Nokia 6651

The point of the phone is just that it's Nokia's first WCDMA phone for the U.S. It's a clone of the 6650, which was Nokia's first 3G phone for Europe. This is just about launching and proving the underlying WCDMA technology. WCDMA a dramatically different, complex technology. This is equivalent to when the very first digital phones hit the market.

The whole first generation (would that be 1G? ) of WCDMA phones will be like this. They will be big, the features will be a mixed bag, and the battery life will suck. It was the same when then they first launched WCDMA in Japan, and it's the same right now in Europe.

In Japan, they've had WCDMA phones for a couple years, but only now are they starting to get 3G models in Japan that have the same size and features as their 2G models.

It will be the same here. The first 3G models will disappoint a lot of people. The second batch will be a bit better, but still nothing spectacular. If Japan and Europe are any indicator, we'll have to wait until at least the third round of WCDMA phones before the size, features, and battery life rival 2G models.

It's just as well, because the WCDMA networks will take that long to provide good coverage anyway. AT&T is launching WCDMA in just four cities initially. No one is expecting WCDMA to be a mainstream, mass-market thing right away.