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Nokia 7600 All-in-One Phone
prostoalex writes "The new Nokia 7600, reviewed by people at MobileMag is a 3G/GSM phone with radically new design and built-in functionality of an MP3 player, multimedia browser and digital camera. The phone supports WCDMA as well as GSM 900/1800. Some pictures of the product are available at Nokia's site. This is perhaps Nokia's first attempt to marry mobile phone and PDA in a lightweight and thin formfactor."
I have seen these before, and yet never understood why it's necessary to combine the two? Both are small enough to be insignificant, and to be honest, if I was on the 'phone to a client, then I'd want to be able to use my PDA without having to stop talking. Isn't this a bit of a niche market?
I already fail to use my PDA as much as I might do because its slightly too big to fit in my pockets. This thing is over 3 inches wide, which is half as much again, and surely isn't going to be comfortable to hold in one hand.
As much as part of me finds it an amusing gadget, this really does seem to be part of Nokia's drive to add so many other applications to phones that they stop being any good at phone calls. I wish my 3510i was as good at the phone basics as the old 3210.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
wheres the GPS mode? the full functional PDA features? maybe even a radio tuner? with 29MB of memory how useful is this as a mp3 player? more than all that what i'd kill for in a phone/phone service is better quality call sound. if 3G services have such a high data rate for better video capabilities, then why dont they use that to make calls sound less like a phone call and more like your sitting next to the person your talking to.
Everybody denies I am a genius--but nobody ever called me one!
on the new nokias being in funny layouts?! I know I'm not the only one, but sometimes, I only know phone numbers by pattern recognition on a proper numeric pad! :) If I use a phone with a different layout, man, there goes a bunch of my friends! :)
... admit it!
I know you do it too
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
That sounds like a press release if I ever read one.
I have no problem with press releases, but the submitter should *not* have claimed it was a review.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
...but I've never understood the purpose of 'phones which can play music yet only have enough room for "up to 50 minutes of near CD-quality music". Go-betweens rarely turn out well and what's the point in having to convert your music to 96kb/s just to fit a whole album on there?
Mobile 'phones often suffer from poor battery life as it is and I can only see this feature reducing it yet more. Why include an additional "feature" that is detrimental to the device's main function? It's a pain having to switch the music on a player at the best of times, but why would you consider it when you've only got fifty minutes and no upgradabilty? I can't help thinking it's only bloated for the sake of it and to appear more trendy. I dread to learn the ways in which Nokia have organised music downloads straight into the 'phone from mobile services...Finally, I'm sure I'm not the only one to lament the lack of Vorbis compatibility. As for LAME, I bet you could barely even fit one song on there...
Turkeyphant
Every time there's a converged device, we get comments like this. Likewise, every time we hear about a new gadget of some sort, we get comments suggesting it would be better if we tried cross-breeding it with a laptop.
Just stop for a second and realize that not everybody has the same tastes as you. Variety is good! People who want all that and a bag of chips can go buy a PDA/Phone/Camera/MP3/GPS, and people who just want a phone can get one of the simple no-nonsense Nokia models. People who like to have their pants stuffed with electronics can buy it all separately so they can practice juggling it all while simultaneously talking to clients on the phone.
In the end, we all benefit when there's choices. Quit complaining when a product isn't the same as the products you like-- and just go buy those instead.
And yes, I should probably heed my own advice.
It appears to me to be a rather intelligent design. Both hands can be used to quickly manipulate buttons (as opposed to palming while pecking) without obstructing the screen. As for answering a call, that's what headphones are for. As to the 1st poster concerning Bluetooth... RTFA!
Sure, the new 7600 from Nokia has everything. But if we all just wait, we can get the Nokia 7800, with all the features of the 7600 plus the ability to turn into a car or jet plane and fight evil robots and dinosaurs and stuff.
And while I'm waiting, I'll get the NGage instead, because the last thing I need is a cellphone that's just a cellphone. I need to spend way too much money on something that has tons of awesome features, but as a phone has bad reception and drops calls all the time.
"I, for one, welcome our new %INSERT ARTICLE SUBJECT HERE% overlords."
I like it: it's small, but they didn't try to shoehorn in a full keyboard for my sausage-like fingers to mash. The goofy key layout looks pretty optimal for texting with thumbs, actually.
Regarding "How do I use the PDA and talk at the same time?" -- use a $60 bluetooth headset.
What is it missing to make my perfect convergence unit?
a) Higher-res screen. According to the specs at Nokia, it's only 128x160, less than an older-generation Palm. Give me at least 320x240, and we're talking useful
b) Memory slot. I'm not terribly fussy. My camera is CF, my Palm is SD (but I don't own any devices for it, because it doesn't have good enough sound for me to want to download MP3s), my laptop supports SD and MS but not CF (which is solved with a PCMCIA card)
c) Maybe a stylus. I've gotten very used to touchscreen on my Palm -- it's sorely missed on my GPSr for selecting items and text entry.
d) Oh yeah, GPS receiver.
(a), (c) and (d) are mainly price issues. (b) means they want you to keep paying to download over the phone lines.
Design for Use, not Construction!
My dream phone is small, lightweight,and has a long battery life. Combining multiple features tkaes away from all three of these characteristics. Am I weird for wanting a phone that is just a phone?
Someone actually needs to develop a small alpha numeric keypad that's optimized for two-thumb typing, like they did for stylus typing w/ FITALY... Neither QWERTY or ABCDEF are--- and neither is T9.
And for the record, this thing looks as ugly as Anna Nicole.
T610 is a good phone, much better than the 4 shitty t68i's I went through over the last year. Someone mentioned something about a car kit, just get a bluetooth car kit and it will work with any bluetooth phone. It autolinks when you get near your car, so you can leave it in your pocket. $200 or so.
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Smaller phones would be more nuisance than gain - the keys and screen are as small as they can get and still remain useful for most people. What we need is lighter and more ergonomic phones - same general size, but a better and less bulky shape. Consider the fact that many clip their phone to their belt, yet it isn't in any way designed for such a purpose - you always have a box jutting out from your side. Why not make it crescent-shaped? It could hug your belt, remain closer to your body, and be less likely to smash into things (rounded outside, more like a dome-shape than present).
GL
I have always wanted a cell phone that's an MP3 player. 29 megs of memory obviously won't cut it, but they're only going to get better from here on.
I'm eagerly waiting for the day when we'll have a small device that's a cell phone, mp3 player, and full web browser, WITH a reasonable input interface. I applaud each step closer to that day.