searching for contact whilst on phone

I cannot speak for the E70 specifically but in Symbian generically you just press the menu key, navigate to contacts, and search as usual.

Is there something wierd about the E70 or have I missed the point of your question?

Nothin weird about the E70. I think Potsy just wasn't aware of the multitasking nature of Symbian/S60 and that you can press the menu key in any situation without interrupting what's going on.

Note also that a long press of the key will list the running apps and you can choose and switch to it quickest that way (rather than navigating to it in the menus and relaunching it again).