Nokia 7610 Review

Nokia 7610 Review - Introduction

Up comes the Nokia 7610. When I saw its pictures and its demo at the world expo, the first thought that came to mind was that it was just another weirdly shaped mobile and it would flop as bad as it’s other two ‘designs’ A few days later and I get my hands on A Silver and Gold version of the 7610.

Ed note: Full Nokia 7610 Review review and pictures by Khalifa Saleh of Fluid Mobile.

My reaction automatically changed as I gripped it into my hand. It’s in my opinion, that the phone’s shape is perfect for left handed people due to the curve. As for right handed people, they have nothing to worry about because even if you didn’t buy this phone you’d probably end up with a curveless phone anyway.

Touching the phone’s keypad is very pleasant. I enjoyed it due to the fact that it felt smooth and the keypad seemed to be placed in an ergonomic position. Before messing around with the basics, I took this phone and showed it to a few of my Japanese friends. Its know that Japanese are indifferent to Nokia and do not like their designs, but I was amazed at the awe I received.

The only forecast I made before switching the phone on was that due to its soft plastic, it might be easily scratched. However, it does come with a piece of plastic as most phones already come with to protect the screen. The difference is that this can actually be used as an initial screen protector since it is cut to the screen’s exact size

Switching it on

The first thing that I noticed when switching the phone on was that it took quite a while to load. All S60 OS phones take a while but this one seemed to take longer. I was greeted with a GREAT couple of features. The SettingsWizard automatically launches to set the phone to the country’s settings depending on the network you choose. This is excellent if you buy the phone independently and not through a network. The second feature is the Welcome Program. It explains the basic features of the phone as well as what you are capable of adding on. The program itself was smooth and pleasing and added to the excitement of owning such a stylish phone.

Nokia 7610 Review - Reviewing the 1 megapixel camera.

As with any camera phone, I immediately switched to Camera mode. The clarity was amazing. I took a few snaps and uploaded them to the pc and although it’s not very clear enlarged, it could be considered rather exceptional at a lower resolution. What else would you expect from a 1 megapixel camera. Note it is a ONE megapixel camera not a 1.3 as some sites mistakenly advertise. You are allowed 20 pictures using the memory card provided (64mb) at maximum quality. Lower it and you’ll be smiling at the 999 pictures allowed. Only sad thing is that Nokia have, yet again, failed to offer a full screen mode for taking pictures or videos.

Shifting to Video mode you automatically marvel at the 10 minutes provided to record. It’s a great increase to the 6600’s allowance of 9 seconds. Recording at the maximum res does have its downside though. It seems to have a low FPS but this can easily be rectified by lowering the quality.

To add to the excitement the 7610 has a 4x digital zoom. It is rather nice and although it does get very ’slightly’ pixelated, it’s more than enough to satisfy the average phone user. One other new app that comes with the hone is called Muvee. I have to admit it wasn’t very self-explanatory. I didn’t know what I was getting into. Basically, it takes previously recorded clips, splices and edits them and applies a theme to it. For example, choosing the Seduce theme applies ’sleazy’ music with a few animations and text effect overlayed onto the clip.

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Returning back to the issue of the memory card, as slightly mentioned, you are given a 64 mb mini-mmc card. Notice I said Mini since it is smaller than the previous MMC card released with the 6600. Don’t worry though, it comes with a small adapter so that you can plug it into an MMC reading device. The screen though, is something to be admired. The 7610 has a brilliant 65k colour TFT unit with a resolution of 176x208. In the dark you would be forgiven for thinking it was a super light. The keypads blue hue and the screens ultra bright whiteness shows that they’ve finally listened to complaints that have poured in. But wait, I hear people saying that they would rather keep their eyesight than go blind, there is an option to decrease the brightness of screen.

Call me!

Obviously after looking at the basics, I immediately called a few friends. The convo started off with “Hala! Sha5bar!” (Hi, how are you!) and was greeted with a “WHAT?!” The mic is very sensitive, simple put. Moving the phone away from your mouth just slightly can cause people to scream in mystery. Worse off, the phone automatically moves the speaker volume to maximum after each phone call IF you didn’t set it within the settings. It doesn’t matter though since hearing people is a bit of a challenge anyway. The speaker phone option is rather handy, however, there were some occasions that I was surprised at the amount screeches. That isn’t to say that the speaker isn’t loud, on the contrary, it is VERY loud.

When people call me, the phone works in this order. Screen Lights up, Vibrates, Rings, displays caller. I don’t know if this is just Nokia’s habit or if this is to help us avoid prank callers, but that did annoy me and it would be a nice feature to have it as an option to choose the order.Speed, Give me Speed!The 7610 is fast. It does suffer from loading time with some apps, but all in all, it's fast. Installing apps, applying themes, and downloading transfers is very fast. You’ll find yourself downloading and applying all the time. Speaking of speed, all of the image viewing apps load images pretty fast. Put the amount of dithering with some images did annoy me. I transferred a picture which was rather bright and it didn’t display as well as I wanted it to. Hopefully with a 3rd party app it’ll be solved. 3rd party apps are being created just as fast as- well just as fast as they can. They are popping up all over the place with great support from Nokia.Nokia 7610 Review - Transfers!

When you want to transfer files forget about iR. The 7610 doesn’t come with any IR port, I guess this is just Nokia’s way of keeping up with the times. The Bluetooth is great though. (Note: The first models have a major problem and if you didn’t purchase it, you’ll need to update the firmware. I wasn’t able to send to some 6600’s) Everything is so easy to set up that I bought a Bluetooth dongle and paired the phone to my laptop. I was sending files speedily!

It’s My Life!

One topic that I felt needed it’s own paragraph is Nokia’s LifeBlog. This is a GREAT app that allows you to transfer information to your pc and view what you’ve been doing in the past days. In the form of a timeline it shows you what you have been up to, the messages you’ve sent and received, clips and photo’s. It’s still in beta at the moment but it’ll be a great app to install soon enough.

Nokia 7610 Review - Conclusion

I highly recommend the 7610 to anyone interested in a complete phone.

Nokia 7610 Review by Khalifa Saleh of Fluid Mobile

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