[dialekt]

The moment I get all excited and settle on a device I accidentally stumble across this device called the Nokia E61. I've been vastlyl looking for a pda phone that does NOT have windows on it. My blackberry 8700G rocks. But the E61 does look like it actually could be better. My concerns are obviously how fast I can do things on the e61 vs the 8700g. The trackwheel is just damn fast on the blackberry, and extremely easy to navigate/highlight etc. The keyboard is cramped. Everything else about it rocks..but obviously there is no expandibility. With the zen theme installed on the blackberry my ringers are really loud ( some with audible distortion/speaker stress). How loud are mp3 ringers on the nokia e61? Can you load mp3 ringers via miniSD card? Which keyboard do I look for? I've heard talks of the euro keyboard, spanish keyboard, and asian keyboard..

All in all I have a place where I can buy this phone locally...I'm interested in checking out out...Any 8700 series converts on the E61 now and loving it?

Pros and cons..? Looking to buy or not buy today. Sad because I got my 2 cases coming in for my 8700g

[chbak014]

i've been in the same boat as you.
to bb or not to bb?
i've chosen BB. hands down it will whip the e61 as far as email functions go.
wifi on the e61 and browser are great, but waay to many things you have to configure on the nokia. plus your carrier will not support the phone.
which 2 cases are coming your way?

[dialekt]

just got my 2 cases....one from USPS and one from UPS. I had ordered the Piel Frama Black Cowskin Flip Style Case and the Fortte Black Leather Flip Style Case...I don't think I'm gonna open these boxes because sad to say I think I just may be sold on the Nokia E61 :(

[insider]

I bought the E61 and returned it inside of a week.

It's a very Sexy looking (and very well built) all in one device, but seriously doesn't compare with the 8700 I replaced it with for speed or ease of use. The keyboard on the E61 has quite a firm rubbery feel to it and you find yourself double checking to see if you actually pressed the right key.. The lack of keyboard shortcuts like "r" for reply is criminal, if memory serves well you have about 3 button presses and a 3-4 second wait before you can start a reply. Autotext for me was another lacking feature that the sales guy at Vodafone said was included, that's a feature I've always loved about my Blackberry's.

The things I thought would sway me to keep the E61 like carrying my files attachments with me on the Mini SD, Excel, MP3's and the very nice Web browser with WIFI etc, just couldn't convince me to keep it in the end. If you're an occasional email user or don't use the phone a lot then the menu frustrations and time lags probably won't bother you, but if you want to get things done then it has to be the 8700.

Hope that helps..

[titetanium]

It never ceases to amaze me to see so many folks more or less buy a competing/supposedly better product than the BB only to end up trading it back for a BB. Will wonders never cease!

[bigdongers]

I am testing a E61 at the moment. Was using a 8700g and 7130g prior.

The Nokia E61 is hands down the next best device to the BlackBerry. It is better than the Treo and Windows Mobile devices.

Lack of shortcuts is a pain but the browser is great and having MP3 and video playback is handy. Plus it handles attachments better (if you use MS Push or Good).

Symbian OS is ok. Not as fast or as stable as BB. Slightly slower than Treo but easier to use and faster and easier than Windows Mobile.

BlackBerry is still the best email device out there. But if you want a multimedia device, the E61 is better.

[dialekt]

so what makes this device so slow ?.i'm honestly scared to shell out the dough as of now. I was gonna buy this thing this morning its like 2:00 am ..wanted to grab it overnight. But now i'm rethinking. You think shortcuts will be addressed in a firmware upgrade? I got a lot of friends that keep telling me to "hang in there" on the blackberry side because the upcoming stuff is supposed to make my head spin. I'm willing to give another company a chance if it meets my needs. hmm..this is interesting. I still haven't opened my shipping boxes for these cases..Actually I think I'm going to do that right now. I MUST HAVE A PEEK! (fortte and piel frama)

[outfocus]

Originally Posted by dialekt

so what makes this device so slow ?.i'm honestly scared to shell out the dough as of now. I was gonna buy this thing this morning its like 2:00 am ..wanted to grab it overnight. But now i'm rethinking. You think shortcuts will be addressed in a firmware upgrade? I got a lot of friends that keep telling me to "hang in there" on the blackberry side because the upcoming stuff is supposed to make my head spin. I'm willing to give another company a chance if it meets my needs. hmm..this is interesting. I still haven't opened my shipping boxes for these cases..Actually I think I'm going to do that right now. I MUST HAVE A PEEK! (fortte and piel frama)

The E61 is not slow, it is fast, and the Blackberry 8700 and 7130 series is INSTANT.

[saldous]

The E61 IS slow. Compared to the speed of opening up a message on the 8700 the E61 is about 5 times longer if not more.

[outfocus]

I totally disagree. You cannot compare the blackberry to anything else on the market. The BB is like using DOS compared to lading windows.

The E61 compared to any BB device is FAST, and the Blackberry is INSTANT, and I have many years and many many phones experience.

[dialekt]

well i love my e61 so far. While not as INSTANT..there's just so much to keep me in Nokia's favor until any new promising blackberrys come out. It's good to be on something completely different. This honestly has been the only phone that has not made me wanna completely jump back to the 8700. With every other phone..I've ALWAYS made my way back to the 8700...lol. Hmm..maybe not this time..so far i'm loving the movie capability, music capability, i can play my music fluidly even while on a call as well. Tons of more stuff multimediawise that I can do. I'm learning stuff everyday.

[hypermaster]

my comments............

Bought the Nokia E61....
1st Day - Loved it, uploaded MP3's, Videos , Setup BB, profiles etc........ but never ended up using it much that day...

2nd Day - Started getting irrated with not having shortcuts for reply, formward , sms shortcuts & the slow speed.....Wated to pull my hair off by night.

3rd Day - Called my dealer & got rid of the phone.

Back to my BB8 8700.

I'm thinking of trying the Sony Ericsson M600i or waiting for the SonyEricsson P990i.
Any thoughts on the M600i prrformance????

[dialekt]

Now..YES i'm considering going back to the blackberry 8700g.. sad aint it? But it's due to hardware reasons..speakerphone capabilities and etc. I think i just may give up on all phones. To be honest all RIM needs to do is jump on the slim factor, full querty, Q style, multimedia, external memory bandwagon and we shall all be happy.

[Blackberry treo]

Originally Posted by dialekt

Now..YES i'm considering going back to the blackberry 8700g.. sad aint it? But it's due to hardware reasons..speakerphone capabilities and etc. I think i just may give up on all phones. To be honest all RIM needs to do is jump on the slim factor, full querty, Q style, multimedia, external memory bandwagon and we shall all be happy.

I'm in the same boat as you, initial love but after a few days got frustrated with the UI as i find out that i'm not as productive as i am while on other non rim. Tried almost all of them except the M600i and Siemens, but cant beat the BB RIM devices.

One of the best thing for the E61 was the multimedia aspect and changing the mail storage to the Mini SD. But all this is eye candy to me.

Sigh, you are right. RIM devices need to go on a diet

[dialekt]

Yes. I was sooooo excited..but when it boils down to everything..stability, speed and ease of use is most important :(. The 8700G is the only thing I've felt "content" with while in the process of waiting for the next best device. Its a real shame about the multimedia features. Which keeps me wanting to just grab a psp to solve my fix for media. But at the same time..having it all on one device just makes me wet my pants (did i say that aloud?). This is a real shame because I bought from another country and have to suffer an 80 percent re-stocking fee :(. And the WORST part about it was that I convinced my lady to buy one because I was so enthusiastic and had such high positive hopes for this thing. She was coming from a cingular 8125 :( ..I've decieved myself and her :(

[Blackberry treo]

Aren't we all a sucker for new toys. With all the bell and whistle of the e61 I too jumped on it as the price was pretty reasonable IMHO.

Off and on I still go back to the e61 as its quite a classy device and the ringtone also sound damn good. Golf is good as well. But all this is not work related so I tend to only activate the e61 as a weekend phone.

Now hopefully there is a firmware update on the phone so as to improve its responsiveness.

My take is iif users consider email impt and receive quite a fair bit during the weekday, 8700 is the way to go. If email comes in once a while then E61 is the obvious choice.

[cactus]

The guys who are always saying "but I always end up comming back to my blackberry" just don't want to leave their comfort zone. This forum comprises of guys using blackberry's who occasionally reach out for another device to make sure they still have what they think is the best thing going. Of course the E61 is going to be less comfortable--the blackberry is what you know.

In short: The BB is a proprietary device used by older, less tech savy people because they don't have the time, interest, or computing experience to know the benefits of using a device such as the E61 and opensource Symbian.

Like your Dad's fart soaked easy-boy recliner. If you just need simple, comfy, and stable. The BB cannot be beat on this front.

If you're looking for something more contemporary then check the E61, the Nokia 770, the Sony Philip's M600 series, etc.

In short, those knowing anything about networking, hardware or computing in general--there is no compare The E61 is a small PC endlessly more capable than the BB. The BB, on the other hand is a quick and easy emailer/organizer that anyone can use.

[dskelto]

Moving from a 7100t to an e61:
One of the really cool things about the e61 is the current and ever growing software catalog for S60. There are applications that will do everything from play multimedia (Mp3's, Video, Automatic podcasting, RSS feeds etc. ); to record really accurate acceleration statistics using a bluetooth gps. (0-60 in 5.2s; 14.0s 1/4 mile in my Stg. 1 Legacy GT). Oh and the voice quality is great. Definitely tradeoffs one might accept for the less than optimized blackberry connect client that is available. But then again e61 is compatible with about 7 different push email solutions.

[sfo]

I just got an E61 and love reading these comments. Best part of E61 is it's build and feel...seems more solid than the BlackBerry 8700 (which I've always felt outclasses everything else.) Two hours of play into it, I'm getting the E61, slowly, but getting it. However, as has been pointed out, main reason for one over the other is what you use it for. I easily do over 100 PINs and messages per day. All the other features for me are secondary. With that as a reason for picking one, the BlackBerry 8700 wins hands down.

[untjoker]

Originally Posted by cactus

The guys who are always saying "but I always end up comming back to my blackberry" just don't want to leave their comfort zone. This forum comprises of guys using blackberry's who occasionally reach out for another device to make sure they still have what they think is the best thing going. Of course the E61 is going to be less comfortable--the blackberry is what you know.

In short: The BB is a proprietary device used by older, less tech savy people because they don't have the time, interest, or computing experience to know the benefits of using a device such as the E61 and opensource Symbian.

Like your Dad's fart soaked easy-boy recliner. If you just need simple, comfy, and stable. The BB cannot be beat on this front.

If you're looking for something more contemporary then check the E61, the Nokia 770, the Sony Philip's M600 series, etc.

In short, those knowing anything about networking, hardware or computing in general--there is no compare The E61 is a small PC endlessly more capable than the BB. The BB, on the other hand is a quick and easy emailer/organizer that anyone can use.

LOL I used to be a C++ computer programmer, network administrator, and COBOL/BASIC Mainframe programmer. I am pretty sure I'm more tech savvy than yourself. I love the blackberry 8700 because of how it performs, how it's laid out, and how it handles email better than any device on the market, whether it's $200 or $2000. So in short, I could care less if an E61 is a small PC, I've got a laptop that is small so I don't need a device to be a half-assed PC. Trust me dude, the E61 is not a small PC, and quite far from it. Some people like different features. Point blank, no other phone available can handle email better than a Blackberry, period, no questions asked. My laptop can't handle email as well as a Blackberry even when the laptop is plugged into the network with the Cat 5 wire. I routinely get emails on my blackberry before it hits my Outlook on my work Laptop. I can guarantee you I can do more hacking and technical damage with my 8700G than you can do with a new Dell laptop. So just keep your Blackberry hatin' opinions to yourself