7610 The Mullet Inquiry

[The Mullet of G]

Ok I've had my 7610 for a week now and I feel ready to share my experiences with you all, starting from the moment it arrived and I gazed upon that oh so funky box, imediately upon getting the box open and getting my hands on the phone all my fears of a cheaply constructed express on covered phone were dispelled, for a phone that has removable covers its remarkably well constructed and feels as solid as an Ipod, so I was already smiling before I got the battery and cards in the thing, upon switching it on and going through the boot up I noted as a Series 60 user since the begining that the boot time was pretty spritely and only beaten by the N Gage, Nokia have worked wonders with Symbian OS 7 since its last outing on the 6600 where it was fairly sluggish and had a fair few bugs in the earlier firmware versions, the OS now feels as solid as the actuall phone and performs task very spritely, as a previous 6600 user the speed increase is markedly noticable, this is mainly attributed to the fact Nokia have overclocked the ARM cpu from its previous speed of 104Mhz to 123Mhz which is quite a nice overclock on a chip that speed, but its not without its drawbacks the phone does occassionally crash when the CPU is under load say watching full screen movies, this is typical of overclocked cpu's though but its more than worth it as it doesn't happen often, ok onto the camera picture quality varies quite wildly with the new camera it doesn't like rooms with low voltage lighting producing pictures sometimes worse in quality than the 6600 in such conditions, but in the right lighting conditions it produces some startling results worthy of note, Nokia have added a few new programs as well ie Presence and Chat both of which are absolutely useless but to make up for it the included Movie which makes quality movie clips complete with cheesey music, and Lifeblog whish is very handy for syncronising all your messges etc to a journal style app on your PC, disappointingly Nokia still haven't seen fit to make the 7610 compatible with hotmail so the use of Hotviewer is needed again, theres also a few other slight niggles like the fact it doesn't have the software on board to make a connection via mrouter, this rules out the use of a lot of software, the USB cable is infuriating to use and requires the PC to be rebooted from time to time to recognise its there and its also pretty slow transfer speeds, the lack of infra-red also means using IR Remote is out which is a bit of a downer as its one of the best S60 apps out there, but besides those small niggles its a very well pollished phone, Nokia have done there homework this time and they have produced a phone that is going to take some beating, anyways I give it The Mullet seal of approval and a very well deserved 9.5 outta 10 :D

[Ben]

Excellent review :P

My friend also had big issues getting the whole USB cable to phone thing working... then for no reason whatsoever it just worked fine :D

Indeed, shame about infra-red. I guess they're relying on Bluetooth for most data communications these days, but it wont change channels on your telly!

Thanks! :D :D :D

[Death Marine]

On the USB issue, i find that if my pc has just been turned on, i can work it fine. Then say i go away for an hour or two, come back and connect up the phone again, it wont work and i have to re-start the pc. Strange, thinking about getting a card reader soon though.

Good review mullet, it really is a top phone.

[gabbyevs]

is this phone better than all other around them and how much is it payg?

[Ben]

It's pretty fabulous yes, under £300 SIM free, but not sure about PAYG. Looks stunning.

Can we trouble you for an update on your experiences Mr Mullet? Guy I know still loves his.

[The Mullet of G]

yup I'm still loving mine to bits another absolutely dazling piece of Nokia mastery, everyone should really take the time to have a hands on experience with a 7610 at some point, Nokia have clearly outdone themselves yet again :D

[gabbyevs]

thanx :)

im looking to buy one secondhand hopefully

[gabbyevs]

just another question-is it easy to get used to the keypad?

[The Mullet of G]

yup, I thought it'd be a bit of a nightmare but within seconds of picking the thing up I'd gotten used to the keypad, I actually find it better to use than my previous phone the 6600 which has a conventional keypad layout, the only thing I don't like about the keypad is the clicking sound it produces which is actually alarmingly loud :D

[Morph]

Of all the reviews I've read about this phone, nearly all of them have said that the biggest let down is the screen, saying that you have to hold the phone at a certain angle to see the screen at it's best, and any other angle is a major dissapointment. Did you find this true?

[The Mullet of G]

nah can't say I've had any beef with the screen, I think thats more or less a case of people trying to pick fault were there is none, I mean sure if you view the screen at a ridiculous angle then it wont look its best, but you've gotta ask yourself why would you be viewing the screen at such ridiculous angles? besides I didn't hear any such beef mentioned in the reviews of the 6600 and the 7610 uses the exact same screen.

[gabbyevs]

oh good-sounds ok to use-looks like im getting one of these now!

did you change the fascia at all on yours yet?

[funky-bloo-poo]

I have one major criticism, after coming from a Sony Ericsson to this phone - the display isn't a patch on SE's offering. The pixels are so far apart in comparison, It's really was annoying at first and I considered getting it exchanged!

I suppose, if you've only ever had Nokia's before, you'll not realize it - but make sure you see it in the flesh (so to speak) if you're coming from another phone manufacturer!

Just have to see - I'm not 'appi at all!

[The Mullet of G]

hmmm could be a matter of opinion kinda thang, but I disagree after seeing most of SE's latest offerings including the frankly terrible K700i which looks like the display was drawn with a crayon, I'm not sure which particular SE model you are refering to but I've yet to see it.

[funky-bloo-poo]

The z600, the p800 & 900 - you can't see the individual pixels on them - with every Nokia offering I've seen, (especially the 7610) they're a little two obvious. Not so much opinion, as they are spaced out differently.

[The Mullet of G]

meh I'm still not seeing it, but even if the P800 or P900 did have a significantly better screen it doesn't change the fact that both of them totally suck, 3rd party app and game support is almost non existent, and both of them have key pads akin to that found on cheap novelty calculators, not to mention there more than colosal size and ugly as hell factor, I've not bothered to mention the Z600 as its merely a toy and runs on a toy OS, I'm not gonna bother sweating it too much about screen pixels I'll be to busy enjoying the good stuff, its also worth noting that the 7610 uses the same screen as the 6600 and as far as I'm aware the 3660.

[funky-bloo-poo]

Oh, yeah, the SE's suck in other areas - but as I said above, the screen's beat the Nokia offerings. (This was the original point by the way :-p)

[The Mullet of G]

meh fair enough I'll not bother to contest it as its a mute point.

[funky-bloo-poo]

Originally posted by The Mullet of G
meh fair enough I'll not bother to contest it as its a mute point.

Just pointing out to other people who may be used to more superior quality screens from other manufacturers to check out the Nokia before they buy it.

It might help some people, you never know, although a superiority complex is beyond help. :o)

Back to this mute point....

[The Mullet of G]

jeez talk about dragging it out, who cares about the screen if you want to go around using a phone thats as big as a house and has about as much 3rd party support as a Philips CDI then buy a P800 or P900, or if your the more sensible type you'll get the far superior phone that possibly has a slightly lesser quality screen, because its a small sacrifice for so much in return.

[Death Marine]

Its worth taking in account the price difference between the p900 and the 6600 - roughly £200. Now personally, I wouldnt like to pay £200 for a screen which is a shade better quality ;)

[Ben]

I can understand the comment about Nokias screen - it goes for all Nokias really. Still, I'd imagine the Nokia screens offer lower power consumption and better visibility in strong sunlight.

This summer, though we didn't receive a great deal of sun, I did experience what puzzled other T610 owners when strong sunlight hit the screen... it seems to go terribly pale. In normal light though it's very very vibrant... but eats battery.