One reason we can't wait for 3G to take off in the US
When the Nokia 6630 (aka Charlie) was announced earlier this year we were impressed with its features, but not taken by the design. Last weekend at a meeting of the Bay Area Mobility Forum I had the chance to play with a real 6630 and all I can say is that, well, I'm sorry Engadget fans, but I am in love with this phone. It's got a beautiful screen, a keypad with a nice layout, and it fits well in my hand. And you should see the photos that camera takes; if you have anything less than a 3 megapixel digicam, just throw it away and get this phone—it's that good and it doesn't even have a flash! And to correct one earlier error, the phone's memory card slot is on the outside, not under the battery.
The only problem with this 6630 is that it's designed for those damn folks in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) since it's 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 700 MHz WCDMA. Today AT&T Wireless launched 3G WCDMA in two more cities, Dallas and San Diego. AT&T's current 3G handsets are, ummm, less than appealing, but given how small the potential market is for 3G in the US right now, it's understandable that manufacturers wouldn't go to too much trouble. We have to hope that now that AT&T has launched in six cities (Cingular will probably add a few more once the buyout is complete) that manufactuers will modify their newer and better 3G handsets to be compatible with the cellular bands (850/1800/1900GSM and 1900 MHz WCDM) that we use here in the States.
