At the time of the phone's release, it was smaller than others of its price and had a bigger display, so it became very popular.

It also features a "revolutionary" new user interface featuring with two dynamic softkeys, which would later lead to the development of the Navi-key on its successor, the Nokia 6110, as well as the Series 20 interface.

[4][5] A later version, the Nokia 2110i, released in 1996, comes with more memory and a protruding antenna knob.

It is one of the earlier phones available on the Pacific Bell Mobile Services and Powertel's newly launched GSM 1900 network in 1995.

Another variant, the Nokia C6, was introduced in 1997 for Germany's analogue C-Netz.