“It’s ugly” – “It’s so cool”
Written: Jun 22 '04
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Pros: design, features: bluetooth, modem, pim, voice recorder, expandable memory, camera
Cons: design, complex software design, unintuitive pc software, phone instablity
The Bottom Line: A phone for boys who like toys - for a trendy fashion statement. A phone that will turn heads and keep you on time to your next appointment.
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| drewday's Full Review: Nokia 3650 |
“It’s ugly” – “It’s so cool”
The 3650 was released in Q1 2003 – since then a plethora of new phones have arrived to market. The 3650 can still match most of these phones feature-for-feature, but is it still the fashion item it once was?
The design of the 3650 has always been hit or miss. Upon its first release it was featured in a number of fashion magazines. The purpose of the design is definitely to turn heads. The lines of the phone are very distinct. The rotary number pad is its most distinguishing feature of the device. In terms of scale the phone is larger than average yet sits in your hand very comfortably. The rounded edges of the phone make it very easy to slip into a pocket.
There’s an IR port on the side of the phone which seems to me a bit from the legacy days. One of the larger selling points of the phone is its Bluetooth functionality. Bluetooth – a short distance, low bandwidth, wireless communication protocol is most being marketed towards wireless headsets and other hands free devices for automobiles. Other uses of the protocol are primary for personal information management (PIM) exchange.
Through the use of Nokia’s priority software the 3650 can be connected to your computer via IR, Serial, or Bluetooth protocols. When connected images, videos, applications, and more can be downloaded or uploaded from the camera’s built-in or expandable memory. Contact, Calendar, and Task information can be synced between applications such as Microsoft Outlook (with the provided Nokia software) which raises the phone’s functionality to that of a PDA or the current crop of smart phones. The phone can also act as a modem for a laptop or PDA as well as browse the web all depending upon your service plan.
Text interface is typical of a mobile phone. T9 predictive text input can speed some tasks up substantially.
Other features on the phone include a low resolution camera which can record both moving and still pictures. This media can be uploaded to a device via Bluetooth, sent via email, or sent via SMS depending on your plan. The phone also includes a voice recorder for memos, a calculator, a currency/unit converter (you need to plug in the exchange rate), and a note taking application. (These applications may vary depending on your service provider or where ever you obtain the headset from).
Overall this phone has ample features, many of which I haven’t mentioned. Personally I’ve owned my 3650 for over a year. My service provider has been T-Mobile. There’s never been a day where the phone has failed to make a call. However, the software interface, when taken as a whole, could use some honest work. Some features will freeze requiring you to power the phone on and off (which takes a substantial amount of time for a mobile phone… somewhat eclipsed by the fact of this phone’s extraordinary battery life). Other times the phone will require a full reset to gain back full functionality (in which case you lose all your user data, although it can be backed up to the phone’s flash memory card). To most users this is unacceptable, to others it’s the price to pay for cutting edge technology. However, take into account people’s reliance on mobile phones today and I think any sort of software flaw is unacceptable. Also consider that a phone may need to serve you in the time of an emergency in which case full functionality is always a plus.
However, the 3650 is not a bad phone. If you like gadgets, and are fond of the trendy design – go for it (although if you’re fond of gadgets you probably won’t be buying a phone that’s over a year old). For other crowds, and by other I mean the average audience, I wouldn’t suggest this phone. The features are there, but require some time and dedication to get to operate efficiently (if at all).
Addendum:
I realized there are other important issues I didn’t touch on before.
The screen is large and fairly bright – a major feature to the phone. Its size and resolution make it very easy to navigate through contacts and within the calendar application.
The camera takes average pictures for a 2003 camera phone. Do not expect these images to be great. They are just under par of the image quality of most $30 webcams today. There is no zoom or flash – the latter of which would have been extremely useful in low light situations, albeit at the expense of battery life.
The buttons are actually positioned in a very intuitive layout. The rotary dial – while different – is no slower or faster than a conventional pad layout.
The battery, as noted above, powers the phone extremely well – as well as recharges extremely fast. With light to medium use you may get away with charging it every five days.
The voice transmission quality is average and mostly dependent upon signal strength and carrier. The microphone has a tendency to drift away from your mouth when the headset is handheld – although this could be my own fault, and not a fault of the design.
Wallpapers and ringtones are as customizable as any other phone on the market.
You can tag a picture to a person’s contact information – their picture will come up on your caller id (provided your service plan has caller id… most do). If you sync the contact file to a mac running OS X – the picture will sync with the computer.
Syncing the phone via Bluetooth was a major pain on both Apple and PC platforms – it still is on the latter. The newest updates to the OS X operating system have added true support for the 3650. You can use iSync for sync just as you would with your ipod, etc. PCs are still forced to use Nokia’s unintuitive and archaic software which doesn’t always work. You may need to be – or know someone who is fairly proficient while working with computers. It is much more difficult to sync on the PC platform than it is on the Mac platform.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 300
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy
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Epinions.com ID:
drewday
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Member: Drew DiPietro
Location: NY
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
A University Student in Manhattan
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