Nokia 6131 Review

I don't see any option to make the top level 'call log' a shortcut.

It seems to me that Call logs displays by dates and groups. That is it tries to display in groups of received, dialled, and missed calls and one each. So if on the most recent day you have 1 received and 2 dialled, but no missed, it will not display the 2nd dialled until the second sequenced group of received, dialled or missed.

Hence they can appear out of time order.

 

When I delete an entry from the individual logs, it is deleted from the Call Log, so I'm not seeing your "contacts not ready" message. Not sure why this is.

Jim

 

Yes, the same thing happens to me. Perhaps 3.7, but I almost never delete anything.

I don't understand the order from your list either Charlyee. I guess it is not good to make a pattern from only one sample!

vf

 

Wow seems scatterbrained to me to hastily delete like that

 

Well if you wanna get into the physics, they are waves, so they aren't straight, so what in the world are you doing with em to keep em straight I dunno just had to give ya some heck, but it's all done out of some weird and twisted sense of kinship. Just out of curiosity, the 6131, is it possible that it's had an OTA update on it's native carriers that we're lacking here in the states, that would perhaps fix problems with the call log?

 

It sounds to me like a bug in execution, might want to check Nokia's website for a Firmware upgrade.

 

Lol how true, I'm already ready for the 8525 to replace my Wizard.

 

Is there a way to speed up the navigation of the menus?

When I look at phonescoop's video review and another site's (forgot which one) review, it seems like when going through the menus there is NO lag. However, there is a little lag with my phone.

What would contribute to this? I've deleted a lot of the things I don't use (factory ringtones, pics, etc.), and that didn't seem to help.

Anyone? Thanks in advance.

 

Wow, you checked out the PS video. Thanks.

Yeah, my 'getting around the menus' definitely isn't instantaneous. I don't have a micro sd card yet. If/when I get one, I'll store things on there. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to keep the phone. I got it used for $200, but my past 3 phones have been SEs (Sony Ericssons), and I love SE's interface. It's much simpler than Nokia's. I really like the phone though, just gonna take some getting used to.

On SE phones, there is a way to store 3 numbers per contact (home, cell, work). Can you do that with the 6131? I haven't found out how yet.

I don't like having:

John home
John cell
John work

all in my contacts. Just makes the the contacts too crowded/redundant.

Also, it was kind of nice having the little icon displayed that showed if the number was a home, cell, or work number along with the person who was calling's name. Can you do that with the 6131?

Finally, is there a way to change the outer display "holding hands" pic (when the phone is open) without changing themes (I like the standard, blue Nokia theme)?

Thanks in advance.

 

Now your sounding like my family that does not like to read manuals!

The answer is yes to all of your questions.

I think you can store up to 5 numbers per contact (not just 3) and call them home,cell, work,fax,general. Also emails, web address, etc. I attached a photo to my wife contact, and a few different numbers with separate icons. You can also use them multiple times: i.e. One contact i have has 3 cell numbers. So I make them 3 cell icons. However only one of these numbers is considered the default for voice dialing or speed dialing, so it does help to have separate names for that. So when she calls, the mini display shows her photo, her name, and a flashing icon that it is from her cell. Also, in the received call log it will show the cell icon indicating that she call from the cell, not home. You can also add a unique tone or video:

Go to Names/your contact/Details/Options/Number and pick your choice.

To change the displays, go to Menu/Settings/Mini Display or Main Display and pick your wallpaper. I changed the mini display screen saver to be analog clock and it looks like my avatar. The rest of the Theme remains intact. No more nokia holding hands! So now when I'm on the phone, others can tell the time, instead of seeing the nokia hands.

You can also to directly to the gallery, pick one of your photos, go to options and use it as wallpaper for the main display.

There is a lot of stuff in the manual; it takes several readings.

good luck,

vf

 

Thank you VERY much, viewfly. It's very late, so I'll have to try these tomorrow. I've read the manual, but I didn't get a whole lot out of it.

Anyways, thank you again!

 

I tried that, but it didn't work. When the phone is closed, I can see the pic that I set. However, when I open it, I still get that cheesy "holding hands" pic.

 

I don't get what to do after that though (after Names/your contact/Details/Options/Number and pick your choice). I've gotten that far, but there are many choices after /Options. Do I "Add Detail" or "Use Number"? Forgive my ignorance, but I'm used to SE's simplicity. There is probably something simple I'm missing here too though

Thanks in advance.

**Update: Found out what it was. You go to 'add detail/number,' and the 'move contact to phone memory' always threw me off. You have to hit "yes," and then general/mobile/home shows up. Thanks.

Still need help with that darn 'holding hands' pic.

 

Awesome!! That analog clock looks really nice. Thank you so much viewfly & charlyee!

My only concerns now are battery life and volume on the highway. I still haven't done my 'highway test.' The battery, as I was prepared for, is ridiculous. I probably made 6 or 7 calls yesterday, and by the end of the day the battery had about 1/3 left. That's off a full charge the night before! I just don't know if the battery's gonna get me through a full day. I normally make A LOT more calls than 7. It was a "light" day yesterday in terms of calling.

We'll see. I hope the phone continues to do fine b/c I'm really liking it other than these things. Thanks to you guys, it's also able to do things I didn't think it could do. Like I mentioned, it takes a lot more steps, and it's a lot more complex to do things than on a SE phone. Hopefully I'll start to get used to it though.

 

This is great, if it meets your needs. However, remember that while the phone memory has multiple numbers per name, the SIM card does not. This means that if you want to transfer your address book to another phone via the SIM, it will not be a simple process. Also, the SIM can't act as an effective backup for your phone memory if you use multiple numbers per name.

You can do both of these things (transfer address book, backup) using Nokia's PC Suite software. Of course that assumes that the phone you are transferring to is a Nokia.

Sorry to complicate your 6131 joy, but I thought you might have missed the thread where we discussed various address book strategies.

Have fun!



SW

 

Thanks for the heads up, Steve. I figured it might be a problem when transferring to a different phone. It's a good thing I don't talk to a whole lot of people--ha ha.

I don't see an option for call time during a call, you know that says how long your call is. I know you can do the call summary after, but I'd kind of like to know the duration of a call while in progress.

Is there any way to do this? Thanks again in advance.

 

Glad that you got everything working. Acutally, I think the details in the 6131 manual are less than the 6230, so a lot of my knownledge around the nokia menus comes from past history. Perhaps reading the manual doesn't tell all anymore.

Those 6 or 7 calls must be plenty lengthy, not 1 or 2 minutes each. How many minutes do you estimate? It is a little odd that the battery should be so poor. Before I actually owned a 6131, I figured it was the drain from the super display. But, in fact, the display shuts down completely during the call, so the drain should be small. And normally, nokia's estimate of call times is pretty fair. So I wonder what is causing this for some people...lots of menu searching or FM radio, MP3 player? For me it's working out pretty good, but I'm not really a power user.

I've gotten into the habit of charging the phone in the morning, while I have breakfast and shower, instead of at night. Even a totally dead battery takes only 2 hours with the rapid charger.

So Maverick22, what was the total air time during those 6 or 7 calls? Does your 6131 allow you to chose manual or auto network selection? Some on Hofo said that improves battery life.

Concerning having a call timer during the call, how would you use that in practice? Take your ear from the phone to see the time on the display? Probably Nokia figures the same thing.

 

There are a lot of different tips to maximize battery life. Though even under the best energy saving tactics, it won't have great life. But it's usually enough for two days of normal use for me. And a whole lot better than my old Kyocera SoHo.

So, some of the things you want to make sure you have set right:

* Make sure bluetooth is off; Settings->Connectivity->Bluetooth->off
* Make sure Infrared is off; Settings->Connectivity->Infrared->select till off
* Don't use vibrate with ringtone; Settings->Profiles->[any you use]->Personalise->Vibrating alert->off
* Active standby uses more battery
* Animations use more battery (in themes, folds, displays)
* Turn Power Saver on; Settings->Main Display->Power Saver->on
and; Settings->Mini Display->Power Saver->on
* Setting ringer volume and earpiece volumes louder than needed use more battery

There's probably more suggestions than this, but some of these, like leaving bluetooth on, can burn up battery significantly faster.

Jim

 

They were probably 10-15 minutes each. I also did some searching through the menus, trying to do stuff in the settings and what not.

I tried manual, but I don't know what to do. It was searching for awhile or something, so I just canceled it. What is the difference anyways between manual and auto?

Yeah, on my SE phones, I would just quickly press a button to wake the screen up, take my ear away from the phone real quick & look at the call duration. Call me crazy, just something I've been used to.

Once again, thank you very much everyone for all the input!

 

Your welcome! and Thanks for the data points and quick reply. Nokia claims up to 3.4hours of talk time. If you're making 7 calls, averaging 13 minutes each that is 1.5 hours. If you have 1/3 battery left (assuming the batt indicator is linear, which it is not), then your total talk time might be 2.3 hours based on your numbers.

Just a guess.

On the auto/manual band thing, that idea is from some Hofo users, but a lot of the times the people over there don't know what they're talking about. My UK versions doesn't have this feature, but the idea is this: by using a manual lock on (to a carrier) you may prevent the phone from auto scanning for a better signal (which may not exist) and thereby same energy.

One example: you may be on a tmobile signal (where there is no cingular tower and roaming agreements exist), but the phone keeps looking for Cingular every 7-10minutes. By doing this, your consuming batt power.

In Manual mode, it should show the carriers in the area. Now if both Cing and Tmobile show up, for example, I'd keep it on Cing., but if there is no Cing, lock it to Tmobile, until you move out of the area. Worth a try, but it may not work for you...I have no choice with my UK version.

The stuff that Wildrock suggest is very helpful too. I keep BT off unless I'm in the car.

Again thanks for the numbers....this is the first time I have some real data points on battery life in terms of minutes. Of course the 3.4hour from Nokia is based on some blend of your style use of the phone...use more texting or the camera and the numbers will go down.

BTW, I switched my main wallpaper to a 'paris by night' photo: with changing the fonts to red, it looks pretty snappy. Also, the mostly black photo (except for the city lights), keeps the screen black and probably saves some power too.
enjoy, vf

 

Yeah, I rarely keep bluetooth on. I'm doing all the things suggested for maximum battery life (except for the manual network selection). Maybe I was fiddling around with the menus more than I remember.

Anyways, has anyone tried to set a 1MB pic for the external screen screensaver? I did this for a pic taken by my digital camera (and the pic looks awesome by the way--can't believe how sharp it appears on the phone), but it creates a lag when opening the phone. The main display takes about 2 seconds before it will display the screen. It's kinda weird, isn't it, how a screensaver on the external screen creates such a lag for the internal screen when opening the phone?

Has anyone else experienced this?