Selected Features: (Complete featurelist)
- Megapixel (1152 x 864 pixels) camera with 4x digital zoom.
- Video recorder, 10 minute clips.
- 65,536 color-display, 176 x 208 pixels
- Bluetooth wireless technology and USB connectivity
- GSM 900/1800/1900 or GSM 850/1800/1900(7610b)
- Reduced Size MultiMediaCard support, 64MB RS-MMC included
- 123Mhz Processor, 26MB ROM, 8MB Flash, 8MB Usable-RAM .
Design:
It ships in two colours, but there are already a pethora of xpress-on covers (both genuine and non-genuine) available. Comments on it's design are subjective by nature, but it has definitely been received fairly well, even though some detractors still claim the design is too "wannabe."
This has been a trend with recent Nokia phones, including the 7600 and the 3650, but the 7610 does not go as far; it simply substitutes the standard block layout of the keypad for something a little more exciting.
Some of the design features are useful: the mirrored back does assist in taking self portraits, and is workable as a rather blurry mirror in a pinch. The dual-colour nature and the slanted sides of the phone makes the light coloured cover variations appear slimmer than they actually are; compare the images below.
Finally, Nokia includes two notches to which hand straps may be attached. I personally would not use a hand strap, simply because carrying it around by hand seems rather impractical, but I admit that the strap adds a certain visual appeal. The notches also allow for the addition of third party "cutesy" items, such as charms, which I particularly abhor but are extremely popular. I suppose they allow further "personalization" of the phone.
All in all, this is a very successful design.
Click image to zoom
Construction
Unfortunately, this favourable impression is likely to go once you handle the phone. It has sufficient weight to feel solid; but like most other plastic Nokia's, there is some "give." You can literally feel the plastic move as you press down on it. To make matters worse, it seems as though the catch on the reverse of the phone does not work perfectly; it is necessary to ensure that your cover is fitted securely by pressing down on all sides even after the catch is satisfied with itself.
A further point would be the fact that Nokia failed to include a plastic lens cover on the xpress-on covers, but rather had it fitted directly onto the phone. The camera thus protrudes through a hole in the back cover.
There are two possible issues. First; the lens cover itself might break. This is quite unlikely because of it's position on the phone. Second, the cover is likely to become scratched, compromising picture quality. While it is possible to overstate the impact of this, and it is likely that small scratches will have a negligible impact upon picture quality, there is simply no good reason to have done this. Indeed, in older phones such as the Nokia 7250 (Asia/Europe only) the plastic lens cover is integral to the xpress-on cover, so that should such scratches become intolerable you would be easily able to change it's cover.
One other thing to note is that the phone is very unstable when stood up on it's pop-port buttom. This is not truly an issue, because you can simply lie it on it's back, but some of Nokia's older phones (8210/8250/8850) were capable of standing up, and rotating themselves when a call came in. (If vibration was on.)
In conclusion, the build quality might be better, but it is still of sufficient quality that it should not fall apart under normal use. Build quality is definitely one area where Nokia has not improved; their plastic models feel as flimsy as ever. Personally, I want a titanium-shelled-89**-series-14mm-thick-Symbian-phone.
