Nokia 8110 4G was so nearly a true spring-loaded Matrix phone

When the Nokia 8110 4G launched at MWC 2018, some people expressed surprise that it didn't have the spring-released front cover the phone sported in its iconic starring role in The Matrix.

However, this was actually a feature added by the filmmakers to make the handset look more visually exciting, and the original phone had just a simple slider.

Still, given that Nokia has been alluding to the 8110's appearance in the film, it was disappointing to many that the rebooted model didn't stay true to the design of the movie version – but it turns out that it very nearly did.Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer for HMD Global (the brand that's making phones under the Nokia name), told TechRadar that there was a plan to create a spring-released 8110, but it would have ruined the design.

"When we started the engineering program, it was very clear for design and engineering that we would do a spring [release]. What we ended up discovering was the width of the design would be almost two centimetres more because of the mechanism.

"Then we [thought] 'what if we don't have the spring?', and we would just optimize and modernize the form factor to be a very compact, beautiful design.

"So we had both [designs] in parallel, and what we decided is the way you can operate the 8110 with a single hand – without the spring – and the benefit that brings on the dimensions and how much more beautiful the design was, we ended up going with that one."