Nokia’s Matrix banana phone gets over 100,000 preorders in China

Big numbers for a handset that doesn’t support WeChat or Alipay

Reading Time:2 minutes

Nokia also says the 8110 can power through 11 hours of talk time. (Picture: Nokia)

Published: 7:45pm, 25 Jul 2018Updated: 8:33am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

It’s no secret that Nokia has high hopes for China. Last year, it received 230,000 preorders for the first phone (Nokia 6) it launched in China in three years. Since then, it’s debuted several handsets in China, including the latest X5.

But this time it’s another phone -- a retro classic from almost two decades ago -- that has caught the eyes of Nokia fans.

The Nokia 8110, i.e. the banana phone that Keanu Reeves’ Neo used in The Matrix, is now open for preorder online in China. In less than a week it’s logged more than 101,000 reservations on JD.com, and the number is still growing.

Older people tell me you need to slide open the front cover of the 8110 to reveal the dial pad, and press physical buttons to make calls. Weird. (Picture: Nokia)

The remake supports 4G LTE and dual-SIM -- a popular feature in China that lets users use two SIM cards at the same time to exploit different rate plans from carriers. It's powered by Qualcomm’s 205 Mobile Platform, and comes with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

In case you’re wondering, the 8110 has no fingerprint sensor, selfie camera, GPS, or NFC. But hey, your phone’s battery probably doesn’t last 17 days on standby -- or come with the Snake game!