Weekend Phones - Some More Nokia E50 Pr0n
For good and bad, email is a huge part of my life. Whether I like it or not I can't be away from it.
I normally don't need to reply to email on the weekends but I do need to stay connected and be able to view any email coming in. That is why the idea of an email enabled weekend phone is so appealing to me.
On Monday - Friday I need a QWERTY device so that I can *read and reply* to email. However, on Saturday and Sunday size is a priority and as long as I can *read* email I am fine. I can give up the QWERTY keyboard but not give up the email functionality.
When I say "email" I should clarify that I mean work email - in other words not POP3 based email (for me at least). So I need to be able to use BlackBerry Connect, Mail For Exchange or any other "corporate" email solutions.
Because I can run a program which provides access to and automatically synchronises my corporate email, calendar and contacts between the Nokia E61 and the Nokia E50 I never have to worry about setting up the devices. They are always in sync. Contacts, calendars and email are in harmony on both the devices.
The biggest hassle now of having two devices and one SIM is to have to move it back and forth between the E50 and the E61 
I know, I'm lazy…
Weekend phones - What are your thoughts?
October 16th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
I’ve always had a weekend mobile since I started using them for more than just voicecalls, starting with my Nokia 6620 then as I moved up the ladder — 3230, 6680, and now E62. But my weekend mobiles were always just casual weekend use and not necessarily used for data. My current weekend mobile is a Nokia 7280. Believe it or not I have become so adapt at writing SMS msg with my 7280 that using my E62 practically makes me a speedtypist!
I use my E62 to stay in touch with work e-mail, personal business e-mail, personal e-mail, and staying informed with RSS, widsets, etc. At home I use a laptop and synchronize my E62 with it as well as having it connected to a Nokia wireless bluetooth keyboard (SU-8W). I use it so much with my E62 sitting on its deskstand that I mistake it for my laptop keyboard! I have never had a mobile that has truely kept me connected as my trusted E62.
I travel for work and sometimes my 6680 doubles as a weekend mobile if I need more than what my 7280 has to offer in terms of data connectivity. But my 6680 is about to be phased out for myself and the E50 seems like an attractive replacement…
October 16th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Thank you for creating this wonderful blog. I currently use a E61 as my BB and phone replacement. I really like how well the E61 handles both tasks, but am also looking for a weekend phone. I am very attracted to the slim design on the E60 however I am concerned about transfering my corporate email to the E50. Do you need to redirect the email using the Blackberry Connect Desktop or is the PIN saved on the SIM. Switching the SIM and keeping the phones synced is not a problem, I do not like messing with the BB Desktop. Also I am not using the Active Sync Exchange software because I do not know if it is supported by our corporate Exchange servers. I would like to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
October 17th, 2006 at 1:21 am
Hi Ed,
I have a friend who uses a weekday and a weekend phone. He uses the E61 for the weekdays and the Motorola RAZR for his weekend phone.
He uses 2 SIM cards for the same line. The telco charges him an extra (approx.) USD 5 per month for this service. That way, you don’t have to worry about the wear and tear or the hassle of changing your SIM card everytime the weekend comes. You just turn off your E61 and turn on your E50 and you’re good to go! :p
Cheers!
Andrew
October 17th, 2006 at 2:39 am
Ed,
E61 all the way. I can’t take shifting my phone up and down. Its not worth setting that stupid clock again and again. Besides, the E61 is thin enough, its not like a big phone. So E61 has my vote.
October 17th, 2006 at 2:48 am
When i had a Sendo X (relatively small but very thick symbian smartphone), i tried the week-end phone (or more precisely: the pub phone) approach with a Motorola L6 that i got for free as an “upgrade” (upgrading to a Motorola L6? What a joke). The (only) nice thing about the L6 was that it was so incredibly light and thin that i could put it in my jean’s pocket and just forget about it. It didn’t feel like I was carrying a brick with me. Plus it had a very loud ringtone that i could actually hear even in a noisy pub as oposed to the far too quiet Sendo X ringtones.
It didn’t last long though. Having to switch SIM cards between both phones quickly became far too much of an hassle especially since opening the Motorola was a chore and booting the Sendo X took ages. Operators over here do not offer this kind of dual-SIM for an account that Andrew is talking about unfortunately (why not? It’s a brilliant idea and I would certainly pay $5 per month for that).
On top of that, the L6 was not only a very basic phone (which would have been fine to me since it really was just for the pub) it was also a fantastic piece of crap in just about every aspect. All that I wanted to do was to be able to write short SMS really but even that was near to impossible with this phone. The UI was so slow, incredibly slow in fact, and badly designed and the keyboard was so poor that writing a 5 words SMS took me a good minute every time and I had to be really concentrated to do it (so imagine what happens after you’ve had a few pints). Of course, i suppose that if i had persisted, i would have gotten used to it after a while but, frankly, i do not have this kind of patience.
So gave up on this dual-phone approach. Which is why i got the E61. On one side, it’s got all the feature i want for everyday use but on the other it’s so thin that I can actually take it with me to the pub without feeling like i’ve got a brick with me.
October 17th, 2006 at 5:02 am
One quick tip: If you have two S60 3.0 devices (like E50 and E61), try synching them using the Data Transfer app. With this, you can synchronize basic stuff like contacts and SMS but in addition to this, you can synchronize your call log, bookmarks, etc. Very handy in case you have two phones
October 17th, 2006 at 6:31 am
Ed, you should look into SIM cloning…which is to make a copy of your SIM aka SIM Cloning…the “cloned” SIM card will work just like the original meaning you can make a call, send an SMS, manage phonebook and SMS messages too. You can use the “cloned” SIM and the original SIM simultaneously meaning both of your SIMs will have network and both can send SMS at the same time. However, only one of the active SIMs can make a phone call at any time. Simultaneous calls are not allowed because the call will immediately be disconnected by your Network Provider. Regarding recieving SMS from other people, only one of the SIMs will recieve the message. This is a “first-come-first-serve” basis and no bias is given to the original SIM.
Right now Im in the process of researching and trying out two sim cards in the e61 thats 2 phone numbers from 2 different carriers on one phone
October 17th, 2006 at 8:16 am
@Tron
great tip, what about initial sync of settings? can this be done so as not to have to recreate my access points and mail settings?
Does the data transfer really sync? Will there be duplicate entries?
October 17th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Tron, Sam, Andrew, Viocc etc. thanks for the great tip/comments!!
October 17th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
I too have 2 sim cards with the same number from the phone company (Iceland telecom), they call it Twin Cards, and one card in fact is primary so if that phone is on it will recieve the calls etc.
But before this was available I had two cards with two different numbers. And configured my primary number to forward calls to the secondary number when it was unreachable. Only drawback was that sms was not forwarded, and a different number appeared on the recipients caller id, (but you can prevent your phone from sending the number if you prefer that instead). Cheap and easy solution if the Twins thing is not available.
October 17th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Alan,
You can specify before the first sync which items you want to synchronize. However settings are not currently supported…
Transfer really syncs, should not create any duplicates
October 18th, 2006 at 2:45 am
@sam gonzales
How do we go about SIM cloning? Cheers!
October 18th, 2006 at 6:17 am
you can buy a sim card writer/copier and blank sim cards on ebay
copy your sim into a blank one and voila
October 25th, 2006 at 1:25 am
ah cool thanks for info and cool blog!
November 4th, 2006 at 3:08 am
Hi,
Im in the process of buying a phone and I have no idea what the amount of phone book (contact) entries the E50 is capable of handling.
I wanted to buy N70 just because it can handle 1000 Contacts.
I mean I went to hundereds of sites that only mention “E50 phonebook is variable to memory size”. I mean, what is the capacity if I used it immediatly out of the box, is it 500 , 1000 or more!?
Your input is greatly appreciated,
thanks in advance and god bless you.
Best Regards,
Emad
November 5th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Hi
how is the E50 for a daily phone rather than a weekend phone if I am willing to sacrifice the 3g, wifi and the bigger screen, is there anything I am missing if I choose the E50 over the E61 for the above reasons.
karku
November 5th, 2006 at 7:43 am
Totally agree, I used to own an IPAQ and would never like to take it out at night or the weekends! Now I have the E61 and 6270. 6270 is more of a evening and weekend phone with its 2 MP camera and smaller size, but I am very lazy abt SIM switching! Anyone know anything about SIM Cloning? I have always thought about asking my service provider about it.
November 6th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Is there any way to exchange ringtones between 2 nokia e61 or 2 e62s?
November 26th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
I’m thinking of buying an e50 as my phone. I have email via an IMAP accoutn with 1and1.co.uk and I’d very much like to get push email to my handset, as well as keep my Macbook addressbook and calendar up to date - any options open to me?
November 27th, 2006 at 12:59 am
Hi Andrew,
According to 1and1.co.uk’s website they support ActiveSync if you go with their Exchange service. If you do that you can get the email pushed.
December 16th, 2006 at 6:26 am
Hi
I am planning on getting the E50. My company provides me with a cell phone contract but I want to obtain my own cell phone contract for private use. Do I understand it correctly that this phone can handle to phone numbers i.e. I can switch to the second number at night and make and receive calls on it without having to open up the phone and switch sim cards? I guess what I am asking is, can it take two sim cards or am I not understanding the “two phone numbers” feature correctly?
Thanks
January 24th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Great blog! Love the e61 but you just convinced me to e50 as a weekend phone
March 8th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
It looks like you are all experts, I need help! I am trying to syncronise only my addresses from my old 6630i to my new E50 but it doesen´t work. could someone help me. infrared works it saves everything but transfer back to the E50 only calender and usless fotos… what could be the problem? many thanks for any help
Fabio
May 10th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I have been using Palm Treo 680 as my daily driver, because I need the qwerty keyboard to reply to emails…and text the occasional message. But…I just bought a Nokia E50 as my weekend/casual phone, since I am curious about the Symbian OS…and the phone seems to be a solidly built and sexy little device that will fit neatly in my jeans pocket!!
BTW…as far as cloned SIM’s go, no provider that I know of will allow you to have two SIM’s activated at the same time. I have several SIM’s that I have loaded with my contact list just in case I need a new one…but only the one in my Treo is activated to AT&T service. I used a SIM card reader to copy the contacts…and really wanted to “clone” a SIM because I had more than two phones then…but was told that it was not going to happen. So…for those of us with two phones, looks like we are doomed to swap SIM cards between the two devices. Bummer…but true.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
hi guys!
Thanks for greaT COMMENTS ABOUT nOKIA e50, IT’S MY FAVORITE MOBILE PHONE I like his almost all functions and particularly sleek form.
Good luck
October 26th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
My E50 Nokia mobile phone lost it’s GPS ability! What could be the problem? and how do I go about to get it back again.