In 2005, Nokia released the N90, one of the first smartphones to boast a 2-megapixel camera. Fast forward almost two decades, and 2MP cameras are relegated to the back of budget phones, serving a dubious purpose of providing depth information for the main camera. However, the reissued Nokia 3210 bucks this trend, proudly sporting a 2MP main camera. Is it a nostalgic throwback, a digital camera equivalent of shooting film? I decided to find out and quickly realized it’s not. Here are five aspects of the Nokia 3210’s camera that make us thankful for the advancements in today’s smartphone photography.
The image quality is, unsurprisingly, not great. The low megapixel count makes this obvious, but it’s more than just the megapixels. It’s the lack of HDR, optical image stabilization, and autofocus that truly underscores the difference between the Nokia 3210’s camera and a modern smartphone camera. Compare the photos in the gallery above: the Nokia 3210’s 2MP photos pale in comparison to the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 48MP main camera shots. Even without resizing the 2MP images, the difference is stark. Twenty years ago, having a camera on a phone was a novelty, and we accepted what we got. While it’s unfair to compare the past to the present in terms of technology, the Nokia 3210’s camera serves as a reminder of how much we take today’s cameras for granted. They have seamlessly documented our lives and travels, offering a creative outlet that fits in our pockets. This wasn’t possible when 2MP cameras were just becoming available.
Exploring life through the lens of the Nokia 3210’s 2MP camera meant embracing the limitation of its storage space. I quickly encountered a problem I haven’t faced in years: an on-screen message notifying me that the device’s memory was full. Despite taking up less than 500KB each, around 30 photos maxed out the camera’s allocation of the phone’s 128MB of storage. The options were limited: transfer photos to a computer, insert a microSD card, or delete photos. Today, the humble microSD card has been replaced by cloud storage like Google Photos and iCloud. With devices offering up to 1TB of internal memory, running low on storage is a thing of the past. I can instantly access photos from ten years ago directly on my phone. While theoretically possible on the Nokia 3210, it requires finding the right microSD card and inserting it. The phone only supports cards up to 32GB, so the physical catalog of cards would likely be extensive.
Faced with the choice of buying a microSD card or transferring photos to my computer, I opted for the latter and encountered another unexpected hurdle. All my photos were taken in landscape orientation, as I’m accustomed to doing, but they were saved in portrait orientation. The Nokia 3210’s camera lacks auto-rotation and expects photos to be taken with the phone held upright. In retrospect, it makes sense, but my 2024 brain didn’t even consider it until I viewed all the photos on my computer monitor and realized they needed manual rotation. While not the end of the world, it’s another aspect of modern smartphone photography we take for granted.
Taking a selfie, joining a video call, or using facial recognition – these common features require a front-facing camera, which the Nokia 3210 lacks. Interestingly, despite the impossibility of seeing the screen for selfies, the phone does have a mode for taking selfies or group photos. Activated by an icon of a person’s head and shoulders, pressing the button initiates a 10-second countdown. The assumption seems to be that the phone is attached to a tripod or propped up, and you need to quickly get in position before the shutter clicks. You still can’t see the screen, making capturing yourself and others a game of chance. Video calls and face unlock? Forget them both.
Just as taking still photos with our phones is commonplace, so is shooting video, often at resolutions up to 8K. Surprisingly, the Nokia 3210’s 2MP camera can also shoot video, but in a format most have likely forgotten about – 3GP. The resolution is a paltry 320 x 240 pixels, lower than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover screen resolution. By today’s standards, it’s almost unwatchable, especially with a standard recording rate of 15 frames per second, making it choppier than footage filmed at sea. If the difference in still photos between a modern phone and a 20-year-old 2MP camera is striking, the video truly drives home the immense progress made in smartphone photography.
Initially, I hoped to find a nostalgic quality in the photos taken with the Nokia 3210’s camera. While I liked one photo (the church seen in the gallery above), it lacked any nostalgic charm. The few filters, including a black-and-white mode, made the photos look worse, not better. It was a bit disappointing. Remember, I’m writing about cameras from 20 years ago while using a phone available for purchase today. Messing with a 2MP camera in 2024 has been an eye-opener, making me deeply grateful for the exceptional cameras we have today, from the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra with its Photographer Kit. As I concluded my time with the Nokia 3210, it became clear that two decades ago, owning an actual camera was a necessity for taking good photos – a statement that hasn’t been true for many years now.
