Nokia 3650 Phone (T-Mobile)

Rating:
Summary: The Future in Hand
Review: This phone is, first of all, an amazing piece of technology. Combining many (most) features of a PDA with a mobile phone, it represents the coming (or, rather, ongoing) convergence of computing and mobile communications. And at an amazing price: free (in the US, at least).

The 3650 uses the Series 60 Symbian operating system. Some of the features and applications included out of the box are: WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) browser; still picture camera; video camera (both video and audio); sound recorder; calculator; calender; notepad; alarm clock; an email client; two games (Snake and MixPix); and RealOne video player.

The phone carries 4 megs of memory on board, and uses MMC (Multi-Media) cards of up to 128 megabites (or more, depending on the firmware build; though Nokia recommends not exceeding 128 megs, no matter the build) (it comes equipped with a 16 meg card).

Presumably because of the fairly limited on-board memory, it seems Nokia has chosen to keep the applications it loads onto the phone somewhat modest (eg, a WAP browser instead of a full mobile web browser such as Opera - more about that later) - thereby ensuring that this device is taken more for a super phone (with which you'll be satisfied) than a disappointing computer. Fortunately, the phone has a great deal more native capacity for apps than its initial offerings indicate.

Right now I have loaded on my phone the Opera mobile web browser mentioned earlier; an excellent video application from Phillips that allows for unlimited sound and video recording (the phone's native video app is limited to 11 seconds); an assortment of games (such as Karting, Interstellar Flames, and Chess Genius) that have approximately the same visuals and playability as games on the first Playstation; and Mobile Crystal Player (an app that allows you to play videos you've converted into a proprietary format on your PC). One of these days I'll get around to downloading the FULL LENGTH MOVIES (such as the Matrix series) that are available free through some of the 400 Yahoo clubs devoted to the 3650.

The Opera browser allows you to surf the whole web (as opposed to the WAP browser, which is limited to WAP sites) and it works great - once you remember to turn off animations (Java is a memory hog) and view images (which you can also download) selectively (because of this, it's not quite the same experience as surfing on a PC, but it's pretty close). And with T-Mobile service, unlimited internet access is only $5.00 a month.

Some people take exception to the circular keypad, but I've found that you get used to it in a few weeks. And then its a joy to use.

Only a very few mobile devices offer more memory, larger screen, and greater functionality - and those devices (such as the Sony-Erickson P900) have a high price tag (P900: $800). If you're in the market for a mobile phone - or if you'd just like to get your hands on the future - I can enthusiastically recommend the 3650. You won't be disappointed.

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Rating:
Summary: Cool Toy !
Review: I bought this phone on Amazon.com after a $300 rebate. The GSM network by TMobile is not so great in northern Virgnia, and often my call drops or disturbed.

The phone got a large color LCD screen, and feels like a PDA. You get pretty much all basic applications come with it. The built-in speaker is a plus, and helps while driving. Display is very crisp, and you can add an image to each number. The 16MB memory card comes with the phone, and you can store upto 250+ images.

Combining phone numbers, email, and address as one contact is a plus. You should go through the user manual before start using the phone.

Here are some issues with the phone.
-The ring tone is very low that i missed many calls. Finally settled with Desk phone ring at highest volume
-The keypad layout is pretty new, and takes days to accustomed to it
-Its size is a problem. The case is not commonly available
-PC Suite for 3650 failed to get the data from my old Nokia 3360

Rating:
Summary: The best phone there is!
Review: I got this phone for my b-day and its one of the best presents i ever got! This phone is totally awesome with its cool polyphonic ringtones, big screen display, fast internet connection and definitely the picture and video options. The only thing that sucks is that the 3650 has around 4500 colors compared to the 3660 which has 65000 colors for better pics. Anyway, this phone still rocks!

Rating:
Summary: State of Art
Review: I bought it from Amazon.com with T mobile Service plan. I stay in minneapolis and T mobile service is awesome here.
Things that i like about this phone :
- Excellent color display which is reasonally big compared to cell phone standards.
- novel keypad, although it took some time to get adjusted.
The Central scroll key is really cool (esp while playing games :)
- Camera is awesome. Colors of pictures are rich, sharp. Good 640 x 480 resolution (i set image quality to highest and the pics were awesome)
- Excellent security ( Can set an optional code, so that u need to enter it when ever u switch the phone on. Also, u can set a code when ever SIM card changes. So, even if somebody steals ur piece, i guess they cant use it )
- can work even outside US ( Europe and Asia ).
- I never used SMS before, but this cell has it with predefined/customizable templates which really reduce the burden of typing and we can send text messages any where in the world. (for sending multimedia emails u need to subscribe to t zones ..which is well... hmm...pretty cheap)
- T mobile has given a default email id([e-mail]) to every piece with which u can send text based email from your piece using SMS.
- Can link to local bluetooth, infrared enabled devices. My laptop has an infrared port and i downloaded all the pics from the camera.
- Can act as a wireless modem to connect ur laptop to internet.( I didnt test that )
- can download any J2ME based Java applications. ( i didnt test that )
- has Calendar, calculator, sound recorder(which can record conversations), ring tone composer ( u can create ur own ring tones and set them) & loud speaker.
- Handsfree is given for free.
- can add pics to every contact in the list of contacts.
- classify contacts into groups and send group SMS messages, group emails.
- can play recorded/downloaded video clips using real one player.
- Although its a PDA, camera, video camera cum cell phone, the battery lasts pretty long.

Things i didnt like :
- a bit bulky, but the good features shadow it.
- built in ring tones(except for a couple or so) are not that audible in crowded places. The ones that i created were good.
- Good cases are readily not available. I had to buy a Bodyglove's neopreme cell case from circuitcity :( )

Well, bottom line is... i feel i bought(Got) an AWESOME piece for FREE !!

Rating:
Summary: Great phone, needs help as PDA
Review: I got this as a single device replacement for my cell phone and Palm Vx. Its performance as a phone has been a tremendous improvement over my old Ericsson T19LX - call quality using AT&T service in New York is great, as is having my PDA address book integrated with the phone so I don't have to worry about updating phone numbers in multiple places. The size is quite respectable considering how much functionality it contains, but definitely somewhat large for a current model phone.

As a PDA, it is functional but suffers from some flaws. Importing contacts from Palm Desktop did not work - many entries where I had a home and mobile number showed up with one entry called homemobile and dropped the other number. When I moved everything to Outlook and synchronized it worked fine. However, it still does not sync note fields for to-do and calendar entries, and Nokia says they have no plans to fix that. The phone's to-do editor does not let you make an entry without a due date, and also does not let you turn off the alarm that occurs on the due date. Accessing POP3 email works, but if you want to delete a message from the phone while leaving it on your server you still have to leave the header on the phone and scroll past it in your inbox. I solved some other problems by installing ActiveDesk and ActiveMail from Cibenix, which I would definitely recommend if you purchase this phone.

Overall, I would give this 5 stars for packing some great hardware into an attractive package with great phone functionality at a good price. However, the PDA software flaws knock it down a notch.

Rating:
Summary: good phone, but its slow
Review: The phone overall is good. It even plays gabeboy games with one modification. It just has times where it is so slow it is irratating. For the money you cant beat it.

Rating:
Summary: It's almost smart... but flawed, and annoyingly so.
Review: This is my first phone since owning an Ericsson RX280L, and I had gotten used to unlimited Internet access and long battery life as necessary features for a phone and service. The Nokia 3650 will browse the Web, and the battery is fairly long-lived. On those counts, this is a perfectly acceptable upgrade. However, when you rate it on its own merits, there are some points to consider.

One, it uses MMC flash for storage. MMC isn't exactly the most popular format -- Secure Digital (SD) would have been a far better choice -- and so comparable capacities cost more for MMC than SD flash. What I find disappointing about the MMC choice is that offering MMC *and* SD isn't very difficult in itself. In fact, Lexar sells the Trio which handles Sony Memory Sticks, SD, and MMC quite nicely and compactly. Minor point, perhaps, but consider your current flash memory investments before buying the phone.

I love the camera. Good snapshots, neat little movies that pick up sound, and even a sound recorder. So the added utility of the phone is very attractive, making the flash memory issue a little more than minor (imagine owning five SD cards and realizing none of them work in this phone).

The Symbian OS is a dog. It's a slow dog, that annoys me to no end. The bootup time for this is comparable to Windows 3.1. Really! A PocketPC or Palm device, by comparison, has no boot time (well, the Palm OS has no boot time, PocketPC negligible for warm boot). I'm not a big fan of this OS, or its abilities.

Nav of settings, utilities, etc. is a little complex. There's a handful of ways to get at phone settings, for example, and there's probably a million little shortcuts you can use... and would probably not want to memorize. Programmable front buttons let you choose oft-used apps (Camera and Bluetooth, for example) and it supports one-touch dialing... well, one-key plus the green "ON-Go-Dial" circle.

SIM card support; store numbers on your SIM or the MMC card or the phone memory. Seasoned travelers would likely store numbers on the SIM. Onto Bluetooth and synchronizing.

Nokia's PC Suite is powerful, if you can get it to work. Setting up your PC to use a Bluetooth stack isn't trivial (lookup Jon's "Definitive Blueeooth Guide" for the best help; also geekzone.co.nz). When it does work, it's wonderful. Pull off images, upload WAVs to use as ringtones, save all settings for backup, synchronize Outlook contacts and calendar to the phone, superb utility if you get it to go.

All this leads me to a solid conclusion: the Treo 600 kicks its butt. PalmOS, SD card support, most mature synchronization utility available. Aside from the cool camera functionality, this phone is not the best you can buy, leading me to believe that the true future of mid- and high-end phones, as well as PDAs of the same class, to be full convergence of the two. And so with that in mind, get this phone if it's free with a new contract... then wait for smartphone prices to drop.

Fred

Rating:
Summary: The phone has great features, but the software/OS is buggy
Review: This phone is great for features, its camera is amazing, and it gets good signal. I would love all of this were it not for the awful OS. My first phone inexplicably died 8 months after purchase, sitting right on my desk. The replacement unit was great for a month and now, sometimes the phone locks up when I try to look at the Call History or text Messages. I'd say the phone locks up on me almost daily.

As I said, I love the features, but in the end, it sometimes doesn't function well as a phone. So beware.

Rating:
Summary: I love this phone!
Review: The phone is bigger than most cell phones, but that's one of the reasons I wanted it.Those tiny phones may be fine for some but I needed something that wouldn't get lost in my handbag. I like all the features, although I don't use most of them on a daily basis. The camera is nice to have, although not a replacement for a quality digital camera but its nice to text message a vacation pic. I've had my phone for 14 months and have not had any serious issues with it. It;s very easy to find accessories and downloads are a breeze for ringtones, etc. Though a little pricey, I find it worth every penny.

Rating:
Summary: tha234
Review: i love this nokia phone and i have been ready to buy it because it is my dream phone. i like it because of its camera and recorder the phone is one of the phones nokia settled down and worked well and it has a lot of features..WAYNE WONDER MAKES USE OF IT AND I AM SURE HE LOVES IT VERY WELL......