Nokia 6131 Review

Yes, and if there is a URL inside a SMS, then going to Options lets you use that and it will open the Nokia web brower and go directly to the URL.

That Options function inside the SMS also lets you select other details, like a phone number within the SMS, or email address. That helped me when I SMS-googled to search for a pizza place,and I didn't have a pencil to write down the number. I just hit Options and it used the number!

I never used iTap much. At first I thought it was confusing with the word guessing feature, but I can see how it would be nice. So far the UK english has not been a problem, not with Voice dialing either...no need to use an english accent.

btw, have you tried using spanish and the voice dialing feature?? I assume that all the lang available work with voice recognition.

 

Yep...that is really intuitive. I first used those options in my old V400. The Motorolas also have those features.

Oh yeah....once you go iTAP, you never go back!

hehe....that's a good idea. I changed both the phone and the playback language to Spanish and it is a little challenging because it expects you to pronounce all your contacts in Spanish as well, so since my contacts are mostly in English that was a challenge to pronounce something written in English with Spanish pronounciation....LOL! For instance, if you have "Mike" in your phonebook you have to say "meekeh" in order for the phone to recognize it. One thing I noticed that what matters is changing the phone language, not the playback language. The phone language is what changes the way the voice commands are recognized. The voice playback merely changes the way contacts are read back to you. One thing I thought was odd was that after I changed the languages back to English, I could pronounce the same contacts in either language and the phone would recognize them anyway! I thought that was amazing. I guess the phone just learns them and remembers for the next time you call those names again. If only T9 was that smart!

However, the names in my phonebook that are natively in Spanish worked pretty well when pronounced correctly in Spanish. I also noticed that when changing languages you can't use the voicedial right away. You have to give it a minute or so while it auto-trains itself. If you try to use it before the training is done, it will display a Stop error message saying that voice training is in progress. You really don't have to do anything because I guess it just self trains in the background.

 

Cool

What a nice phone! The native voice commands, must work in spanish well too then.

BTW, I just discovered two voice commands: audible signal bar and audible battery bar. Whenyou say them, the phone beeps a number corresponding to the level, i.e. three beeps means 3 bars. very cool

 

I also thought that the spanish pronunciacion was funny because it uses European Spanish pronunciation (from Spain) much in the way it uses British pronunciation for English.

As for the audible signal and battery bar, wouldn't it be quicker and much easier just to glance at the screen? geez! LOL!

BTW, did you know you can change the voice commands to whatever you want? I changed the "Call Voicemail Box" to just "Voicemail". It makes more sense to me that way. So for instance, you can change the "audible battery bar" to "battery level" if you like, by just editing the text. It's a very neat feature. I wish you could add more links to any menu or feature in the phone, but I guess it is limited to those available there, unless there is some hidden way to add other voice commands to it.

 

The battery life seems pretty good for me. I guess I got used to the mediocre battery life I had on the V635 because the 6131 seems to last longer per charge. Yesterday I started the day with full charge, spent some time playing with the phone, did some internet, used Google Maps for a while, listened to music over the Bluetooth headset for like an hour, and talked on the phone over 2 hours total, half of that time was using the Bluetooth headset as well. By the end of the night the battery was getting low, but not on the low battery warning yet. If I was to do the same on the V635 the battery would be dead by then.

Another thing I really like about this phone is the ability to install and run applications and run themes residing in the MicroSD card, like the Treos do. That frees up your internal memory.

By the way, for those of you interested, a friend from HoFo told me that the 5.5 firmware fixes the incompatibility issue trying to connect to Motorolas over Bluetooth. That might be a good incentive for me to venture on this upgrade because most people I know either have RAZRs or V551, or some other Motorola.

 

Chinook just added the 6126 to its phone line. I'll have to ask them if it comes unlocked. Maybe they've fixed the VMI issue on my 6131 and I haven't noticed it yet, due to my having text messages sent instead, or maybe the 6126 will have problems. Nice move though, except I won't be the only one in town with a 6126/31/33 line of phone anymore :biggrin: . Maybe I can find someone to test out the Sensor with. Anyone else used the Sensor function? Methinks it is just a fancy way to advertise at singles clubs, judging by the promo on the nokia asian site. :browani:

 

I actually deleted that Sensor thingy. Takes up space I can use for something else. I have found this phone lacks internal memory. It could use a few megs more. Just dumping everything I had in the V635's internal memory almost filled up the 6131 so I had to delete some stuff to leave some free space.

BTW, have any of you been able to perform a search in the MediaNet home page? Every time I try that it says Memory Full. My phone has 1.9MB free. Besides I don't know why the phone needs that much space to just perform a search.

 

Busy day here getting ready for Thursday.

I don't think I've tried searching with MediaNet before. But I get the same 'Memory Full' message as you do. I have 2.8 Mb free.

It's good that the battery life is matching your cell life. I know that was important to you. It seems that your experience is matching up with other users here.

LOL, I agree with the audible battery/signal alert. I suppose if your hands are busy and your on BT in the car, it could be used. I've already changed a few voice command too. It sounds to me that you've been going through all the phone feature in the shortest period of time!

Charlyee, a BlackJack now? - Your taking a gamble - you need professional help! I'm a professional, so send me your phones for a few weeks , and give yourself a rest. My 6230 now has become my 'work' phone, ie when raking leaves and other dangerous activities.

I find that T9 is used by most applications, Nokia mail, Gmail, etc. that I need. Except for web address entries, of course.

So fellow 6131 users, have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. Show off your phone to your extended family, but don't drop it in the gravy!

Best,
vf

P.S. Today's mail brough a letter from Cingular. "your such a great customer, here is a $50 card to use at your local company store for new phones or accesories. Only need to reup for 2 years again. I'm thinking about getting my wife a Razr to replace the V551 that we've been having problems with the charger plug. That would bring the price down to $29.

 

That's true....I want to make sure everything is ok before the return period expires which is 14 days.

I think I wouldn't mind having a job as a phone tester. I love that stuff!

 

No sarcasm intended but that sounds like a Nokia trait, I got the same message on my 6230 every time I tried to do a search on Media Net.

 

Yep...so far there seem to be two bugs: failure to transfer files with Motorolas, and now the 'memory full' error message on MediaNet search.

 

Couple that with reading a good detailed manual and i'm with you!

P.S. What is searching within MediaNet? Does it search the web or only MediaNet content? Searching with Google inside Opera Mini works fine, and with T9 prediction too. That covers the whole web.

 

Charlyee, did I miss something?

When did you change your avatar to the Samsung Blackjack (I believe)? Are you leaving the 6131 fan club?

ha ha

 

I have yet another reason to upgrade to 5.5. My phone is rebooting sporadically. Yesterday, I was watching a video I loaded on the memory card and about a minute into the video the phone suddenly rebooted. Tonight, I took a picture with the camera and the phone rebooted while the phone was saving it, so that picture file was corrupted and lost. In the past couple of days I have had other reboots while using the Internet, Google Maps or Opera Mini. I get a sudden reboot about once a day while doing different things. So 3.7 is definitely an unstable firmware.

 

I've had only 1 reboot that I can recall in the last 3+ months with this phone. I have 3.7 too. But by all means give 5.5 a try...I'd like to know how it goes. Would you use www.iunlock.com? I spend a lot of time up in Boston, where they are located, and have a walk-in while-u-wait service at the Prudential building (according to the web pages). So based upon your results, I would give it a try...only $35. Plus, very little down time!

The web pages say they can only flash at equal or higher versions, but not downwards. Does that mean there is no return to 3.7? Also, they claim that they cannot unlock 6131s yet. Odd. But mine is already unlocked, so that is a mute point.

 

I get reboots more often than you, but how often do you use the features that I use? I am looking into upgrading the firmware myself. I have the tools and the links with information on how to do it. Once I get a change to install everything that's needed and to read all the instruction I will do it.

Also, tonight I paired with a Samsung D807 and Sony Ericsson Z520a and both did a Bluetooth file transfer in both directions with no problem. I guess the problem is only with Motorolas.

 

That would be great if you can do it yourself. Why doesn't Nokia offer this service directly?

Anyhow, I check email about 5 times a day and have been web surfing about the same(google maps, gmail,and opera). I've taken over 100 photos with the phone, in the beginning a good dozen per day. SMS is on a daily basis too.

I'm not much into the video part, only a few of those.

I agree with Charlyee, I will wait a bit, considering I don't have any problems yet. But since it is so easy to have done in Boston,and the cost is low, I have to admit that the temptation is there. I'll have to google around to see what Nokia recommends. So far I haven't read of anyone buying a 6131 that came with 5.5

 

Oh yes, sure. Not much regarding fashion, but the 6230 with the 3 covers I have for it now (one pristine, unused), makes a great phone for knocking around the beach, fishing, and other activities like that. Its small enough to fit into the jeans pockets and I don't care about anymore nicks on it.

The 6131 is my main phone of course.

 

I can see your 6131 friends will need to get together and give you an 'interventon'

I really never use my pda anymore. When I look at the smart or pda phones, I get all excited, but then the reality sets in, and the feeling passes. Most times my pda sits in my briefcase, with the alarm going off and the battery dying. I find it too big to carry around, and the phone makes a good subsitute for the most important feature, the calendar.

Unlike Bobo, I look at my phone's mini screen so often during the day, I don't need an alarm to alert of a missed call: I see it pretty quickly.

I've taken my primary phone all sorts of places. But now that I have a nice 6230 as backup, I can enjoy it and don't have to worry if my hands are full of fish slime before I answer a call - or worse if it gets dropped in the river! I just need a phone during those times, nothing more fancy than that!

I saw the Blackjack today. It is a nice phone. I thought the keys a bit tiny and some other things. I would wait for a phone with non domestic UTMS, to go along with the QuadGSM, if I was in the market though.

Well lets not turn this into a non-6131 thread!

 

The problem is when you get spoiled with something, it's hard to go back to the old habits.

The Motorola V400 was the first phone I had with missed call/VM/SMS reminders, followed by the V635. So now I guess I have to get used to not to have those reminders. Not a big deal to me really.

 

Hmm, the screen size would be too small, which is one of the deflects of the 6230. Given that battery capacity is a function of volume, a thin phone would probably need to grow in another direction too.

I wouldn't give up the 6131 too fast.

BTW, how does one multitask with a phone like the Blackjack? I mean when scanning through excel spreadsheets while on the phone, esp in an area where using the speakerphone is not possible?

 

I would say that multitasking is a weak point on the 6131. The Motorola allowed me to leave J2ME apps in the background while using any other feature of the phone, like the media player or the Motorola web browser, making phone calls, etc. It also allowed me to go to the messages inbox and send and receive messages while running the web browser, although I could not do anything else. On the 6131, I have to close the web browser in order to open any new messages. Probably receiving phone calls is about the only thing I can do on the 6131 while using a J2ME app or the Nokia browser. Oh! and also the media player or the FM radio can be running in the background on the 6131, but the J2ME programs or the Nokia browser have to be closed if you want to do anything else on the 6131. However, one nice thing is that you can close the flip and the apps will stay open.