Nokia 3650 Phone - Next Generation (AT&T)

Rating:
Summary: GREAT PHONE(bluetooth,video,camera,XHTML)
Review: I bought this phone because it was unique. Alot of my friend love to play around with the camera/video, and I don't see very many people walking around with this phone eihter so you'll definetly catch some attention when using it in pulic. I didn't even know of the real capability of this phone until I played around with it.

BLUETOOTH-This has been the biggest pro for me so far. I can send pics, ringtones, files etc. between my phone and computer at NO COST at all. This is great because it saves money by emailing jpegs from your computer rather then sending via Multimedia Message. I can also use wireless headsets with this. What I really like about this feature is getting REAL VOICE RINGTONES. Even though it won't play MP3'S, I simply convert MP3'S to AMR files on my computer and send them via bluetoooh. It's not the best quality though, but it's something.

VIDEO/CAMERA-These aren't the best quality pics/vids I ever, but they look pretty decent compared to other camera phones. And just the fact that it even got video makes it unique. Infact I managed to download a program from the Nokia website that updates the video recorder to include sound (some people say they don't have sound with their video). I use the camera to take pics/vids of all my friends, and up close the pictues come out pretty good. Only con about this is that the videos are short(9-15 sec.), and there is no zoom in feature.

Apart from that the phone comes w/ every other feature that most other Nokia phones have (calculator, calender, notes, voice recorder, games)

The only cons I can think of is that sometimes when I'm on the phone with someone and 2 or more incoming calls show up, the phone will shut down and restart. As for the loudness of ringtones, I don't even use the default ringtones cause I get real ringtones, which sound off just fine when I get incoming calls. I have a bit of a problem though with turning on and off the Vibrating Alert. When I try to turn it off, it'll turn off and even stay off when I try to turn it back on. Plus it takes about 30 seconds just to turn the phone on, but these aren't major problems. And the size doesn't bother me at all, it fits perfectly in my palm and it doesn't take up space in my pocket, I simply use a belt clip.

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the features....
Review: I have had this phone for well over a year now, and have considered upgrading several times to a smaller phone, but each time decided against it as this phone has every feature I could want. Even Motorola's new top-of-the-line RAZR phone does not have a slot for a SD/MMC card, and the phone is priced at about $500! This one has a card slot and it is two years old. That speaks volumes about the feature-richness of this phone from Nokia.

I am giving this phone a 5 star rating based on the features. Everyone knows this is a large phone- that is not a secret. It has the MMC slot, the Buetooth capability, infrared, in short, just about everything you could want in a phone, without an ultra-compact size. But can it really be expected that a phone with nearly every conceivable function will also be the smallest? Not likely.

Rating:
Summary: Great phone, with one problem
Review: Love the phone. I find that the large size fits perfect in your palm and can even be used to prop on your shoulder, unlike many cell phones. There are so many features on this phone, I lose track of time when playing with it.
Now, to the one complaint. The ringtones are not very loud. When I test them they sound great. But when I apply them to a contact and get an incoming call; it is much lower than before. If it is something I have done wrong, please any current users let me know! And yes, I have done the obvious and turned the volume to the fullest.

Rating:
Summary: Good phone if it did what it advertises
Review: Nokia advertises "Synchronize your phone book, calendar and to-do list with your PC using Nokia PC Suite 5" on the 3620/3650 phones, but the PC Suite application does not support Office 2003. This was one of the biggest selling points of the phone to me, and I can't use the most popular Personal Information Manager (Outlook 2003) with my phone. It worked with 2002, but 2003 is not supported.

Nokia claims this is because "this PC Suite version was made before Microsoft released Outlook 2003:. This is ludicrous. Office 2003 was in Beta (March 9, 2003) long before the Nokia 3620 was released (October 9, 2003). The development effort could have been completed before the release of the phone (and the supporting PC Suite application) in anticipation of the new (and, of course, widely adopted) Office suite. Furthermore, Office 2003 was released less than 2 weeks (October 21, 2003) after PC Suite was released.

Considering that the egregiously short-sighted decision to release without support for 2003 was made long ago and cannot be changed, one would think that Nokia planned to address this issue with a new version of PC Suite. Not so...

I loved the phone when I could use it as a "PDA-lite". Having all of my contacts and calendar entries in my phone made life easier. I didn't have to carry a seperate PDA, and I got all of my reminders just like I do in Outlook. Since I lost that functionality, I have a high-priced camera phone that I can play some VERY basic games on...

Rating:
Summary: Great Phone with only one complaint
Review: I know everyone complains about the size of this phone but for me it is a plus. I simply slip it into my pants pocket with little notice. As I get older my eye sight seems to be getting worse and worse. This is the only phone I have tried that I can read perfectly. It has a large screen, very good contrast, and good detail. Even pictures I take look better because the size of the screen. This phone would get a five but for the keypad, which I understand they have fixed with a newer model. I love the bluetooth feature. It has allowed me to use it as a PDA and link to outlook. It has also allowed me to download free tones and upload pictures to use as wallpapers. I also use a wireless head set. It has so many more options than the phones of my wife and daughters. The speaker phone is loud and clear. I don't use the web features so I can't comment on those features. Typically I like to upgrade to a new phone every year as the technology seems to come out with some new wrinkle that leaves me wanting. I have had this phone a little over a year, and in this case I am perfectly content but for the circular keypad. If I upgrade it will be for the same phone with the traditional cell phone keypad. I hope they continue to make phones this size and readable. Oh by the way, it is built really well. Not many cell phes would be able to fixed after falling into a lake. But this was just needed to dry and be cleaned.

Rating:
Summary: Big Size for BIG Capabilities
Review: This is a great phone!!! People constantly yap at me about its big size... "Hey, your phone is the size of a brick!" But you know what I say when they tell me that? I ask them these questions:
* "Can your cellphone play Gameboy games?"
* "Can your cellphone act as a remote to control your TV?"
* "Can your cellphone run old Commodore 64 programs and games?"
* "Can your cellphone get on AIM/ Yahoo/ MSN/ ICQ messengers all at once with a nice graphical display?"
* "Can your cameraphone shoot 640x480 quality images?"
* "Can yours play classic NES games?"
* "Do you have speakerphone?"
Unless they also have the Nokia 3650 (or maybe a 3660), the answer they almost give is a big FLAT "No, my phone can't do that." Oh, did I forget to mention that bluetoothing files to other bluetooth devices (Palms, phones, etc.) is great too?

Sure, the design of the keypad may make me think of birth control pills, and sure the software that comes with it may be limited. BUT, if you do some searching around for third-party software (and shell out a couple of extra bucks for the non-free stuff), you can do some amazing things with your phone ... even get past that 10-second limit for recording videos.

"But, can you actually make phone calls with the thing?" Yes! Unless you're right next to a blackout zone, the signal quality is always great and I'm on AT&T. However, I will admit that the signal strength hasn't been as great since Cingular acquired them.

At this point, after seeing all that it can do, I hope you'll see that size isn't an issue at all. Heck, just buy carpenter-style pants and put the phone in that pocket because that's what I do.

"Are there any drawbacks?" I will answer yes... Even though this phone can play lots of games, I don't think it was designed for this. How is that? Well, the joypad only goes up, down, left, and right... It DOESN'T go diagnol. So, playing games that require that is a pain.

"If you like playing games, why not get an NGage?"
Sorry, I don't like Taco Phones.

Here's a great link that got me started:
http://www.angelfire.com/pro/nokia3650/

I'm going to dread the day that I have to upgrade from this phone.

Rating:
Summary: Nokia has troglodytes doing customer service
Review: Do not buy Nokia phones. Ever. Here's why:

I bought a Nokia 6600 to replace my earlier Nokia 3650. Due to a design oversight, it does not work with the vast majority of PDA's via Bluetooth. This currently includes all Palm PDAs. After all the frustration of adding all of my newest contacts to the 6600, I asked a Nokia technician at 1-888-NOKIA-2-U if it were possible to transfer the data from the 6600 to the 3650. He advised me to back up the 6600 to a newly formatted Nokia MMC card, and restore the data to the 3650 in a similar manner. I followed the technician's directions to the letter while they were on the phone, and after I had done so, the phone restarted and displayed the message "Phone startup failed. Contact the retailer." I spent over an hour talking to a tier-2 technician who told me that their tier-1 technician should have known that it was not possible to backup the 6600 to the 3650 safely in any condition. I could not get the 3650 working to even factory defaults, even after trying every reset code they could muster. Nokia finally determined that my phone was in need of repair, but since it was out of warranty (it was made in May '03 and they would not take an eBay purchase as proof) they refused to fix the phone for less than $120! After over two hours of being placed on hold and persuasion, a supervisor finally agreed to fix the phone for free.

I did a little research and discovered that the repair could be done by any basic cell-phone repair shop for $30. All that had to be done was restore the software to the phone, and all that took was a cable and some Nokia software. I still decided to send in the phone, since insured shipping was only $10.

Two weeks later I mailed the phone in for repair. Two days after they received the phone, I received a letter in my mailbox stating that if I did not pay $120 for the repair of my phone, it would be returned unrepaired. I called Nokia to try to get it sorted out, and they stated that they had no recollection of ever promising to repair the phone for free. They stated that though it was a simple repair, they would not do it for less than $120. I suggested that it didn't make sense for me to send in the phone for repair if I thought Nokia would charge me $120 to repair it since I could get it done locally for $30. This simple nuance was too much for Nokia, and they still refuse to acknoledge the fact that their technician could have broken the phone or repair the phone for free. The supervisor stated that it must have been third-party applications on the 6600 that caused the 3650 to break, and would not take the suggestion that his own tier-2 technicians stated that it was not possible to back up the 6600 to the 3650 without damaging the 3650, regardless of what was or was not on the 6600. I have since spent hours on the phone with Nokia and they will not help.

In short - Nokia customer service does not understand the basic operations or limitations of their devices. If you don't heed my advice you will spend hours with technicians around the globe reading from scripts, chiding you in broken english for not following their directions exactly. Ultimately you will learn just how bad Nokia is, and why their recent loss of market share is so utterly deserved.

Rating:
Summary: Features are good; phone is too big
Review: I got this phone because I wanted a camera phone with Bluetooth (...). The phone is OK, but for the last several weeks I have been hanging out on ebay and amazon looking for deals on new cell phones. I am sick of ALWAYS having to carry a handbag when I go out because this phone is just too big -- you can't possibly stick it in your pocket.

The phone has good battery life, the keypad design didn't bother me for a second, and the camera works fine for my needs. I live in NYC and use the phone with AT&T, and I have not had issues with coverage.

But, the call volume cannot be made loud enough and the phone suffers a bit from "function creep" -- it does more than you will ever even be aware of, and the built-in Help feature is an utter joke, so if you want to figure out some functionality when you're on the road, just forget about it; you have to wait to get home and look it up in the manual.

(...) ultimately it took more than six months to get my money back. If I had it to do over again, I would probably just go for a smaller, cuter phone that did (and cost) a little less.

Rating:
Summary: Great phone and great AT&T service
Review: I know I looked at these reviews before I bought my 3650, so now that I've had mine for a few months, I wanted to report that it has been super. No complaints at all. And I get comments all the time from people on how cool my phone is. I have a digital camera, but it's great to have this little cameraphone on me whenever I need to snap a picture. Really nice colors and decent quality. Also, I really struggled between T-Mobile and AT&T, and I have to say I have been sooo impressed with AT&T. Just got back from Europe, where I had excellent coverage and they erased a charge when I called to say it seemed I was double-billed for a call. Great customer service every time I call! I've been really surprised.