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N70 seriously flawed?

11 replies · 3,419 views · Started 08 November 2005

I was gung-ho on upgrading to a Nokia N70 (from 6600) right from its announcement and still recently having looked at the symbian smartphone market. I am still due to get order one in a few weeks.

However, its disturbing to read the sheer number of bugs being found by AAS users.. radio, bluetooth, camera, s/w.. Sure all new phones tend to be buggy, but are people generally unhappy with the performance of the N70?

And is there any news on specific firmware fixes that correct our known issues?

Adam

Adam wrote:I was gung-ho on upgrading to a Nokia N70 (from 6600) right from its announcement and still recently having looked at the symbian smartphone market. I am still due to get order one in a few weeks.

However, its disturbing to read the sheer number of bugs being found by AAS users.. radio, bluetooth, camera, s/w.. Sure all new phones tend to be buggy, but are people generally unhappy with the performance of the N70?

And is there any news on specific firmware fixes that correct our known issues?

Adam

I'm happy!!!
Lets keep it in context.... "sheer number of bugs"??? I don't think so!
All phones, like you say, will have their "niggles", but you have picked on 3....
Yeah, the radio (on some) is a tad crackly, but nothing thats going to really ruin the phone!
Yeah, people are struggling to connect half a dozen things at once via bluetooth.... but hey, two's enough for me!
The camera... nowt wrong with that... except the "gallery" software is crap... so just download something else!

This is my first Nokia...and I read the niggles and thought nothing of it.
Class 1 phone!

Another happy N70 customer here. 😃 I've not had problems with BT and I have two PC's, a TomTomGo, a 7650 and a BT Headset all paired up with it. No problems with the FM radio either.

My only gripe is not with the phone but with the changes to firmware that my operator (Orange) have made. I actually like the functions of the Orange HomeScreen but feel the software hogs resources on the phone and it would be nice to have the choice to switch it off when desired.

On the whole though, very pleased. :icon14:

S.

I'm say seriously GREAT not flawed! Yeh like previously mentioned the camera phone gallery software is not too good however and the only thing that needs sorted...

Infact can anyone tell me some good software to replace it? 😊

Adam wrote:I was gung-ho on upgrading to a Nokia N70 (from 6600) right from its announcement and still recently having looked at the symbian smartphone market. I am still due to get order one in a few weeks.

However, its disturbing to read the sheer number of bugs being found by AAS users.. radio, bluetooth, camera, s/w.. Sure all new phones tend to be buggy, but are people generally unhappy with the performance of the N70?

And is there any news on specific firmware fixes that correct our known issues?

Adam


I upgraded from 6600 and had the same fears as you.
But I must say, as a power user, this thing is absolutely fabulous. I've not experienced one bug and I've been hammering this thing hard for a couple weeks. PCSuite, BT tethering, Corporate VPN access, Ogg listening, MTV videos, etc.
I could go on and on about all my successes with the n70 but suffice it to say that you will be more than satisfied with an n70.

This may not be popular, but I think the branded/locked phones are the ones with the most problems. I have a factory un-locked/un-branded n70 and it does not seem to have any of the bugs mentioned. Even the FM radio distortion with the supplied ear buds is NOT present, the FM radio sounds great all the time.

Go for it, you won't be disappointed.

trich wrote:I'm say seriously GREAT not flawed! Yeh like previously mentioned the camera phone gallery software is not too good however and the only thing that needs sorted...

Infact can anyone tell me some good software to replace it? 😊


I use RescoViewer 4.30.3. Works great on n70. Slide shows, editing, directory access and more. Great product that has been updated regularly.

Adam wrote:Sure all new phones tend to be buggy, but are people generally unhappy with the performance of the N70?

And is there any news on specific firmware fixes that correct our known issues?

Adam

Hi,

I've upgraded from the 6610. In general, i'd rate my happiness with the phone at about 60%. It just came out here in Oz, and the firmware version I got was:

V2.0536.0.2
12-09-05
RM-84

Just googling on the net, there's several versions newer than that, so was not impressed. Nokia AU say there isn't any newer one here. I also bought the Jabra BT 500 and it worked quite well... The voice tags were at first impressive, until I started testing it with really difficult ones... it passed stuff like acronym company names: e.g. 'IBM Support', but some of the easier ones, esp. short names, it has a bit of difficulty. (It kept deciding to call my work!)

My list of gripes or stuff that I think are wrong focus on 4 areas: Silent mode, Contacts, Active screen and Shortcuts.

1. Silent mode - when you put a phone in silent mode, you would expect it to be fully silent. As mentioned by other people in this forum, some apps totally disregard this, e.g. play a video and you get full blast sound, whilst in Silent mode. This would be very embarassing esp. in a meeting, when you need it to be fully silent. 😛 Either that, or the phone needs an independent 'Turn off Sound' option.

2. Contacts - I am unhappy with the way it presents, or makes assumptions on the phone book, in terms of Sort by: First Name, first, or Last Name, First name. I prefer 'First Name first'. When I set this, I expect the function to be cascaded to everywhere else. Instead, what happens is, if you execute searches/finds, on a letter, it orders it by Last Name, First Name. Similiarly, the Messaging decides to put Last Name, First Name as the name of the Contact, irrespective of your 'preference'.

e.g. Dave Brown, Trent Brownhouse, Borris Mannings, Brent Masters. If I choose B, it will present it in that order (with First Names, Surnames set up correctly; option to Sort by First Name first set). In messaging, it appears as Brown, Dave.

There is a workaround I can think of, but with hundreds of contacts, I don't want to rename or put everyone's name in the Surname part(!). Can anyone advise whether this is 'normal' expected functionality, or whether they've corrected it in newer Firmware?

3. Active screen - is there anyway to *not* have the Cell ID location display hide itself all the time. I actually want to see it all the time. On my N6610 and all previous ones, it worked great, I haven't changed service providers so I know it's there, but with the N70, you cannot force it to tell you where you are. Perhaps an option to customise the Active screen some more?

4. Shortcuts. I have not been able to work out how to create shortcuts on Go To (even read the manual - tried to even from applications that say you can have a shortcut). What i'd like to see is a 'macro recorder' or something that can make shortcuts. I wish to activate Call Diverts on Voice Calls, or deactivate it when necessary. It's alot of buttons to pushes to get there.

Those are my gripes for 2c. Would most people say that they agree with the above, or have I got bits of my understanding wrong?

Have to say I'm pleased with my N70, had a problem with the mem card reader but have now got a replacement.

Some of the features are different from my previous phone (6230) but thats expected with a new phone.

Only found a couple of niggles but I can life with them, the power of the phone and other features surely make up for these.

As my first post, I have to say that I love my N70. It is, however, my first S60 phone so maybe I don't know anything. But here are a few quirks I've come to notice.

1) When in the camera, I take a picture and from the Option menu, I select the Go to Gallery. It will just sit there. The Gallery will never open and I have to force it to quit.

2) On occasion, and very rare, some emails will kick me out of the Message app. Only twice has this happened but it is very strange.

3) In lower light or video mode, my camera shows light blue bar artifacts down the right side of the image.

4) I don't like how when you hold the N70 in a landscape orientation it is actually in a portrait mode.

5) The camera cover is creaky!

6) Lastly, to view a picture in the Gallery in full screen mode, I first must take the image into Edit then press start. I'd like to be able to full screen in right from the Gallery (where the images rotate around the screen.)

But I think that's it. Just little goofy things really, but ya know.

hey guys, yes there are some serious problems with the n70 (i dont know what they are exactly) but how do i know? because my friend has a friend (they both are in texas) who programed for nokia on the n90. so when they had some probs with the n70 they sent him one and needed coding. so he showed my friend an n70 thats not a normal one, it was one made more for nokia programmers with less of a interface.

I'm convinced after working in thailand for 4 years . And going from 6600 to 6630 and now n70. That the phones are fixed by the operators in europe and the uk . The three the phones i've had from here have been great with no problems at all !!!!! the n70 i've now got is a treat . 😊 😊 😊

ajg wrote:As my first post, I have to say that I love my N70. It is, however, my first S60 phone so maybe I don't know anything. But here are a few quirks I've come to notice.

1) When in the camera, I take a picture and from the Option menu, I select the Go to Gallery. It will just sit there. The Gallery will never open and I have to force it to quit.

2) On occasion, and very rare, some emails will kick me out of the Message app. Only twice has this happened but it is very strange.

3) In lower light or video mode, my camera shows light blue bar artifacts down the right side of the image.

4) I don't like how when you hold the N70 in a landscape orientation it is actually in a portrait mode.

5) The camera cover is creaky!

6) Lastly, to view a picture in the Gallery in full screen mode, I first must take the image into Edit then press start. I'd like to be able to full screen in right from the Gallery (where the images rotate around the screen.)

But I think that's it. Just little goofy things really, but ya know.

Guess I'm one of the lucky ones, I don't any of the problems 1,2 or 3.

4, I too wish there was a way to rotate the camera view as to take the pic in landscape instead of portrait.

5, Yes, my cover is somewhat creaky too.

6, Try Resco Viewer. It has the features you're looking for.

And lastly, get used to using third-party apps on s60. There are many unreal programs out there. The list is endless and versatile.