My Nokia 8110 4G died on me while using it as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot

About 30 minutes ago, my Nokia 8110 4G died on me. I had it plugged to the wall socket, its Internet sharing feature on, and was using it as a 4G mobile hotspot when this happened, so it couldn’t be that it died due to an empty battery. Of course, my first reaction was, “What!? Why would it just die on me like that?”

So, I pressed and held the power button to start the phone up again. The KaiOS logo came up, followed by the Nokia logo, and then the Nokia startup tune, then….blank. The screen was off again. I repeated that procedure two more times, then removed and put the battery back in and tried starting it again. I got the same result. The screen wouldn’t come on.

So, I began to plan how to send it to RAYA, Nokia’s official service centre in Nigeria. The closest one was at Ikeja. I have a long relationship with RAYA and they have always come through for me. They fixed my Nokia E90 when I bricked it and needed it fixed. That was donkey years ago. RAYA fixed my Lumia 950 when it overheated and died on me.

They have fixed every Nokia phone that I sent to them, whether it was running Symbian, Windows, or Java. This was the first time I would send in a KaiOS phone to them. Hopefully, they wouldn’t drop the ball. In the meantime, I would need another device to use as a mobile WiFi.

Thankfully, I own a Huawei E5573C, which is a 4G mifi and compatible with the 4G SIM card I had in the Nokia 8110 4G. But I hadn’t used the Huawei mifi in a while and thought it wouild be a good idea to plug it in to charge for a first before powering it on. So, I grabbed my Anker USB charger and plugged it in.

But for some reason, the charging light on the mifi device wouldn’t come on. So, I grabbed the cable…and it was then it hit me….the charger had been unplugged all along! This was the same charger that the Nokia phone had been plugged to.

The Nokia 8110 4G had not died on me because there was anything wrong with it. LOL. It had died because its battery was empty! Oh, Lawd! I slapped my own head.

I had left home for the hospital at a few minutes to 9am and had its hotspot on at the time. The phone died on me at around 5.20pm. Apparently, the Nokia 8110 4G had run for a little over 8 hours in use as a mobile WiFi and then died when its battery ran out.

8 hours with two active SIM cards inside, an active 4G connection, and an active hotspot running. Not bad at all, especially considering that all it has is a Li-Ion 1,500mAh battery.

Anyway; I plugged the charger to the wall socket and charged up the phone and it is in use again as we speak. There was nothing wrong with the poor phone.

One Horrible Niggle About The Nokia 8110 4G hotspot

The Internet sharing or hotspot feature on the Nokia 8110 4G works well. However, the toggle or switch is buried away beneath layers of settings. And that is the one thing that I wish would change about the phone. To turn Internet sharing on or off, you have to navigate to the Settings menu, scroll down the Network & Connectivity menu, select Internet Sharing, then Wi-Fi hotspot.

There is a Shortcuts button on the homescreen, but Internet Sharing isn’t listed there and despite having used the Nokia 8110 4G for over a year, I still haven’t found a way to customise the Shortcuts menu. As far as I can tell, there is no way to add Internet Sharing there.

It is almost as if Nokia does not want you to use the phone as a hotspot. Or perhaps the blame is to be laid at the feet of Kai Technologies, the developers of KaiOS. The Internet Sharing switch is located in a very dark alley far from everyday life.

Besides that, the 8110 4G hotspot feature is a useful tool. What we have is a smart feature phone with great voice call features and broadband 4G internet that can be shared with other devices. I still think that at over N25,000, the Nokia 8110 4G costs too much, but at least I am getting my money’s worth out of it.

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Author: Mister Mobility

Mister Mobility, a techie with a passion for storytelling. I have owned, used, and reviewed hundreds of mobile phones since 2001. I started Mobility Nigeria Tech Blog in 2008.