote:
             | Interesting, it has the same stylings as the old Samsung
             | flip phones - which were horrdendous to develop for on J2Me
             | because of various bugs and the tools not giving you any
             | good ways to get debug data from them.
        
           | jtbayly wrote:
           | Can you use the M8 on carriers other than T-Mobile? I'm
           | seeing several places that say T-mobile only.
        
             | ajford wrote:
             | Haven't used the M8, but I just set up an AGM M9 on Mint
             | Mobile two days ago.
             | 
             | That said, that's kinda cheating since Mint is a T-Mobile
             | MVNO and I haven't tried it outside my usual T-Mobile
             | service area.
        
         | close04 wrote:
         | > They are very cheap noname phones, branded with the name
         | Nokia
         | 
         | I thought only HMD [0] had the right to put the Nokia brand on
         | a phone, and had several former Nokia executives in their
         | leadership able to validate whether a device is "worthy" of
         | that brand. Which made sense since Nokia as a company and brand
         | still exist albeit in a different field, and junk branded with
         | this name can tarnish the image.
         | 
         | Edit. I see HMD may transition away from the Nokia brand. [1]
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMD_Global#:~:text=The%20comp
         | a....
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.gsmarena.com/hmd_is_dropping_its_nokia_branding_...
        
           | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
           | Corporate quality standards only work if a company is MBA-
           | proof. Something no western company can withstand. Sooner or
           | later, a financial genius will point out the margins that can
           | be made on white label products and it snowballs.
        
             | wholinator2 wrote:
             | I'm curious what would need to change to fix this? Because
             | enshittification has become so ubiquitous and terrible that
             | it's in the dictionary now. Is it regulation? Antitrust?
             | Obliterate every board and private equity firm? There must
             | be an actionable set of steps out of this because we had to
             | have stepped into it somehow
        
         | secondcoming wrote:
         | I bought an XR20 a few years ago and it's still running fine,
         | and still receiving OS updates.
        
         | numpad0 wrote:
         | They clearly don't have the old code base, workforce to
         | hypothetically adapt it to VoLTE, or factories to manufacture
         | the phones. New Nokia TA-xxxx phones use
         | MediaTek/Unisoc(Spreadtrum) SoC and MediaTek MAUI software
         | rebranded as "S30+". Which means those are reskinned Chinese
         | phones.
         | 
         | Old Nokia had RM-xxx or RX-xxx model numbers, so it's also
         | clear that some of their corpo structure did survive.
        
         | Piraty wrote:
         | i can confirm. I have bought and used both Nokia 2660 Flip and
         | Nokia 8210 4G , both are HMD rebrands. Firmware is very buggy
         | and battery failed after less than 2y .
        
         | Paianni wrote:
         | I have a 235 4G and I'd say the firmware is 'quirky' but not
         | particularly buggy in the five months I've had it.
        
         | neilv wrote:
         | I tried a Nokia-in-name-only modern dumbphone (a compact one
         | without the retro styling), and it did what I needed, which was
         | mainly SMS 2FA.
         | 
         | Until a manager for a tempting job wanted to do the first call
         | on the phone. The call quality was so bad, it bombed the
         | interview for me. So I kissed my privacy goodbye, and bought an
         | iPhone.
         | 
         | (I've since switched to a GrapheneOS phone, which works well,
         | with less violating.)
        
           | wholinator2 wrote:
           | What about a dumb phone ensure that call quality is terrible?
           | Could you not have found a better dumbphone if you really
           | wanted to stay with it?
        
             | neilv wrote:
             | I spent some time looking. There were some pricey
             | "designer" ones, but they generally got poor reviews. Maybe
             | it's easier to do a design-school exercise, than to get the
             | phone guts engineering right. Also, mandatory VoLTE
             | eliminated a lot of high-quality legacy devices that
             | would've worked fine.
        
       | m4tthumphrey wrote:
       | The 5110 was also my first phone and still probably my favourite
       | ever. I racked up a PS300 bill on month 1 and had to essentially
       | do my paper round for free to pay it off. Good times!
        
       | yapyap wrote:
       | lol so he made this part 1 Nov 28 2022 and then disappeared
        
       | michalhosna wrote:
       | > The Nokia 5110 is a 2G telephone, meaning it uses the original
       | 2G mobile network to communicate. This network has long been
       | decommissioned in most western countries, including Australia.
       | 
       | In Europe, 3G is shutting down, but 2G as a fallback seems to be
       | staying for years to come.
       | 
       | > However, 2G networks were still available as of 2023 in most
       | parts of the world, while notably excluding the majority of
       | carriers in North America, East Asia, and Australasia.
       | 
       | See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G
       | 
       | AFAIK, in the US, T-Mobile still has a 2G network.
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | It is being deprecated now. Comparison map:
         | 
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/1eppo3p/tmobile...
         | 
         | https://imgur.com/a/Zg6XYch
         | 
         | https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network-e...
         | 
         | >Capacity and coverage of T-Mobile's 2G (GSM) network is
         | expected to change starting as early as September 1, 2024.
        
         | cardanome wrote:
         | 2G is still strong in Germany as some industrial applications
         | rely on it. It is not going to be deprecated any time soon.
         | Maybe once they run out of spare parts.
         | 
         | Germany's mobile network is worse than most third world
         | countries. Working on a train? No internet for you! Going a few
         | meters outside a settlement? Might not even be able to do
         | calls.
        
           | morsch wrote:
           | Such an exaggeration. >92% of the area is served with 5G.
           | Calls are available in 98%-99% of the area (though sometimes
           | just from one of the operators). Some trains were built in a
           | way that blocks reception, though those have had repeaters or
           | wifi for a while. I know plenty of people who work from the
           | train every day.
           | 
           | Sources:
           | 
           | https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilung.
           | ..
           | 
           | https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilung.
           | ..
           | 
           | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrain-Repeater
           | 
           | https://www.heise.de/en/news/Mobile-communications-for-
           | rail-...
        
         | superkuh wrote:
         | Correct. I still use my Nokia 6030 2G phone with T-Mobile in
         | Minnesota/Wisconsin. And it's battery still lasts a week and I
         | can't even feel it in my pocket it's so small. Impossible to
         | destroy too; I've used _roughly_ it since ~2008.
        
         | memsom wrote:
         | I am forever horrified when my 5G phone, which at my house
         | already only gets 4G at best (the politics of cell towers in
         | Southern England is just a sad sad story) drops now to 2G!!!
         | Dropping a modern smartphone to 2G is like basically saying "no
         | network". The only things I use it for are unusable. I rarely
         | make calls. I rarely send SMS. Vodafone dropped 3G, O2 will
         | drop it early next year and the others some time soonish too.
         | Using a smart phone in a rural area now kind of feels like
         | going back to 2007 if I am going to be honest.
        
         | joecool1029 wrote:
         | > AFAIK, in the US, T-Mobile still has a 2G network.
         | 
         | They do but most won't be able to use a phone this old on it.
         | Reason being the SIM application was taken out of the issued
         | sim cards years ago for T-Mobile (something like 6 years or so
         | at this point). Newer 3G-era cellphones use the USIM
         | application and can fall back to the 2G network.
         | 
         | So the only way to still use a device that's pre-3G (circa-2007
         | or so) on the 2G network is to have a SIM that's been activated
         | the whole time. T-Mobile will not activate expired SIM cards
         | that still contain the application.
         | 
         | Source: I have used back to the Sony Ericsson t68i this past
         | summer on T-Mobile. If you have an ancient SIM and want to
         | browse WAP 1.x as well you can use this site for the gateway:
         | https://nbpfan.bs0dd.net/index.php?lang=eng&page=wap%2Fmain
         | 
         | EDIT: Funny thing about 3G-era phone support, you can use a
         | euicc (removable ESIM) on a phone from 2007 (I used Sony
         | Ericsson K850i) and it will work just fine with an activated
         | esim to access 2G.
        
       | shahzaibmushtaq wrote:
       | HMD (Human Mobile Devices)[0] has exclusive rights to produce
       | phones under the Nokia brand.
       | 
       | Now, HMD has decided to drop the Nokia name from the new phones
       | because it's not helping them. Nokia has lost its glory, and HMD
       | took the right step to use its name.
       | 
       | People who have old Nokia phones should keep them as it is like a
       | lost meaningful art.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.hmd.com
        
       | palata wrote:
       | What I learned with this article is the English idiom:
       | 
       | "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched."
       | 
       | Which in my language translates to:
       | 
       | "You should not sell the bear's skin before killing it."
       | 
       | Not that it appears in the article, but rather because the author
       | wrote the blog post before doing the thing. Which results in a
       | blog post essentially saying "here is the cool thing I plan to
       | do", which was apparently never done.
       | 
       | Anyway, I'm happy to know about counting chickens now :-).
        
         | grishka wrote:
         | Which language is it? In mine it's almost the same, "don't
         | divide the skin of a non-killed bear".
        
           | anonu wrote:
           | I am going to guess Russian.
        
           | juanramos wrote:
           | Spanish I'd say
        
           | habaryu wrote:
           | It's in French. Not sure if it's exclusive to French but it's
           | commonly used.
        
           | jhncls wrote:
           | In French, the bear is killed. In Spanish, he is chased. In
           | Dutch, he is shot. The Spanish look adventurous, and the
           | French straight-forward.
        
         | 0_____0 wrote:
         | It's possible the author didn't expect to have a few thousand
         | Hacker Nerds looking at their blog post already, with all the
         | critique and pressure that entails.
        
           | shreddit wrote:
           | Already? This blog post is from 2 years ago...
        
             | 0_____0 wrote:
             | Fair enough. My point still stands that they may have been
             | blogging this for themselves or a relatively small number
             | of readers.
             | 
             | I'm reticent to criticize anyone for putting their
             | unfinished or aspirational work up on the internet, it
             | reminds me of a 'net where people hosted their own blogs
             | for mostly noone. Writing destined for a small or non-
             | existent audience feels precious when everything is made to
             | game the attention system.
        
               | palata wrote:
               | Well I did not mean it to be offensive, and I hope that
               | the author would not take it this way.
               | 
               | I genuinely thought about this expression when I realised
               | what happened with this project, and looked up the
               | English translation. I shared it because I found it fun
               | and interesting, that's all.
        
         | p0w3n3d wrote:
         | We have the same in Polish as well
        
         | notRobot wrote:
         | The blog post is from 2022 and the sequel never arrived. So the
         | idiom wins this one.
        
         | zoomablemind wrote:
         | It's more gruesome about the chicken. These are also said to be
         | counted in fall. It's not just about hatching (in summer), but
         | rather about surviving till fall...
         | 
         | The original Nokia 5110 obviously lived long, probably still is
         | there in author's drawer in some disassembled state.
        
       | dclowd9901 wrote:
       | I was excited to learn the new word "eniminable", but I think you
       | meant "inimitable", OP.
        
       | zoomablemind wrote:
       | Should be marked as [2022].
       | 
       | Indeed, the announced Part 2 has not been linked so far...
        
       | sourcepluck wrote:
       | Are there any not outrageously expensive, tough, battery-goes-
       | for-weeks, does calls and SMS and wifi hotspot and maybe even
       | F-Droid but a small screen, and maybe has at least LTE so that it
       | is safe to be used for years, type devices?
       | 
       | I've looked once or twice, and found two categories: one was
       | expensive phones leaning in to the "super slick minimalist"
       | thing, which looked like they could be good devices and cover
       | what I'm looking for, but again, 300 dollars or more type range.
       | 
       | The other was remakes of the "old classics", which were cheap,
       | and claimed to cover roughly what I was hoping for, but are
       | actually horrible quality, as another commenter said.
       | 
       | Maybe there's no solution, and those expensive ones are the only
       | good option. Exceptions, or surprises, please throw them at me!
        
         | asdem1 wrote:
         | It won't go for weeks, but days, and it takes some sideloading
         | and finagling to get certain apk's to work, but I use a Sonim
         | XP3+.
         | 
         | Runs Android Go, big battery that lasts a while, I can use
         | Signal Messenger on it (though not super well), and it's tank-
         | like in its construction. If you want to take that up a notch
         | in terms of build quality, Kyocera sells a similar phone, the
         | Dura XV Extreme+, which is roughly $250.
         | 
         | r/dumbphones is a decent resource. Unsuprisingly, it's not a
         | large community, but it's a good place to get people's
         | anecdotes about specific models.
        
         | Syonyk wrote:
         | Yeah, look at the Sonim XP3+/XP5+ (depending if you want a flip
         | phone or candybar).
         | 
         | Rugged, Android-Go powered "Call/SMS/MMS" devices, week and a
         | half on battery if you leave it on constantly, hotspot, and you
         | _can_ , if you insist, sideload apps. Just, don't expect any
         | modern Android app to be usable on a 240x320 screen with
         | keyboard input only. If you use a Bluetooth mouse, it's
         | marginally less-awful, but still, don't expect much to work.
         | 
         | I did get KDE Connect working - that allows you to send text
         | messages with a real computer keyboard. It's not as nicely
         | integrated as the Apple iMessage ecosystem, but it does allow
         | for sending texts without having to T9 the whole thing.
         | Alternately, the better option is to just move longer
         | conversations to email or an actual phone call.
         | 
         | One of these shouldn't run you much over about $150 (in the
         | US), and they work fine on the super cheap MVNO operators out
         | there.
         | 
         | My writeup from about a year ago:
         | https://www.sevarg.net/2023/12/30/more-flip-phone-sonim-xp3-...
        
           | sourcepluck wrote:
           | Ohhh snap, I'm glad I asked, I had not seen that one during
           | my browsing. It looks like it really does hit all the points,
           | wow. Investigating it right now! Cheers!
           | 
           | Update: not available outside US, or you can get it shipped
           | but it's locked to US carriers (which seems nonsensical...)
           | 
           | Anyway. I'm back looking at the Cat B35, and I think that
           | does the job. Thanks again!
        
             | Syonyk wrote:
             | There are some carrier unlocked versions available. Or at
             | least used to be. They seem pretty universal - I'm running
             | a T-Mobile one on an AT&T MVNO right now, and it wasn't too
             | big a hassle to set up. Unfortunately, I think these are
             | nearing end of production, supplies seem to be limited
             | lately.
        
               | sourcepluck wrote:
               | I think it's a tad risky, as in, if I've an issue,
               | returning it is an extra effort. Plus I'd be paying a
               | fair bit extra for postage in the first place.
               | 
               | I think the best bet for me over here (Ireland) is to
               | research the CAT phone that is dumb enough and not too
               | expensive.
               | 
               | E.g., the CAT B26, for example, looks promising
               | https://www.productindetail.com/pm/cat-b26
        
       | upofadown wrote:
       | I think that you would still end up with the inferior battery
       | life of 4G. That was the killer feature of those phones. Our
       | technology seems to have degraded in that regard over the years.
        
         | aziaziazi wrote:
         | 4G drain faster our batteries but we also now download multiple
         | orders of magnitude more data than we used to with the 5110 (I
         | count voice call as "data"). Videos and advertisements being
         | the usual suspects...
         | 
         | Battery would probably last a lot more if I only play snakes
         | and use the phone app.
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | Bring back the 9210!
        
       | NoboruWataya wrote:
       | Given the lack of a Part 2, I'm guessing some of the optimism in
       | the article about how easy it would be was misplaced. I know very
       | little about this stuff but presumably he would need to write
       | some code for the SIM7600SA that would allow it to interface
       | seamlessly with the UI board, which sounds far from trivial
       | (unless maybe the UI board is very well documented)?
        
       | amoorthy wrote:
       | Sorry for tangent but any recommendations for small smart phone
       | (i.e. <6" screen)?
       | 
       | I like my iPhone 12 mini with its 5" screen (though it is
       | glitchier than one would hope) but now all phones seem to be 6"+
       | which is hard to fit into a pocket or even manipulate with one
       | hand.
       | 
       | I know the Samsung ZFlip 6 and Motorola Razr+ are small, though
       | rather pricey at $800-1000. Any opinions from folks on
       | reliability/usability etc of these?
       | 
       | I am embarrassed to say I have some Apple lock-in with earbuds
       | and even basic conveniences like "find-my" working for my
       | children's watches so not sure if these are worth staying with
       | Apple for, even if I dislike their latest devices.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-12-16 23:01 UTC)