Nurri just got a Nokia 3650 (the cell phone I’m thinking of buying):
But most notably for me as a UI kinda guy is that idiosyncratic, circular keypad layout. In one way, I suppose, it represents good practice: an accomodation to the way people actually use mobile-device keypads, allowing them to swing that good ol’ opposable thumb around something close to its full range of motion. The tradeoff involved is that it violates forty-odd years of interface convention, and renders useless or even counterproductive the muscle memory users have built up around the usual format.
All the UI designers we’ve shown the phone to wrinkle their noses, but - importantly - so far Nurri, the actual user, likes it. I’ll post updates as she acquires a richer use history and we can make some better-informed comments on the interface.