I just got a brand new Nokia E62 smartphone from Cingular. It’s been a while since I had a full-featured smartphone – my last one was a Kyocera 6035 back in 2001.
I’ll be writing about my exploration of this new generation device as I go, but first I already have a major complaint for Cingular –
WHERE’S THE DANG WI-FI?
I can swear that when I looked at Nokia’s site for information on the E62 originally a couple of weeks ago it said that the E62 was equipped with WiFi (or WLAN, as Nokia calls it), as is the E61 that is sold in other (non-US) markets. But the phone doesn’t, in fact, have WiFi, and it’s been widely reported that the main difference between the E61 and the E62 is the neutering of the connectivity options.
I can only assume that Cingular and perhaps other carriers asked for removal of the ability to use high-speed connectivity that’s not carrier-provided. This only points out once again how totally broken the US model of leaving control of the wireless market in the hands of the carriers is. The internet service providers don’t dictate what features my computers have – thank goodness! And I don’t buy my cars from the people who build the roads. So why should AT&T and the behemoths that the Baby Bells have become decide what phones I can use on their networks, and drive the (lack of) technological development in those devices?
In this respect the US lags far behind other parts of the world (like Europe, Japan and India) in the technology we use for wireless communication.
Other initial reactions to the E62 – the screen is bright and resolution is good, and the navigation controls seem easy to use. One problem I’ve noticed is that when I hold it up to my ear to talk on the phone, the screen rubs on the side of my face and gets smudged – it came with a wired headset, but I think I’ll get a bluetooth headset for it.
The speakerphone is loud and has good fidelity, which is great.
The E62 is a little big and heavy (though nowhere near the brick that the Kyocera was), so I’m not sure how to carry it if I’m not wearing a jacket with big pockets.
Technorati Tags: Nokia, e62, smartphones, wifi
Oren Sreebny 
It was widely discusses that Nokia E62 lacks the support of wifi. Sorry to see, you missed that.
Hopefully other things with the device make up for it.
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I calculated that Sprint’s disabling of full Bluetooth support (DUN and OBEX) meant that they could charge me another $300 a year in additional services (to transfer my pictures, ring-tones, contacts et al) as well as cause me to chew up minutes using the Sprint network rather than Bluetooth.
So… I still have an old phone and I wait for some carrier to actually get the idea that technology is good.
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