The Feature Set that Couldn't
Written: Apr 24 '04
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Pros: excellent battery, stellar reception, great camera, lots of third-party support
Cons: too large for your pocket, slow processor, buggy firmware, circular keypad
The Bottom Line: What this phone does well is a very small percentage of what this phone was meant to do.
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| kgreenlaw's Full Review: Nokia 3650 |
There are so many reasons to choose the Nokia 3650.
It's made by Nokia, a company with a reputation for quality and innovation in the field. It has all the features of several separate devices: a camera that actually works really well for impulse photography, PDA functionality that will make you question whether carrying a separate device is worthwhile, support for a huge amount of third-party software addons, and an MMC memory card for when you actually feel like using the phone to its potential and will need more memory.
Plus it's got bluetooth, so you can use a wireless headset and connect it to things like your computer, your GPS, and maybe even your PDA if it's still something you use after you begin to exploit the potential of this marvelous phone.
Well, that was the idea.
I've gone through FOUR 3650s now in my quest for the Holy Grail of Gadget Convergence. Brace yourself for the bad news.
The Bluetooth
It's a big, big deal to me to be able to use a headset. I need to type with both hands and carry on a conversation with a client. Sometimes, in moments of weakness, I like to drive with both hands on the wheel and talk on the phone. I cannot use this phone for this task. This has everything to do with the fact that the reception of the analog bluetooth voice channel is poor enough that people complain about the quality (something that never happens on my other bluetooth phone) but more importantly the phone will not RING when the bluetooth headset is active! I don't particularly want to look like one of the Borg between phone calls. But if your eye isn't on the phone, you won't know it's ringing if the headset is on. Thinking about turning the headset on when the phone rings? That's a great way to drop a call. Again, the bluetooth reception needs help, and the management of the handsfree needs a complete rewrite.
The Memory Slot
If you equip a phone with the ability to do everything, people will try to do just that with the phone. They'll take pictures, set appointments with alarms, and maybe even send and receive email with it. They'll be happy if that works, and they'll need extra memory for all of this. Unfortunately, the extra memory in the Nokia 3650 is not usable for contacts or calendar appointment storage. Furthermore, the two most recent Nokia 3650s I have used have been unable to store incoming messages in MMC without a hard freeze-up of the phone for one minute from the time the phone initiates MMS retrieval. This is unnaceptable in a phone! Can you imagine what this means? You can't answer a call - or hang one up. You can't do anything at all while it's trying to receive an MMS. If you care about forwarding incoming email to your phone so that you'll know what's going on in your inbox, this is not your phone. At least not in its current (3.16) firmware revision level - the first two older 3650s I used did not have this problem but the last two did, both with their native Nokia 16MB MMC card and with my 256MB Kingmax replacement.
The Web Browser
Nice, but half of the WAP websites you visit will be unusable because the browser doesn't properly handle the "submit" button. Moviefone is one good example: useless on the 3650 after you enter your ZIP code. Sure, you can pay for an alternate browser like Opera (which is wonderful, incidentally), but guess which memory it's going to likely need to use? The 4MB in the phone, or the external MMC you thought would be so helpful? sigh
The bottom line is this: you will love what this phone does well until you start to use it up to its full potential. It will then fall far short, and nothing anyone can do will address some of its very serious shortcomings, most of which are firmware-related. Perhaps this phone will improve with the next firmware.
I'm not waiting.
--Ken Greenlaw
Greenlaw & Quick IT
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 299
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
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Epinions.com ID:
kgreenlaw
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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