re: InfoSync on the Nokia 7650
Other than some off the wall comments by "Buck" way back when, I have yet to see anything but positive reviews of the 7650 since its release.
Jørgen does pick up on a few shortcomings including slow synchronization.
The article has some good screen shots.
infosync.no
>> Review: Nokia 7650
Jørgen Sundgot
InfoSync
19.07.02
Guess who's had more fun over the course of the last week playing with a Nokia 7650 than in a long time? That's right; Jørgen Sundgot. Read what the Editor-in-chief makes of it!
The Nokia 7650 is one of the most anticipated products of 2002, and rightly so. The phone incorporates advanced phone capabilities with functionality traditionally found in handhelds, and lets users have a go at it through an interface that can be operated one-handedly.
Software can be installed either in the shape of native Symbian OS applications or J2ME applications - and combined, the features make up for a previously unmatched feature set. The total combination is what sets the Nokia 7650 apart from the crowd as an innovative device, and now I'll tell you all that's worth to know about it.
That Merry Xmas Feeling
As a new and previously unseen type of device, I must admit the Nokia 7650 caused a bit of a tingle when I opened the box. That feeling, however, quickly turned into surprise as I found out that Nokia's new box design had been applied to the 7650 - which resulted in me barely avoiding dropping the 7650 and its accompanying charger on the floor. Its manual, which I later found out was of the usual and impeccable Nokia quality, stayed nicely put through my short juggling act. A phew later and some charging, and lo and behold; I had a 7650 to review.
The phone itself has a keypad that slides up behind its main part to protect the lens of the 640 x 480 pixel resolution digital camera. The lens is centered on the back of the phone, and taking pictures is only possible when the keypad is extended. The solution is sturdy, but no substitute when in lack of a hammer. The keypad is otherwise equipped with the normal keys one might expect, as well as an ABC button in the upper left corner that acts as a shortcut for alternating between text input modes and a C button in the upper right corner for erasing text. Tactile feedback is good, and audible alerts can also be configured for key presses.
The main part of the phone is comprised of its excellent 176 x 208 pixel resolution 16-bit TFT display, accompanied by two action buttons directly below the display, and below these a four-way joystick with an press-to-action function, as well as a menu button to the left of the joystick. On the upper part of the front, there's a proximity sensor for switching the loudspeaker function off when the 7650 is lifted to the ear, and a light sensor if the phone is set to automatically adjust the backlight corresponding to the lighting conditions. A button placed far up on the left side of the phone switches the loudspeaker function on or off, and also activates the voice dial function if pressed and held. The power on/off button is placed far up on the right side of the phone, and like other Nokia phones allows a user to switch between 5 profiles or switch the phone off, but also lock the phone with a designated code.
The proximity sensor works well and so does the light sensor, while the tactile feedback on all buttons is good. The joystick is rubber coated and provides a good grip, and also gives good feedback upon being pressed to invoke an action. The audio of GSM phone calls is of standard Nokia quality - not exceptional, but more than good enough. What really shines, however, is the phone's loudspeaker. Not only does it provide good loudspeaker capabilities, but also plays back excellent audio from various applications and games using its Beatnik Audio Engine - and if this doesn't become the new European craze, I don't know what will.
Having finished with the exterior of the phone, we'll move on to its innards; the Nokia Series 60 platform, based on Symbian OS 6.1. The operating system is icon-based, and works much like that of Palm OS or Pocket PC devices, but there's one vital difference: It can be controlled by means of one hand only, which not only is a major benefit but a direct requirement for a smartphone device.
The navigation system builds on that of previous Nokia phones, and is easy to navigate - although I must admit it took me a while to get used to since I had a tendency to treat the 7650 more like a handheld than a phone when navigating through applications. The main tool for navigating is the navigation bar which allows switching between different tabs within applications, as well as the two action buttons that invoke menus and in some cases also direct choices. Most important functions can be quickly reached, and a Task Manager that can be invoked by pressing and holding the Menu button allows for fast task switching. Text input to the system is taken care of either by using the T9 predictive text input, or keying in letters, numbers and symbols one by one - a combined solution that works surprisingly well.
As with any voice-centered device, the Nokia 7650 focuses heavily on telephony, and the first application in its menu is called 'Telephone'. This is the application that's meant to be switched to when you're not using the phone actively, since it displays the time, date, reception, network and battery capacity as well as a background image of your choosing - or none. Here, two user-defined shortcuts are available through the two action buttons, and these can be set to open any application on the device. A quick press on the joystick takes you directly to the next application on the list, 'Contacts', which is also reachable from the menu - but it's also possible to just key in a number the old-fashioned way to call someone.
In Contacts, you can look up contacts stored in the phone memory (contacts stored on a SIM card need to be synchronized with the phone first to appear) and depending on the information stored send them an SMS, MMS or e-mail - or simply make them a call. As an extra bonus, pictures can be added to entries to identify incoming callers, and entries can also be forwarded as business cards either via SMS, e-mail, Bluetooth or infrared. The lookup function is sadly somewhat crippled since it's only possible to search by means of first and last name, and not on any other parameter such as company name. Contacts is one of the applications on the device that can be synchronized with popular desktop PIM applications, but our attempts with Outlook turned out to be dogged slow - although flawless (more on this later).
Following Contacts is the 'Log' application, which tracks all incoming, outgoing and missed calls as well as data connections through GSM, HSCSD and GPRS and Fax calls. A very nifty feature allows users to track the amount of data sent and received as well as the time spent online, and it's also possible to set a maximum call cost limit.
Next up is the Messaging application, which tracks all SMS, MMS and e-mail messages, as well as incoming Bluetooth and infrared file transmissions. Upon receiving incoming SMS/MMS messages or Bluetooth transmissions, the phone will give both a visual and an audible alert depending on where a user is in the operating system, but for some reason that doesn't apply to e-mail messages - which is a major snag for IMAP users that will have to manually check the phone to see whether new e-mails have arrived. Neither is there an option for setting up scheduled checks of POP3 accounts, and you're in trouble if your incoming and outgoing e-mail servers don't use the same user name and password. Apart from those drawbacks, the feature set and general handling of e-mail is very good, and on the very positive side you can specify what access point to use for specific mail boxes. As for sending MMS messages, the 7650 supports creating these with text, graphics and audio, and the process is just about as simple as sending SMS messages.
The 'Camera' application is rather self-explanatory, but to quickly run through it it's where you control the 640 x 480 pixel resolution 16-bit digital camera of the 7650. Although the resolution and picture quality isn't too good even with the highest settings, I got a kick out of being able to whip out the phone and take pictures at times when I wished I had a camera but of course didn't bring one along. The camera can be operated in three modes; Standard, Portrait and Night, where the first one is a landscape mode adjusted for daylight, the second one is a portrait mode that's specifically designed for taking pictures for use in the Contacts application, and the latter one is the same as the first one but adapted for use in poor lighting conditions. As with ordinary digital cameras, pictures taken on-the-fly can be deleted then and there, but for a bit more functionality you'll have to move over to the Images application.
The Contacts details view only displays fields where information has been entered
'Images' is the application where all image materials on the 7650 is processed, including JPG, WBM, GIF and MBM graphics file formats. Here, pictures can be renamed or deleted, or viewed, rotated and magnified either in normal or full screen mode, and also sent to other devices via MMS, e-mail, Bluetooth or infrared. Also, picture messages in Nokia's proprietary format (known from a range of Nokia mobile phones) can be managed here.
The 'Calendar' application is rather basic and only provides Daily, Weekly and Monthly views. Like the Contacts application, this can be synchronized with a popular desktop PIM - we tried with Outlook, and synchronization was just as dogged slow as under Contacts (more on this later), yet delivered flawless results.
WAP 1.2.1 is also supported by the 7650, and eager surfers will take a quick liking to the 'Services' application. Unlike the Nokia 9200 series, the 7650 isn't capable of browsing standard HTML pages but only WAP pages, although I'm quite sure 3rd party software developers will come up with a HTML browser soon. As a nice feature for those surfing WAP over GSM or HSCSD connections, pages can be saved to the phone's internal memory for offline browsing, saving costs - and it doesn't hurt being able to save, say, a train schedule for a route you use often either instead of having to go online to check it every time you need it.
Under 'Profiles', which is next on the list, users can choose from and tweak 5 pre-defined profiles that are designed - like on any other recent Nokia phone - to allow people to adjust the alert functions of their phone to their surroundings. Named General, Silent, Meeting, Outdoor and Pager the categories are somewhat self-explanatory, but users can choose whether the phone should ring, vibrate, both or none, what ringtone it should use for incoming calls and messages and a tweak a few other options as well.
The Inbox show SMS and MMS messages as well as incoming infrared and Bluetooth transfers
The phone also has a 'Favourites' application which provides quick access to various applications and data on the phone. A user can choose exactly what to display and how to display it in either a grid or list view, including shortcuts to applications, pictures, audio snippets, notes and soforth.
The last of the main applications in the phone is 'To-do', which (surprisingly) is a task list of the very simply kind. Items can only be assigned a due date and a priority level and be marked as done, but not assigned alarms - and neither does the application synchronize with any desktop PIM applications.
In addition to the main applications of the 7650, there are also a few smaller ones lodged in a 'Extras' folder, including an application for jotting down quick notes (which doesn't surprise with any desktop PIM applications), a calculator, a very versatile converter (length, weight, currency, etc.), a voice recorder which also serves to play back MIDI and AMR (Adaptive MultiRate - the MMS audio format) files, a composer for creating ringtones of your own and a clock which shows the time and allows you to set an alarm.
Of course, the 7650 also comes with a couple of games pre-installed in its ROM; Snake EX builds on Snake II which is a game owners of recent Nokia phones will be familiar with, and Mix Pix which is a tile puzzle game. In addition, Nokia has also made three games available as free downloads on its site; Card Deck, Triple Pop, and Bounce.
But there's even more to the 7650; now for a quick look at the Tools folder, which contains a few interesting tidbits. First off is the 'Settings' dialog, where a great number of aspects of the phone can be set according to a user's preferences. Mostly, the settings available relate to the standard capabilities of GSM networks, but this is also where Internet and WAP access points are defined, as well as settings relating directly to the phone itself.
Other tools include an application manager that controls native Symbian OS applications installed on the phone, one for purely calling up ones voice mailbox, one for diverting calls and a speed dial application that can assign up to 9 different speed dials accompanied by pictures. What's also in the Tools folder is the cryptically named 'Apps' dialog, where J2ME applications are managed. The 7650 sports full J2ME support, including OTA (Over The Air) downloads, and a few applications that were tested informally ran at satisfactory speeds.
The last folder to explore on the Nokia 7650 is named 'Connectivity', and this is an area where the 7650 delivers mixed results. Three applications are available in the Connectivity folder; Bluetooth, Infrared and Modem. In 'Bluetooth', settings for Bluetooth are managed as well as setting up connections with other devices; this works flawlessly and without a hitch. 'Infrared' simply switches on IR reception for the 7650, and allows it to receive file transfers from other devices such as business cards.
Oddly enough, during my review I found out that while I could beam a business card over IR from the Nokia 7650 to a Pocket PC, it wasn't possible to perform the opposite - for reasons neither I nor the rest of the staff were able to figure out for the limited time the 7650 was available to us. Lastly, 'Modem' provides an option for computing devices of various kinds to connect to the 7650 via infrared and make use of it as a modem - which also worked flawlessly.
Bluetooth delivered a perfect performance in all regards during testing, using the 7650 as a dial-up modem, transferring files to and from a number of other devices and sending faxes. Unfortunately, though, the 7650 only supports version 1.0b of the Bluetooth standard, which renders it unable to connect to Bluetooth headsets - in itself not a major problem, but something that definitively should have been in place since other Bluetooth-enabled phones from Nokia that have been on the market for some time offer support for the Bluetooth Headset Profile.
Another issue when it comes to connectivity is synchronization with the desktop. As with the Nokia 9200 Communicator series, the Nokia 7650 has its own PC Suite which allows users to perform a range of functions relating to the 7650. This includes backing up and restoring the phone, importing data from Nokia mobile phones, the Nokia 9110 Communicator and Palm handhelds, synchronizing information, transferring images and configuring several aspects of the 7650 directly from the PC Suite.
Bluetooth in the 7650 certainly delivers - but lacks support for the Headset Profile
The abillity to edit settings on the 7650 directly from the desktop is important, since it saves a lot of time in setting up e-mail accounts, remote connections, message centres and multimedia message centres directly on the phone. I the case of e-mail accounts and remote connections, settings can even be imported from software on the desktop, in what's close to a minor stroke of genius.
And that's why it amazes me that Nokia still hasn't one anything to rectify one of the major flaws from the Nokia 9200 series; synchronization speed. Calendar information and Contacts can be synchronized between the Nokia 7650 and several popular desktop PIM applications, but when it takes 6 minutes to synchronize a total of 370 contacts for the first time and 1 minute and 20 seconds to update 10 of them at a later point in time there's something seriously wrong somewhere.
Another problem the 7650 faces is that there's no possibility to initiate synchronization directly from the device. For infrared connections, that's not too much of a problem since all that's required is to switch on the infrared recption of the phone and point it in the right direction to get connected to Nokia's data conduit. For Bluetooth connections, however, that means manually opening the Bluetooth Neighborhood, then accessing the Nokia 7650 and then finally connecting to the virtual serial port to establish a connection with the Nokia data conduit - three steps, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, and don't forget that once the 7650 is talking to the Nokia data conduit, the PC Suite still has to be opened and a button pressed to initiate synchronization - five steps in total, on top of the already slow process of the actual synchronization.
In addition to its synchronization woes, the radio module of the 7650 cannot be switched off to leave the rest of the device operational - so if you're in a spot where mobile phones aren't allowed, forget doing anything at all on the device.
Lastly, the Nokia 7650 is to a small degree bothered by its low amount of RAM. 4 MB is available to the user initially, but add a few ringtones, take a few pictures and install a few applications and games, and you'll quickly drop below 2 MB of free RAM. The amount of RAM is however adequate and then some for normal use of the phone, but power users are sure to quickly find themselves in a tight spot.
Speaking of tight spots, the battery life of the 7650 leaves something to be longed for, although it delivers on Nokia's promise of 2-4 hours of talk time and up to 150 hours of standby time. Ones economy could also end up a bit on the tight side after shopping for a 7650; currently, unsubsidized 7650s retail from 700 EUR and upwards throughout Europe.
Conclusion
Despite its shortcomings in terms of synchronization, its low amount of RAM and a few minor flaws, the Nokia 7650 is a first-generation device Nokia can be proud of. During an intensive testing period of one week we experienced no crashes, and the phone delivered on all promises made by Nokia including battery life. The 7650 offers the richest feature set of any mobile phone or smartphone on the market today, and also does the best job of delivering a simple and user-friendly interface. We'd recommend it any day, unless you're heavily dependent on synchronization and have a frequently changing schedule and contacts list.
What's positive: Brilliant display, good interface and rich feature set
What's negative: Poor synchronization speed and battery life
Overall: 5 Stars out of possible 6
###
- Eric - |
