The Nokia 7650 is epic because this model represents the genesis of Nokia’s mobile photography. I wrote a long post celebrating the tenth anniversary of mobile photography, but I never owned a Nokia 7650 myself – up until today that is: I recently bought one, 11 years later, as good as new.
Why? Because I never owned it before to begin with. And because I loved the idea of capturing the very first Nokia camera phone with the very best: that came from it: the Nokia 808 PureView.
The resolution from the incredible sensor of Nokia’s 808 PureView is lightyears away from the 640 x 480 pixels you could admire in the Nokia 7650. The maximum result is in fact about 124 (!) times bigger (just imagine your salary will be one day :-).
The Nokia 7650 was the first European phone you could make shots with ánd share them! So it really is the genesis of the whole concept of sharing pictures. Nokia of course wrote so on the box. This box, to be more precise:
With this on one side:
And this on the other side:
A crop from this shot to show you how Nokia communicated the concept of sharing in detail – very simple, in several languages.
This is what you see opening the box – it must have been spectacular to see back then!
In 2002, you got at least a software-CD with your smartphone…
But there’s more under there: a lot of old-fashioned amount of printed material a well… Of course, all extra documentation is in Dutch, but I guess you´ll get the general idea.
All that extra stuff I’ve just shown could be found under this box – containing The Device Itself. And yes, the headset I think) is missing in this picture. I’m sure I have one somewhere though.
First close up: the screen protector is still attached to the screen.
Next shot gives some important “historical information”: the price tag from about 11 years ago is still there. From that you learn smartphones have become a lot better, but a lot cheaper at the same time.
You had to pay more for the Nokia 7650 (€630) than the Nokia Lumia 920 will cost you now in this country (€599, including a wireless charger even), not counting more than ten years of inflation. I think that’s quite amazing in fact.
There it is. The first mobile camera lens. It doesn’t say Carl Zeiss yet. Joining forces with Carl Zeiss (with the Nokia N90) was of course a brilliant move.
From the side it seems “quite thick”. That impression is correct. It feels like a light hand grenade. You will see some interesting comparisons further on…
Will it work after 11 years? Yes, Nokia is still Connecting People! :-)
The classic Symbian menu, in Dutch. Note there is some color in the screen already – not much, but very avant-garde at the time!
Below you’ll see four of the pre-installed MultiMedia Messages. I find it hard to believe these were used a lot in fact. If anyone has any numbers about the amount of MMS sent in the first years I’m curious to know.
MMS was the magic word in those days, the possibility to share your own shots was simply revolutionary – but the operators made it a very expensive hobby for the owner of the Nokia 7650 at about €1 per message… I’m convinced that’s the only reason why MMS would never be as succesful as SMS…
Here’s he 7650 keyboard up close, and the menu button on the left side of the upper part. Keys are quite small and thin by the way… Not extremely practicle. But design was cool, that’s for sure.
So here it is in my hand – be it 11 years later: the first Nokia smartphone with a built-in camera. The start of mobile photography. The thing that appeared to make me tick…
Back in those days, I couldn’t afford the Nokia 7650, since I spent a crazy fortune on the Nokia 9210, in a package including a seperate camera (the Concord Eye-Q) you could connect through IrDA.
Back to the future
In the next four shots I’ll show you the Nokia 7650 compared to the Nokia 808 PureView and Nokia Lumia 920. Interesting to see how complaints about their size seem a bit funny, compared to that of their great great-grandfather :-)
First: the Nokia 808 PureView compared to the Nokia 7650.
And if you think that already seems a lot thinner, see this shot with the Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia’s latest high-end camphone.
I had a lot of fun making shots unpacking the Nokia 7650. Hope you enjoyed them too! :-)
Did you ever use the Nokia 7650? Do you still have those very first mobile pictures? If you have something to share, please let me know. They represent the embryonic stage of mobile photography and I’d be interested to share them here if you’d like me to. Thanks!
PS Here’s my previous post about my Nokia Collection (although it’s not as complete anymore :-/). If you like historical stuff like this, maybe you’ll like this article as well. It’s in Dutch, but Google Tanslate might help you out.
Update: If you want to have a look at these shots real close, they’re on Flickr. And there is a new Nokia Time Warp already! The Nokia 9000 Communicator.
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[...] cameraphone, which is correct in itself – but it’s quite childish not to mention the Nokia 7650 at all… Than it says: “Pixel numbers for camera phones are increasing quickly. Picture [...]
The UI reminded me of my Nokia 6620. I remember being the coolest guy on my neighborhood because of the camera and the OS, when everybody had only 1100′s o 1110′s, hahaha. Good Times those
[...] http://pureviewclub.com/2013/9666 [...]
you should have made an unboxing video, 1080p and all.
Thought about it. Didn’t have the opportunity. Maybe I’ll add it.
This is a journey back in time for me. I rememeber my 7650 unboxing and how i jumped in glee to have the phone in my hands at that time. And it had features and functions that were amazing at that time. Heads turned and others hid mobile devices when i was using mine. And yes, i invited jealous comments as to why would we require a camera in a phone, why should we trouble ourselves with always on connectivity with mobile data and that being always reacheable on a mobile device is invasion of privacy at all times. I hope the people who passed these remarks have not fainted in 2013, looking at the penetration of mobile devices around them.
And I have always used a Nokia mobile phone since. Thank You for taking me back in time.
Great memories, thank you for sharing them here.
Sooo cool!! I had the 7650… It was a really awesome device! My first Symbian device and it’s 10 years ago – woow!! Now i have the 808 and the N9 next to me!! :)
P.S. I have somewhere original pictures taken with the 7650 but I cannot find them now… If you like I can primarly post some pictures taken with the N80 – just for comparison!?
this one i unfortunatly never owned.but i’ve been a nokia and symbian user for the last 13 years.my 1st nokia was a trusty 5110 in 1999 then followed the 3310,6110,3510i(my first “colour” screen phone)3650(my first symbian device and it had a built in video recorder)6260,n70,n73,n82,5800.n96,n8 and my current device is the 808 pureview
I was one of the people making the OS and applications for the 7650 and have owned a few :) I think I still have one somewhere.
What an advanced device it was at that time! We were so proud of it.
Pleased to have you in the Club! Hope you like what I’m doing here :-)
My first smartphone. Never returned to dumb phones afterwards.
i drool at your collection of mobile phones. DROOL.
Looks great – too bad it won’t work in the USA. I just rebuilt an old 6010 to brand new condition – outer door, face, keyboard, power button, new battery, and new LCD screen – and have a pay as you go SIM. So much fun!! My next purchase to join my ‘working’ Nokia museum will be the 6680 – I fell in love with this watching its cameo appearance on Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon.
You know if you freeze and go frame by frame, the movie character throws the phone into the ocean after receiving bad news. However, the phone he threw away was completely different – some kind of cheap, side-open unit. I guess either the actor or director didn’t have the heart to destroy the Nokia :)
At that time I was on a Sagem and later I had a Siemens ME 45, following the Unix principle of “one tool for one task” I was convinced that a mobile phone should NOT have a camera. How things have changed. After the ME 45 came a Nokia 3230, my first Nokia, first smartphone, which had a camera, but I did not really use it. Then came the 5800 (which still had a CD with it!!) which had a cool touch screen and great music cacpabilities, but I only used it for photography in emergency situations. All of those years I never endulged in photography a lot much because I scarcely ever had a camera with me when I needed it. But I became fond of Symbian and angry over its dreading EOL, and when the 808 was announced I thought wow! Another four years of lifespan for my beloved Symbian, plus a respectable camera built into the phone that I would always carry along without any added weight. So I did away with the Unix principle and went for the Swiss army knife instead :-). For me, the 808 was my entry into the world of semi-professional photography, it is the first mobile phone that can actually compete with a prosumer camera.
As you know I have one to and love to play with it from time to time. I don’t have the box anymore… I remember I bought it with a Ben contract when I was a student and the first real picture was of a boad on shore across the water of a company where I was an interm.
This was an amazing phone. Not only the camera, but the light sensor and priximity sensor. The screen is turned of when holding it to your face to save battery. The red button for voicedailing…. Loved it and I remember people laughing at me that I wanted to have a camera in a mobile phone ‘nobody is going to need a camera in a mobile’. Look at the phones today… The only downside was the 3,6 Mb of memory. Although the photos where crap, I still managed to fill the memory quite fast. I still have all the photos I took with the device…
Have fun with it, it’s a great device…
I never had a 7650 …. my first Symbian phone was better than any of the Nokias of the time, it was the …. (drum roll) Siemens SX1. Higher resolution screen, truly excellent (albeit bizarre) design. Getting the old N-Gage games running on it was quite entertaining.
Shame that everyone is just making boring monoblocks these days, there is virtually zero creativity or innovation done in design for how many years now?
Please can we see a shot of the 808 taken with the 7650?
Lol, oh yes, I’d totally forgot they used to ship them with a cd!