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Nokia 3650 Released in US Market
A Swing Dancing Dork writes "Check out the new Nokia 3650! Video and still imaging, MMS support,Bluetooth,Triband, and polyphonic bliss all wraped up in a uber-modern package." I was looking phones all morning so I'm glad this showed up. Anyone have advice on cel phones? I'd like IMAP, HTTP, and IM, as well as PDA functionality that can sync via bluetooth to a Mac. I was looking at the Sony Ericsons, but this may work as well.
Two words - T-Mobile's Sidekick. Color units are coming in a month or two. Has SMS, full HTML web browsing (not WAP!), POP3 email, AIM messaging, scheduler, notes, games, hidden keyboard! GSM/GPRS device. Uber c00l!
All of your data is fully backed up to Danger's servers so there is never a chance of losing anything. Unbeatable deal for less than $100 with unlimited data for $39.95 a month.
No IMAP or syncing via Bluetooth though.
I saw this device yesterday at the AT&T wireless store in the mall of america. Two word - it sucked. Sure it had a great camera, and big screen - but the buttons felt cheap, the device is huge, and feels realy lcheap in your hands. The 5 way navigator didn't click down very well, and.. you get my point. I think the size of this thing kills it. Sitting right next to it was some uber tiny color nokia that i really liked . It had a much nicer feel to it - nokia has good and bad designs.
As for a perfect cell phone i would wait for the Sony Ericsson T608 and T610 (CDMA/GPRS respectivly) They are compeltly new phones with the features of the t68i and more. I can't wait for them to be released.
I just got call tags sent so that I can return mine to ATT. The phone is good. It has good rf performance, better than my T68i. But... It claims to be bluetooth audio, but doesn't work with any bluetooth headset but Nokias. It only works with the bluetooth 'handsfree' profile, not the headset profile that most bluetooth headsets obviously support.
It does synch over bluetooth with outlook, but the alarm for calendar events is fixed. You can't shut it off without silencing the whole phone (or turning it off). I was awakened at midnight the other night by an alarm for my mom's birthday. I like my mom and all, but that sucks. I want to be able to have just visual alarms for calendar events.
For $150, it's a nice phone, it just has a few issues. I'll wait for the P800 to be available through ATT. For now, I really do like my old T68i better.
Here is the latest story from an advertising trade rag. Here is the link to the commercial if you just can't wait.
I've used a 3650 for a few months now. The circular "arrow keys" button especially sucks. The button is so sensitive that it often registers the wrong direction when pressed. Very frustrating..
cpeterso
This phone doesn't support SyncML, so the chances of you syncing with your Mac anytime soon are slim. Nokia does provide PC software to allow syncing with your Windows PC, though.
And as for Bluetooth, once again Nokia has failed to implement the headset profile, although it does support the newer handsfree profile. I can't seem to find any details on the differences between the two but what it does mean for sure is that of the current Bluetooth headsets available, only the SonyEricson HBH-60 and the soon-to-arrive Nokia HDW-2 support that profile. Nokia is known for their poor and buggy Bluetooth support (they must hate that their rival Ericsson invented it) and they do seem to try the "embrace and extend" scheme once in a while - they want you to buy their Bluetooth device and not someone else's. They've used the headset profile in the 6310i, but that's it for the US market.
It's hard not to support SonyEricsson (especially the Ericsson part) when they've made Bluetooth a licensed standard, and when they put things like SyncML, an open syncing standard, on their phones. And don't forget the SonyEricsson Clicker which is just plain cool.
A good review of the 3650 is here.
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
I don't think you understand why text messaging became so popular. In some places in the world, people haven't grown up with free local calls, or buying airtime in blocks. Voice calls were (are?) considerably more expensive than text messages. Thus they originally became popular with poor (cheap?) students and the like.
I'm very happy with the Kyocera,
the new smartphone from Verizon
IMHO it's worth time looking at individual apps
on wireless PDA sites like Handango.
The right apps that fit your needs can make
a huge difference in your satisfaction.
Cheers, Joel
you got it the other way round man.
CDMA is like windows, being controlled by one company - Qualcomm
GSM is an open standard
My mom never taught me to sign.
It's a smartphone, you made a mistake going with the T68i. The T68i is a toy in comparison, can't install new apps, can't write your own.
The 3650 can run all kinds of apps, it's basically a modern colour PSION scaled to fit in a phone.
Who cares if it's a little chunkier than a dumb basic phone, it has more functionality. You might as well say a laptop is too big compared to a PowerPC, this is the difference between a 3650 and a toy like the T68i, only the 3650 is only a little bigger.
I love my Sidekick.
I thought you worked at Sega?
How's your Smell-o-vision project going?
Your educational background is pretty impressive too.
What about Super Marx Brothers?
Or Game Boy Advance porn?
Have you finished the HIGHLY ADVANCED SPEECH RECOGNITION DEVICE?
At first I was mildly intrigued by the look of the 3650, and since T-Mobile (my carrier in AZ) actually offers the phone directly, I did some looking around... bottom line, pass on it (IMHO).
Others have pointed out the flaky Nokia bluetooth stuff, and the lack of syncml might actually be a bigger minus that I would have thought initially (I have an Ericsson R520 with all sorts of features, syncml among them, and I am just now starting to exercise the phone's feature set).
The keypad has to go.
I usually stop by here to get some phone scoopage (there are certainly many, many other sites as well). They have a review of the 3650 at the bottom-- or use the review search feature-- with the final thoughts (on page 3 of the review) rather humorous, but probably too true to be ignored.
Also on that site I found a review of the Siemens S55 which made me want to read more about the current and upcoming Siemens offerings. On the same site yet again is an article covering just that topic, about the upcoming SX1 and others from Siemens. The SX1 looks like it takes alternative keypad design in a slightly more functional direction.
Having tried out the Jabra FreeSpeak with my R520 (successfully and satisfactorily), and with a need to use some WAP and other wireless networking features lately, I am utterly convinced that getting a phone that does what you want it to do-- well-- is essential. Look past the buzz, get what will meet your needs, and pay attention to those details about keypad quality, low-light screen readability, and other such mundane details.
But that SX1 still looks cool...
IM
The Nokias are based on Psions OS, the people who maded Doom also make a ICQ client.
HTTP
Opera make a Symbain version of well, Opera.
J2ME HTML - http://www.reqwireless.com/
IMAP
J2ME
Mail++ ( plus many others )
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
I've been working on a project with the 3650 over the past 2 1/2 months and, what can I say, it's a piece of shit. If other Nokias are going to be like this, then they will fall off their pedestal - Nokia is popular as hell, but they're not a monopoly. Their total disregard for quality has pushed a lot of users, including me, to Motorola, Samsung, SonyEricsson and Siemens. The 6210 was a fiasco, bluetooth in the 6310 was buggy as hell (fixed a bit into the 6310i).
Anyway, what sucks in the 3650?
* The keypad. This is definately the *worst* element, it flies in the face of convention and not in a cool and edgy way. I've been using this phone non-stop for the last 11 weeks and I haven't gotten used to it.
* Usability. Nokia took over by offering good usability. Phones used to have a different button for everything, Nokia took that, stripped it down (in the 3110, 51x0, etc) to a single nav key. It's been worse lately - the 6310 has like 13 or 14 main menu options so you can't even use shortcuts (like menu, 2, 2, 1 to write an SMS) to control all the functions.
While it's been slowly getting worse, the 3650 is just a leap ahead. The menus are organized so poorly that it took me 10 minutes to find the clock, took me a cab ride home (25km) to figure out how to turn the keypad tones off. It's just... complicated. Plus, the software is inconsistent - you can link some elements, you can't link others - even tough they seem identical to you.
Anyway, the phone is a total pain in the ass, I hope we start doing something for a newer model but - knowing my luck - it'll be this model all the way until autumn.
Ugh.
the buttons not layed out in the traditional, muscle memory configuration
I seem to be in the minority here, but I really like the phone. Yes, the buttons are layed out in a "weird" retro-rotary phone fashion, but I've had the phone for 3 days now, and it's not nearly as hard to learn as I thought it would be. My biggest complaint with the keypad is the 4-way scroll key. It's a little too small and sensitive for my fat thumb.
--Xandu
I had a brief play with the Nokia 3650 this week; I was particularly interested to see how it compared with my shiny new P800. I had been a bit nervous about getting the P800 because (a) it was pretty expensive (b) my previous Ericssony (the T68i) had been a big disappointment and (c) I'd always been a Nokia fan, ever since the 6110.
I needn't have worried. Beside the P800, the 3650 is clunky, circumscribed, and weird. The screen is poky and not as clear as the Sony's, and the keyboard's striking aesthetics aren't backed up by anything so mundane as actually being easy to use. The camera on the 3650 is better than the P800s in low light, but this is more than made up for by the P800's superb user interface and PDA functions. The jog dial on the P800 is the closest return to the old Nokia "do what I want" button I've seen in years, and the clever choices of "open" and "closed" UI styles make the P800 the best phone/PDA compromise I've ever encountered - in fact, the only one yet which is both a usable phone and a great PDA.
I used to be a staunch Nokia partisan, but it seems that their only innovations these days are in weird keypad layouts. Check out the P800 instead of the 3650. Sell your dog if you have to - you won't regret this phone.
I'm waiting for the Motorola V600. It's due out later this year.
Big screen (65K colors), Bluetooth, J2ME, polyphonic rings, GPRS, and best of all, A NORMAL, USABLE KEYBOARD LAYOUT!
This thing might be what you're looking for -- it does have games, but making them work well is hardly the focus of the thing. Hell, it doesn't even have a web browser ;).
...but Nokia's interpretation of BT is spotty. Not all BT headsets are supported since it doesn't support the headset profile, opting to support only Nokia's headset. Otherwise, I think it works fine.
Is it too big? Somewhat, if you compare it to the T68i. But it's not as heavy as it looks (it's way lighter than my old 7110). But it has a big enough screen for ebooks (mobipocket reader is available), plus there's a gnuboy port for it. An mp3 player isn't included, but 3rd party programs are available.
Oh plus, it has an MMC (but not SD) slot, so the 3rd party apps are really useful. It's looking like a viable replacement for my PDA.
I just have to get used to the funky key layout.