Switching to the Nokia E61
As I have mentioned in passing before - I am a switcher. I have used a number of smartphones over the last few years. My past devices of choice have primarily been Treos. I have used a few other devices in between but I've stuck with the Treo more or less since the introduction of the Treo 180.
I am interested in hearing from other "switchers". I expect that there are a quite a few whom like me took the jump from a different device and quite possibly also a different platform. I'd like to put together some information aimed at helping us switchers and make the transition from one device to the Nokia E61 as easy as possible.
I am not interested in hearing how much you miss feature X from product Y but instead how you came up with a solution or a fix. If you miss a feature/application/shortcut from a different device what are you using now? If your favorite application is not yet available for the Nokia E61 what replacement application are you using? What information would have been helpful to know when you made the switch to the Nokia E61.
Use the contact form and share your tips and ideas with me.
I'll share an example of something that was an issue for me when I first got my Nokia E61. If you have used Nokia devices for a long time this will seem so trivial to you but if you are new to Symbian and Nokia perhaps you can relate.
I am often on conference calls and have long thought that automatic dialing of DTMF numbers, those extra digits that control pass codes for telephone banking, voicemail etc. have been a God sent. I had no problem setting them up on my previous devices but couldn't figure out how to do it on the Nokia E61. I just wanted to be able to dial a number and then have the DTMF tones dialed automatically.
Naturally, I didn't start reading the manual! 
Instead I used my combined knowledge and experience from previous devices to try to set it up. Nothing worked! I tried to use comma, punctuation but it didn't work. I also asked a few friends and none of them seem to know it.
Desperate I started reading the manual. Take a look at the below text - it sure as %$#@ didn't help me. I still couldn't figure out how to make the DTMF tones dial *automatically*. I could enter them as part of an address book but couldn't understand how to make them dial directly after the main number.
Anyhow, I finally figured out, with no thanks to the manual, that I should enter "w" or "p" directly following the number in the address book and then the extra digits. As I mentioned, if you have used Nokia devices before it is the most natural thing but for me it was a big issue. Had I known this when I switched to the Nokia E61 it would have saved me hours.
So let me know what your tips and advice are for people switching to the Nokia E61.
July 19th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
The first tip and piece of advice I’d like to see is when/where can I buy an E61?! I live in the U.S., and there’s no mention of the E61 on Nokia’s US Web site, apart from a couple of press releases.
Thanks!
July 19th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Hi Roland,
The E61 is not released by a carrier or Nokia in the US. However, there are plenty of GSM phone importers that sells the E61. A few companies are Mobilbee, Plemix, GSMDistributor, etc. Just Google and you will find many choices.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
I used to pull my hair out shifting my Palm Desktop to my Outlook so that I can sync it to my Nokia. This meant exporting Palm to a .csv file and then mapping the fields, which always for some reason used to get messed - and would take days to sort each one painfully.
Finally I saw that Palm has a good Palm to Outlook sync which maps everything beautifully! Saved me a HUGE amount of time when I synced my mum’s Palm to her new E61.
The link is: http://www.palm.com/us/support/outlooksupport.html
July 20th, 2006 at 12:35 am
As a E70 user I feel I should have bought a E61. I hope I can swap with a E61 user someday.
July 20th, 2006 at 6:44 am
It’s documented, but not very well - Windows clipboard shortcuts work really well on the E61 - CTRL C copies, CTRL V pastes etc. VEry helpful for taking info from emails and pasting into browser/address book etcetera…
July 20th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Funny that there’s been no mention of PC Suite on this site yet. Since I’m using Blackberry connect, I only have my calendar and email pushed to my E61. I’d really like to have my contacts pushed there as well. So I set up PC suite to recognize my device (bluetooth) and automatically sync when I am in range… once per hour. There’s lots in PC Suite and I find it works well - although I use Outlook for my email and contacts management. I switched from a Blackberry 8700c and I have to say that it was like going from a DOS computer (what’s with those jagged fonts circa 1985) to a Mac running OS X. Night and day, this phone is better.
July 20th, 2006 at 9:38 am
The p (pause) and w (wait) codes are standard DTMF codes, it’s not a Nokia thing. Chances are your previous devices also let you enter p or w, but you used punctuations instead?
July 20th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Hi FRiC,
On my previous devices I either entered punctuations or commas directly in the address book after the main number to create a one second pause per comma/punctuation. Anyway - I am happy I figured that one out.
July 21st, 2006 at 3:56 am
I am interested in buying an e-series phone - I am leaning more toward the E61 but does anyone know why its significantly cheaper than the E70. Some how I thought the E61 was the big boy and therefore would be the most expensive.
Is it possible that Nokia has priced cheaper to directly compete with the likes of Blackberry and the Treo?
I would love to hear your comments.
July 21st, 2006 at 10:09 am
I think it’s a more popular form factor and as such if they plan on selling more of them they can make them for less.
July 22nd, 2006 at 3:51 am
Well, I’ve been wondering how different the E61 is from the E60. As the E60 is less wide, Ive been thinking of that. For a phone such as the E60, if I have to browse or type something, would I have to depend on T9 or keypresses or is there some sort of alternative?
One other thing … would I be able to connect a bluetooth Keyboard (if I get one) to my bluetooth enabled cell?
Will really appreciate some kind of info!
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:41 am
Answer to Jogy George: There are keyboards which you can connect to your phone but I recommend E61 if you are thinking of it. When chosing between E60 and E61, it all comes down (imo) to if you most emails/surf or calls. I type perfectly well with T9 on my E60, no keyboard needed here. But for longer messages…gimme E61!
Thats how I think of it.
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:03 pm
The E61 is priced significantly cheaper than the E70 because the E61 does not have a camera.
July 23rd, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Thanks Ed, thanks Daniel …
Well, I’d be primarily using my phone for calls, managing contacts and the calendar. Going by that, I guess you’d recommend the E60 … or maybe you’d recommend some other model! Its just that with the Wifi in it, I thought that I’d be able to foll around with it a bit … Guess, that once I really start using it, I’d grow out of the foolery and realise that there is more to life than playing with T9
Thanks once again for your comments!
July 25th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Has anyone sassed out how to get the remote dialing and SMS working from a Macintosh?
It works for lower level phones. I have seen 3 different solutions to getting isync to work…. But….. nothing works with the address book…
Thanks…
July 26th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Alright, so there seems to be a lot of negatives about this pretty phone that no one mention, are the standards lower because its a pretty device?
I had high hopes for this device, it has so much possibility. I am very very disappointed in Nokia’s execution. If they are looking at taking business away from competitors in the integrated messaging device arena (Blackberry) they need to fix what makes these devices useful to a business user. The calendar is garbage, the dial from contacts list is garbage, the email client is mostly garbage. They forgot the key part of integrated messaging devices, integration.
You can’t dial ph#s from the calendar, in reality you can’t even access the notes/details box of calendar entires…wtf!?!
Email…you also can’t consistently dial info from email.
Dial from contacts…the method of displaying the phone numbers and listing them as “Tel (Business)” instead of indicating if its business ph 1,2, etc. When you highlight a contact and hit dial it gets worse, it abbreviates it all (business or home) to “Tel (xxx)xxx-xxxx”.
Also, you can’t copy text out of web pages, calendar, etc. What is the point of cntrl-C and cntrl-V if you can’t use them?
July 29th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Completely agree with the previous post. On the paper, the phone looks wonderful, but on hand, it has a lots of misses.
I keep it because of the large keyboard, and because mail for exchange is free, whereas BB I need to pay an extra service and do expensive software installations on my business server.
Anyway, if you are thinking in a smartphone to type with, I noticed yesterday that there are predictive software like the BB avalaible for PPC systems. I am not a fan of PPC, I had in the past and they are not good, but perhaps better than the e61 if they can have this kind of addon. And the software catalogue is huge.
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Well, after reading all of the others’ comments, I’d like to add my point of view about this phone. As a former Windows Mobile user, I’ve been frustrated a lot on the regular Windows’ behavior which is slow response, freeze, and the stupid multitasking thing. When I heard about this E61 phone 6 months ago, I thought this would be a phone of my dream and I was right. I really love this phone. Although it cannot compare with the other smartphone in the market like the SE P9xx (well, they have touch screens.), it still my kind of phone. It doesn’t crash, it works fast, it does what a PHONE has to do very well, PLUS the ability to manage my PIM and E-Mail very well. Bottom line is… This phone is worth every penny….. well, In My Opinion at least…
cB
August 4th, 2006 at 7:03 am
While the phone has many good features like voice quality it sucks with many more features like
font size
take a look at above screenshot. the field labels are bold with a large font but the data itself is written with a tiny font.
folks at Nokia I need to be able to read the NAME not the label … the notes field only displays one line in view mode - one needs to enter the edit mode to read the full note attached to a contact
… has anyone at Nokia actually tested the apps before releasing it ?
August 4th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Hey…
Is there a way I can turn off the radio/cell communication in the e-61 for travelling etc?
August 4th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Hi Andrew,
The “Offline” profile doesn’t use the radio so you can use that while on an airplane. The easiest way to get to it is to gently press the on/off switch and then scroll down to “offline”.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
I am about to receive my E 61 and cannot wait.
Have any difficulites been reported about connecting to Yahoo! Mail?
Thanks
August 4th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Good for you. It\’s a g*r*e*a*t* device!
I don\’t think there are any problems with accessing yahoo mail but you do know that you need \”premium account\” in order to access Yahoo mail as a POP account. \”normal\” Yahoo account wont do…
August 7th, 2006 at 9:36 am
How do you dial an alphanumeric number, like 1-800-EMPIRE1. On the Treo, you’d do this by using the onscreen dial pad, which displayed the common 9-key dial pad with the alphabet mapped to numbers. Does the E61 have a solution for this? Thanks.
August 8th, 2006 at 2:42 am
Is there any Shortcut anyone knows of on Nokia E70 to activate the blue tooth without having to go through the menu.
August 19th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
That DTMF tip is fantastic!! It’s going to make dialing my conference bridge so much easier!
August 20th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Hi Pea,
I’m glad you find it helpful. As I wrote in the post, it took me a loong time to solve that one!
Cheers!
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:43 am
Re: Bluetooth E70 / Kevyn Bunyan
If you press the ‘record’ button on the side for slightly longer, you will hear a noise, and ’speak now’ will appear on the screen. Simply say ‘Bluetooth’, and it will turn it on, or off, depending on current status.
This method, can be used for voice dialling etc.
Hope this solves your problem.
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:52 am
Hi there, Love this site. Newbie on Symbian OS too. Was loyal Palm for some time then switched to WM2003 then Symbian.
I’m wondering if there is any quick way to set the contacts to look first on the SIM directory when using the phone. I sync’d a lot of contacts from our Exchange Server and the categories did not come with them so they’re all mishmashed and a nightmare to dial for phone use.
TIA
September 4th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Hello,
I’ve just moved to the E61 from a MS Smartphone. So far so good…Bu, can anybody tell me how to make the text larger in menu, contacts, etc… I was able to change the text size in my Cingular 8125 Smartphone. Well….I am over 40!
Thanks,
October 2nd, 2006 at 11:52 am
I have problems with my Nokia E61 and Yahoo mail (beta). Has anybody encountered this problem and is there a fix for it???
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:19 am
Is there anyway where I can sync my E61 with Outlook (e-mail)??? I’ve had my E61 for a couple of weeks and I’m yet to figure that out
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:34 am
If your company is using a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP 2 you can use Mail For Exchange, which is a free download.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Hi,
The E61 looks like a great device, but I would really like to sync it with my Palm Desktop (I don’t want to buy MS Office just to use Outlook)… Anyone has found a way to do that?
Thanks,
Thierry
November 9th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
I have learnt many useful tips and hints from reading all the posting. However, I have not seen any posting related to the VoIP feature of the E61. I have been using this built in SIP client for some time and it has saved me a lot of money on long distance/international calls. It is quite easy to set up and it integrated nicely with the rest of the phone. When you open a contact, selected it and chose Options, then Call. You will be able to select to call by VoIP or standard GSM. Kind of nice…
November 9th, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Hi Bao,
So far I have only written about VOIP once: http://www.e-series.org/archives/98
More posts coming.
But you are right, it is a cool and useful feature.
Ed
November 14th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Hi,
Does anyone know of a better launcher for the E61? I’m specifically looking for something similar to the treo favorites buttons as I do not like the way the speed dialing works on the E61.
Joel
November 17th, 2006 at 9:15 am
I recently purchased a Nokia E61 and love it. However, I have a little issue now.
When I originally purchased the phone I was using a Motorola HS850 Bluetooth headset. Voice dialing worked great. Press the button, wait for the nifty little tones and speak the contacts name.
Well, that headset died and now I am using the Plantronics Voyager 510. I activate the voice dialing feature on that headset (hold down the call button for 2 seconds) and the Speak Now message appears on the screen but after saying a name it just returns to the standby screen.
I have disconnected from the headset and tried holding down the record button. Same results… I get the nifty tones but after speaking the contacts name it just returns me to the standby screen.
Any ideas on why voice dialing is no longer working or where I can look to see if something is disabled?
Thanks in advance!
Jeff Cross
http://www.averageadmins.com/
November 17th, 2006 at 10:31 am
I did some searching on the Nokia forums and it appears that something may be screwy with the firmware update (which I don’t think is the case because I was using voice calling fine after the update) or with the Syncing of contacts.
I have been syncing my contacts from my phone to my MacBook and haven’t had any problems but I just got the new Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook and sync’d and now I get nothing.
One solution I have found, which is a pain, is to assign one word nicknames to your contacts. The phone seems to recognize this and work pretty well.
Anyway, maybe someone else will have some insight into getting the contact name to be enough for voice dialing.
Jeff
November 17th, 2006 at 11:13 am
And the solution…
I hard reset my phone which wiped everything from it, including contacts, and resync’d (I guess I could have deleted each contact individually… I couldn’t find a delete all feature…) my contacts from my mac to the phone and now everything works as expected. I guess I just had a bad sync session or something…
Jeff
December 7th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Hello all….is there another way of changing the default font of e61…..i read from your site that you need a card reader and make a new folder for font….i do not have a card reader but i troed to download a font and saved it on the installed folder…is there any other solution to this query that you can share to me…..can we change the size of fonts, too?…..can you feature softwares that can open ‘.tab’ files. I can not open attachments in my email with ‘.tab’ files when i use my e61 to access my yahoo email account……i tried to download the adobe application but it is not supported…..hope you can assist on these issues…..than you and more power……
December 13th, 2006 at 4:20 am
Cheers!… I tried setting up a profile for my mail for exchange in my e61 but when i start to snychronise, connection error pops out….can you please assist me in creating the profile especially on the server and domain fields….looking forward to your support on this concern…can i access my personal email account in yahoo through the mail for exchange?…thank you and merry christmas!…..c”‘,)
January 12th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Is there any way to apply the DTMF tip in VOIP Dialing ?
January 30th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
is there a better contacts manager (desktop side) for s60 (e61). I hate outlook. Tell me there is an add on or something. The one that came with the e61 is terrible and unusable.
February 26th, 2007 at 1:53 am
I switched from a Windows Mobile device to the Nokia and have found the following issues (in no particular order). Any help/tips on these would be appreciated.
1. No way to sync my bookmarks (IE/Firefox). WM5 allowed syncing of IE bookmarks.
2. Quickoffice cannot open password-protected Word/Excel documents. my important information / quick reference (e.g. bank account numbers etc) are kept in password protected word files and WM5 could open them without any issues.
3. No password manager. WM5 had a port of KeePass that I also use on my desktop as a password manager - the mobile version was useful for carrying pin numbers or site passwords.
4. No free IM compatible with Yahoo/AOL. apparently E62 has this but the E61 IM is pretty useless.
5. Proprietary pop-port with no stereo headphones. the WM5 phone came with stereo headphones with a standard jack. To even attach a standard jack, I will have to purchase additional adapters and of course, new headphones.
6. No “categories” support in Contacts and ToDo, which is a basic PIM feature found in most organizers such as Outlook. Without this feature, implementing a GTD like system is proving tough.
since I am new to this phone, maybe I have missed something here, so would appreciate letting me know if there are solutions to these.
Thanks.
March 9th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Hi All,
Maybe this is not the right page to post this question. However, I think the discussion is relevant.
I am very impressed with my E-61 and now it has become part of my life. Unfortunately, the DTMF tone (in regular GSM mode) do not work with some IVR systems. When I try to can AT&T conference bridge or American Express, the DTMF tones are not recognised. I have also tried the “Send DTMF” feature.
Can someone let me know how to fix this.
Thanks
April 4th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Despite all the great advice on this site I am still having problems getting past my office VOIP system to go to a specific extension
I need to dial the number then say 7 (to get the option of specific phone ) and then 34 for a specific extension
I have tried 01215856633p7p17 and it does not work. I have also set up the DRMF tone as 717 and it does not work.
Also I can not get the 3 * to owrk to make it a pause. Have I missed something.
Thank you for any input.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Hi, I noticed the nice theme with the background of a world map on it. Can you tell where one get this from?
Thanks!
April 10th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Hi, I noticed the nice theme with the background of a world map on it. Can you tell where one can get this from?
Thanks!
April 10th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I think it is called Orange Blue or so. It’s available through the theme page:
http://www.e-series.org/nokia-e61-themes/
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Anyone who has a palm treo, I’m after the signature ringtone (featured on the movie ‘A Good Year’. Could someone post the ringtone up? Cheers!
August 1st, 2007 at 3:12 am
I would also like the palm treo ringtone heard in the Russel Crowe movie “a good year”.
Does anyone have it?
December 4th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Thanks for the DTMF tip at the start of this page, it was searching for DTMF that got me here. It works in my contact list perfectly but I cant get it to work in the diverts. It just says invalid number. I thought DTMF was used mainly for voicemail systems so I am confused that the E61 wont accept it as a divert to a mailbox. Can anyone help?
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I bought my E61 a couple of weeks ago and am really loving the whole Big Screen to surf the net and watch videos on. i have one small bugbear. I got this on the understanding that i would be able to sync up with my work outlook account…How?
what info do i need to set this up.
can anyone help me?
cheers in advance.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
The DTMF trick is really very helpful to me. I am always in conference bridges and usually tend to forgot to note down the meeting IDs. This way, I won’t have to memorize or note them down anymore, just dial away. Looking forward to more useful tips from this site.
I have an E61i by the way, and so far, I love it. This is the best phone I’ve had so far. Synching my emails, tasks and calendar with Mail for Exchange is a breeze. And I’ve sites like this to help me out finding solutions for the numerous issues I have. Again, thanks a lot…:-)
May 10th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Hi. I’m a switcher, too, from WM.
One thing really bothers me is the Calendar alarm. I get used to the WM calendar alarm that beeps/vibrates only once, and then leave me alone. I got to know something is there and I will deal with it if I want to.
but the SB calendar alarm just non stop, until I press snooze or stop. But I want sth on the screen to remind me if I don’t want to deal with the alarm right at the alarm time (eg. because my boss is in front of me.)
Do you know any good way to make the alarm only beep once?
Thanks for your sharing on your blog!