Brighthand Reviews the Nokia 3650 phone

Steve · 09-09-2003, 01:44 AM

The Nokia 3650 is more than just the phone with the funny-looking keypad. It's an excellent tri-band phone with most of the features found in today?s high-end cell phones, including integrated contacts, calendar and to-do. It can also keep you connected to the world of the Internet, with web browsing and email access. And it can run Java applications, too. Finally, it?s a digital camera, capable of capturing and displaying both still and moving pictures. No wonder it's one of the hottest gadgets on the market today.

Read the complete review at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Nokia_3650_review

Heyo · 09-09-2003, 02:39 AM

I disagree that this phone is good looking. I think all Nokia's have started to become as ludicrously overstylised as a bad pair of flairs.

Hence why I now sport a lovely Sony/Ericsson T610.

09-09-2003, 03:14 AM

Nice looking phone but my t68 has survived 1.5 years and will continue untill it dies!

Twin_Pixel · 09-09-2003, 04:55 AM

Great review, Steve! Although a tad late. I disagree with some parts, and can willingly say that this phone isn't for me.

Despite from being the worst designed phone ever, I have a couple of other things to discuss.

Quote:

In addition to being an excellent tri-band phone with most of the features found in today's high-end cell phones, including integrated contacts, calendar and to-do, the 3650 keeps you connected to the world of the Internet, with built-in web browsing and email access. And for more adventurous users, it can run Java applications, too.

My less expensive and better-looking Sony Ericsson T610 can do all this, too. Even though it lacks the fast processor of the 3650, web surfing is still a breeze and quite impressive considering the small size of the T610.

Quote:

The 3650's screen is one of its strong points. It's a 170 x 208 backlit color LCD that measures 2" diagonally, relatively large for a cell phone. It's a 12-bit color display so it's capable of 4,096 color variations, enough to produce adequate images.

I'm still not impressed. 12-bit displays are worthless, and Nokia has always been lightyears behind in display technologies. First off, it's still using the black and white display first seen in e.g. the Nokia 5510 in its lower-end phones, while Sony Ericsson sells phones equipped with 8-bit displays for the same amount of cash. Also, Nokia 2100, which is as far as I know the latest addition to the company's low-end line of phones, offers a mere 150 hours of standby time and no WAP, and is still bigger than SE's competitor phone; the T100. Reports also claim that 33% if all Nokia phones are defect. Nokia is nothing but a joke in my eyes.

Anyway, what I was my major complaint was the display color depth. Samsung has announced a phone with over 200,000 colors, for comparison. The resolution is adequate, but compared to the small screen of my T610, it's about the same amount of pixels within a certain area.

Today, NEC's 3G phones can do do almost the same things as the 3650. And upcoming phones like the Z1010 and some Samsung ones are even smaller, and supposedly also even better.
If this device is supposed to double as a handheld computer, slightly more effort should have been put into the design process.

No, I'm not impressed at all by this phone.

dennis88 · 09-09-2003, 05:22 AM

Yep, the nokia 3650 is great, and it works excellent together with my ipaq h2210!
Connects to the internet and msn messenger via bluetooth.

snOOp · 09-09-2003, 06:06 AM

I lucked up on this phone, because I was looking for any phone that supported bluetooth. I never knew what I was getting, till I got it. A phone that's not only a pleasure to hold, but one that makes my PDA useless most of the time.

It's quicker just to web browse with it, than taking the time to set it up as a modem for the PDA. The larger display definitely helps in that area!

Although it sports a 12 bit display, you don't think of the 3635's when viewing stuff on it.

The most surprising thing to me (just found this out last night), is the night caption for pictures. The phone has no built-in flash, but everything comes to light in that mode, very well done!

The key to the phone though, has to be the ease of accessing the features. Internet and the camera, are just one touch away. And the menu button, gives access to every other function in just about one blick. Hence, not the endless amount of strolling just to get something done.

The other great thing besides it's looks, is the memory and speed of the camera.

4mb of internal memory would have been great if just that, but you can also have as large a memory card as MMC provides.

That, and it's ability to capture moving images with sound......Let's me take it everywhere using it as a PDA and phone and leave the PDA at home. If I didn't like the iPAQ 1945 so much, I would definitely just have the 3650 as phone and PDA....Which was my intentions for getting rid of the 2210.

Finally a phone where I don't try to end a conversation, do to the extremly uncomfortable style of a smaller phone. Not only is it fast, but I believe the modem has to be just as powerful.

I surf the internet at night with phone and PDA, just to wake up with everything still active. I think you have to turn the phone off, just to break the connection, lol!

I'm still learning features of the phone after having it for a while....But that's a good thing.

Timothy Rapson · 09-09-2003, 08:07 AM

What I don't understand is why this phone and a half dozen others with about the same features cost $150 after activation, while the Sony P800 and coming Treo 600 are $400+ after activation.

I don't see the feature/production cost difference. All the difference I really see is the OS (OK, it occurs to me that there is a touch screen on those full OS models, but then again the MS smartphones don't all have those either and how much does it cost to add adigitizer. There is one on the $29 Sharp Yo.) Now, that OS does not cost $250!

After seeing Motorola release their latest 3G with full Symbian OS for 1/3 less than Sony/Ericcson is charging for the P800, I am hoping we will see a bunch of phones at the P800 level for less than $200 after activation.

AiSuK · 09-09-2003, 08:10 AM

I've been using the 3650 for nearly 2 months now, and i'm very satisfied. I had to decide between the 3650 and the T610 and my decision to get the 3650 was a no brainer. The T610 has a washed out screen outdoors, bad RF, practically no memory, slippery phone case, crap camera. The only thing against the 3650 was the size. With 128 megs onboard, i have taken over 1500 pics this summer, and my tosh is now solely used for music and for writing notes. The T610 is a phone.. the 3650 is a smartphone, different targets.. I can't imagine having a non-smartphone as my main phone, i'd feel so limited. I can't wait for the nokia 6600, now that is what i call a nice phone, they improved the screen, 16-bit TFT, made it smaller, and made the camera of better quality. There's a reason why Sonyericsson is losing market share, and nokia is market leader and still gaining.

plainsong · 09-09-2003, 08:22 AM

Well less expensive and less expensive, prices aren't the same all over the world. Here in Finland the t610 is a good deal more expensive but it least it has less features and worse signal quality.

Well, it's not really fair to compare these two after all. If you want a small phone with some PIM features and a camera, then sure go with the t610.

But if you want a phone with an OS that has downloadable software for it and more memory and better camera and signal quality, then go with the 3650. There's a reason it's bigger.

Both phones are different enough to attract their own users.

And maybe it's just me but I actually find the circular pad easier to use. But that's because I never liked it the other way. I'm in a minority there I know, but the 3650 is pretty good, just make sure you have the latest firmware.

Twin_Pixel · 09-09-2003, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by AiSuK
There's a reason why Sonyericsson is losing market share, and nokia is market leader and still gaining.

Exactly what is the reason? I hope you're not talking about Nokia's displays...

Around here, it's the total opposite. Sony Ericsson has passed Nokia and is still gaining. So is Nokia itself, although not as fast as the former. Motorola is losing its market share.