Introduction
These days, we are spoilt by imaging in mobile device more than anything , and imaging prowess has become the key selling point for smartphones now more than ever. With the official launch of Samsung made 200MP sensor device just around the corner, the first step towards this was a very modest 0.3 MP sensor.
Introduced in Barcelona in November 2001 and available in June 2002, the Nokia 7650 marks 20 years since its inception. This device is a significant milestone in Nokia as it paved way for the eventual collaboration with Zeiss, the rise of Symbian device and the birth of Pureview.
The Nokia 7650
In 2002, I was sporting the Nokia 8250 ,my first ever mobile device which was a gift from my father. It was considered premium back then with its sleek and compact form factor with built in antenna which was a great breakthrough back then. Right about this time, we had student exchange program with Japan and I was astonished to see the Japanese students sporting mobile device with colored display with camera. I still remember fondly, the wallpaper in their device, David Beckham! That experience , of seeing something new was exciting as phones were traditionally regarded as a tool for communication.
While Nokia 7650 was not the first mobile device in the world with a camera( that title goes to Japanese made mobile device) , it certainly is one that changed the mobile landscape. Nokia 7650 was a chunky slider phone, weighing 154g . It sports a 2.1” LCD display with 4096 colours and for the first time, the world was introduced to Symbian S60 operating system, which will go on to be the most powerful operating system before its great fall.
The hardware while modest, was adequate back then , powered by a 104 MHz ARM 9 processor with a 4MB internal memory. It supports Bluetooth, an infrared port, and GPRS, essentially a 2.5G device! The 0.3MP sensor was limited only to photography with no videography support.
The color display, along with its imaging capability also introduced the company’s first device to support Multimedia Messaging Service. It also hosts many new application such as an E mail client, organizer, and having EPOC and Java application support.
My live review of the same is here
Conclusion
Every great achievement, in whatever field, started off with a small risky step. Nokia 7650 is the most important device in that sense, having the task of breaking the barriers and setting up the basis of rich multimedia experience on a mobile device. It was succeeded by other iconic devices such as the Nokia 6600, which was the first Nokia device that I purchased and eventually the last ,but greatest Symbian device ever made, the Nokia 808 Pureview.
The journey from a 0.3MP sensor to a 41MP mammoth sensor holds deep meaning and appreciation to many Nokia fans out there. Nestled between this two era, lies the great rise of Nokia and its subsequent fall.
Each Nokia device has a story to be told. What is your first Nokia device?
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