Fake News: NO Nokia 3310 Found in Drawer After 20 Years With 70% Battery Left

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: NO Nokia 3310 Found in Drawer After 20 Years With 70% Battery Left

Was an old Nokia 3310 phone found in a drawer after 20 years with 70% battery remaining? No, that's not true: a story that claimed Kevin Moody from Ellesmere Port had found his old phone still 70% charged while cleaning out a drawer was published by a satire website as a joke to mock the relatively low standby times achieved by modern smartphones.

The story originated from an article published by The Chester Bugle on August 23, 2019 titled "Nokia 3310 found in drawer after 20 years still has 70% battery" (archived here) which opened:

Kevin Moody, a roofer from Ellesmere Port, has recently cleared out his 'man draw' looking for a key to the shed when he stumbled upon his old Nokia 3310 mobile phone. The phone was still switched on, and had been forgotten about for 20 years. Incredibly the phone still had just over 70% battery remaining. ...

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

Nokia 3310 found in drawer after 20 years still has 70% battery - The Chester Bugle

Kevin Moody, a roofer from Ellesmere Port, has recently cleared out his 'man draw' looking for a key to the shed when he stumbled upon his old Nokia 3310 mobile phone. The phone was still switched on, and had been forgotten about for 20 years. Incredibly the phone still had just over 70% battery remaining. ...

The Chester Bugle carries a satire disclaimer on the 'about page' which reads:

The Chester Bugle is a satirical news website, written by a bunch of nut jobs. It's not actual news, even though it may look like it to some people.

If you read something that gets you all het up and in a twizzle, calm your tits - it's almost certainly made up. Feel free to share stories from this website, but do so in the knowledge they're written as jokes or satirical comment on the world's affairs - nothing more.

So the story was made up by "a bunch of nut jobs". Still, we looked into the matter and found that the Nokia 3310 had a standby time of 55 hours. Not quite 20 years but nothing to sneeze at. However compare that to the 'new' 3310 introduced by Nokia in 2017:

Nokia 3310 (2017) Vs Nokia 3310: What's The Difference?

The unthinkable has happened. In February it was confirmed the iconic 3310 is making a comeback via a partnership between Nokia and its exclusive Finnish handset developer HMD. But this isn't simply a rebuild of the classic 3310. 17 years have passed and a lot has changed. These are the important differences...

Specifically the part about battery life:

When you give up so many power hungry features, there's one major goal behind them: battery life. And here the new Nokia 3310 runs rings around every modern smartphone on the market:

Nokia 3310 (2000) - 900mAh removable battery, 2.5 - 4 hours talk time, 55 hours standby
Nokia 3310 (2017) - 1200mAh removable battery, 22 hours talk time, 31 days standby

Yes, the 2017 Nokia 3310 can last up to one month between charges, around 30x more than you'll get out of your iPhone 7 and Galaxy S8. You'll be able to go on a two week holiday and not even need to pack a charger, mindblowing by today's high powered smartphone standards.

A full month! Still not 20 years, but getting closer!

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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