On all my old phone (this is my first symbian one) when you serach the contacts and enter the first letter the phone will filter to all the contacts Beginning with that first letter. On the N70 if you enter a letter it filters to all contacts which contain that letter.
e.g entering H on my 6230 I would get
Halifax Bank
Hardeep Sangha
Home
etc
on my N70 entering H gives me
Arfan Home
Chris Hulmes
Halifax Bank
etc
I have searched the forum and the only info I can find on contacts is ordering by first or last name.
Thanks
Sully