Blackberry 8800 vs. Nokia E61... Any thoughts? Might trade...

[bmwmpower]

Someone on craig's list wants to trade their Nokia E61 for my unlocked 8800. Love my 8800... but the E61 seems to have better multimedia and WIFI!!! Plus I like chaning up phones. Would you guys do it? I'm not a heavy e-mail user...

[test54]

i think its more functions vs. stability. i looked at doing the same type of trade for my 8800

[takeshi]

...not unless I was convinced that the E61 was reliable.

[bmwmpower]

So the E61 is unreliable? In which way? I don't like how it doesn't have GPS. But I honestly think I'd use WIFI more. Hmmm..

[bmwmpower]

Dunno guys I think i might do it. An all metal case sounds appealing... i hate plastic.. it says 3g capable.. can i use this w/ tmobile?

[jonbost]

T-mobile does not have 3G network up and running right now. So with the network you will not be able to use the 3G speeds and will just be limited to EDGE. Also you might check some of the information of the phone because all that I have found says that the 3G in this phone is only in Europe spectrums. And I am assuming there is a seperate case when you are saying an all metal case.

[Dallastt]

It's kinda fat is it not?

[roofus]

I had an e61 once. I lasted about 3 days. Now I don't even know where it is. I can see the box sitting on a shelf but the forgetable device is stuffed in some forgetable place. Save yer money!

[pspiegel]

only good thing about the e61 is the browser, other than that the email/etc doesn't compare at all

[pinhead]

You lose access to PIN messaging with the E61. Battery life is not as good. Some complain that the OS is sluggish at times. It does not have GPS (as someone already stated). Using T-Mobile, you won't have access to its 3g capability.

However, I too like it alot, and would still consider one. I suggest playing around with one first. Make the guy pay you a little if you decide to trade then, hopefully, it will make up the difference when you decide to trade back for another 8800...

[sjhwilkes]

I had an E61 for six months in Europe last year - I was using Blackberry BES email on it, which was buggy, but basically worked OK. Wifi was nice, and on Vodafone the browsing speed was awesome. Over here, with no 3g available anyhow, my choice was an 8800 for now, then probably an 8820 next year to get wifi again...

[metrodon]

i had an e61 for a week (an 'upgrade' from an 8700) - i sent it back and got an 8800.

it was a terrible clunky phone, big, uncomfortable to hold and the OS is just plain terrible.

Don't do it!!!

[alphasports]

I used an E61 for several months, after having several BBs. I went back to BB with no regrets. Here's why:

- E61 has great a featureset, but the CPU is not fast enough to drive the Symbian OS. As a result it is extremely sluggish. The newer E61i is no different
- The "virtual BB" software for it is notoriously bad
- Using email or web on it is an exercise in exasperation; you need to confirm and reconfirm about 20 questions before it tries to get or send your mail, or access a site
- WiFi is sexy but still quite sluggish, thought the Nokia browser is a model that all others should emulate
- keyboard is very squishy, though the E61i has an improved one
- the on/off switch is right where your earlobe touches the case, as a result mine would often shut off in the middle of a call. This is the reason it ended up smashed to pieces outside my house...

[swerveit]

dont rate sybian phones to sketchy and slow.
have alot of clients that use them as they work well with voip apps.

[hegedusa]

Someone on craig's list wants to trade their Nokia E61 for my unlocked 8800. Love my 8800... but the E61 seems to have better multimedia and WIFI!!! Plus I like chaning up phones. Would you guys do it? I'm not a heavy e-mail user...

Well, I had an E61 for about 5 days, until I returned it. I didn't like some of the features, like:
- having to go through the bluetooth pairing with my jabra earpiece twice a day
- When answering a call on my bluetooth earpiece, half the time it would hang up after 5 seconds
- email notification didn't work on vodafone UK. There was no audible notification at all: nokia blamed vodafone and vodafone blamed nokia, and I was told by voda that there will never be a fix.
- The machine was slow
- it had a tendency to crash, though I only needed to pop the battery three or four times a day to reset it.
- the UI was "fiddly" to get around. Nokia have really lost the plot by making their user interfaces far too complex. Options seemed to be dotted around all over the place
- Sending emails meant 10 or so keypresses just to send the damn thing
- Couldn't get voip to work. Well, it would work once for a bit and then crash.
- battery life not good

Good points were:
- the screen is nice
- you don't have to have one

Went over to blackberry after that and haven't looked back. If you like having your emails arrive, and you like being able to send an email without having to go through hoops just to confirm it, then you're better off with a blackberry,

Anthony

[bmwmpower]

Hey! Thanks for the help guys. I decided to sick with a good thing and keep my BB 8800. I know the E61 doesn't have a camera.. but I want a camera on my 8800! Can't wait til BB comes out w/ a curve w/ GPS! in an ALL aluminum case and a SLICk browser. Or an iPhone w/ GPS.