Britain's 'oldest mobile phone in use' has survived war zones and the washing machine

All mobile phone devotees know that they don’t come much better than the Nokia 3310 – with a battery that seemed to last a lifetime, alongside the gaming masterpiece that is Snake II.

But now, 49-year-old Dave Mitchell claims that his 3310 is the oldest working mobile phone in Britain – having survived a spin in the washing machine and even a tour of Iraq in the 17 years that he has owned it.

Dave says that he has received a fair bit of stick from his friends for using the phone – but admits that he finds the lack of internet on it to be liberating.

Dave, from Hull, East Yorkshire, said: ‘For me a phone is for making and receiving calls and texts – for a long time the phone lay gathering dust in my drawer.

‘But my daughter has just gone to college so I was under pressure from her and other family members to have a mobile handy so we could keep in touch in case of emergencies. It is really for peace of mind.

‘I was given a newer phone with internet access by my son a few years ago but I just didn’t want it – my needs are very basic and the phone has a calculator and games like Snake 2 if I’m bored.’

Dave also took the phone with him during a decade of service in the Army – including tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan and Germany.

Understandably, he now describes the phone as ‘Kryptonite’ and says that he only needs to charge the 17-year-old battery, which has never been replaced, once ‘every couple of weeks’.

And while the stonemason has received a fair bit of stick from his friends, it’s often him who ends up having the last laugh.

‘A lot of people laugh at me but when push comes to shove their phones break much more easily,’ he said.

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‘I try not to look too smug when I see someone with a cracked screen.’

Dave added: ‘I don’t need a camera on my phone – I’ll take a camera with me if I want to take photos and I don’t do selfies. I’m not a dinosaur and I know how new technology works – but I don’t want to be looking at my phone every minute.

‘If I want to go on the internet I am happy to wait until I get home or at work and sit at a computer. I think there is a real sense of freedom in doing that.’

We can’t argue with that.