New Nokia Phones With Full Color And MMS

scrm writes "Nokia have just launched six new phones at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference. All phones have color and MMS. Interesting is the 6800 that is specially designed for text input, and the premium 8910i with titanium casing, Bluetooth and J2ME apps. Will this company ever stop? (Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.)" I've still got a serious lust on for T68i - it's iSync compatible and all that fun.

Comments

6800

[e8johan]

Ah, the name 6800 has a fond place in my heart. The first CPU I learned to hack asm for...

Seriously speaking. It seems that Nokia has realized that if you build phones based on proper modules you can pump out a number of new models each quarter of a year, without too much fuzz.

As for a dream phone, just wait until the P800 is released...

Gaargh

[Mwongozi]

Now I don't know what to choose. I was just about to fork out for an Orange SPV, but now I'm sorely tempted by the new 8910i, which will still talk to my iPAQ.

Decisions decisions. Sulk.

Run by engineers

[bunyip]

Will this company ever stop?

I read an article a couple of months ago where they described the engineering culture at Nokia (I don't remember where, somebody please post a link if you know).

In short, they worship geeks internally, not CYA lawyers, suits and the like.

So, I don't believe they'll ever stop *and* that's a good thing!

Re:Run by engineers

[CatWrangler]

Isn't there a downside to this as well. Engineers can develop cool toys, but sometimes have a tone deaf ear for exactly what non-geek consumers want.

Cell phones being so ubiquitous these days, you do need to reach out into the market for somebody who is never going to bother knowing, or caring, what is under the hood.

Re:Run by engineers

[Tet]

Engineers can develop cool toys, but sometimes have a tone deaf ear for exactly what non-geek consumers want.

Given that Nokia sell some 160,000,000 mobile phones a year, I'd say they've probably got it about right...

Re:Run by engineers

[thogard]

I think they already lost the plot. Years ago they were working on good user interfaces and were much better than everyone else. It took Motorola years to get away from their "it started out as a "8 digit 7 segment display" mentality.

Last year I bought the top of the line Nokia phone (8310). Its only slightly better than the older phones and its got lots of nasty bugs and stupid interface issues. For example if you send an SMS, the display mode goes back into editor. If you get distracted and don't know if you sent the message or not (or of the cell site rejected it for some reason), you can't tell if it was sent.

You can't hook a data cable up to the phone. You have to use IRDA. When was the last time any computer except a laptop had IRDA? The last time I saw a new one was over 5 years ago.

The problem this week is there is no local time offset. My phone company hasn't figured out day light savings started so my phone has the wrong time and keeps asking to update it. The problem is the message pops up at the wrong time and gets acked while I'm tring to make a call.

No POP3 mailer with gprs? what were they thinking? I want my phone to always be connected using GPRS and check for new mail ever 30 minutes or so. It can't do that...

You can't get to the main menu while on a call. Also some of the options hang up the call if your tring to get someone else number out of the phone while on a call.

No call timers or call cost calulators. The phone has it but they allow the phone company to turn them off. Whats the reason for this? So I can't tell how much I use so I get a supprise bill? The next guy at work who delivers a supprise bill is going to find themself with no phone.

You can't get a Nokai phone fixed. If there is any water damage, the local Nokia repair shop will charge you to say they can't fix it. Every other place will drop the board in a cleaning solution, replace the mics and speaker and send you out the door with a working phone. The local shop also said they would take "all care" to preserve the data in the phone and promply wiped it. That was a pain since the only way to back it up is with a PC that talks IRDA which I don't have.

Nokia knows its money comes from the cell phone compaines and they've castrated my phone's features to sell out to Vodafone and the like. This is the last Nokia phone I'll buy for a long time. At work we've been getting Sony/Erricsons where are 1/2 the price with better features and they are better phones.

Nokia hasn't been the leader in the market for at least a year and now it looks like they are tring to catch up.

Re:Run by engineers

[wolvie_]

Wired also have a good article from 1999 on the Nokia culture, as well as how they have affected Finland.

Nokia interfaces

[seldolivaw]

Every year, my contract expires, and it's the same story: I decide I want a new phone, and decide to try anything other than a nokia. I've tried Motorola, Samsung and the new Sony-Ericsson models, and I always come back to the nokia user interface. It has a few idiosyncrasies to be sure, but compared to every other phone I've used, Nokia is the easiest to use right off the bat. The one exception was the Mitsubishi Trium phones -- their interface was better, but unfortunately the hardware was awful.

Re:Nokia interfaces

[darien]

I've got a T39m and I reckon it's absolutely bloody useless. Just immediately, off the top of my head, here are some of the reasons I despise it:

• The UI is very, VERY slow. When I'm typing text I often get five or six words ahead and have to sit and wait for the phone to catch up. If I've made a mistake it's agonisingly slow to move the cursor around. GRR.
  
  
• Text edit mode always displays a space on one side of the cursor, even when there really is none. If you move, the space disappears, often joining two words together. In predictive text mode there is no way to get back to the centre of the word - you have to just delete the word on the right. GRRR!
  
  
• After the phone's message boxes are full, incoming messages are automatically saved to your SIM. Selecting "Delete All" doesn't delete these - you have to delete (and confirm the deletion of) each one by hand. GRRR.
  
  
• If someone sends you a message and you want to save their number, you have to close the message, leave the Messages menu, go into the "Phone Book" menu, select "Add Contact," enter the person's name... and then, when asked for the number, select "Unsaved Numbers" and select which of the (undocumented) numbers on the list you want. Intuitive, hey?
  
  
• If you want to set the time, the option is under menu 4 (option 7: time and date). If you want to set an alarm, the options are under menu 5 (option 3: calendar or 7: time). Intuitive, hey?
  
  
• The phone remembers only the last time someone called you - unless they don't send their number, in which case the phone doesn't record the time. Huh?
  
  
• If there's a text field on a WAP page, you HAVE to enter some text in it before you can proceed from the page - otherwise you get a (usually false) "you have to fill something in" message.
  
  
• Sometimes you have to press a key twice for it to take effect. This includes while you're playing games, so you generally end up dying for no reason.

This was my first non-Nokia phone. Never again. Ericsson have lost a customer for life. It's Nokia or nothing for me from now on.

(The T68i isn't so slow, but its UI is just as brainless - so I'm told by a friend of mine who let the gimmicks sway him into getting one instead of a Nokia 8310, and has been lamenting his mistake ever since.)

Good job Hemos

[Zayin]

Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.

Yeah, let's post a link to the press release on Slashdot. That'll help.

Neither is triband.

[dieman]

Meaning that I've got little options to buy either of them ever. I'm still stuck with my shitty motorola t193. I'm thinking of a ericsson t39, though. Looks like a very nice not-bells-and-whistles-based phone.

Found the article

[bunyip]

Their engineering culture pretty guarantees that this innovation will keep going.

Re:Found the article

[sql*kitten]

Their engineering culture pretty guarantees that this innovation will keep going.

People said great things about Netscape's engineering-led culture too. A culture where engineers can thrive is an advantage, but what matters at the end of the day is selling products. Nokia came out of nowhere to dominate the industry, just like Netscape in their day, but they're just as vulnerable as any other incumbent now. For example, even Nokia's engineers couldn't prevent the 3G debacle. If someone comes out with a working business model for ubiquitous 802.11b with VoIP, the game changes radically.

Still the problem...

[McFly69]

I still have the problem with there fonts/image quality. If they have decent have decent fonts/image quaility, the battery lasts not much longer than 12 hours. This is really sad. All the technology we are investing into makes these phones with more features and games (which take a hit on the battery), and not extending the battery life.

Sorry USers:

[Joseph Vigneau]

According to the 8910i page:

• Operating frequency: EGSM 900/1800 networks in Europe, Africa and Asia

Same with the 6800 and 2100, too...

Five dimensional joystick?

[Captain Zion]

The T68i five dimensional joystick makes drawing pictures in your phone easy.

I can see it turning about three axis and moving along one of the axis (for clicks), giving four DOF. Where is the fifth dimension?

Re:Five dimensional joystick?

[Mwongozi]

I think what the actually mean is, up/down/left/right/click. Which is really only two and a half dimensions.

Re:Five dimensional joystick?

[cdrudge]

I'm going to guess the 5 dimensions are up, down, left, right, and the center "button". Yeah I know that those are not dimensions, but I once had a 5-D mouse and those were the "dimensions" the manual raved about.

Re:Five dimensional joystick?

[YrWrstNtmr]

Where is the fifth dimension?

A couple of the original members are still touring. You can hire them for your next LAN party.

Don't go for the premium models!!!

[anonymous cupboard]

There isn't a real lot to choose between the different offerrings from the major phone manufacturers. Nokia is now going for market differentiation with premium models in pretty housings. This isn't the diamond studded version, but the Ti alloy housing will seriously push the price upwards.

Wait until the same functionality is available in a slightly heavier/bigger. It won't be top of the range (i.e., to show off to the rest of the world), but it will be one heck of a lot cheaper.

That is unless you really want to show the rest of the worls that you are the best pimp/drug dealer/flat-head, etc.

Re:Don't go for the premium models!!!

[hype7]

There isn't a real lot to choose between the different offerrings from the major phone manufacturers. Nokia is now going for market differentiation with premium models in pretty housings. This isn't the diamond studded version, but the Ti alloy housing will seriously push the price upwards.

I would agree, with one key exception... Nokia is not pushing Bluetooth anywhere near enough. Sony-Ericsson has it on almost all their mid range phones - Nokia has it on like two. One of them is the titanium thing, and you'd be nuts to spend that much on a phone IMO.

-- james

Nokia stateside?

[autopr0n]

I'm a bit partial to Nokia, as most of their phones are pretty cool compared to sprint "branded" phones from Samsung and others. But most of these Nokias seem to be only available in Europe, Africa and Asia, not the US. Are there any cool, color J2ME supporting phones out there from Nokia that will work in the US? (having a camera is a big plus :)

Other then that, does anyone have experience with these java supporting phones? Can you write your own games and upload them to the phone? Are there APIs for interacting with your phonebook, calendar, etc?

IMO, having a phone that's programmable to do whatever I want is far cooler then being able to download little games from the phone company.

Re:Nokia stateside?

[thopo]

seems that cellphone-wise the US is third world. available in africa but not in the US? sth. is backfiring here and i know what it is.

on the other question: you can write your own applications, games, whatever and upload them to your phone. i can only speak for siemens phones but yes there are APIs to access almost everything of the phone, even vibration.

someone still has to write a midlet that uses the IR port to use the phone as a tv remote :)

Re:Nokia stateside?

[rosewood]

I have a Samsung S105 w/ Tmobile

It supports j2me and this is what tmobile had to say

As for J2ME downloads, we do not currently have our Java plaform up and running. In theory, you should be able to simply hyperlink to a .JAD file from a WML page and by following the SUN OTA recommended best practices, download the .JAR directly from the device using HTTP. Please note that this is not a supported feature just yet as we are still working on network infrastructure pieces. Try at your own risk.

(You can find that on their developers forum)

I wonder if I can use these nokia phones in the USA w/ Tmobile (who uses GPRS and GSM) because here in the US of A, Tmobile has next to no (2) Nokia phones supported. /. is being really weird slow for me right now, so if you check my post history (or scroll down) you should find my post and link to the s105 - I think it has a twin on the sprint network

Can I use it as a phone too?

[bumby]

I wounder if the day will ever come, when they forget to implement the "talk" function ;P

T68

[timothy_m_smith]

I have the T68m, the original T68. The phone is a real beauty, but be aware that it has poor reception. I have T-mobile and a friend of mine has ATT and the T68i and neither one of us has been happy with it. However, the usability of the phone is great and I love the 5-way mouse.

Re:T68

[toupsie]

I have the T68m (one for me, one for the wife) flashed to be a SONY Ericsson T68i and the reception is pretty decent. Have you had the firmware upgraded since you bought it?

What about those "sticker antennae" cell phone boosters? All the SPAM I get about them seems to brag about the improvement. :)

Nokia 6800

[wheany]

Oh, oh, oh, I know a slogan: "It's even weirder, and cooler (than 5510)"

If you need a new phone soon...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hold out for the 6650.
It has 3G, GPRS, Bluetooth, MMS - and it looks and works really well.

Don't get the T68x

[cdrudge]

Don't bother wasting your time with the T68i or any of the earlier models in the same family. The reception is horrorable anywhere except right below the cell phone tower. Also, the screen leaves a bit to be desired.

Instead, I would recommend the new Samsung S105. It doesn't have bluetooth like the T68x do, but it has MUCH better reception, a better screen, polyphonic ring tones, Tri-Mode GSM, and I think looks better (if you like flip phones). It's not perfect, but a big improvement over the T68x.

Re:Don't get the T68x

[cdrudge]

From what I've experienced and read from other people, your experience is the exception to the norm. Check out this, or any other articles at Howard Forums, or any of these articles. I know that you can probably do a search for "Model XYZ poor reception" and get back results, but it just seems like a majority of owners of T68x phones are not happy with them. Everyone has their preferences for phones and if you want to try it out, go for it. Make sure you can return it if it doesn't work out.

I had the phone for about a week before taking it back. I work about 400 yards from the tower and I would contastly get dropped calls and poor reception even with a clear line of sight. Almost anywhere I drive I would get static, choppy sound, or dropped calls. The interface was ok in my option, but I didn't use it much due to the poor reception. It had excellent battery life and I was looking forward to using bluetooth. Oh well. I'm much better with my S105.

They announced a today gaming device also

[nchip]

Nokia and SEGA also announced the N-GAGE device, running symbian and series 60. Looks absolutely stunning.

Still very sketchy with hardware details, except that games are distributed on memory cards. And the only clue that the device is a phone and not just gameboy killer is the dial/hangup buttons!

The other press release also reveals that it has bluetooth, rising some intresting possibilities to use this gadget.

MP3

[nmg196]

I don't understand why Nokia haven't shoved a 128mb MP3 player on any of their phones?! It's a screamingly obvious thing to do - they already have decent batteries and audio circuitry and a screen all in the phone, so adding an MP3 player and a CF slot should be really cheap and easy.

Surely this is something more people than just me would be interested in?

Re:MP3

[nick255]

The 5510 is your friend! Ok, only a 64Mb MP3 player, but also has an FM radio.

T68i - Dont believe the hype!

[salimfadhley]

I've owned using a Sony t68i now for a few months - this has to be the most disapointing phone I have ever had the displeasure of using. I curse the day I ever allowed Orange (UK) to sell it to me.

According to orange, more than 1/3 of the T68s and T68i's ever sent to Orange customers have been returned at least once. Orange no longer recomend the T68 family of phones to anybody who makes 400+ minutes of calls per miniute - it's not up to the job of being a business phone.

First of all, the good points - this is a jewel of a phone. Tiny, pretty and colourful. It's designed with the looks to sucker in geeky types who like cute machines. Thats the good bit over.

Unfortunately, this has to be the least reliable phone I have ever used. Before my T68i, I have owned bricks made by Motrola, and then less brick-like phones made by Nokia. Even my 1996 Motorolla MR1 flip-phone has better signal strength usability and reliability than the T68.

The interface is pretty, but unfortunately the CPU and graphics chip are underpowered - the result is a strange laggy feeling where because the phone takes a fraction of a second to respond, it often leaves the user unsure as to if the button was pressed correctly... so the user ends up pressing the button again, and then fills the screen with redundant characters.

If you allow somebody to sell you this phone, it's worth getting insurance with it (The same goes for the Nokia 8000 and 9000 series phones) - these all have very low MHBF (Mean Hours Before Failure) scores. I'm now on my 4th T68i - every few months I have to get it replaced.

Faults have included, frequent crashes (Orange will admit off the record, that the T68 firmware was just not ready at the time it went to market). Transmission and reception failures - general poor call quiality and lack of reliability. Occaisionally I have had missing menu options, and sporadic and inexplicable freezes.

Anyway, that should be enough to convince you - just dont buy this phone okay?

Lock that communication down baby!

[Mattygfunk1]

The following feature is really undersold. IMO Nokia's innovation will have them the number one phone manufacturer for a long while to come.

Equipped with secure mobile connectivity, employees can then access corporate information such as customer contracts and agreements using their mobile terminals over a secured VPN connected to their corporate network.

-----
Prints & framing Miss Katrina

Must .... Have... Phone

[AssFace]

I've had the 6500...something I've had the 8860, I currently have the 8890, but I MUST HAVE the 8910i, or at the very least an 8910.
That is the coolest phone - like the said, well, the 8890 is great, but let's fix everything that is wrong with it.

The bummer is, not only can I not have it in the states now, I'm moving this summer and it doesn't look like the phone will work in that country either (Bermuda - they have a 1900 setup there, and the Nokia 8910/8910i is 900/1800 - waaaaah).

My current phone (8890) should work, but WOW would I frickin love the 8910i.

Is it just me...

[Gudlyf]

...or do the guys on the top of the Nokia 8910i page look like members of 'Sprockets'?

Hmm, iSync?

[phil-trick]

You can also sync the T68i with evolution thanks to multisync:

http://multisync.sourceforge.net/

MMS := MultiMedia Messaging Service

[wowbagger]

In case anybody else doesn't know what this wonderful little bit of Marketriod is:

MMS := MultiMedia Messaging Service.

Folks, if you are going to use any abbreviations, acronyms, or technical terms that may not be in common use to the audience for which you are writing, it is considered good form to define them when they are first used.

I had to add to the workload on the poor Nokia server to discover the meaning of that particular abbreviation.

Great...if you live in Europe, Asia, or Africa...

[EchoMirage]

These new phones from Nokia are always great - if you live in a country that Nokia releases them to. The new cell phone technology here in the US (where a majority of /.ers are from, remember) is severely lacking. Only just recently did AT&T switch over to a GSM system (well, it's coterminal with their existing TDMA network). We've still got a battle between CDMA, TDMA, GSM, and iDen networks here. And because of that (and for other reasons, doubtlessly) Nokia never releases these really cool phones here. Boo.

and a radio too??

[phorm]

No kidding...

and also offers an integrated stereo FM radio

As if the battery life isn't short enough. Would anyone use this feature?

Boss: Bob, we tried calling you but you never answered your cell. You missed a $500,000 contract

Bob: Sorry boss, I drained my battery again listening to the radio.

It's nice to have features on a phone, but it seems to me that they will be adding unnecessary bulk to most phones without extra value. I'd much prefer a phone that has battery for 3-4 days than a built-in radio. My current Motorola Startac POS only lasts about 1.5-2 days, maybe just 1 if I run into analog or low-reception areas.

Toys are nice, but how about we improve the value as a phone first?

p.s. Who (of users with high-tech phones) listens to radio nowadays? Mp3 would still have been overkill but perhaps more useful and likely less battery drain.

2600

[Kenshin]

Ya, then just wait till they release the Nokia 2600. I'm sure that will be all the rage.

Marketing droids ?...

[Tensor]

I read the same thing adn thought WTF do they mean by that.

The only combination i thought that would give me 4 DOF (obviously not 5 dimensional movement, which i wouln't be able to produce and/or see) is left-right (1) up-down (2) in-out (3) twist ccw-cw(4)

The out movement is really not that useful, you could use it to navigate a menu. like click goes deeper in the structure (normal click funcion) and pull goes back up. Tho i dont think many ppl would get used to that.

But where is the 5th ? i really hope those marketing doids didn't mean 4 directions + click. That would really suck. (besides being incoherent)

Samsung S105, Tmobile, USA

[rosewood]

I recently upgraded to the Samsung S-105

http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/nabc/prod/hhco mm erce/telecommunications/sgh_s105_specs.jsp

So far, I am really enjoying it -- other then that no one else has MMS and the J2ME isnt really supported yet. (Infact, a lot of the advertised features of this phone are not supported yet, including the data cable listed on the box!) So far the color screen has been nothing more then an oh neat. Same thing with the polyphonic ring tones (other that finally when somoene is discovering ring tones I can just shut them up). It may be nicer when more of my friends have TMobile and MMS and the camera accessories.

My bitch with all these new features is they all take up bandwidth, and at least with my provider, they arent real clear on that. For example, I have 300 messages per month for $2.99 plus one meg of download. This is all fine and dandy except they didnt tell me that sending an MMS costs bandwidth (as aposed to just a message count).

So is this a new record?

[foxtrot]

Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.

Slashdotted before the article was even posted. Amazing!

-JDF

Already done.

[Inoshiro]

"It seems to have happened with Nokia's 5510 MP3 phone, introduced last fall amid much trumpeting. The phone, which allows users to listen to FM radio and play MP3s, has proved too bulky and too expensive, and Nokia is quietly pulling it off the market. (Nokia officials concede that the phone is a disappointment but won't elaborate.)"

Asked Siemens

[KjetilK]

I asked Siemens the same question. Not that I care about the music, but I care about Ogg, and the answer was that this stuff is done in highly specialized chipsets, and therefore, the key to this is to make sure chipset manufacturers adopt Ogg.

Other than that, I'll buy Siemens ME45 the next time there is some money on my account. It should be able to take some rough treatment, and it has an internal calendar that uses vCalendar, so it should integrate pretty easily with KOrganizer.

Read the damn post...

[Andy Dodd]

He's talking about Nokia's new models, not the three triband models you list. Neither of the new models are triband. He never said that NO Nokia phones were triband.

Re:Absolutely correct...Neither is triband.

[evilned]

the T68i is a tri-band phone. However it only works on GSM networks. My wife just bought one about a month ago, and she loves it. I almost got one too, but decided to get a Sprint Vision phone (the Sanyo 4900, a bit big, but built like a brick outhouse) mainly for the fact that there is very limited GSM coverage right now in the US. So the trade off is mine works more in the states, but when we go to Europe or Asia, hers works.

Re:8901 - touch my Monkey

[ebh]

Right, and dig the copy:

A pure expression of cutting-edge luxury, the Nokia 8910i takes the magic of multimedia messaging and elegantly sheathes it in a skin of real titanium. Extending a design aesthetic based on flawless form and extraordinary material, the Nokia 8910i offers a range of premium features...

Are they describing a phone or a condom?

Because Nokia can't do CDMA

[Andy Dodd]

Nokia hasn't successfully had a CDMA phone pass Verizon performance testing since the 5185.

Their lack of CDMA experience is showing itself now - They STILL haven't been able to release a decent UMTS handset due to their lack of experience with CDMA.

AT&T really is shooting themselves in the foot by moving to GSM - It has no upgrade path. GSM/GPRS is a dead end from which the only way out is an entirely new network (Note the European providers running out of money right and left because they have to buy additional spectrum and build an entire new network to upgrade to 3G, whereas CDMA2000 has a planned upgrade path that has full backwards compatibility with cdmaOne equipment and spectrum.)

Feature?!?

[RichiP]

I just shimmied over to Nokia's website and looked at the featureset for each phone. Glancing at the Nokia 7250's featureset, this jumped out right at me:

Key features: Visually provocative design, integrated camera, high-resolution color display, downloadable applications via Java(TM) technology, advanced MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), polyphonic (MIDI) ringing tones, stereo FM radio with handsfree speaker option, Digital Right Management (DRM), SyncML

I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means. If it does, I am staying away from this phone like the plague.

What's the deal with AT&T's network???

[Corporate Drone]

Since you mention that you love your AT&T phone, I just had to throw my $0.02 in ...

I've been a subscriber to AT&T for about 6 years now. I travel between Pittsburgh and Houston a lot. Pittsburgh's AT&T reception has traditionally been better.

However, over the past year or so, reception has really been in the crapper. Can't place calls, connected calls get dropped, cutovers into others' conversations, it's been a mess. And don't even ask how bad it's been in Houston!

I have a Nokia 8260, with which I'm largely happy. (My first died on a trip to Canada almost two years ago, but the replacement has been a trooper.)

I'm now curious ... given that you love your reception, and you're GSM/GPRS, i wonder if it's a network thing? The 8260 is TDMA, so hmm...

Would anyone out there know how AT&T's TDMA and GSM/GPRS networks compare, relative to each other with respect to signal strength? I have to admit, I'm pretty uninformed about the topic in general, and with respect to AT&T in particular.

It would be interesting to note, though, given that all my friends with AT&T cell service are complaining as bitterly as I, regarding cell coverage...

Read the damn article...

[nchip]

Nokia released six phones today.. Those models where he mentioned where released today. Triband is really not so important, as rather few people travel all the time from and back to states. But for travellers it's nice to have a standards based phone that works in most of the countries in the world.

Re:Wow!!!!

[Pig Hogger]

Full color dial-a-pr0n !!!

Brings a whole new dimension to phone sex !!!

Ex Nokia Bunnie - Comments

[MrDalliard]

I've been a Nokia bunnie for the last 5 years (I've been using mobiles for 8 years) and upgraded to a T68i instead.

When I decided to upgrade, I wanted infra-red, bluetooth, colour screen, GPRS, etc and good battery life - the camera bit is nice, but not essential. I was deliberating upon a 7650 or the T68i. The T68i has miles better battery life (I get about 5 - 6 days out of it), it's smaller, and the interface I find is quite usable. Sure, it's not the 7650, but that won't fit in my pocket so nicely and was 100ukp more expensive for the upgrade.

When you start using bluetooth more, you realise how cool it really is. I now exchange images/date with people often. It seems to have caught on.

In my mind, Nokia has brought out a deluge of new phones too late. By announcing 30 (as some articles say) new phones in the course of the year, are they not running the risk of severe problems ? I would have thought that the idea of keeping a fairly small product range was the way to keep brand identity and profits up. In this situation the distinction between the 72xx and the 76xx and the 8xxx range, etc.. gets lost. They used to have distinct target audiences - I've sorta lost the plot now. Over diversification, I believe is the term, isn't it ?

I'm happy with my T68i. Some people have niggles, but I can only go on experience.... I'd recommend it, apart from the fact that all my mates have one now... :-)

M.

Re:wake me when the 8910i is tri-band...

[jquirke]

Wake me up when the US follows the rest of the world standards... oh wait I might as well be dead..

--quirky

But does it support waveform playback?

[Jouster]

Sure, sure, so it supports J2ME Java Apps. But how long until there's support for MIDP2 in these apps, or, hell, even MMAPI? Nokia UI API doesn't cut it; as a developer for these devices, I can say that we need the ability to play arbitrary waveform data across the speakers, and we need it now, for all devices, regardless of manufacturer.

Java is just the thing to run on mobile devices, but if Sun doesn't get its act together and start pursuing the manufacturers to put in sound support (and other goodies, like full screen games), the market is going to die while BREW and other initiatives surge ahead.

Jouster