Strange title I know but don’t worry, the reason will become apparent as you read through the review.
The 7650, is it a phone or is it a camera ?
Well obviously the answer to that is it is first and foremost a phone and yes, it performs all the necessary functions very adequately. I could bore you with the technical specs and the key presses needed to do this or that but I think the majority of people are now fully conversant in the standard use of mobile phone functionality, i.e, making a call, texting, storing numbers etc and would be bored stiff so what I will do is concentrate more on the feel of the phone and the additional functions it gives, in main – a camera !!!
OK. I bought one a couple of weeks before and therefore I feel well qualified enough to give my own opinion on it. However, in saying that there were some functions I didn’t use to any great degree, phone book, text-messaging etc. As already mentioned these are pretty much standard anyway so can be taken as read that they perform the same. I will however at this point mention the fact that as the keyboard slides out below the bulky body I did find it difficult to type in messages as the weight of the main body made it feel top heavy.
It does though have a slight advantage over most other handsets with text messaging in as much that it has what is known as concatenated messaging. This simply allows you to enter more than the standard 160 characters that most phones allow. What it does is let you enter up to 480 characters before running out of space, it then breaks these down into blocks of 160, this “1” message is then sent. The recipient however actually receives 3 separate ones, one after the other. Be warned, the sender also gets charged for 3 separate ones too !!!
Another little niggly aspect to the design is the SIM holder, this is situated at the top of the phone and is accessed by sliding off the top, the SIM then simply slips into the designated slot – easy. Unfortunately getting it out isnt and requires a fine grip with the nails !! A small point seeing how in theory you would very rarely remove the SIM I know but if you do a lot of SIM swapping it would get a bit annoying.
It also has a slightly different way of navigating through the menus which could be a bit frustrating for those who prefer the more conventional way of key presses, the 7650 however utilises a small joystick situated in the middle of the phone. I found that after a bit of use it became second nature, however some people may not have the same opinion.
Anyway, back to its main selling point, the camera. This is nicely built into the handset with the lens itself being on the flat side (the back in effect) of the handset, this allows you to use the front screen as a viewfinder and the joystick pressed to take the photo. All in all it is a very classy looking bit of equipment and I, like I suspect the majority of people the minute they get hold of one, had a good play round with it and took photos of all and sundry around me !
Although it did at first feel very awkward to handle due to its size I was amazed at its ease of use. I actually managed to take photos without ever once consulting the manual. Again I think most people are proficient enough to find their way round a phones menu (especially Nokias which is renowned for its simplicity) so I wont waste time giving exact key presses. Suffice to say follow the menu driven instructions and you too will be snapping away to your hearts content. Snapping incidentally is an appropriate word because you can set the handset to make a very “camera like” click, I found this a bit too gimmicky though so set this to silent.
OK, you’ve taken a photo, now what? Well, there’s a multitude of things you can do. First and foremost you can send the photo to another mobile user. Now at this point I must confess my ignorance and admit I don’t know how far advanced the other networks are as far as photo messaging is concerned but I know Orange can send a photo to anyone, irrespective of network or the type of handset. The network part of that statement needs no explaining but perhaps I should mention at this point that the photo will only actually appear on another handset if it is technically advanced enough to display it, at present Orange have 2 such handset, the 7650 and an Ericcson… yyyuuuuukkkk ! If you don’t have a compatible handset you will just receive a text message with an internet address and a password, to see the photo you must then go on-line to the given url and enter the password when prompted, hey presto, the photo appears !!
Aaaahhh now, sending a picture real time ! This is where I got the title from, for those of you who haven’t already twigged why I suggest not getting one if your having an affair let me give you a scenario. A husband is how shall we put it, playing away, and has told his wife that he is working late at the office. He then goes off on a secret rendezvous with his other woman. Now unfortunately for this chap his wife has an inkling something’s not quite right and rings him. Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t cause him a problem, he’d simply say “yes pet, still at the office”. Now though his wife can ask him to prove it by taking a photo of said office ….. uuuuuummmmmmm, get out of that one when your stuck miles away in a country pub or in another woman’s bedroom !!!
Anyway, now I’ve warned off potential philanderers to the dangers lets get back to the serious stuff, what else can you do with the photos because believe me at something like 30p – 40p per message you will soon run up a pretty prohibitive bill. Well for starters you could always upload them to a laptop or PC, it’s a very straightforward process using the infra-red function.
Another use for them is to store a person’s picture against their entry in the phone book, this will then show when they call you. Thinking about it this has another quite useful use too. Just imagine, you can now see a picture of that lass/lad you chatted up last night and see if they’re worth ringing or was it just the beer goggles that forced you to promise to call?
The memory of the phone is dynamic, which simply means the more entries you have in say your phone book the less pictures you can store in the memory, this works the other way as well of course so make sure you clear out unwanted pictures at regular intervals. The very impressive 4mb memory will hold on average between the 50 and 70 high-resolution (640 x 480) pictures depending on the use of the other functions
Well I’m afraid to say in my opinion that’s a no. The camera is a nice gimmick and it does provide opportunity for a bit of fun, this though loses its novelty value after a while and you begin to find the extra bulk of the phone and awkwardness in use (i.e texting) a bit of a bind. After a couple of nights out with it and a few days in the office I found myself reaching for my trusty old 6310i. The quality of the pictures are pretty basic as well, and that’s at the highest setting of 640 x 480 resolution (there’s 2 others, medium and low which are basically a waste of time), please don’t ask me to explain about resolutions and stuff because I haven’t a clue, however I do know that they are nowhere near as clear or well defined as my very basic digital camera …. then again though I think that guy having an affair would particularly want them to be clear would he !!!!!.
Oh by the way, as an added reason not to buy it just yet there’s another Nokia out shortly which actually records and plays back video recordings ….. now that now does give opportunity for some fun !!!!