First Look: Nokia 7610 - Reviews - Cool Gear - Mobile Phones

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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First Look: Nokia 7610

By Lee Chee Wee, Special to ZDNet
March 18, 2004
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/coolgear/mobiles/soa/First-Look-Nokia-7610/0,139023387,139116635,00.htm

Not willing to let Sony Ericsson steal all the limelight with its megapixel camera-phones, Nokia answers the call with its own.

Hot on Sony Ericsson's heels, Nokia announces its latest megapixel camera-phone, the Nokia 7610. This triband mobile, resembling an elongated Nokia 7600, sports a 65,000-colour screen. This 118g device features 48-chord polyphony ringtones and the onboard music player supporting MP3 and ACC formats will suffice for most music lovers. Unfortunately, this latest offering lacks a FM receiver.

Users will be happy with the generous 72MB expandable memory, of which 64MB is supplied by the bundled MMC media. This roomy storage should prove adequate for most to take advantage of the video-capable camera which captures still images up to a resolution of 1,152 x 864 pixels. The handset also includes a 4x digital zoom, self-timer and a night mode to assist in low-light conditions. For the creative, Nokia has thoughtfully included a Movie Director application to edit video footage, even adding special effects.

As weblogs or blogs are extremely popular on the Internet, Nokia is clearly capitalising on the blogging community with its self-developed Lifeblog software. This nifty utility organises digital content and turns your phone into a photolog.

Connectivity comes in the form of Bluetooth and a USB cable. Data-centric consumers will be glad of the e-mail support and HTML Internet browsing. If you prefer yakking on your mobile, you have up to 3 hours of talktime and 250 hours of standby at your disposal. You can grab the 7610 in the second quarter of 2004.

Nokia has also rolled out a host of accessories and a much needed update to the Communicator.

Nokia 9500 Communicator
If you are scouting for an enterprise offering, this Nokia 9500 Communicator will be worth a look. Nokia has finally thrown in connectivity features such as EDGE, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to this triband handset. Unlike its predecessor, the 9500 comes with an integrated 640 x 480-pixel camera useful for quick snapshots. Similar to previous Communicators, the 9500 comes with a host of features allowing you to effectively manage your email, personal information, and popular office documents. This is expected in the fourth quarter.

Nokia Image Album
The Nokia Image Album, available in the third quarter, this standalone device offers an innovative way to store digital media and display on a TV or PC. Sporting a 20GB hard disk, there's more than sufficient space for your images, clips and messages. Content can be easily transferred over Bluetooth, infrared, USB or memory cards and editing is done via the supplied remote control. You can even connect it to an external CD writer via USB to create your media CD.

Nokia Image Viewer SU-5
The Nokia Image Viewer seems to be a scaled-down version of the Image Album. The viewer lacks the internal storage but images can be transferred from compatible phones via Nokia's Pop-Port connector or MMC media. This is expected to be commercially available during Q2 of 2004.

Nokia Fitness Monitor
In a rather usual twist, Nokia releases the Fitness Monitor. Health enthusiasts will definitely welcome it in Q2. This device which operates independent of a cell phone tracks your activity levels and calorie consumption, ensuring you get a good workout. Simply preset your desire goals and you will be notified when it is reached.

For car owners, the Advanced Car Kit CK-7W (available second quarter) and Headrest Handsfree BHF-3 (available third quarter) should augment the existing Nokia range of car accessories.