It feels strange to be writing that a phone first released 20 years ago is available for pre-order, but 2018 is nothing if not a weird one, so why not? The reborn Nokia 8110 is available for pre-order, and will be on British shelves on 15 August.

It’s not quite the same 8110 you remember. Rather, like the re-released Nokia 3310 before it, it’s the old phone slightly modernised for the 2010s: a mobile remaster, with added Wi-Fi and 4G.

Despite that, it remains very much a feature phone, with its 2.4-inch screen, 2-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM and 25-day battery life. It even has (limited) app support, and can run popular favourites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, WhatsApp and YouTube. Though you’ll be using predictive text like the good old days.

It’s yours to pre-order in black or yellow with a RRP of £69.99, although it’s hard to imagine you’ll struggle to get one if you just wander into a store on 15 August.

Related: Best cheap phones

The 8110 – or banana phone as it was affectionately known due to its curved design – sprang to pop-culture fame on the back of The Matrix films, where Keanu Reeves was seen using one to actually make calls, rather than just play Snake.

But Nokia phones would ultimately suffer the similar downward trajectory as suffered by The Matrix trilogy. As the company failed to compete with iPhones and Android-powered devices, it was eventually bought up by Microsoft with the brave but futile aim of making Windows Phones well-liked.

Related: Best smartphone

Nokia’s second coming in the smartphone space, via HMD Global, has proved more successful, with the firm selling more phones last year than HTC, Google, Sony and OnePlus in Q4 2017.

Will you buy a Nokia 8110, or is it best left in the 90s? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews

Alan was Deputy Editor of Alphr.com, senior Editor at Mediablaze and a Producer at Mousebreaker, and has freelanced widely for The New Statesman, CNET and Pocket Gamer. Alan currently writes news for …