It's no secret: Nokia is after Blackberry's thunder in the enterprise with their latest E series, and especially via the E61 model. Hi-Mobile sent us in an E61 unit for the purposes of this review. Dig in for information, a video and lots of screenshots from the latest 'S60 3rd Edition' Symbian v9.1 OS.
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Member since:
2005-11-11
Member since:2005-07-06
You may be right, I am actually in the market for such a device and am considering either a BLackberry 8700g with T-Mobile or this E61. I have made up my mind and will go with Nokia for the following reasons:-
- You cannot install many third party applicaitons on a Blackberry (video player, GPS etc.)
- No memory card extension on the Blackberry (so even if you did have a mp4 player you couldn't fit a movie on it).
- Reviews say that the sound quality is below par on the Blackberries, reviews for the E61 praise the voice clarity.
- the Nokia is smaller
- The e61 has WIFI
- The E61 has SIP (although apprently not top noch).
- Nokia supports Linux (770 tablet) !
- I can sync the Nokia with my mac
All in all, I want my phone to be extendible beyond what comes in the box so no matter how good the Blackberry can be for emails, the Nokia wins overall.
Hope Nokia will do something for the early adopters with regards to updates. It can hardly believe that this ding still doesn't do OTA firmware updates!
Member since:
2005-07-07
Hello,
two weeks ago I bought Nokia E60, quite the same phone but without keyboard. I bought it mainly because I was astonished by the possibility to make VoIP calls over WLAN, and wanted to have good multimedia phone and a PDA replacement. I was so dissapointed by the device that I wanted to return it back, which hasn't been possible yet (more on this below).
First I had really hard time till I could connect the device to internet. THe problem is that my neighbours WLAN access point is only allowed to connect devices, whose MAC adress is explicitely unlocked. Usually the access point (Netgear) automaticly detects the MAC adress of the devices, so it is quite simple to unlock it. It did not work with E60, so I had to search for its MAC adress (some undocumented combination of keys).
Then the surfing experience isn't that great. The browser is good, but the connection isn't. It breaks down very often, so komplex sites do not load completely. I had a feeling like browsing with 28k modem and not with 6Mbit DSL. Then another dissapointment was that although RealPlayer is included, it does not support streaming media, so no internet radio (or only with third party software). And the biggest minus is that VoIP does only work under very certain circumstances, so it's quite useless for me.
For me the battery time was absolutely not satisfying. With very modest usage I had to recharge it every second day. I'm traveling quite a lot and I don't want to take the recharger every time with me. If there were a possibility to switch of WLAN completely, if there is no need for it, it surely would save a lot of power.
I have an Ibook without Bluetooth and I though I knew that I cannot synchronize E60 over USB, I hoped MacOSX would recognize it as flash memory, so I would be able to push some files on the MMC. No way. So I have to buy extra Bluetooth stick for my IBook to send 1 GByte of MP3 to the E60. Anyone knows how many hours I have to wait?
So I wanted to return the phone back, because it did not fullfill my expectations. I used it for one week and carried it in my jeans pocket (without keys, coins or other metal stuff). After one week I had scratches on the metal surface, so I could not return it. There are no official ways to get a new tray, only on Ebay I could order one and hope it will be here on time before the return period is over.
So this was my last Nokia for sure.
Anton
Member since:2005-06-28
> With very modest usage I had to recharge it every second day.
The E61 has a bigger battery than your E60. Also, if you don't live in Europe (I know you do though), you must disable UMTS so you save on battery.
> I hoped MacOSX would recognize it as flash memory, so >I would be able to push some files on the MMC
THIS WORKS. I just tried my 12" Powerbook G4 with my E61. It worked! It mounted the miniSD card and I could drop files in it.
> Connection breaks down very often, so complex sites
>do not load completely. I had a feeling like browsing
>with 28k modem and not with 6Mbit DSL.
I had a few WiFi drops too. It seems that the WiFi stack crashes all too often, and then they have a daemon that relaunches it every minute or so. However, the "slowness" of the rendering is not due to the WiFi, but due to limiting CPU power (and it's the same for most phones too). For example, CNN.com is 450 KBs of data, and it takes 12 MBs to render on the S60 browser. As you can understand, running at around 250 Mhz, it will take a while to calculate its complex code, and that won't be WiFi's fault, even if "visually" seems like it is.
>Usually the access point (Netgear) automaticly detects the MAC adress of the devices
I use a NetGear WiFi router and my E61 worked out of the box just fine.
I agree with you about VoIP and RealPlayer.
I suggest you sell your E60, and either buy the E70 when it's out soon, or get the E60 again or the E61 in 2-3 months when they are shipped by default with a newer firmware.
Edited 2006-06-08 21:52
Member since:2006-06-13
>Eugenia
>I had a few WiFi drops too. It seems that the WiFi stack crashes all too often, and then they have a daemon that relaunches it every minute or so.
Hi,
It looks like turning on Automatic Email Retrieval over my WiFi network is causing applications to lock-up
It generally manages to connect to the imap mailbox at least once in the background. After that email, internet or sometimes the email key, all hang.
This ONLY happens over wifi & I can only clear it by re-booting the phone. Could this be related to the wifi stack crashing continually?
R.
Member since:2006-06-13
I managed to get the voip working using the services from another website. (pbxes.com)
Basically, you can open an account on pbxes (free) that will forward your VOIP call to your favorite VOIP provider.
You need to set up your Nokia e60/e61 with pbxes which works well.
Another issue with the WIFI is the usage of static address. If you set up a static address on the phone, the borwser or the voip soft will not work correctly.
Let's wait for firmware fixes...
Member since:
2005-06-28
Member since:
2005-11-19
Member since:2005-06-28
1. No, the apps don't have to be signed to be installed (it mighy nag with an alert window, but it then goes through). Only 2-3 apps of the ones I tried had a bit of a trouble installing (SSH/Putty was one of them), but after temporarily disabling the certificate stuff, they go through too.
2. Sure! AvantGo used to have a port on an older S60 version, not sure if they are going to port their app to the latest version though. They aren't doing very good lately, so I guess a new app would be welcome by the S60 consumers.
Member since:2005-11-19
Member since:
2006-06-09
The review gives me the impression that the firmware is not upgradable. However, all Nokia phones that I have owned so far were upgradable, it is hard for me to believe that the E61 would be firmware upgradable.
I have also searched the internet on this subject, but I cannot find any official indications anywhere. Eugenia, what is your source from which you stated that the E61 has no upgradable firmware?
Member since:2005-06-28
All Nokia S60 phones can be upgraded, but IF and only IF you have the right tools (2-3 of them) and the right firmware (and it's a complex procedure too). But remember, Nokia does NOT offer these tools to the users. These are simply tools that have being LEAKED by companies/carriers that worked with Nokia in the past. I repeat: Nokia does not offer a firmware upgrade path to consumers. Their philosophy is that if something is wrong, you return the phone to the carrier or shop. And if you can't do that, you buy a new phone.
The fact that 2-3 wacko geeks will take on the job to upgrade manually their phones, doesn't mean that the rest 100,000 costumers have the knowledge or tools to carry out that complex procedure.
Member since:2006-06-09
Aah, I see, that strokes with my understanding. I have been upgrading my phones at the shop were I bought the phone, so I was under the understanding that it was a service available to all Nokia owners.
I have just read that official Nokia stores also would upgrade the firmware if and only if the phone falls under the guarantee.
Anyway, the E61 seems like a nice device voor me, I think I'm getting one 
Member since:2005-07-06
I've done a little research since I posted yesterday and would just like to corroborate Vieyten's post; the E61 like all other Nokia phones will be upgradeable at Nokia service shops.
The S60 v3 Fetaure pack 1 that Nokia will supposedly be releasing soon (not clear if this will apply to the e61 but I can't see why not), will support OTA upgrades.
OTA upgrades are like updates for Mac OSX and Windows XP. I imagine that you would need to downlaod it via WLAN rather than GPRS unless you have a billing death wish.
This is to my lnowledge the first mobile device to offer OS upgrades OTA; Windows Mobile and Palm do not offer this.
Member since:
2006-04-25
I upgraded the firmware of my nokia 6630 months ago.
Before of upgrade bluetooth was very unstable (unusable!!!), now works perfectly.
I upgraded it in a Nokia Center (shop, repair center). Completely free for first two years (when phone is under warranty). Then it costs 30 euro.
The only downside is that shop needed my phone for one day for a 10 minutes upgrade...
Member since:2005-06-28
Member since:2006-06-09
Hi Eugenia,
Thanks for the E61 review. A few things to clarify: First, Nokia will open new stores in the US starting this summer. First one scheduled in Chicago later on this month and one in New York soon to follow. Second, Nokia makes phones by regions. From what I understand, even thou the E61 is FCC approved, it was not designed to be sold in the Americas. The E62 (which doesn't have Wi-fi - but has US support for 3G and possibly a 3.5 mm head phone jack) should be available via Cingular later on during the year.
In any case, we need to put pressure on Nokia to support the entire E and N series line of phones here in the US.
Member since:
2005-07-07
Member since:
2005-07-07
Member since:2006-06-09
smitty_one_each: I happen to be a very happy T-Mobile customer and I'm waiting for their deployment of 3G at the end of the year. I couldn't be happier to see Nokia "sticking it to the man" by launching their own stores - we still don't know if they'll sell and support the E61 in the same way as the E93. However, I do realize how expensive some of these devices can be if purchased unlocked. Having a subsidized alternative for a very similar device - E61 vs. E62 - is a very good thing in my opinion, regardless of the carrier. At the end of the day only volume matters and god knows that Nokia is in desperate need of some help in the US market currently dominated by Palm and their Treos.
Member since:
2006-06-11
Thanks for the review. I wanted to get either a E61 or E60; I'm leaning towards the E60 for its form factor but I must admit the E61 is quite appealing. But after this review, I guess I'll wait until the phones has the new firmware installed. How can you check, though. I live in Canada & as far as I know, the phones are not officially imported, so no support from Nokia for servicing...