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From N70 to E70 -> need some info

27 replies · 7,300 views · Started 08 February 2007

ratza 08 Feb 2007, 13:24

Hi guys,

I (still) own a N70 and I think I'm going to switch it for E70.

I cannot say that I am a power user, though my phone is almost always in my hands. My N70 has a really small keypad and even if I use T9, it is pretty hard to write mails, SMS's and on messenger. So I took a look on some other input methods, like handwriting recognition and QWERTY keyboard.

I first wanted to switch to a PDA, but I cannot (and I don't want to) switch from Symbian to WinMobile or other OS and I had in mind the UIQ and the comunicators, but they're not for me, the size is a little bit too big. After a long, long thinking I remembered Steve's grid. I took a look over it and realized that the E70 is for me (though the grid said N95 😊)

Mandatory (in prioritys order):
- Symbian based; high RAM value (at least 16MB free after boot - can't complain on N70 here)
- QWERTY
- Stereo music over headphones
- Camera with noise as low as possible, minimum 1.3 MPx still, 0.1MPx video, with or without flash
- WiFi
- Relatively small device (let's say 6600 size)
... and this can be easily found in the E70.

So... after this long and boring introduction I would like to tell me the bugs encountered by everyday users. How good is the sound and the WiFi signal strength? Did anybody had a "Memory full. Please close some apps" error?

I'm open to critics also :tongue:

alphasports 09 Feb 2007, 09:27

I bought an E70 and an E61 at the same time, to test them both and then sell one. I sold the E70 for the following reasons that were important to me:

- the front number pad is very difficult to read because there is no contrast between the silver color and the tiny number markers, and the keys are very small

- the reception strength is much lower than the E61

- only tri-band (E61 is quad band), I travel a lot for business

It's not that I didn't like the phone, I LOVE the form factor and the inside keyboard is great, but the E61 suits my overall needs better even though its keyboard is difficult to read at times also.

The best phone would be a quad-band E70 with the black keyboard like in USA, and the reception strength of the E61.

ratza 11 Feb 2007, 10:43

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Symbian OS; Nokia N70/5.0638.3.0.1; 1657) Opera 8.60 [en])

Thanks alphasports, can you tell me how bad is the signal? The keypad is OK, in Romania is black and the contrast is good. I definitely would go for an E61, but it is pretty big for my pocket and it misses the camera.

alphasports 11 Feb 2007, 13:55

The signal is not terrible, but not as strong as the E61, which on its own is very good, so I would say the E70 is maybe "normal" or a bit less, maybe 85-90% of "normal". I don't know if that makes any sense!

I did like the E70, especially the inside keyboard. If you have black in Romania that is already a big advantage over the silver one, probably my single biggest complaint.

AA

ratza 12 Feb 2007, 10:17

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Symbian OS; Nokia N70/5.0638.3.0.1; 1657) Opera 8.60 [en])

OK, it makes sense, I just don't want to have another 3230 which was really weak. Thanks.

haddock26 13 Feb 2007, 20:07

Got the E70 from Voda, and put my Orange sim in.

Signal with me is always excellent, usually full bars.

The front keypad isnt as bad as i thought.

I've written a review of the E70, i'll PM you the address if you want?

ratza 14 Feb 2007, 06:20

I think you can post it on this thread, maybe there are other persons which will like to see a review made by a normal user instead of a magazine or something like it. I look forward to read your review.

alphasports 14 Feb 2007, 08:47

I may be oversensitive to the reception issue! My E70 was fine outdoors, but once I went inside it dropped off significantly. I also have the older 682x phones, with the same design as the E70, which are a disaster indoors. Seems to be something to do with the design, that affects the reception.

slitchfield 15 Feb 2007, 09:14

Interesting comments all round. My own E70 has perfect reception, but then I'm in a fairly strong signal area so it's hard to tell. Wi-Fi reception is not that good, same as on the N93 and E61 and N80 - I don't think any of these devices are large enough to have a proper Wi-Fi radio aerial.

And ooh yes, I'd love a black keypad E70 - must try eBay..... 8-)

Steve

ratza 15 Feb 2007, 11:51

The WiFi signal is not so strong because when you hold the phone in your hands, alot of the signal is lost. I've tried that with my coleague's Belkin adapter and his internet connection dropped 😃 This is valid for GSM signal too. That's why it is not recommended to hold your fingers on antenna area (on the top of the phone that is... :tongue: )

This is how a E70 looks in Romania, is this the keypad you like? The interior is in the same colour.
http://mobile.acasa.ro/images/bigpic/nokia-e70.gif

haddock26 25 Feb 2007, 23:09

Ok! Sorry about the Delay, been away.

Here's my review!...

The size of the Nokia E70 is a bit bigger than the 6230. However, you wouldn't want this device any smaller as its screen size would suffer. The screen is an excellent size of web browsing, and you can zoom in on pages if the font is too small for you. The screen resolution is amazing, and the black light dims or brightens according too the light, which can also save battery life. There is also a screen protector already on the device, and not one of those stupid ones with a flap, so they come off easily (as on the 1112).

The numeric pad is as easy to use as any other Nokia. The joystick is nice and solid too. When you flip the wing out to reveal the qwerty thumboard, it feels solid and sturdy and has a satisfying click when the wing is fully back. Typing on it is easy to use, it could be a bit tricky for anyone who hasn't had a device with a qwerty before, or isn't used to hand held consoles. But its easy to get used to and you can get quite quick and think they did you ever bother with predictive text in the first place! Also, while you flip the wing out the screen goes from portrait to landscape mode. There is a slight delay, but back the time you flick the wing out it is realigned, so isn't really bothersome.

The wifi is constantly searching for open or closed connects, however this does not affect that battery life much as its in this sort of stand by mode. the E70 picks up and hold a wifi connection brilliantly (unlike my TyTN!). The web browser is really good, I like the way it shows little images of previous pages when you press the "back" key, so you can navigate around previous pages easier.

The speed of navigating, opening and saving files/applicants is very good. Doesn't lag at all. Nokia version of Office is very good too, not only can you view things but you can edit them too, very useful for writing documents on the go.

And of course, being a Nokia, its easy to use and does all the usual thing a non-smart phone does, plays mp3s, takes pictures, etc. The 2MP camera takes good quality pictures. And these are very easy to copy to your PC (pictures, music and documents are) you don't even have to install the Nokia suite to file transfer. Just plug and play, using the cable provided.

I call and text a lot, and use the wifi to browse the net. And on average use the phone lasts about 5 or 6 days! Better than the 1- 3days my TyTN did!

I think I've just about covered most things. Its a good looking pocket-able smartphone, i'm very pleased with it!

(originall written for reviewcentre) Do excuse any typos!

elbow2 29 Mar 2007, 18:21

I'm a little concerned about the screen mode lag when flipping the thumb board. How much time are we talking about? 3s, 5s, 10s?

desertrat 30 Mar 2007, 02:15

elbow2 wrote:I'm a little concerned about the screen mode lag when flipping the thumb board. How much time are we talking about? 3s, 5s, 10s?

About 4-5s for me. What's more of a problem is that it eats about 4MB of ram.

ratza 30 Mar 2007, 05:36

The lag is not such a big issue, but I'm worried about RAM. 4 MB dropped is a little bit too much, especialy because in landscape I will probably use the web browser, which is RAM hungry too. It seems like I will stay with the N70 for a while.

slitchfield 30 Mar 2007, 05:38

Once you've done it once, it's only a couple of secs max. The first time, it can be 4 or 5, after that the appropriate hooks and modules are probably in RAM and so things happen faster.

Steve

desertrat 30 Mar 2007, 08:37

ratza wrote:The lag is not such a big issue, but I'm worried about RAM. 4 MB dropped

Ditto. It's time Nokia made their phones useable by putting in adequate RAM. Take the N95, it's got good functionality specs but the useability is crap because like the E70 it starts out with a miserly 20MB free RAM and its got a tiny battery. When my E70 has been in use for a little while, then even after closing all apps I'm only left with around 10-12MB of free ram.
because in landscape I will probably use the web browser, which is RAM hungry too.
The web browser does a pretty good job of formatting so that the "main column" of most pages are displayed within the width of the display when in portrait. I've never found much use for going into landscape mode for browsing. I only use it when I have to enter complicated URLs or data, and usually switch back to portrait straightaway.

ratza 02 Apr 2007, 13:27

10 MB ?? Man, I really got used with 25-30MB free RAM. E70's RAM amount is really making me to cherish my N70.

desertrat 02 Apr 2007, 14:58

ratza wrote:10 MB ?? Man, I really got used with 25-30MB free RAM. E70's RAM amount is really making me to cherish my N70.

Hopefully the next round of devices will go the E90 route and include plenty of ram.

noctilux 03 Apr 2007, 15:26

I did use to have problems with the RAM in Landscape mode and with the browser, until I heard about opera mini in steve's fabulous vodcast; With this, I can open any webpage and it's more comfortable to use than the nokia one, as well. WLAN is great, in fact I have been using the e70 as my only internet device for the last few days, and it has really worked well. The battery life enabled me to surf for about 5h without having to recharge, and the qwerty-keyboard made surfing a pleasure, even forum messages were possible. Apart from web browsing, the RAM never gave me any problems.
The sound is great, the display is a pleasure to use and good ergonomics do the rest. I think this phone is near perfect, the only thing that lets it down a little is its slightly boring, though adequate, design.

Greetings,

Martin

desertrat 05 Jun 2007, 13:31

noctilux wrote:Apart from web browsing, the RAM never gave me any problems.
Of course being a "smartphone" one likes to run apps like "auto profiles", "answering machines", "blacklists" and a "taskmanager". But once you have these running in the background there is no memory left for anything else.

ratza 06 Jun 2007, 04:26

Actually a task manager does not consume very much RAM, or at least it shouldn't. I'm using Task Spy since the very first day I had my first S60, because it never let me down.

ratza 06 Jun 2007, 12:12

Got the E70, unfortunately a silver one, but what the hell, I'm not a woman so screw the colour. Can't say I'm very impressed, or maybe I got very used with my old precious buddy N70. It looks like only text input speed will change and the way I used to surf the web.

EDIT: Not so bad after all, but it looks like is a little bit slower than N70. WLAN works great, found around 7 hotspots around the area where I live. I think I'm gonna throw away 3G access point 😃

ratza 07 Jun 2007, 04:37

I don't know why, but it seems like all web browsers are taking alot of RAM. Same thing happens on PC.

digitalranger 18 Sep 2007, 11:43

How is your E70 doing now?

I'm very interested to get one. I live in the UK and the mobile carriers seem to have stopped subsidising them, so if I get one, I'll have to buy an unlocked one.

I currently have a Palm TT3 and a Sony Ericsson K700i, and I want something that will replace them both, but not be too bulky (like E61).

(Well, Symbian phones can't entirely replace my Palm as the free-form stylus imput is useful for some things and I have a universal IR TV/Video control program for Palm, which S60 lacks).

ratza 19 Sep 2007, 04:14

Well, after updating firmware from 2.xxx to 3.xxx I must say that RAM management is much better. If you would like to continue the Palm exeprience, I would recommend you to buy a Sony Ericsson P1i, which is also a Symbian device (UIQ 3) with a staggering 80MB of RAM after boot, full QWERTY, WLAN, 3.2 MPx camera and a pretty large 2.6" touchscreen. This smartphone is also one of the lightest among Symbian devices. In my oppinion it will suit your preferences better than E70.