HMD planning revival of its oddly shaped Nokia 3650 phone: Report

If Nokia does revive this device, it would be interesting to see if the device would retain the controversial keypad. It would also likely run the open-source KaiOS instead of the now-ancient Symbian OS.

The Nokia 3650 was first launched in 2003, and immediately became controversial - it had replaced the iconic, evenly designed buttons in favour of a circular T9 keypad layout which frustrated many users. (GSMArena)

Back in the day, before iPhones and Android phones took the world by storm, Nokia was one of the top mobile manufacturers and was nearly unmatched in the level of quirky and fun experiments it conducted with their phone designs - like the gaming oriented N-gage, or the iconic Matrix inspired 8110 “banana phone”. And then there was the Nokia 3650, one of Nokia's most curiously shaped phones - rumour has it that Nokia is planning to revive the device for 2021.

The Nokia 3650 was first launched in 2003, and immediately became controversial - it had replaced the iconic, evenly designed buttons in favour of a circular T9 keypad layout which frustrated many users who were so used to a traditional T9 layout that they could text with their eyes shut. That didn't stop Nokia from releasing a very quirky ad to promote the phone either.

According to a report by GSMArena, HMD Global could be working on a refreshed version of the classic Nokia 3650, after releasing three other older models to customers - the Nokia 8110 4G, Nokia 3310 and the Nokia 6300. The report cites a Russian blog from earlier this week that suggests the company has begun working on the device.

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Even if Nokia does decide to refresh this device, it remains to be seen if the controversial keyboard makes it to the 2021 version of the phone. It would also likely run the open-source KaiOS instead of the now-ancient Symbian OS. Since Nokia doesn't really have a release schedule for the phones it revives, we will probably know more if renders or images of the alleged device itself leak in the future.