Review GSM phone Nokia 2650

• Handset
• Manual

Lately Nokia has started manufacturing clamshells having considered it would increase its sales. It seems to be true in some kind but there is a great competition from the side of Korean manufacturers, Sony Ericsson and Motorola in this segment of the market. Also other manufacturers started offering their devices of the same form-factor at the same time and the market got extremely competitive. The only way out for Nokia was to offer unordinary models, devices with a raisin, different to everything already represented in the market. Let's remember the example of Nokia 7200 that was the first to have panels with textile surface. They were appropriate and unique in the fashion phone. Unfortunately, the absence of a qualitative screen and a very poor polyphony prevented the model from becoming a leader in its class and that is why it may be considered only a first test of strength. All the more, Samsung that provides the majority of colour screens for Nokia is not anxious to offer its latest developments and applies them in its own products. The absence of qualitative and large screens and a poor polyphony often cross over the technological potential put into fashion and business models. But on the other hand the company has rather high chances for a success in the middle and low-end segment because the same morally out-of-date screens look quite well here.

Thus model Nokia 2650 seems quite interesting. The construction of the clamshell is unordinary, it may be opened for an angle of almost 180 degrees. Its internal surface is of rubber and resembles the one similar in Nokia 1100 (the key block). The classic joint is absent here and a spring hidden behind a rectangular insertion plays its role. The device may be opened and closed easy and the spring like finishes the last quarter of the motion by itself.

The outer surface of the device has prominent ribs. This makes its unusual appearance and ennobles the model. In general the device looks more expensive than it should for its target group, Motorola's engineers tried to achieve the same effect in a line of their products (the most known is С350). In general this class of products may be characterized with a slogan "look expensive and cost reasonably".

There are no any control buttons on the outer surface of the phone and there is only a SIM-card connector on the right surface. Having pulled the slide rails out you may insert a card. Opening the connector while the phone works doesn't lead to its turning off, that's enough to close the connector and the device will start working again and registering in the network. The manual advises not to do that. Let's admit that this device is the first from Nokia (earlier it was only in Motorola handsets) with a realized function of a hot SIM-card changing (though privately). I liked the function since it is not so long to get the card out and insert another one. It is necessary to get used to the process of changing the card, that's hard to take the card out for the first time.

A connector for a handsfree headset, a charger and a microphone hole are on the bottom end of the phone. A catch fixing the back panel may also be seen here. There are no any backlashes and a Li-Ion battery is behind it (760 mAh, BL - 4C). But you won't need to open the battery module.

According to the manufacturer the battery is capable of working for 300 hours in the standby mode and up to 3 hours in the talk mode. In Moscow the device worked for 5 days in case of 45 minutes of talk time. Full charging takes a bit less than 2 hours.

A keypad is comfortable and the keys have a back motion that makes working more comfortable. A navi button doesn't have an OK key and it is necessary to use soft keys. The keypad backlighting is white, it is even and very bright and may be seen well in different conditions.

There is a light indicator that works while incoming call or other event, the device starts blinking on the sides (in a closed mode in the middle of the body). The backlighting color is blue and the function may be turned off by your wish.

Special prominent parts of the keyboard prevent keys from pressing the screen in a closed mode.

The dimensions are 85 x 46 x 22.9 mm thus the clamshell is not large may be a bit thick. The weight is 97 grams.

The screen is completely the same as in the first models based on the 40 platform and shows up to 4096 colors, 5 text lines. The resolution is 128x128 pixels, the quality of the picture is not very high but is acceptable for the low-end device. The screen fades in the sun.

The phone looks unordinary when opened. Even a week after the release the design was called Always, stressing the similarity with the pieces of women hygiene. It is interesting that when committing a traditional research of the target groups we didn't point out the design and didn't try to impart such opinions and associations to anybody. But 65 per cent of girls pointed out the design of the opened device is not interesting while boys were not as categorical. Careful inquiries showed that unintentional associations roused the aversion of the design. Thus it is possible to say that the sales will be divided into unequal parts according to the sex factor (80 per cent of boys and 20 of girls). The model may get unacceptable for many people because Nokia 2650 won't be taken adequately (jokes of pupils, young men about the similarity with something else and so on). As a result we may say the model will become niche, not mass in its class. Though the phone is interesting enough functionally and in design.

Menu

The menu is typically vertical (an icon and a name), there is a possibility to arrange the most frequently used functions in a personal menu. The total memory size is about 1 MB, the memory is shared dynamically. Fast navigation using digital series works in the menu just after entering it.

Phone book. It is possible to keep up to 255 names in the internal memory and it is the maximum number of entries. It is achievable if you enter not much information for a name, just one or two fields. And with medium filling, that is 6-7 fields for a name you may keep about 100 entries but not more. As it have already become clear it is possible to enter up to 5 numbers for a name and choose a type of the number (primary, mobile, home, office, fax). The first entered number becomes a default one and may be changed later if you wish. When entering the number for the first time, you type in only a name and one main number, all the other things are committed later from the edit menu. One may consider this not very comfortable, one will on the contrary say that keeps only one number for a name. Both will be right. Considering that similar input is realized in all the phones by Nokia, we'll surely say that it makes no troubles.

E-mail address, site url, post address and text note may be set as extra information to a number.

There are only 5 users' groups in the phone that is not typical for the phones by Nokia. And a special call melody may be set for a group.

Assessing the whole comfort of the phone book it is possible to say that it is average. On the one hand, there are a lot of fields in it, on the other hand its input capabilities are more convenient for working with a PC and not for the phone. I'd like to stress that the phone book in general is typical for the devices by Nokia and there are no any principal changes that means improvements.

Messages. The device supports Nokia's standard - Smart Messaging that allows sending and receiving melodies and simple black-and-white pictures from the compatible phones. Also the same standard is supported by Samsung, LG and some new devices by Motorola. There are up to 10 graphical templates in the internal memory specially for such messages. Unfortunately, the company's standard limits users because the alternative EMS standard, which is spread wider today, allows not only to send melodies and pictures but also format texts. In European countries EMS standard is very popular and ignoring it in the products by Nokia may be considered as a big disadvantage. In Russia only the most popular operators provide the technology and in the regions the presence or absence of this standard is not so critical. This may be disputable but the absence of EMS is still a minus for the phones by Nokia.

The company considers MMS possibility a complete substitute of EMS. And really this technology becomes ordinary and more interesting messages containing photos, colour images, melodies and so on may be created with its help. A message may be up to 100 KB in size. The realization of MMS in the phone is rather good, no any troubles appear with it.

Distribution lists are used for sending a mass message, users from the phone book memory may be added to them. That is convenient if you send messages of the same kind to your colleagues, friends. Templates, a possibility to create own folders and distributing received and sent messages between them are also realized traditionally.

Call lists. There are three lists in the phone. Every list may contain up to 20 entries. And what is convenient that the date and time of the call are displayed in the list. Pressing the Call button in the standby mode, you get the list of the last dialed numbers.

Settings. Profiles may be activated from this menu or switched quickly by pressing On/Off button. Every profile may be activated for a period of time and then the phone turns to the default profile. Sound alerts may be set for all the events, incoming call for all the calls or special users' groups. Realization of profiles in Nokia is one of the best on the market.

The screen settings allow to choose its color scheme, wallpaper and a screen saver. The screen saver is a picture that is displayed in the standby mode when the backlighting is not active. It is worth choosing one of the preset pictures, they are seen better in this mode than loaded full colour images.

В телефоне есть автоматическая блокировка клавиатуры, вы также можете выставить специальный код безопасности, чтобы вашим телефоном никто не смог воспользоваться. There is an automatic key lock in the phone, you also may set a special security code in order to nobody could use your phone.

Gallery. Here all the folders that contain different files are gathered, they have corresponding names. There is a possibility to view the folders as a list, a list with names or icons.

Organizer. You may keep from 50 to 100 entries in the memory and everything depends on their length, there is an automatic erasing of the old entries (by the time characteristic). There is a month and week view of the calendar, the last view has a division into hours, there is a quick switch to an entered date. There is a possibility to enter up to 5 different events (meeting, call, birthday, reminder, memo). A notification may be assigned to an event, they may be recurrent.

A to-do list allows to create events with three priorities (high, normal and low), and set a critical date for every event.

An alarm clock allows to set both once or recurrent signal

Applications. All the preset Java-applications are here, also standard functions as a calculator, countdown timer, stopwatch (with intermediate results). There are three games in the phone, they are Bounce, WaterRapids, Soccer.

Services. The device supports batch communication while a wap-browser version is 1.2.1 (also a support for xHTML, that makes it compatible with standard 2). Subjectively the speed of loading pages in the browser is not very high, showing images takes time and the phone switches between pages very slowly. We used devices by Samsung to compare and loading the same pages took less time.

Impressions

As for the connection quality Nokia 2650 is a typical phone based on the 40th platform, there are no any troubles with it. Vibrating alert is average in the power or even a bit weaker (as compared with usual devices of the 40 platform the phone sounds weaker). The 4-tones polyphonic signal is not very loud and it may be missed.

The device succeeds with the design and it is its strong and weak point at the same time. The model will be up to those ones who can distinguish but doesn't want to spend great money on a phone. The model is interesting as a low-end solution and as an alternative to cheap Korean clamshells. It won't be extremely popular, the range of fashion functions is very little (the screen and the polyphony are weak). But customers preferring Nokia brand will undoubtedly choose this model.

The price will be 120-125 USD and that is rather little for a low-end model. This low price will be the reason of stable sales. If the manufacturer provides an active advertising campaign the sales will be considerable for the product line by Nokia.

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Mitina ([email protected])

Published — 12 October 2004

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