Ergonomics, WWW browsing and Others

What's in the shape

    The phone is pretty sturdy with most buttons within reach of my fingers. It's also shaped to fit the profile of an open palm and it's very comfortable to hold.

    Well, the scale starts tipping the other way once the keypad is exposed. The phone becomes a little top-heavy and you can feel the weight pushing up against your thumb. For fear of putting your thumbprint on the camera's lens, you start shifting your hand down and this where the phone will start to bob ever so slightly when you need to key repetitively, like a SMS.

You can keep WAP 2.0 for yourself

   With the aid of a Java^TM application, browsing and surfing the world wide web in full glory is now very much a viable solution on the Nokia 7650. This is not some WAP sites but the real deal, just like what you see on your PCs! Who needs WAP 2.0 anyway?

Just how good is that screen?!    

    Like I mentioned in my preview, thoughts of the horrible STN screen were haunting me. Maybe I was spooked by the T68m/i. I kept thinking of slow refresh. Lag. Flat colors. Oh man! I was made to eat my words. The colors on the Nokia 7650 are in short, very impressive! The Samsung T100 with the TFT LCD screen is good but somehow the saturation on the Nokia is just that much better. To prove my point, I did a color test using a small 2.2k jpg file (color chart captured in 16 millions colors). I upload the file to the SE T68i, Samsung T100, Nokia 7650 and the Compaq iPAQ 3850.

Now we know why the SE T68i is weak in displaying green. Graduations of green are solely lacking. On to the Samsung T100. As we can see, the colors are lighter and in shades of "pastel".

The Nokia 7650 displays an impressive range of colors, though we could have more shades of green, please. Oh my god! What happen to the iPAQ?! It's rich and vibrant on the outside but empty on the inside.

Contrast settings

What's next?

    High on my shortlist is the Sendo Z100! This will probably be the 1st mobile phone to use the Microsoft 'Stinger' OS for mobile devices. Can't wait to try it out! The battle of the OSes should start shortly as the market gears up for more 2.5G devices. And of course, the much anticipated SE P800. A phone that replaces your PDA and it's bigger than the Nokia 7650 (pic courtesy of threegmobile)! This is going to be an exciting year.

Battery/Others/Conclusion

    On a normal day with about 15-20 SMSes, 30+ phone calls, 1 hour of games and another for surfing/checking email, some photo taking, the supplied battery lasts for approx. 24-30 hrs. With the hi-cap battery, I am getting close to 36-40 hrs. Overall, it's quite impressive (In comparison, I need to charge the iPAQ daily). For those hoping for a 7650 with increased memory capacity, don't get your hopes up as that market belongs to the 9XXX Communicator series. While 4MB is enough for photos, sound clips, games etc, it's not sufficient for those who, for example, needs mp3 on the go. As always, the issue of power drain on such devices will be a deciding factor. The Siemens SL45 is a classic example. Start playing some mp3 and you will see the battery level plummet.

    The Nokia 7650 is a pure "wireless" phone and that's bad news for those without an IR adaptor or BT. There is no way to connect the 7650 via a serial cable to your PC! But then again, if you are considering this phone or any any other phones with BT, you must be prepared to shell out some dough for a BT adapter. Why else would you be buying the phone for?

    The joystick is stiff and sealed off within a rubber enclosure. This actually gives a firmer feel when navigating around the menu and it also prevents dust from getting into the body. Anyone with the T68m/i and the iPAQ can attest to this dust-under-cover thingy and it's very irritating.

    The mobile market is also becoming a war-zone with "blind" supporters in either camps. Somewhere along the line of nVidia vs. ATI or Intel vs. AMD or Palm vs. PPC. A says "your stuff sucks. Mine is the fastest in the world!" and B says "you are dumb to pay so much for a piece of crap!". Things like these go on and on and it's kinda fun to watch them make a fool out of themselves. Someone emailed me and said "... the P800 will kick your ass!" I emailed him back with a simple "So?" I didn't get a reply and things like this don't bother me. It's like saying " ... I will buy the NV30 to show those people who bought the Radeon 9700, how stupid they were!" Ya ... and the NV30 is not even released yet and that's not gonna stop people from buying stuffs other than the one you preach! On paper, the SE P800 is more than a match for the Nokia 7650 but that day of reckoning is still 3 long months away. 

    I am enjoying the Nokia 7650. Play some nice games. Take some pictures. Surf the WWW (please, no need for WAP here). Check my email. Soak in the experience and wait for the P800 or Sendo Z100 to come by. The Nokia 7650 is beyond a doubt, one of the most enjoyable mobile device I ever had for a very long time and definitely the one to have ... at least for the time being.

Pros

Integrated Camera w/ shooting modes, quality, zooming, rotate feature

High Def. Display

J2ME^TM Capable

Midi, wav, amr for alert tones

Most picture formats supported e.g. jpeg, gif, bmp etc

Innovative proximity and light sensor

Photo Album

Customizable layout, screen etc

Bluetooth, IR and Fax Modem

Sturdy and tough body

LCD sealed properly - No dust-under-cover

MMS

Useful suite of info-based panels and utilities e.g. Log, converter etc

Loudspeaker mode

T9 Dictionary (New words can be added)

World's 1st SyncML phone

Supported data network (GSM, HSCSD, GPRS)

Cons

Only 4MB of memory

No expandable memory slot

Dual-band (not a big deal)

No serial connection

Limited battery life (with standard Li-ion)

Battery cover can be improved

No support for BT wireless headset

Lack of an Auto-keypad lock

Cannot link installed applications to Favourites

Not a "full" PDA - Lack of touchscreen

No Font size selection

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