The forgotten phone: Nokia 6131 from 2006

December 11, 2022 Luisa Rey

The Nokia 6131 deserves a special place in ‘The forgotten phone’. It was one of my favorite devices and had a unique design. The Nokia 6131 could be recognized by its folding design and was quite extensively equipped for that time. The Nokia 6131 was also special because it was the first NFC device. We discuss the 6131 in ‘The forgotten telephone’.

Nokia 6131

We go back to the beginning of 2006. Nokia presented the Nokia 6131 here; a clamshell device with a unique design item; a button on the side with which you could open the device. This was also known as ‘one-hand push-to-open’. In addition, the lid was provided with a special kind of layer that made it feel special. The phone had a 2.2 inch display with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. I’ve owned it myself and have enjoyed it a lot. At that time it was a device with a large screen and good specifications.

There was also a color display on the cover, so you could see exactly who is calling you and whether you missed any notifications. The 1.3 megapixel camera could also be found there. Filming was possible in QCIF (176 x 144 pixels). The T9 keys were a bit slippery and typed nicely. Not only Infrared was present, also Bluetooth could be found on the Nokia 6131; a combination you don’t see very often. There was 11MB of storage and this could be expanded up to 2GB.

Nokia 6131

The 820 mAh battery was behind the somewhat fragile cover. The housing was sometimes a bit fragile so that the paint could wear off the housing. Other than that I thought it was a very nice device. The Nokia 6131 was equipped with Symbian S40 with Snake of course. Listening to music was possible via the special connection. There was also Push-To-Talk, sort of like a walkie-talkie, and an FM radio. On the sides of the device were quick keys for, for example, the volume, but also to open the camera and below that the power button.

Nokia 6131

Nokia 6131 NFC

Later Nokia released the Nokia 6131 NFC. This was the first phone to support NFC. The technology has therefore been around for many years, although we have only been actively using NFC with our smartphones in recent years.

The original Nokia 6131 came on the market in 2006 with a price of around 150 euros. It was not only available in black, but also in the color combination silver-red.