Gadgetory

hey it's Jake from the verge and we have Nokia's re-released matrix phone they have updated the classic phone from the 90s the slider the banana phone for 2018 and now has LTE has a larger screen but otherwise it's very much the same form factor this shape is pretty ridiculous in 2018 but it works there is a ton of nostalgia here and having wanted one ever since I saw the matrix I love the fact that hmd global which now makes Nokia phones is bringing it back I think they're entirely relying on that nostalgia for this thing to sell but I absolutely don't care I buy into it in this case the pricing to sell for under $100 and basically HMV says that there is still over a billion people who are using feature phones and they think that through some combination of you know nostalgia Nokia's recognizable brand name and just being one of the few people still making decent future phones it can actually get some people to buy this thing so obviously the big deal here is the design it has this curved shape on the outside which is part of what gives it the bananaphone nickname also it comes in yellow as well as a black color there is a headphone jack on top charges over microUSB there's a 2 megapixel camera on back I've already taken a photo with it and I can tell you it is terrible the slider is not exactly great but it's not about whether it's good or bad it's about the fact that it was in the matrix 20 years ago and you know what that is probably enough you have to use a directional pad to navigate the interface you have to use t9 to type and everything going back after a decade on smartphones is a real wake up call as to how not great that experience was it's kind of usable if you're just navigating the menus but the buttons are really tiny and hard to use it's hard to quickly get around the face you can actually get into a web browser here and navigate things you'll control a cursor with the d-pad so even though you can't get Android apps there is still an app store and Nokia has partnered with a bunch of companies to fill it with some popular apps so there's gonna be Twitter there's gonna be Facebook there's even gonna be a whole suite of Google apps including the Google assistant we're not really sure what that experience is going to be like but the intention really seems to be bridging the gap between a future phone a smart phone by offering at least some of the functionality there is a two megapixel camera on the back of this thing I have to tell you it is really not good it is exactly like the last time you use a feature phone everything is just big blocky chunky pixelated mess I guess it's there because it has to be but don't take pictures for this and expect much and of course this is a Nokia phone and so there's snake I have to tell you I've accidentally launched snake five times while filming this video it takes a lot of work to quit snake this one also has LTE and while that might seem kinda useless on a feature phone it can also be used as a hotspot which I guess will be a little bit more handy that's also gonna allow it to work on more cell networks around the world and this one is actually destined for Europe you're gonna be able to buy it in May for 79 euros there's also going to be a dual SIM model which will probably cost a little bit thanks for watching for more check out the verge calm and be sure to subscribe at youtube.com slash The Verge what have I just described the scene in detail based on memory okay so first