Signed up a new Nokia E63 with Three - 12 months on $29 cap

Over the weekend, the two year contract with Optus and the Nokia E65 ended and it was time to find its replacement. Firstly, lets say that the Nokia E65 has served me well. Its been on for the most part of two years and its only signs of aging include suffering recent "blackouts" where it would reset for no apparent reason. This has only happened recently, being a reminder that it was time to retire this reliable workhorse.

Just in time, the Nokia E63 was offered free on the $19 cap plan for 24 months. However, it was the 12 month $29 cap plan that had me sold because:
* This would be like purchasing the Nokia E63 @ $348
* 12 months later I would be able to find a replacement phone, probably the Nokia E71
* $19 cap plan didn't provide enough call credit for my "normal" usage

I added $8 per month to get on the X series which is Three's internet package. This gives 100mb of download, free usage of unlimited Three email and free news and weather.

The Nokia E63 was finally chosen after considering the various factors:
* It does mostly what the E71 does at almost half the cost
* I have a GPS dongle which enables me to use GPS on the Nokia E63 (more about this here and here)
* Seems more durable than the Nokia E71
* Includes a handy torch
* Enables editting and reviewing of documents with QuickOffice
* Can use multiple internet applications at a time like MSN, Fring, Skype etc
* User interface is very fast and responsive, much faster than the E65
* 12 month contract!! I can have my E63 AND my E71!!

Now the wait for the Nokia E63 to be delivered.

I'm not looking forward to:
* Reinstalling all the applications I use
* Transferring contacts, address book and calendar entries
* Reconfiguring a new phone to have the least possible hops to every feature I use

Of course, I also got $64 cashback as week by signing up to Moneybackco BEFORE signing up to 3. See this post for more details. Make sure you log in to moneybackco and follow the link to 3 in order to get the moneyback.

Excellent value Nokia E63 with Three $19 cap

In February 2009, the Nokia E63 was on the Three $49 cap for 24 months ($1,176 min commitment)

In March 2009, the Nokia E63 dropped to free on the $29 cap for 24 months ($696 min commitment).

Now, the Nokia E63 has dropped to being offered free on the $29 cap for 12 months ($348 min commitment).

Alternatively, the Nokia E63 is free on the $19 cap plan with a Three 24 month contract. However, the $29 cap is an excellent option if you see yourself considering a new phone in a year's time.

We've discussed earlier how the Nokia E63 is a very good alternative to the best smartphone, the Nokia E71. To make the E63 a GPS phone, you only need a GPS adapter discussed here.

There is a good chance that the reduction in price on the nokia E63 is a temporary one to test the market so if you are like me, considering an upgrade from the Nokia E65, this may be best time to lock in a new phone at a good price if you are in Australia.

Interesting to note, it costs around at least $AU387 to get a Nokia E63 outright.

Edit: Tips and tricks for Nokia E63 now has a separate blog at http://www.myE63.blogspot.com

How old is your Nokia E65? or E71?

I was recently quite amazed to see that my phone carrier was still offering the Nokia E65 as a free phone if I would like to subscribe for another two more years with them. This made me wonder how old each of your phones are?

Also if you are finding the tips on this website useful and you are currently using another Nokia phone, please let me know what phone you are using. It will take less than 30 seconds to do this, can you imagine how many hours this blog has taken to put together? Contribute and make Mye65 a better place :)

MyE65 replacement.. which phone and from where?

Followers of MyE65 will know that I'm currently looking for a replacement for the Nokia E65 as the contract is running out soon. The question is, which phone will last another two years and under which plan?

First of all, let's look at some current alternatives to the Nokia E65.

Nokia E66 - Earlier we have reviewed this phone. The main things that attract me to this phone is its size and feel. The display is sleek and its build is while plastic, feels quite sturdy. It packs a GPS which is essential nowadays and has similar trappings to the E71. More about the Nokia E66 here and why it fits in a suit pocket at a business meeting. 

Nokia E71 - This was reviewed as the CNET best smartphone available, receiving a 9.5/10 in a review. It has a qwerty keyboard, quick GPS, and very similar to the E66 but with a better battery. With so many features to play with, battery life will be a big determinant and currently, I'm favouring the E71 because of the GPS factor and these reasons.

Nokia E63 - Almost a Nokia E71 but not quite. It looks just like the E71 but doesn't have the GPS and a few other things discussed here. Advantages include a 3.5mm stereo plug for your earphones and a very reliable battery. Love the torch and the the keyboard aesthetics too.

Nokia N85 - Small keys, weight distribution seems wrong and too much of a media phone for my liking. I prefer organisers over multimedia phones and the battery life is not all that good. It packs a 5MP camera but its still a camera phone.

Then which Australian phone carrier? Assuming the Nokia E71, Vodafone Australia is offering $150 off their $49 cap plan, which for $10 extra a month, includes 200MB of data. Included is $350 worth of calls which isn't bad but quite standard. If you have friends with Vodafone this would be a good choice.

Three is offering $75 off their $49 cap plan currently for the Nokia E71 but their included calls are $350 to anyone and $300 to three users. Again, if your friends are with three, this may be the way to go. YOu can also get the E71 on a $29 cap for $10 extra per month for the handset repayments. Add another $8 per month for 100MB data per month.

The E71 on Optus is on their new plans which we have already discussed in an earlier post as ones to avoid but if you didn't benefit from "yes" time and you don't mind billing per minute, this may be the way to go.

One startling omission in each plan is DATA. If any of the above actually included some data, I'll be in. Hopefully in the coming days, this author will benefit from some price competition. For now, here's hoping that some of the newer E series phones will come onto the Australian market, at least to look at. Otherwise, it might be good to be 3 for this future E71 owner. Or just go cheap with the E63 minus GPS plus GPS dongle.

Nokia E75 and E52 - your thoughts?

As this blog is more aimed at being a community of users rather than an expert website (if you want more professional reviews there's always CNET.com) I'd like to hear from those who have played with and tried the Nokia E75 and the Nokia E52. We'll have a review up later when we get to play with it but for now, if you have played with either phone, give us your "gut reaction" response to the phones. Don't worry about dimensions or features (again, people can find that at nokia.com), let's hear what you think and what you feel about the phones.

Quick comments.. Nokia E52 has apparently 672 hours of standby battery life and 9 hours of talk time!! According to CNET, battery life is the big fail for Nokia E75.

Alarm On Silent Does NOT work on Nokia E65

PC Suite Bug Alert: For those that upgraded from the Nokia 6230 to to Nokia E65, you will remember fondly a feature that the Nokia E65 does not have - silent alarms. This is a feature which allows you to have a pop-up reminder which doesn't audibly sound. 

On the Nokia PC Suite calendar, it is good for E65 users to realise that the Alarm On Silent does not work. If you select this option, there will be no alarm reminder for your calendar item. The time will pass by like nothing happened. No pop up. No alarm sound. Good to know before you miss a meeting by selecting Alarm on Silent. 

The anomoly is that if you look at your phone, the phone shows that an "alarm" has been set for that calendar item. It just won't happen. However... if you editted your calendar item on your phone, say, change the time, it is now set to be an Alarm With Sound item. On the PC Suite, even after your item has been changed to have an alarm with sound on your phone, it will still show as an Alarm on Silent item... which we've discussed above is no alarm at all. 

MyE65 says no to Optus Monster Cap Plans

This week, Optus released new "monster" cap plans, but it didn't take long for the internet community to realise that Optus was not aiming to shake the market up, more like shaking people away from Optus.

Here are the essential details of the new Optus Monster cap plans
- Yes time (free calls between Optus customers for 20min during 8pm-12am) scrapped
- Per 30 second billing is replaced with per minute billing
- "Optus2Anyone" and "Optus2Optus" caps included
- Can only use "Optus2Optus" cap AFTER you run out of "Optus2Anyone" cap
- Unlimited SMS & MMS on $59 cap and above
- 5 second call on a $49 cap will cost $1.15
- No data has been included in the caps
- iphone, blackberry and HTC plans not affected *yet*
- Nokia E71 free on the $49 cap
- Nokia E63 unavailable

On Whirlpool, Australia's biggest online bulletin board, around 87% of users were unimpressed with the new plans. More than half of these people also said that they will tell other people that the plans are not good. What do you think? Personally, the Three $29 and $49 cap plans for Nokia E63 and Nokia E71 respectively look more attractive.

Stay away from Nokia E65 Firmware upgrade 4.0633.74.0

I am not sure why after all the bad reports of phone batteries draining out very quickly, nokia has not released an updated firmware patch for the E65. In an earlier post from December last year, I highlighted some of the problems people were having with 4.0633.74.0. Amazingly, this phone update is still out there, seeking to drain out unsuspecting Nokia E65 users' batteries. Here are some of your comments following that post.

Moshe Basanchig said...
Thanks for the tip. I'll wait for fixes before upgrading.
December 22, 2008 7:19 PM

Anonymous said...
my phone went for service this week. I wonder how it will return...
December 22, 2008 10:30 PM

thxsmileys said...
Thanks for the heads up. Otherwise i would have just went through with the new update. I for one do not care about new features on the e65 now. I am more for the speed and responsiveness of the phone. The usual hangs and restarts take forever.
December 23, 2008 3:45 AM

Redy said...
Thx man, me too i will not upgrade to v4, i am very happy with this one.
December 24, 2008 10:10 AM

orion said...
I've upgraded to the new firmware and the only the problem with the annoying popup occured. In the previous version there was a setting for this, that is no longer available... :(
December 25, 2008 12:52 PM

Aleksandar said...
I have uprgaded before I read this tip and now I must recharge battery every second day. Pop up notice is totally unnecessary. If i knew what the result will be, I would not upgraded
December 27, 2008 4:47 PM

Anonymous said...
I updated before I got to reading this post.. T_T Now my keypad backlight is not working! You think there's a way to revert to the old firmware?
December 28, 2008 9:13 AM

northpole said...
Well, I already upgraded my E65 to 4.06.x couple of weeks ago. Another issue with is that Nokia does not have a compatible version of BlackBerry connect...
December 29, 2008 5:43 AM

MD said...
- Annoying popup message on top of standby screen with ‘Show’ and ‘Exit’ optionsfix it with handy shell soft- Significant battery drainReally, very significant battery drain :(advise: dont upgrade.
January 13, 2009 2:09 AM

Deki StraïBoss said...
It's a joke or what ? Mine is working good with this firmware , everything is ok.
February 26, 2009 9:21 PM

Anonymous said...
4.0633.74.0 firmware drains battery within 36hours ! brand new battery same issue :-(
March 3, 2009 1:13 PM

Anonymous said...
My battery drains in around 5 hours!! This is totally ridiculous, and I also lost my contacts. The only backup that worked was one back in October. I'm really starting to hate nokia. My E65 has had pretty bad sound quality since the start as well. I'm even starting to consider a crackberry or a sony phone.
April 30, 2009 4:20 PM