Missing from Nokia 7610

Nokia announced its first megapixel cellcam this week as part of its CeBIT 2004 announcements. The Nokia 7610 ups the photo resolution to approximately 1Mpix but still falls short on my cellcam wishlist for 2004 (no flash, doesn’t support EDGE or WiFi, size is apparently smaller than the 3650 but not clear from any info I can find at this point).

Everybody’s been blogging about the 7610’s feature set, so rather than repeat what they’ve been saying, I’ll link to them. Read all about it from:

• Russ Beattie (includes link to Nokia’s CeBIT presentation)
• Mobitopia (links to more photos)
• Reiter’s Camera Phone Report
• The Register

Will this be “the” device of 2004 instead of the 6620, or are we still waiting for it to appear? I’m inclined to think the latter. There are simply too many things missing:

• “In flight”, aka “hospital” mode, allowing one to use the non-cell features of the phone (calendar and address book, J2ME applications, camera, etc.) while having wireless capability turned off
• Camera flash (OK, I’ve harped on this before, but other cellcams vendors have had them for months)
• EDGE and WiFi support (GPRS is just too darned slow)
• Serviceable desktop software (assuming PC Suite for 7610 has not been vastly improved from the 3650 version: Why can’t we enter phone numbers and other address and calendar information in PC Suite like we can in the Palm Desktop?)
• From the “I wish someone would do this” category: FRS/GMRS and GPS, which would render any Mpix cellcam so equipped a “must have” gadget for outdoor enthusiasts of many persuasions