When a phone is not a phone
By: Bill Ray

Nokia has a lot resting on the 7650. Despite the almost immediate announcement of the 3650, the 7650 is in the shops now, and represents the first steps away from the core mobile telephone functionality Nokia has provided in the past. The 7650 is the first device to use the Series 60 platform, which is owned by Nokia, but available for license, so it provides an opportunity to see how Nokia views the future.

Based on the EPOC operating system from Symbian, Series 60 specifies a set of interface elements and basic applications in exactly the same way that Pocket PC sits on top of WinCE, or Microsoft Office works on top of Windows. As a key weapon in the forthcoming battle for control of our pocketbooks, the 7650 demonstrates Nokia's experience and understanding of the needs of the mobile user.

The phone is controlled through three buttons and a nipple on the front, a button on each side (for power and speakerphone), and a sliding panel that reveals the numeric pad for dialing. Two of the buttons on the front are soft, with their functions indicated on-screen, while the third always takes you to the main menu. The nipple is used for navigation of menus and some applications (such as the games).

Nokia has a reputation for creating intuitive interfaces, and it's interesting to see their skills challenged as their devices get more complex. The Series 60 interface feels more like a PDA than a phone, with tabbed panels and pop-up menus, but remains very intuitive. The screen is bright and clear with a resolution of 176x208, though not physically very large.

Voice calls are a pretty well-known technology now, and there are no real surprises. The built-in speakerphone is of a high quality, giving the impression that the speaker is in an office rather than a swimming pool, as is so often the case. Pressing the nipple brings up the address book, allowing very swift dialing of contacts as long as their names start with "A" or "B"; friends with names later in the alphabet may get less calls, though the keypad can be used to jump to a letter if it is deployed. My GPRS connection from a Pocket PC worked without any changes to the setup, and operated as fast as ever (I'm dreading when someone else starts using GPRS, but for the moment it's great). Setting up WAP access was just a matter of selecting the model of phone on my network provider's Web site, and the settings arrive in an SMS message. The WAP browser seems to work well, though I'm still looking for a WAP site worth visiting.

Of course, no one is going to buy a 7650 just to make phone calls and access the Internet; it's the additional features that make it interesting. Deciding whether they're actually useful or just flash gadgets is harder. The camera is revealed when you slide the keypad down. It takes adequate pictures, and can even take nighttime snaps when the exposure is increased to allow for low light levels, though you'll need a much steadier hand than mine to make use of that.

Various resolutions are offered, with the highest quality producing 640x480 images. Once taken, the pictures can be sent over the messaging network if your network provider supports MMS (Multimedia Messaging Standard) and you have a friend with another 7650, or transferred by Bluetooth (or IR) to a printer or PC. I was very pleased to be able to take a snapshot and print it straight to my Bluetooth-enabled printer without any setup or configuration.

Predictive text, common enough on SMS-sending applications, has been extended to the other functions of the phone, so entering short sequences of text is relatively easy as long as the words are in the dictionary. To-Do List, Contacts, and Calendar will synchronize with popular PIM applications running under Windows, though the lack of standard Bluetooth API under Windows means that getting synchronization over Bluetooth will depend on whether your hardware is supported. I was forced to switch to IR to try out the synchronization, but it seemed to work well enough, though the contact fields on the phone were not as comprehensive as those supplied by Outlook.

Adding ringtones and background pictures is easy. I just drag the files into the Bluetooth device from my PC, and they arrive as messages in the phone inbox. Being able to use MIDI and WAV files as ringtones has its advantages, and having Ace of Spades as a ringtone was fun, but nonpiercing tones can lead to missed calls if you're not careful, and the vibration alert is not the most energetic.

Overall, the 7650 is a demonstration of why phone companies have little to fear from Pocket PC or even Palm-based devices. Experience and knowledge have produced a robust and functional device you can be happy to be seen with. With the recent price cut (down to 300 UKP [$467 U.S.] without connection, and around 100 UKP [$157 U.S.] with a contract), it even offers good value for the money.