Was The Nokia 3310 Really Indestructible?

The Nokia 3310 wasn't actually indestructible, but it was built like a brick. Almost impossible to break in day-to-day use, it became famous for its sturdiness, a reputation later echoed by rugged Nokia-branded phones. So why was the Nokia 3310 so hard to break? It comes down to the era it was built in, and the design it ended up with.

Today's phones are usually weakest at the screen, and it's common for a smartphone to crack right where you need it most. Even with tougher glass than ever, iPhone 13 drop tests show what it takes for the glass to crack. The Nokia 3310's tiny 84 × 48-pixel monochrome display, on the other hand, sat behind a thick plastic window rather than exposed glass. Its compact "candy bar" shape and thick outer casing also made it hard to bend. A single rubber keypad sitting over membrane switches meant fewer mechanical parts that could fall. Even the charger connection was sturdy, using a simple barrel jack.

The 3310's "indestructible" reputation really took off online, as people put old phones to the test on social media. It hasn't survived every attempt, though. One video shows a red-hot nickel ball melting straight through it. In 2017, Tech Insider found that HMD's remade version of the 3310 could survive a drop from a fourth-story window. In a 2021 test, TechRax dropped an original 3310 down a 20-story stairwell, and it broke apart into pieces on impact, though the video doesn't show whether it worked after being put back together. TechRax also found that it took three bullets to put a "good, clean hole" through it.

Nokia's 3310 spawned an entire line, with variants including the 3315, 3330, 3390 and 3395 all releasing within a few years of each other. The 3315 was the upgraded model, but it was mostly bugs fixes and usage issues like misdialing or pocket calls. It lasted for around five years, before being discontinued in 2005. By then, Nokia had moved onto newer models, and features like color screens and cameras were quickly becoming the standard. The 3310 was succeeded by the Nokia 3410 and 3510, and competition was heating up, with BlackBerry on the rise. The company has since left phones behind, and what happened to BlackBerry? What they're making now instead of phones is a story of its own.

Nokia went through a period of turmoil once the smartphone era truly kicked off in 2007. It turned to Microsoft's Windows Phone for its Lumia smartphones, and in 2014, Microsoft bought Nokia's phone business outright, turning it into Microsoft Mobile and eventually dropping the Nokia name from its Lumia phones. Since 2016, Nokia phones have existed through a licensing deal with HMD Global, which uses the name for modern takes on some of the brand's iconic phones. That includes a 2017 remake of the 3310, which kept the classic keypad but added a color screen and a camera. HMD still uses the Nokia name on feature phones today, and Nokia's new retro throwback could be the Swiss Army knife of phones. However, HMD pulled out of the U.S. market in 2025, so new Nokia-branded phones aren't sold in the U.S.