My Nokia E71 Story

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve been experiencing some problems with our new Nokia E71 device. It appears that the snooze option at the alarm clock is ‘unreliable when phone is switched off‘. We learned that the hard way, twice, by not waking up in time in the morning. The only thing I wanted to verify is whether the problem is model-related (all the E71’s in the world) or device-related (mine only). There’s a simple way to sort it out – by giving me a new device.

As a social media evangelist, I’ve decided to put the tools and services I know to the test, as I’ve done in the past. My cellular provider, Cellcom, received low score for not monitoring this space, failing to reply to my updates and twits. After 3 separate visits to the lab, trying to figure out what the problem is, a friend suggested I’ll ring Amos Shapira, Cellcom CEO, who in an effort to imporve customer service opened up a dedicated line for customers with a complaint. Recently they started showing some improvement, as my friend Hillel outlines.

As for me, during my 3rd visit to the lab on Tuesday, I was contacted by one of Cellcom account manager, as my number is a business account. When she heard I’m at the lab, she rang the lab manager, and 20min later I had a new Nokia E71 (that I’ve asked for from the beginning) in my hand. The next day a Cellcom rep called me back, following the voicemail I left at Amos’s phone, asking if the problem was solved with the new E71 and if there’s another device I might consider.

So, although it took 3 trips to the lab and numerous calls to the customer service, I finally got my request. I hoped Cellcom would have reached me earlier, as I was pretty annoyed during my previous visits to the lab, and my updates proved it, but hey, you can’t have it all.

BTW – the problem still happens. If you set the alarm clock and shut off your phone for several hours (like at night), the snooze won’t work. Changing sim cards hasn’t solved it, but I will try setting the alarm without any sim card (same as the lab technician did in my 2nd visit – and obviously the snooze worked fine) and let you know the result.

And here’s the proof for Nokia developers: set the clock for 07:30 and shut the phone off. Come 07:30 the alarm rang, I hit ‘snooze’ and the phone should have ranged again at 07:35. It didn’t. When I turned the phone on (manually, not the alarm) you can see the time is 08:04, but the phone thinks it’s 07:35, which means ‘snooze time’. A work around is leaving the phone on but putting it at ‘flight mode’, which shuts down all connections (cell/wifi/gps). If you hear of a possible solution, give me a heads up.

17 Responses to “My Nokia E71 Story”


  1. 1 Albert Buendia May 29, 2009 at 09:33

    Hi Dvir Reznik. I’ve just configured my new Nokia E71 with Lotus Traveler and works fine. I will check your comments and feedback you. Regards, Albert Buendia.

  2. 2 Dvir Reznik May 29, 2009 at 23:54

    Albert,

    My post is focused solely around the alarm clock function. Although I haven’t tested Lotus Traveler on the E71 (worked fine on my N95), I’m positive you’ll be pleased.

    And thanks for your comment.

  3. 3 Yoav Wasserman May 30, 2009 at 23:52

    Hi Dvir,

    As for the Alarm problem, try switching to “off line” profile instead of switching the phone off. works for me.

  4. 4 Dvir Reznik May 31, 2009 at 08:18

    We did that Yoav, it’s the work around I talked about. But it’s not a solution. Would expect Nokia to address it in the next firmware.
    And thanks 🙂

  5. 5 Yoav Wasserman June 1, 2009 at 00:47

    Hmm, should read till the end … 😉

  6. 6 Albert Buendia June 2, 2009 at 09:56

    Hi Dvir,

    This weekend I tested the alarm clock feature shutting down the phone. Next day my Nokia E71 started correctly and the alarm clock worked fine. I will test more times and feedback you. Do you know how can I check my Nokia's telephone firmware? I went to Menu-> Help -> About and I saw S60 Model:Nokia E71-1 (Nokia 2008) and some licence about Java but nothing about the current Firmware. Anyway, Mr. Vlad blogged about NOT upgrading the firmware here -> http://www.vlaad.lv/lotus.nsf/dx/nokia-e71-new-firmware-200.21.188 and there were some comments about alarm clock here > http://vowe.net/archives/009914.html

    I'm sorry you have problems with the alarm clock feature. Anyway, my wife and me have noticed a lot of phones (Sharp, ….) have problems with the alarm clock feature when the phone is shutted down. Sometimes they start well and sometimes don't. I think it's a bug not only related to Nokia's phones.

  7. 7 Dvir Reznik June 4, 2009 at 11:22

    Albert,

    Thanks for updating me and taking the time to check the problem yourself. Not sure if you checked only the alarm clock (which works fine) or the snooze option of the alarm clock (which doesn't work). In my post I referred to the snooze option, not working when the phone is switched off.

    I have the N95, before that the 6233 and the 6230i – all worked fine. Only the E71 is showing this problem. I linked to Nokia Forums where you can see that the problem is known – but still no solution in sight. Hopefully Nokia will address this in the next firmware.

    Also, I haven't heard of other cell devices (Samsung, LG, SE) that have such a problem. Some 7 years ago I experienced the same problem with the Nokia 3230, one of the first Symbian-based phones Nokia released. I'm guessing the E71 problem originates at the OS.

    Thanks again, Dvir.

  8. 8 Anonymous June 7, 2009 at 21:41

    Same problem here with snooze on a switched off Nokia E71… I also learned this the hard way by not waking up 🙂

  9. 9 Dvir Reznik June 8, 2009 at 16:31

    Yap, that sucks..
    Put it at 'offline' until Nokia do something about it.

  10. 10 P June 13, 2009 at 09:30

    I've got the same problem with my E71. It really bugs me out. Too bad that what seems to be a minor thing to fix makes me wanna throw another wise great phone away.

    Cheers from Sweden

  11. 11 Dvir Reznik June 13, 2009 at 20:24

    I can understand what you mean..
    The E71 is a powerful business phone, too bad the alarm clock snooze ruins the overall satisfaction.

    Hope Nokia will release a fix soon.

  12. 12 Dvir Reznik June 13, 2009 at 20:25

    I can understand your frustration. The E71 is an excellent business phone, too bad the alarm clock snooze ruins the overall satisfaction. I do hope Nokia will release a fix soon.

  13. 13 Anonymous August 5, 2009 at 13:18

    I have the same problem. The snooze was working fine until I did a software upgrade.

    Also I seem to recall before I could adjust the length of time snooze was set for but the new software wont let me do it now… or am i remembering an old phone

    E71 is a great phone but I cant live without snooze

  14. 14 Dvir Reznik August 5, 2009 at 17:06

    We bought the phone with the most recent firmware so there was no option to 'downgrade'.
    Do hope Nokia will address this issue in the next release, or fix it all together in the E72/75 coming up this summer.

  15. 15 Anonymous October 6, 2009 at 18:36

    I have the same problem with my Nokia e71. I saw they released a new firmware: v300.21.012 but i cant see a mention of a fix.

    Does anyone know if it is included? Or does Nokia just not care about us :p

  16. 16 Dvir Reznik October 8, 2009 at 09:55

    I haven't seen that fix, quite frankly wasn't looking for it either.. I don't believe Nokia are considering the alarm snooze as a bug – so probably no fix in this release.

  17. 17 Anonymous October 30, 2009 at 23:14

    Hi Dvir,

    The answer is to set it back to factory settings. Had the same issue and then after I did that everything works.

    Sam


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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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