News

Nokia slammed for leaving Bluetooth out

Nokia has anticipated a new phone technology - EDGE - with the announcement of its new 6220 phone. But (says phone critic Jon Morris) they've left Bluetooth off - and seem to expect people to use infra-red to connect to their PCs.

<1/> Nokia's EDGE 6220 - no Bluetooth

<1/> Mobile News<1/>columnist<1/>Jon Morris

Morris, writing in the March 24 edition of Mobile News, praises the Nokia 6220 - announced at CeBIT - as innovative. "The addition of Enhanced Data-rates for GSM Evolution, EDGE, is a first in the industry," he says.

Of course, as Morris acknowledges, there isn't actually a single EDGE-enhanced GSM network in Europe, yet; but that's not a problem, he says - "There's no harm in having a handset ready for future technology."

His problem, he says, is that the 6220 isn't a smartphone. So the only reason for having EDGE - high data rates of up to 100 kbits a second - will be to use it together with another device - a PC, for example. You'll link your PC to the Internet through your Nokia 6220. So why no Bluetooth?

"Does Nokia believe that users will want to hold their new phone up to the side of their laptop to get a good infrared line-of-sight connection? Or will Nokia be selling cables complete with loads of adapters to fit all the different PDAs which might be used?"

Morris also points out that Nokia has announced two Bluetooth accessories - a pen, which transfers your handwriting to another Bluetooth-enabled device, and an image viewer to take pictures from a Nokia 3650 and play them back on a TV screen.

"Most new phones from Nokia won't be able to communicate with these," he laments. Nor, crazily, with the new 810 carphone, which could download phone books from other Bluetooth phones.

He predicts that business users will continue to use the dated-looking 6310i "with sensible keypad, excellent battery life, and rock solid software."