After an uncharacteristic flurry of buying and selling on my part (I dropped my worthless Sony Ericsson T60LX, bought the Nokia 7210 which I liked, and then quickly swapped that for this model), I have settled in on the Nokia 3650. I have had this phone for 2 weeks now, and aside from some minor quirks, I am very happy with it.

CLARITY
One of the problems I had with the Nokia 7210 was the fact that there was an odd level of distortion with female voices. This is not an issue with the 3650, and I have enjoyed clear reception ever since I switched, indoors or out.

FUNCTIONS
If I could figure out all the different functions of this phone, I swear I could launch the space shuttle with it. Aside from the camera and video capture, it has a robust Calendar and Appointment Book, a great Contacts Manager and Bluetooth functionality.

Nokia finally got the right idea with the Contact Lists; you can not only store every number (cell, home, work, fax) that a contact has, but you can change the labels, cutting out the ones you don’t want or renaming others for more specific items (like “Beach House” for example…not everyone only has one house).

UPDATE: In addition to the software that comes bundeled with the 3650, there are dozens of amazing little apps. that can turn this "phone" into what it really is; a reason to never carry my PDA with me ever again. If this thing had a stylus, I would be selling my Palm on Ebay right now...

SOUND
The loudspeaker function is great, but doesn’t work quite as well as the one on my 7210(everything that has to do with the loudspeaker is a bit too muted on this phone). The Polyphonic ringtones sound fantastic, but they are way too quiet to be heard walking around the city (I live in DC and walk everywhere). I have tried pumping up the ringtone volume to max, but I can only hear them clearly in the office or at home. There are several cool alternatives to the Poly ringtones, including several traditional phone rings, that are so loud you can hear clear across you house. I also really miss the radio function on my 7210.

One complaint here: I paid $350 for this phone, so don't bundle it with a POS headset (it's the cheapest one available for this phone, and completely useless). That's just being greedy...

BLUETOOTH
This is my first Bluetooth device, so I don’t have a lot of exposure to them, but mine works great. I picked up a small USB converter from Comp USA for $40 and spent the next two hours uploading pictures, sounds, movie clips, installing extra software and games…so cool! Defiantly a great function.

Following this little geek trip to the max, I also plunked down $100 to pick up the wireless Bluetooth headset. I can’t tell you how much I love this thing. I am a web designer, and I am always walking from one office to another with my messenger bag. Before I got this headset, the wires from my cell would get tangled in my bag strap, and there were a couple of times that I yanked the headset out of the phone in the middle of a call. No problems with this little baby. It also solves a problem with recent Nokia phones: Why on earth do they insist on putting the ports for headsets on the bottom of their phones? At least the 3650 has a "normal" headset port, unlike the clunky one for the 7210.

The best thing about getting the Bluetooth headset is it solves another little annoyance abut the phone: It's big. The sucker is uncomfortable in you pants pocket, but with the headset, I just put it in a pouch in my messenger bag and, as long as I am within 30 feet of it, it works great. And with the voice dialing features, I never have to pull the thing out at all!

BATTERY
Okay, so everything has to have a trade-off, and for this phone, it’s the battery life. It’s not horrible, but it isn’t great, and if you talk more for than an hour a day (along with using the other phone functions) you may have to do a mid-day recharge. On the plus side, it does recharge rather quickly. And seeing as an extra charger is cheap ($13 on the Nokia website), you might as well pick on up for the office.

CAMERA
So you won’t be taking museum quality pics with this camera, or even photo-album quality for that matter, but all in all, they are pretty decent. The quality is good enough for your phone and for the web, which is all I am really concerned with anyway.

UPDATE: Okay, I just downloaded a little program called Photographer 2.0 on a gamble; it costs $20 and there was no trial version, but it was worth every last cent! The program dramaticlly improves the images that the phone takes and also provides you with a digital zoom feature that the original camera lacked. This is a must have for the Nokia 3650.

The video feature is a little choppier, but for quick audio/visual memories on the go, it can’t be beat. Make sure to go to the Nokia website and download the expansion so you can record both pictures and sound with the device.

SIZE
It is a little on the large size, and not the most appealing phone to look at. The keypad looks cool, but is a little tricky to get used to, and the silver faceplate it comes with is plain ugly. I also don’t know why they choose white as the base color for the phone; black or charcoal grey would have been much nicer.

All in all, this is a great piece of technology. Teens will love the camera functions, and we adults (I’m 26, so I guess I have to be an adult now) will love everything else. Note of caution: No matter how geeky you are (I consider myself very so), you are going to need to crack the manual a few times to get all the functions down.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 349
Recommended for: Professionals On-the-Go - Internet and Email is a Must!