- Mar 17, 2007
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I am creating this thread because I have been noticing questions here and there on AT about the Nokia E71 from people in different threads. Some who own it and some who are thinking about it. So here it is, a thread just for the E71.
Share what you know and ask about what you don't know
Personally I have been using Nokia E-series since I first got my beloved E61 2 years ago and BTW RIP my beloved E61 it was mysteriously abducted by USPS after an auction on Ebay ended for it Ya it was not easy for me to give it up and sell it, such a good phone with a beautiful display, but no US 3G meant it had to go hehe.
To answer some of those questions people are asking, tons of E-series forums and blogs (mixed between E61, E61i and E71) exist. Many E71 forums blogs exist too. I don't really stick to one place I just browse through Google for new cool stuff on all blogs, but just for your reading pleasure here is a list of some of the main ones I checkout daily:
http://nokiae71.wordpress.com
http://www.e71blog.com/
http://www.e71fanatics.com/
Many of them have links to other E-series relevant sites you might want to checkout.
Hopefully the advice I post below is helpful to you and anyone searching around AnandTech or the web for E71 info and recommendations
E71 Hardware and Accessories:
HARD rubber protective case
I highly suggest you buy it for your E71 from Ebay. I just CAN't believe it's only ~ $5.99 shipped for such an excellent high quality sleek yet protective case for your phone and screen, you wont regret it. It has a very nice feel to it in my hand, I can actually compare the feel to that of my ThinkPad's LCD cover, it has that non slip rubbery feel yet so smooth and it does not smudge easy at all and is very easy to clean. This is the first case I ever buy for a phone that is so sleek and thin it makes the phone actually look even nicer than without it! Actually it is so good I might just pick another one up just in case pun intended hehe.
Nokia BP-4l (An Extra Battery)
If your E71 is your life line and you are always on the go like me and using WiFi , 3G & 3.5G and what have you very often and have no time to stop and charge, you might want to invest in another 1500 mAh battery like I did. I found what seems to be only one original Nokia BP-4L for like $8 shipped from Hong Kong on Ebay, the pic and description is that of an original battery so I am hoping it's an original as the guy doesn't really sell phone batteries he sells other things, so it must be his personal one and not inventory, others sell Chinese made 1500 mAh batteries by the dozen actually but not him so I am hoping I am getting an original one. After my purchase more oroginal batteries are surfacing from Hong Kong so maybe it's a factory liquidating some stuff
Also watchout MANY online sellers will sell you batteries which have capacities lower than 1500 mAh and not tell you, make sure to ask and double check! I do not suggest buying an original Nokia battery unless yours goes bad and is not covered by any warranty. An original Nokia battery from the US will set you back at least 35 smackers if you are very lucky. However I have been spotting some original batteries on Ebay for as low as $6-8 from Hong Kong but those are scarce and go away quick (and not to mention I haven't verified the authenticity of the batteries ). So since you will be getting a second 1500 mAh battery to be used as a backup, there is no need to spend more than $6 on it if you can help it.
E71 USB + DC charging cradle + Extra Battery Charger
To go with your extra battery and new phone, a cradle is in order, so I ordered a USB + DC charger cradle for my E71, [ it can charge the phone + an extra battery at the same time which is great. I got mine for like $12 which is not bad at all if the thing does what it is supposed to do!
Light and Portable USB Charger Cable
It makes my life so much easier. All this 3G & 3.5G activity on my phone makes it suck the hell out of the battery life, so whenever I am near a computer / Laptop / In my car (it already has a USB power port) I know I don't have to worry about battery lifetime. Granted mine is still on the it's way from Hong Kong as I had a different cable (from My E61 days) but I lost that cable in a conference already The neat thing is that if you look good enough on Ebay you can get that cable for less than $2.50 shipped! Mine was $1.99 !
8gb Class 6 MicroSD
Get all the storage space you can get you WILL use it. I got a $22.99 Class 6 8GB microSD card from Newegg and it works like a dream, sure you can argue if the Class 6 makes much of a difference on the E71, but to get it as cheap as class 4 sealed the deal for me back when I ordered it hehe and I will be looking forward for a 16GB microSD should I have reason to get more storage, supposedly 32GB is the theoretical limit for these phones with SDHC support but I wouldn't hold my breath...
Creative SE2300
Ah yes, my favourite headphones, ironically, I remember buying these for mainly my Nokia E61 when I first purchased it, only to find out that actually the Nokia E61 DID NOT support A2DP!!! And I had to use the supplied 3.5mm through a pop port adapter to be able to use it with my phone. I was heart broken beyond belief Rumours kept coming that Nokia would be releasing a firmware update with A2DP support in it for the E61 but that never happened :| NOKIA now did it?? But now with the E71 I finally have A2DP and life could not have been any easier two clicks and I am set listen and control playback (through AVRCP) from my phone and with just the headphones and no dongle yay!
E71 Software
Nokia Internet Radio (Internet Radio Streaming Application)
One of the nicest apps by Nokia I have found so far (for me at least) is the Internet Radio application. You can get this by going to your download utility and looking for it there. Nokia gives this out for free. Especially if you have 3G (it works OK on EDGE though) you can listen to on-line streaming Music stations indefinitely! I was considering getting Satellite radio before but to hell with paying that much money a month I just plug in my E71 to my AUX input in my car and VOILA my favourite Trance stations (Mainly www.ETN.fm) are at my finger tips yay!
MobiTubia
If you like to watch youtube apps on your E71, this applications R0xors pretty much, such a good piece of well thought of software that lets you not only sleekly view Youtube videos on a fashion suitable fro mobile, but also allows you to save current videos onto either your phone or memory card! If you like their application throw a donation their way, I threw a few bucks their way, as a software engineer myself I think they did a fantastic job with it and bugs are minimal.
DivX Player For S60 3rd Symbian
Such an awesome piece of software, I can watch FULL "DivX'ed" DVDs in high Quality with a couple of button clicks on the E71! IT'S AMAZING to say the least. Especially if you reformat the videos to 320x240 the size will shrink significantly and if you have an 8GB card SO MUCH can fit on it's not even funny any more! Goodbye watching videos on my laptop hello E71!
Opera Mini for Symbian
A much better experience for the E71 than the built in browser which has long ways to go. One of the best features of Opera Mini is the ability to browse a full page with a pointer in the Mini-map, click to zoom in (and do some button and check boxes, text boxes business ) then right click to go back to the pre-zoom level, everyone that has an E71 should try it.
However Opera Mini is not perfect either, it very slow to start, lacks some important features, i.e user agent, opening new windows, it has to connect to the internet even before you need to browse... etc
MagicKey
A very slick application here, it allows you to remap keys to either applications or other keys, I was seriously glad to being able to regain my CTRL key and moving the Char key one to the left! I have also changed my messages key to launch GMAIL once held. Better yet I have even remapped the voice control button to TAB when clicked and not held. I can know do TAB completion in my SSH terminal!!
This application in all honesty should have been made by Nokia itself to give customers the ultimate control!
Beware of Nokia Firmware updates. If you have no need for the update, do NOT update because with the update, you can no longer use MagicKe Lluckily enough I know better than that
MIDP SSH Terminal
If you are versed in the arcane arts of Linux and Unix systems then surely you are always in dire need for having a proper system terminal at your fingertips anywhere anytime. Hence comes the beauty of using an SSH terminal app on the E71. Combine this beautiful application with MagicKey (read above) and you have one hell of a powerful combination at your fingertips!
Emulators:
My E71 runs all Game Boy Advance games like a dream. I use VBag emulator and it runs GameBoy Advance roms like a champ. Of course there is no doubt I own ALL actual original game cartridges as I extract all of them by hand from my cartridges
Last time I checked I have 50 GameBoy Advance games on my E71
Where can you get ROMS DO NOT ASK ME hehe, legally I am obliged to tell you, buy the games and extract the ROMS yourself, now if there is another way to get ROMS I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF WHERE YOU CAN GET THEM HONEST
VBag costs $29.99!! I think it's a ripoff, it's should be less than $9 then it would be reasonable but HEY to each his own. Now do I know of a way to not have to pay $29.99 for a little emulator such as VBag? I am not going to say, but if I was to SUPPOSE just SUPPOSE there is a way, then surely a keygen must exist right? But that is all hypothetical never mind my illusions TBH I think those folks ought to charge less than $9 for it and have those who are that much in love with it donate more than the minimum due to their appreciation, otherwise it's a big rip-off.
MasterGear
Also I own a copy of MasterGear, an emulator that allows playing GameGear and Sega Master System games on Symbian phones, last time I checked I have a couple dozen of GameGear games for it. This software works perfect on the E61 (S60 3rd edition), but there is an issue on the E71 (S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1), I have been delaying talking to the developer of this software for a while about it, I need to send him an email about it and give him some debug information, maybe he can fix his code with a minor modification and release a new update.
PicoDrive for Symbian
I play all those old Sega Genesis games that I have forgotten over the years through it, I have about a dozen Genesis games that play super nice on the E71 (sound is a bit on the bad side though)
MobiPad:
If there is anything better than being able to play GameBoy advance, GameGear and Genesis games on my E71, it is being able to use a run of the mill Wiimote to play them ALL. I am not a fan of the WiiMote TBH nor the Wii for that matter, but bluetooth game pads are going for the same price as a Wiimote, then why the heck not get a WiiMote (I don't own a Wii) and play all those games with a gamepad rather than a cramped key phone? This is would be an even much better thing if a person already owns a Wii, because in that case it would have costed you $0 to play the games on the phone with a Wiimote. Again I threw a few bucks those guys way, as it was really nice to use a WiiMote with the E71 through mobipad. But TBH A WiiMote is $40 retail, if I don't find another use for it, I will have to return it, as I think $40 is too much for that, maybe if I use it with Linux as a controller for some of the games I have on it then it's worth it (i.e FlightGear) I will have to see, I am just testing it out so far not sure I will be keeping it.
Themes:
Yes I will say it, the default NOKIA E71 theme sucks MONKEY BALLS. It's too formal even for a formal guy like myself it's way too reserved and depressing espcially those grey steel icons ewww. A little bit more optimistic theme is the default theme with Flahorn icons : Link
GMAIL 2.0
It kicks ass but it could have been even better but at least it is much better than the previous one, vibration alerts and multiple accounts have to do for now heh.
CallFilter
An application that allows users to block private number calls by having the phone auto hangup Private and Unkown calls (or even calls from a number(s) you specify!) makes my life SOO easy GOODBYE CRAZY GIRL NEXT DOORS!
If anyone needs further advice or recommendation on anything Nokia and Symbian related hit me up I'll try to help
E71 Issues
Dust Under Screen Cover:
I have noticed that there are some dust particles under my screen cover last week! I browsed around and sure thing I am not the only one. Fortunately this is not a big problem as it can be addressed by cleaning the screen and screen cover with some air spray every month or so. It seems Nokia didn't beef up the foam insulation as much as they should have. Here is a DIY for Dust Problem
Share what you know and ask about what you don't know
Personally I have been using Nokia E-series since I first got my beloved E61 2 years ago and BTW RIP my beloved E61
it was mysteriously abducted by USPS after an auction on Ebay ended for it Ya it was not easy for me to give it up and sell it, such a good phone with a beautiful display, but no US 3G meant it had to go hehe.To answer some of those questions people are asking, tons of E-series forums and blogs (mixed between E61, E61i and E71) exist. Many E71 forums blogs exist too. I don't really stick to one place I just browse through Google for new cool stuff on all blogs, but just for your reading pleasure here is a list of some of the main ones I checkout daily:
http://nokiae71.wordpress.com
http://www.e71blog.com/
http://www.e71fanatics.com/
Many of them have links to other E-series relevant sites you might want to checkout.
Hopefully the advice I post below is helpful to you and anyone searching around AnandTech or the web for E71 info and recommendations
E71 Hardware and Accessories:
HARD rubber protective case
I highly suggest you buy it for your E71 from Ebay. I just CAN't believe it's only ~ $5.99 shipped for such an excellent high quality sleek yet protective case for your phone and screen, you wont regret it. It has a very nice feel to it in my hand, I can actually compare the feel to that of my ThinkPad's LCD cover, it has that non slip rubbery feel yet so smooth and it does not smudge easy at all and is very easy to clean. This is the first case I ever buy for a phone that is so sleek and thin it makes the phone actually look even nicer than without it! Actually it is so good I might just pick another one up just in case pun intended hehe.
Nokia BP-4l (An Extra Battery)
If your E71 is your life line and you are always on the go like me and using WiFi , 3G & 3.5G and what have you very often and have no time to stop and charge, you might want to invest in another 1500 mAh battery like I did. I found what seems to be only one original Nokia BP-4L for like $8 shipped from Hong Kong on Ebay, the pic and description is that of an original battery so I am hoping it's an original as the guy doesn't really sell phone batteries he sells other things, so it must be his personal one and not inventory, others sell Chinese made 1500 mAh batteries by the dozen actually but not him so I am hoping I am getting an original one. After my purchase more oroginal batteries are surfacing from Hong Kong so maybe it's a factory liquidating some stuff
Also watchout MANY online sellers will sell you batteries which have capacities lower than 1500 mAh and not tell you, make sure to ask and double check! I do not suggest buying an original Nokia battery unless yours goes bad and is not covered by any warranty. An original Nokia battery from the US will set you back at least 35 smackers if you are very lucky. However I have been spotting some original batteries on Ebay for as low as $6-8 from Hong Kong but those are scarce and go away quick (and not to mention I haven't verified the authenticity of the batteries ). So since you will be getting a second 1500 mAh battery to be used as a backup, there is no need to spend more than $6 on it if you can help it.
E71 USB + DC charging cradle + Extra Battery Charger
To go with your extra battery and new phone, a cradle is in order, so I ordered a USB + DC charger cradle for my E71, [ it can charge the phone + an extra battery at the same time which is great. I got mine for like $12 which is not bad at all if the thing does what it is supposed to do!
Light and Portable USB Charger Cable
It makes my life so much easier. All this 3G & 3.5G activity on my phone makes it suck the hell out of the battery life, so whenever I am near a computer / Laptop / In my car (it already has a USB power port) I know I don't have to worry about battery lifetime. Granted mine is still on the it's way from Hong Kong as I had a different cable (from My E61 days) but I lost that cable in a conference already
The neat thing is that if you look good enough on Ebay you can get that cable for less than $2.50 shipped! Mine was $1.99 !8gb Class 6 MicroSD
Get all the storage space you can get you WILL use it. I got a $22.99 Class 6 8GB microSD card from Newegg and it works like a dream, sure you can argue if the Class 6 makes much of a difference on the E71, but to get it as cheap as class 4 sealed the deal for me back when I ordered it hehe and I will be looking forward for a 16GB microSD should I have reason to get more storage, supposedly 32GB is the theoretical limit for these phones with SDHC support but I wouldn't hold my breath...
Creative SE2300
Ah yes, my favourite headphones, ironically, I remember buying these for mainly my Nokia E61 when I first purchased it, only to find out that actually the Nokia E61 DID NOT support A2DP!!! And I had to use the supplied 3.5mm through a pop port adapter to be able to use it with my phone. I was heart broken beyond belief
Rumours kept coming that Nokia would be releasing a firmware update with A2DP support in it for the E61 but that never happened :| NOKIA now did it?? But now with the E71 I finally have A2DP and life could not have been any easier two clicks and I am set listen and control playback (through AVRCP) from my phone and with just the headphones and no dongle yay!E71 Software
Nokia Internet Radio (Internet Radio Streaming Application)
One of the nicest apps by Nokia I have found so far (for me at least) is the Internet Radio application. You can get this by going to your download utility and looking for it there. Nokia gives this out for free. Especially if you have 3G (it works OK on EDGE though) you can listen to on-line streaming Music stations indefinitely! I was considering getting Satellite radio before but to hell with paying that much money a month I just plug in my E71 to my AUX input in my car and VOILA my favourite Trance stations (Mainly www.ETN.fm) are at my finger tips yay!
MobiTubia
If you like to watch youtube apps on your E71, this applications R0xors pretty much, such a good piece of well thought of software that lets you not only sleekly view Youtube videos on a fashion suitable fro mobile, but also allows you to save current videos onto either your phone or memory card! If you like their application throw a donation their way, I threw a few bucks their way, as a software engineer myself I think they did a fantastic job with it and bugs are minimal.
DivX Player For S60 3rd Symbian
Such an awesome piece of software, I can watch FULL "DivX'ed" DVDs in high Quality with a couple of button clicks on the E71! IT'S AMAZING to say the least. Especially if you reformat the videos to 320x240 the size will shrink significantly and if you have an 8GB card SO MUCH can fit on it's not even funny any more! Goodbye watching videos on my laptop hello E71!
Opera Mini for Symbian
A much better experience for the E71 than the built in browser which has long ways to go. One of the best features of Opera Mini is the ability to browse a full page with a pointer in the Mini-map, click to zoom in (and do some button and check boxes, text boxes business ) then right click to go back to the pre-zoom level, everyone that has an E71 should try it.
However Opera Mini is not perfect either, it very slow to start, lacks some important features, i.e user agent, opening new windows, it has to connect to the internet even before you need to browse... etc
MagicKey
A very slick application here, it allows you to remap keys to either applications or other keys, I was seriously glad to being able to regain my CTRL key and moving the Char key one to the left! I have also changed my messages key to launch GMAIL once held. Better yet I have even remapped the voice control button to TAB when clicked and not held. I can know do TAB completion in my SSH terminal!!
This application in all honesty should have been made by Nokia itself to give customers the ultimate control!
Beware of Nokia Firmware updates. If you have no need for the update, do NOT update because with the update, you can no longer use MagicKe
Lluckily enough I know better than that MIDP SSH Terminal
If you are versed in the arcane arts of Linux and Unix systems then surely you are always in dire need for having a proper system terminal at your fingertips anywhere anytime. Hence comes the beauty of using an SSH terminal app on the E71. Combine this beautiful application with MagicKey (read above) and you have one hell of a powerful combination at your fingertips!
Emulators:
My E71 runs all Game Boy Advance games like a dream. I use VBag emulator and it runs GameBoy Advance roms like a champ. Of course there is no doubt I own ALL actual original game cartridges as I extract all of them by hand from my cartridges
Last time I checked I have 50 GameBoy Advance games on my E71
Where can you get ROMS DO NOT ASK ME hehe, legally I am obliged to tell you, buy the games and extract the ROMS yourself, now if there is another way to get ROMS I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF WHERE YOU CAN GET THEM HONEST
VBag costs $29.99!! I think it's a ripoff, it's should be less than $9 then it would be reasonable but HEY to each his own. Now do I know of a way to not have to pay $29.99 for a little emulator such as VBag? I am not going to say, but if I was to SUPPOSE just SUPPOSE there is a way, then surely a keygen must exist right? But that is all hypothetical never mind my illusions
TBH I think those folks ought to charge less than $9 for it and have those who are that much in love with it donate more than the minimum due to their appreciation, otherwise it's a big rip-off.MasterGear
Also I own a copy of MasterGear, an emulator that allows playing GameGear and Sega Master System games on Symbian phones, last time I checked I have a couple dozen of GameGear games for it. This software works perfect on the E61 (S60 3rd edition), but there is an issue on the E71 (S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1), I have been delaying talking to the developer of this software for a while about it, I need to send him an email about it and give him some debug information, maybe he can fix his code with a minor modification and release a new update.
PicoDrive for Symbian
I play all those old Sega Genesis games that I have forgotten over the years through it, I have about a dozen Genesis games that play super nice on the E71 (sound is a bit on the bad side though)
MobiPad:
If there is anything better than being able to play GameBoy advance, GameGear and Genesis games on my E71, it is being able to use a run of the mill Wiimote to play them ALL. I am not a fan of the WiiMote TBH nor the Wii for that matter, but bluetooth game pads are going for the same price as a Wiimote, then why the heck not get a WiiMote (I don't own a Wii) and play all those games with a gamepad rather than a cramped key phone? This is would be an even much better thing if a person already owns a Wii, because in that case it would have costed you $0 to play the games on the phone with a Wiimote. Again I threw a few bucks those guys way, as it was really nice to use a WiiMote with the E71 through mobipad. But TBH A WiiMote is $40 retail, if I don't find another use for it, I will have to return it, as I think $40 is too much for that, maybe if I use it with Linux as a controller for some of the games I have on it then it's worth it (i.e FlightGear) I will have to see, I am just testing it out so far not sure I will be keeping it.
Themes:
Yes I will say it, the default NOKIA E71 theme sucks MONKEY BALLS. It's too formal even for a formal guy like myself
it's way too reserved and depressing espcially those grey steel icons ewww. A little bit more optimistic theme is the default theme with Flahorn icons : LinkGMAIL 2.0
It kicks ass but it could have been even better but at least it is much better than the previous one, vibration alerts and multiple accounts have to do for now heh.
CallFilter
An application that allows users to block private number calls by having the phone auto hangup Private and Unkown calls (or even calls from a number(s) you specify!) makes my life SOO easy GOODBYE CRAZY GIRL NEXT DOORS!
If anyone needs further advice or recommendation on anything Nokia and Symbian related hit me up I'll try to help
E71 Issues
Dust Under Screen Cover:
I have noticed that there are some dust particles under my screen cover last week! I browsed around and sure thing I am not the only one. Fortunately this is not a big problem as it can be addressed by cleaning the screen and screen cover with some air spray every month or so. It seems Nokia didn't beef up the foam insulation as much as they should have. Here is a DIY for Dust Problem
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