Nokia E51, to buy or not?

astrofool

I'm looking at getting an E51 with O2 for €99, I currently have an E50, which I'm happy with, but need to get a new phone (E50 will go to the OH, who's phone is failing).

Does anyone know if O2 are going to be changing the price, add a new better equivalent phone in the next few months? i.e. is this a bad time to get it with new phones on the horizon?

I used to be very up to date on phones, but missed out in the deluge of phones over the years, the posters here seem to be much more knowledgable than me these days

Random

It's a great phone I reckon and a good choice as an upgrade from the e50. O2 have just annouced the Nokia e66 and NOkia e71 will be out soon though so I would imagine (guessing, no basis for this other than new phones coming in so old phones probably cheaper) the e51 will come down in price over the next month.

Might also be worth looking at the e66 .. looks to be a lovely phone !

Jonathan

+1 for the e51.

They features to size ratio is amazing.

gcgirl

I have both the E51 and N95 and you cannot falt the E51 what so ever! Its as good as n95 really good luck with what you pick!

flodis79

+1

E51 is extremely well built, sturdy construction and very very little software bugs.

strecker

flodis79 wrote: »

+1

E51 is extremely well built, sturdy construction and very very little software bugs.

ONLY PROBLEM IS:
The E71 is gonna be out on 3 and Vodafone this month!

Jonathan

strecker wrote: »

ONLY PROBLEM IS:
The E71 is gonna be out on 3 and Vodafone this month!

Thats hardly a problem with the e51 in all fairness.

FX Meister

i've got one and i love it. Well built phone when most phones these days fail after a couple of months

byte

Got one myself nearly 2 months ago. Great phone, crammed with lots of features.

The only downside to this phone is it's rubbish camera, but if you wanted to take decent snaps, you'd probably use a camera anyway.

_Kaiser_

gcgirl wrote: »

I have both the E51 and N95 and you cannot falt the E51 what so ever! Its as good as n95 really good luck with what you pick!

I've both too and the only place the N95 is better really is the bigger screen for web browsing and the camera (which I never bother with on a phone anyway!)

If this isn't a major priority for you though then go with the E51 as, as gcgirl says, I can't fault it whatsoever either.

Jonathan

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

I've both too and the only place the N95 is better really is the bigger screen for web browsing and the camera (which I never bother with on a phone anyway!)

If this isn't a major priority for you though then go with the E51 as, as gcgirl says, I can't fault it whatsoever either.

They both have the same resolution screen though, so it is just a matter of preference.

MarkR

+1 for great phone, poor camera. But I have a camera, so feck it. :pac:

astrofool

Looks grand on the E51 so, the E66 and E71 wouldn't interest me (I've had sliders before and the 71 is too big).

tech

Very similiar size to Nokia 6310i! which was a class phone, Thinking of buying one!

flodis79

Honestly you're not comparing e51 to 6310i? They are worlds apart! And re size, there are hundreds of phones with same form factor as e51/6310i. Just my two cents..

Jonathan

Buy it for the wifi alone.

Right now i'm sitting in the south of france out in the back garden, lying by the pool browsing boards..

Can't fault the phone in anyway.

towel401

the E51's camera has a slightly green tint. much like the matrix
look @ this pic you will see what i mean.

teh wifi is great for making cheap calls over the interweb but i think its a bit unreliable. maybe the latest firmware has that fixed

GerardKeating

byte wrote: »

Got one myself nearly 2 months ago. Great phone, crammed with lots of features.

The only downside to this phone is it's rubbish camera, but if you wanted to take decent snaps, you'd probably use a camera anyway.

One "missing feature" with the E51, the Nokia 6300 will rescale a picture for sending via MMS, the E51 just tells you the picture is a bit big and sends it anyway...

towel401

GerardKeating wrote: »

One "missing feature" with the E51, the Nokia 6300 will rescale a picture for sending via MMS, the E51 just tells you the picture is a bit big and sends it anyway...

e51 will too

menu->messaging->settings->multimeda message->image size->small/large (not original)

talkingclock

two questions related to the E51:

is it O2 branded?
will VOIP work over 3G/HSPDA?

towel401

talkingclock wrote: »

two questions related to the E51:

is it O2 branded?
will VOIP work over 3G/HSPDA?

probably.

I tried using VoiP over 3g but it lagged very badly. 5-10 seconds lag. if you use a decent network like O2 it might be alright. i used it on 3 and always got lots of lag

Jonathan

talkingclock wrote: »

is it O2 branded?

It can be very easily debranded via a firmware update.

talkingclock wrote: »

will VOIP work over 3G/HSPDA?

Not using the native e51 client. Nokia have disabled it. You can however use fring to make voip calls over hsdpa.

flodis79

towel401 wrote: »

the E51's camera has a slightly green tint. much like the matrix
look @ this pic you will see what i mean.

teh wifi is great for making cheap calls over the interweb but i think its a bit unreliable. maybe the latest firmware has that fixed

In what way is it unreliable?

flodis79

jmccrohan wrote: »

It can be very easily debranded via a firmware update.

Not using the native e51 client. Nokia have disabled it. You can however use fring to make voip calls over hsdpa.

Are you talking about the branded o2 version? Well, it's more that o2 has disabled it, not nokia. With the unbranded version, voip over 3g and 3.5g works just fine.

talkingclock

thanks guys for the clarification. i assume the firmwareupdate (debranding ) works via the normal USB cable plus NOKIA firmwareupdater supplied with the phone?

coldfire1x

I use skype via fring, it works really well.

Tony

Thanks for all the posters here, was also considering getting the E51 and it seems its now free on certain plans on the O2 website when porting from another provider.

towel401

flodis79 wrote: »

In what way is it unreliable?

long periods (10 sec) of silence the odd time when calling over wifi. but its well possible that this doesn't happen on the latest firmware

pontovic

I recently got this phone and I must say it's done everything I have needed it to. I'd definitely recommend it!

BostonB

I was thinking of one, but I use the camera (W810i with autofocus) on my phone a good bit.

astrofool

I was about to order, and found out that O2 have changed their upgrade policy and taken away my silver upgrade.

They now have one upgrade band and one criteria: Spend €3500 with them.

I'll likely be moving to Vodafone in the next few weeks.

towel401

vodafone.

bah

Spend €3500 and get €200 off your phone? That's really generous :-)

towel401

samih wrote: »

Spend €3500 and get €200 off your phone? That's really generous :-)

you could buy a new unlocked e51 for that lol

juvenal

Fantastic phone, I gambled on it when it was first released and it's a great buy.

I've travelled the world with it over the past six months, using Fring to keep in touch via IM and Skype. Never experienced an issue with lagging, the Wi-Fi is excellent. It also works as per Wi-Fi over the o2 3G network here. I've called the US and Australia on Fring via the 3G network, both to Skype accounts, landlines and mobiles and it's been perfect.

All in all a great phone, the camera is irrelevant to me as I am a bit too much into my photos to use a camera phone to take snaps. I've Google Maps installed on it, also Gmail client, and my alternative email account thru the Nokia email client. There also a host of free software available for the s60 platform. Haven't wanted for anything with the phone, and the candybar design is an added bonus.

flodis79

Can I add that the e51 is probably one of the best phones for fast texting out there..

strecker

astrofool wrote: »

I was about to order, and found out that O2 have changed their upgrade policy and taken away my silver upgrade.

They now have one upgrade band and one criteria: Spend €3500 with them.

I'll likely be moving to Vodafone in the next few weeks.

say WHAT?????
Explain, please! Spend 3500.00 HOW???

flodis79

strecker wrote: »

say WHAT?????
Explain, please! Spend 3500.00 HOW???

Well it's feasible to spend that much seeing how expensive they are on many price plans..

andy0

it's probably a mistype for 350

The_Hustler

No it's not, the upgrade policy has worsened significantly but o2 are unwilling to say what it actually is and according to the o2 forum the information someone got here from customer care was incorrect.

jkforde

E51 + Flat 3G plan (O2 7.50E per month for 250Mb) + WiFi LAN + OperaMini + AFT (Almost Free Text; or Cabbage) + Fring (+SkypeOut) = ;]

BostonB

jkforde wrote: »

E51 + Flat 3G plan (O2 7.50E per month for 250Mb) + WiFi LAN + OperaMini + AFT (Almost Free Text; or Cabbage) + Fring (+SkypeOut) = ;]

Is that meant to be some sort of plan suggestion? I'm not following you, flat 3G plan vs 02?

Jonathan

BostonB wrote: »

Is that meant to be some sort of plan suggestion? I'm not following you, flat 3G plan vs 02?

He is saying how he is happy with his current set up using the 3G add-on from O2.

BostonB

Ah makes sense now. LOL. Thks.

astrofool

The_Hustler wrote: »

No it's not, the upgrade policy has worsened significantly but o2 are unwilling to say what it actually is and according to the o2 forum the information someone got here from customer care was incorrect.

Which O2 forum? And any indication as to what their policy is?

Someone in management in O2 is a gigantic moron.

cianr

Bought this phone just a little while ago after reading everyone's views on here and I'm very happy! Thanks again boards!:)

jkforde wrote: »

. . . + AFT (Almost Free Text; or Cabbage) + Fring (+SkypeOut) = ;]

Jk - I searched for AFT but couldn't find anything - could you post a link? Also "Cabbage" ?

tech

going to get myself one of these, Whats the advantage of buying this on Expansys over O2?

Is the O2 branded phone packed with different software?

towel401

tech wrote: »

going to get myself one of these, Whats the advantage of buying this on Expansys over O2?

Is the O2 branded phone packed with different software?

i think so. they're also locked and i dunno how easy they are to unlock

tech

I not pushed as Im with O2 anyway but software is the big concern.

juvenal

tech wrote: »

I not pushed as Im with O2 anyway but software is the big concern.

AFAIK it's the same, except for the o2 bubbles welcome screen. They gave me the unlock code about a month after I got it over the phone no problem, although I'm a post-pay contract customer.

The apps I've added on are:

Cabbage
Calcium (calculator)
Nokia Email
Frozen Bubble (game)
Fring
Gmail
Google maps
Google search
Joiku Spot
Mobile weather
Opera Mini (although the preinstalled Nokia browser is fine)
Oxford Dictionary (crossword head)
Nokia Podcasting
Sensible Sudoku
Stopwatch plus (it doesn't come with a stopwatch/timer funtion)
WiPresenter
WorldMate

Is also comes with Real Player, Flash, Adobe PDF reader, and Quick Office pre installed along with the usual s60 stuff.

The_Hustler

One thing that annoys me is that you cannot check when texts were sent to you. When you check message details, it only tells you when you got them. If you've had your phone off for a while, that can be a problem.