7650 versus 3650... (Bluetooth rules!) (Nokia 7650)

Member Name: beedubblyer

Product:	Nokia 7650
Date:	30/09/03 (315 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bluetooth connectivity, application expandability, smart appearance

Disadvantages: no expandable memory, short battery life, larger than non-SmartPhones

Yes, this is an op with an agenda!

Like almost everyone else, i'd been more than happy with my Nokia 8310 for quite some time. In fact, that particular phone so pleased consumers that they stopped buying new phones ? which until recently had been worrying the phone manufacturers no end. What wasn't to like? It had a radio, was a perfectly handy size, and also boasted Nokia's usual stylish design.

So the manufacturers have been pushing phones with new features onto the market for a while to try and get us buying phones again ? and it's starting to work.

The digital camera wasn't the killer app for me ? sure it's fun to have one ? but I didn't feel it was necessary. The camera on the Nokia 7650 actually performs quite well, with apparently better resolution than smaller + sleeker models. Sending a recently taken snap is child's play, and there is plenty of room to store pix.

But I've been looking for a semi-business phone, and with that in mind, it seems worthwhile to compare this with the 3650, a similar Nokia model (y'know, the one with the bulbous, circular keypad).

In terms of "computing" ease of use, there is very little to choose between the older 7650 and the newer but more fashion-oriented 3650. Both sport digital cameras, and use the (ALMOST standard for mobiles) Symbian operating system. It's very simple to download extra applications ? games, etc. ? to add to either mobile. In fact, though the 3650 comes complete with a video camera, it is extremely simple to add one to your 7650 ? there's a free one available on the Nokia site.

In terms of physical appearance and ease of manipulation, the 7650 clearly has the edge. It's far more professional looking, rather than the gaudy 3650 with it's round keypad ? a nightmare for text-addicts!

Both phones also make use of Bluetooth technology, a short-range radio system that enables you to t
ransfer data from your portable computer to your phone. If you don't want to spend ages on GPRS downloading any of the larger apps, just DL them to your computer and beam them across your living room to your handset! i'm using an Apple PowerBook G4 portable ? the 12" and 17" models come with Bluetooth as standard, but adaptors or upgrades are cheap enough.

And here comes the handiest application (for me) of the 7650. Bluetooth is also geared towards the transfer of contacts and diary entries from/to your handset, to/from your computer. Currently, i have the same address book available on the 7650, my PowerBook, and even an iPod! (So much more than a Walkman?) Having this data available wherever we've been has already come in handy on a few occasions. It also makes transferring your contacts list (including addresses, faxes, email & more) to a new phone a doddle.

i am still trying to figure out a way to automatically synch contacts and calendar info, rather than one record at a time. As with the iPod (check out my review of the new 10Gb model ;-> ), the phone would then run thru the address book and intelligently update any altered info. Apple say this should be straightforward ? Nokia don't explain how to do it. (i'm still hunting for the solution and will update this review as and when it's found?)

Bluetooth also enables you to transfer photos from a phone to an enabled computer ? and doing this i was hugely surprised at how large and clear the images taken by the 7650 are. This also helps you free up memory space on your mobile ? one of the only drawbacks worth mentioning.

The 3650, for all its design flaws, does have the capability to take an upgraded memory card (think digital cameras), giving it a greater capacity for games &c. If you Bluetooth all your pix over to a computer when you've done sending them, space won't be a problem on the 7650, and you can get a fair number of applicat
ions on there, but you wonder when the memory restriction will feel like a problem.

Aldo added to my model is a video player by Vemotion. They're one of many companies providing compressed video content suitable for mobile phones (you may need to DL a different player for different content? tedious but unavoidable), and as well as content on the sites of network providers, they supply some on their own site. The picture quality is great, given the size of the screen ? and all without 3G, or third-generation mobile networks! (Most people use the 2.5G networks.)

The phone is also email-capable, if you go to the Yahoo! site (for example) using the WAP browser and register for a free account there. Otherwise, WAP is handiest for finding out late footie scores from the BBC, or tidbits of gossip about Fame Academy...

As with many SmartPhones, battery life is not great, but if you are looking for a professional phone, you should be able to charge up in somebody's office (or your car) fairly regularly. Yes, it's bulkier, but the functionality demands a compromise on size ? you wouldn't want to watch video on a screen the size of the 8310, after all.

So, while the 3650 may have expandable memory, it's not necessary unless you're planning to spend a lot of time with complicated or graphics-heavy games (I'm rediscovering classics such as Asteroids and PacMan at present ? maybe i'll want Doom one day, but not yet). The Bluetooth capabilities enable you to work around this one issue, and until this time next year ? when presumably I'll bemoan the fact that I don't yet have a phone with 1Gb of memory ? the 7650 does the job.

Summary: