Nokia E71 - some serious issues, and Nokia doesn't...

Question

Well, I have owned the Nokia E71 for some weeks now, and while I must say that hardware, design, keyboard and display of this phone are well engineered, when it comes to software, there are many serious show-stopper bugs in many very basic applications which have been known for months and have so far not been taken care of by Nokia. New buyers, beware: 1) The Email-client has great difficulties coping with more than about 950 messages. After that, out of memory errors and lockups while deleting messages appear. Sometimes, repeatedly, all messages are lost. 2) The internet browser crashes at random intervals. 3) The calendar seems to sometimes produce buggy internal files, which in turn make the error intolerant sync-function crash when trying to transfer data to a PC. 4) The camera picture is very noisy in low light conditions and has a purple haze. The haze was finally corrected in firmware 210. 5) However, since firmware 200 the clock in not updated in standby. 6) Since firmware 200 the alarm repeat mode does sometimes not work when the phone was switched off and was not being charged. 7) When a software installation went wrong, on every startup annoying messages appear. Due to memory protection, this cannot be corrected from the phone, but only from a PC in mass storage mode. 8) When using mass storage mode, most menu item customisations are lost. 9) When doing a firmware update, all memory contents is lost. Users repeatedly have reported that restoring the necessary backup sometimes does not work, thus all data is lost. 10) The text color of the contacts list is always black. Instead of making this something dependent on the installed color theme, since firmware 200 the background in contacts is now always white, whatever the theme. Ugly. 11) Bluetooth connections are known to be unstable. 12) There is no stop-watch or count-down timer. 13) Hands-free volume is not loud enough. In short, if you want to use your Nokia E71 professionally, and not just to play around, think twice. Perhaps a Blackberry Bold or Curve are the better choice.

Answer 1

marmite wrote:
I have read the whole of this topic with great interest. I haven't got an E71 yet but decided to look up a bit about it first before deciding whether it was for me. I have been using a T2 palm which is now ancient and coming to the end of its life so need something that is going to be as reliable as it has been in the past. I also wanted to consolidate my phone with my diary. I am now in two minds as to whether to go for a smart phone at all :-S.
I don't think this discussion has anything to do with the decision as to whether to get a smart phone. It has to do with whether to get *this* smart phone. There are others, of course, and they should be considered. 
The original question i was looking for on the forums was whether you can cut and paste entries in the calendar as that is something I use everyday, but now having read all the posts on this board I am worried that I will lose all my appointments and contacts!!
You aren't going to lose your appointments and contacts unless you are foolish enough not to sync your phone with a PC and to back up that PC. If you have data  that you care about in any electronic device and you don't back it up and the device loses the data or you lose the device you have only yourself to blame. Presumably you sync your T2 (a fine device, I have one, and two T3s as well)? Well, do the same with whatever phone you buy.
Can anyone convince me that I am doing the right thing in even considering a Nokia E71?
You've read what's been said here. I think the summary is that the hardware is very good, Symbian is a solid OS, but some of the phone and PC software, as well as the (website and phone) support is slipshod (I tried calling Nokia customer service the other day and their phone menu system went into a loop!). My experience is that while much of this is annoying as hell, I've managed to beat this thing into submission and make it usable, at least for me. And I use it both as an organizer (I'm finding that I use my T3 less and less, though I still keep it up-to-date, because there are things it can do that the E71 can't) and a phone. One of my requirements was that I wanted an unlocked phone. Because I am a light phone user (also occasional user of the web browser and email client; rarely use texting), I have a pay-as-you-go account, which is far less expensive than the usual contract account. The E71 is available unlocked at reasonable prices. Something equivalent, like the Blackberry Bold, was twice the price when I bought the Nokia in February. The iPhone wasn't available unlocked. The Google phone wasn't available unlocked and the reviews were lukewarm. The Palm Pre wasn't available. Etc. The E71 seemed like the most reasonable solution for me at the time. Of course, I didn't know about the problems I was to encounter, but, as I said,  I've worked around them.
So my advice to you is to look at the whole field of available smart phones, of which there are many, consider your needs and do cost/benefit analysis. I would include the E71 in your deliberations but certainly can't give it an unqualified recommendation. But I also can't say "you are completely insane if you buy this phone". It depends on your requirements and what you are willing to pay.
I hope this helps a bit.
/Don Allen