I'm left recalling the old Saturday Night Live spoof: "It's a floor wax, and it's a dessert topping." The Nokia 3650 tries to be everything for everyone -- phone, organizer, browser, digital and video camera. In the end, it does all those things, but little of it well.
Let's start with the part that has everyone talking and has spawned goofy ad campaigns by wireless service providers. It has a built-in camera, so you can take and e-mail a picture or a video. Think about how you would use this, other than sending grainy vacation photos to friends with the caption, "Nah, nah, I'm here and you're at work!"
The camera feature is awkward to use, and sending photos or videos is far from intuitive. I've tried to think of business uses for photo/video phones. The video playback is neat, so you might use it for something like downloading mini-training clips to field service personnel. Otherwise, it's a big "Ummm.."
The 3650, AT&T Wireless's mLife, offered basic phone service that was okay in terms of sound quality, although some calls dropped off for no apparent reason. It may have been a coverage issue. Organizer applications include calendar, contacts and games.
My favorite features provided browsing and e-mail capabilities. I'm one of those people who would love to leave the hefty notebook home on one-night business trips when all you really need it for is e-mail, contacts and calendar. With the 3650, it was easy to access common messaging services (AOL in my case). For a small fee, you can reach Microsoft Outlook (a bear to wrestle with in the early days of smartphones). Typing on a telephone keypad remains a pain, but it's tolerable for quick messages.
The browser provides easy access to the fundamentals of life, such as news, sports and weather. That sounds simple, but I've worked with plenty of earlier phones that couldn't deliver on even this level of promise.
Navigation among and within the various features is clunky, probably because so much is crammed into a single device. Too often, I found myself stuck at a dead-end through the pulldown menus. In some cases, the only way out seemed to be repeatedly clicking the back button. Also, some of the actual menus don't match those shown on the help pages and manual. A suggestion to users: Whenever possible, use the Windows-style desktop to hop among applications.
Despite the temptation to slap a piece of duct tape over the camera and focus on the phone, the 3650 has potential. It just has a few too many rough, but fixable, edges on the usability side.
