Nokia 6131 Review

Yes, I mean when the screen is gray. I know it's tiny, but i like the fine resolution of the screen. Mine showed 2 missed calls and a VM. A little color arrrow showed it was a missed call (and 2 of them) and then the VM icon. I had to leave my phone , so coming back to it, I could see that info without opening the phone. I thought Nokia was cool to give so much info on that screen.

I can see it ok, ...that 's why I'm called viewfly after all. :browani:

Well Maverick22, I'm glad your enjoying the phone...with all the help we have given, your not allowed to return or sell it off anymore

Charlyee, I have nothing to offer on your new problem!

 

Wish I could help you out here, Charlyee, but Chinook hasn't made their data services public yet, so no mms . They were supposed to a month ago, and their csr's have been through the training, but it still isn't public. Then I have to decide if it is worth the 2 year extortion agreement extension to upgrade my plan to one w/data. I'm already battling with them over moving my agreement date up to the date (without any signature from me) they gave me the crappy moto c139 for their move to gsm. I don't want to get locked in, particularly when my daughter will be leaving the state for college next year (companion line).

Jim

 

Sorry Charlyee. I'm afraid I'm no help either. I haven't taken the time to mess with the mms stuff. I'm too lazy to look at the costs of the messaging stuff, so just to be safe, I only text message. No one ever sends me mms either.

 

Tell me how to do that?

 

Hi Charlyee. I can't get to it today...I'm on travel this Weds.

But something occurred to me while chasing the chicken this morning when you said you can send a sound file that you recorded.

I think my memory is right on this: when I checked my PC suite backup log file, it said that it could not back up my ringtones because they were protected or rather copyrighted. Makes sense.

Is it possible that you can't MMS these copyprotected ringtones, but only your own? Did you try a short .mp3 that is unprotected? Maybe the parts that can't be sent or decoded are the protection keys.

I just a foggy thought this morning...

 

Hi everyone,

I was doing a little research on charging li-ion batteries, the kind in our phone.

It supports that charging frequently, without going to a dead battery, is the best way to preserve your battery (i.e. our morning charge cycle is a good way to go). Going to full discharge, although somewhat protected by the phone electronics, is not what Li-ion batteries like.

"A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 (full) discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges."

Also, the battery's lifetime decay starts the day of manufacture, so buying a 'fresh' battery, but an old one (or keeping it around as a unused spare) is not a great idea. So maybe those cheap OEM-like batteries I sometimes see, are outdated or old. Buyer beware!

But one thing I didn't know, regards the battery's charge Icon on the phone. I don't know if it is true for Nokia's but apparently it get recalibrated only with a full discharge. So the recommendation is to full discharge every 30 cycles (in our case once a month).

"Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate. "

It doesn't mean that the battery has less charge, only that the phone's battery meter thinks so...and this may turn the phone off early. I don't know for certain.

So the practice we have is a good one, but every month , let it go down to shut off. Whatever works, or at least beware this may be going on.

Reference: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

 

Thanks, I am going to change my charging habits now. I had found similar info, but never knew whether to believe it. It seems quite consistent with what you found.

http://www.cellpower.com/battery_tips.cfm#Lithium-ion%20Batteries

More amusing, but also consistent, articles are from a hardware reviewer in Australia. Fans of Blade Runner will find at least two references in the second one, no extra charge.

Dan's Quick Guide to Memory Effect, You Idiots
Hatin' on lithium ion


SW

 

Wikipedia has some info and it agrees with what my professional battery co-workers have told me : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-ion_battery#Guidelines_for_prolonging_Li-ion_battery_life

"A unique drawback of the Li-ion battery is that its life span is dependent upon aging from time of manufacturing (shelf life) regardless of whether it was charged, and not just on the number of charge/discharge cycles. This drawback is not widely publicized"

and

" Unlike NiCad batteries, lithium-ion batteries should be charged early and often. However, if they are not used for a longer time, they should be brought to a charge level of around 40%. Lithium-ion batteries should never be "deep-cycled" like NiCd batteries"

 

I know we started talking about this while discussing battery life on the 6131, but some of these references probably deserve to be copied to their own thread.

Will we remember, six months from now, that we were discussing lithium-ion technology in Charlyee's 6131 thread? Charlyee will have the Nokia N99 Supersmart HD Multimedia phone by then.



SW

 

Probably a good idea. I'll post a version somewhere. It might be already in the forums, but maybe a refresh would be worthwhile.

Good point about Charlyee...but I think she has reached one goal: a quad Nokia :wink:

Thanks.

 

SteveW,

I posted the info here: http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/g...58412-prolonging-battery-life.html#post407736

 

Cool, thanks.



SW

 

Yes, I know that the Nokia marketing department likes the word "device", but the problem with that is that my garbage disposal is also a device. Even though the N series devices are, as Nokia says, "multimedia computers", I'll be sticking with the word "phone".



SW

 

Yeah, Technically my '81 Buick is a "Mobile Device", but good luck trying to make calls with it.

-Jay

 

Read on Mobiledia that T-Mobile released the 6133 today. It includes the FM radio that would have been missing from the unreleased Cingular 6126.
I check T-Mo's site and ther it is!! There are slight differences from it and the Eurasian 6131, but it's still a beaut.

The price (with a 2 yr. contract) is $99.99. Not bad at all.

 

Thanks for this info. This has been much anticipated and now here it is, with FM! Are the keys different from the 6131? It looks like they are silver/metallic in the small picture on the T-Mo website, but it's hard to tell.

Not a bad contract price, however it doesn't seem to be available as a prepaid phone.



SW

 

I read somewhere (PhoneScoop review?) that there is no way on the 6131 to turn on the external screen clock display when it is in standby - that is, no external button does this. True?





SW

 

Thanks Charlyee - this is what I would expect, so I'm not sure what that user was talking about. On my LG CU500 the external screen goes totally black after a short while, but any button press turns the backlight on. I use this a lot since I don't wear a watch.

The review is here, dated Oct 10.


SW

 

Maybe I didn't understand what you meant in your earlier post about pushing the volume or power button and having the screen turn on. Are you saying it's not backlit, but reflective, like the original LCDs? If so, I guess it doesn't work in the dark, which may or may not be a disadvantage.

Now, now, it's just a gadget, let's not get emotionally attached or anything...


SW

 

OK, thanks, I think I got it now. Sounds like the different approaches are no big deal, functionally. I guess I'll just have to see how I like it if/when I get one.


SW

 

OK, this is interesting. On mine, in the time before the external screen has dimmed on the gizmo (gadget, phone... whatever), and after it has dimmed but hasn't locked the keypad, I have started pressing the power button once to bring up a list of profiles and the lock keypad and power off commands. I can scroll down a list of profiles and the lock keypad command by clicking the power button. Selecting one and then holding down the power button will activate the profile or command. It's how I switch profiles quickly now. I really like this feature!

Jim

 

Charlyee, on my phone, after the autolock kicks in (and the dimmed grey screen is present with the small fine digtial clock) hitting the power button will light up the external screen and shows all the antenna barrs, bigger digital clock, Edge icon, battery icon,etc. But other than that, the phone is still in auto lock. Hitting the other buttons only brings up a dimmed 'keys locked' text.

Ver. 3.7 is a little different than yours. Sorry, haven't been able to get to the ringtone MMS yet.