Anyone Using Nokia E51 with BlackBerry Connect on Telstra?

[harps]

I noticed in the news papers last week (The Age) Telstra advertising the above noted NextG mobile phone with BlackBerry Connect.

I currently travel interstate on a monthly basis, often to regional/rural areas, and I'm starting to get sick of not having any service on my 2.5G Telstra BlackBerry Pearl whilst the field person I am with has full coverage with their Telstra NextG phones.

Has any one out their used this device yet? If yes how does it work compared to a traditional BlackBerry in terms of obtaining e-mails, syncing calendars, address books & task lists with a BES, etc?

And one final question, with this device being NextG would this mean that you not only can use as a phone but also send and receive e-mail in counties such as Japan? (Subject to phone being set up to work on DoCoMo network).

[GaryCutri]

I have a number of customers using the Nokia E51 via a BES and they have been very happy. They noted that it did take some time to get use to a normal phone keyboard again but now they are fine. The BlackBerry connect version on the E51 allows the following:

Full Email Synchronization
Calendar Synchronization
Contact Synchronization
Attachment viewing
Create/Send/Accept meeting request
Remote Address Lookup
Folder redirection
OTA Enterprise activation
Wireless Calendar bulk load
Various IT Policies supported

When you take a NextG device to Japan you need to manually change the network band to 2100 in order for it to work.

Also did you see the setup guide for the Nokia E51? Nokia E51 BlackBerry Connect Install Guide

[harps]

Does it allow you to file e-mails, view filed e-mails, etc?
Does it come with QuickOffice so you can view and edit word and excel files?

Your comment re switching back to a normal phone keyboard does scare me as I've got really used to the qwerty keyboard on the pearl.

Final question, does the blackberry connect work really fast with NextG service, or is this only a benefit for phone service and web access?

[GaryCutri]

Originally Posted by harps

Does it allow you to file e-mails, view filed e-mails, etc?
Does it come with QuickOffice so you can view and edit word and excel files?

Your comment re switching back to a normal phone keyboard does scare me as I've got really used to the qwerty keyboard on the pearl.

Final question, does the blackberry connect work really fast with NextG service, or is this only a benefit for phone service and web access?

I just setup an E51 on my BES and did some testing. It appears you can't file or view filed messages within your mailbox. The device will allow you to file items onto folders on your local device only. Also I have confirmed that you can't save or edit attachments that are received via the Blackberry service. With regards to speed it does seem faster but you would look at the E51 (The client downloaded in a few seconds and on edge it to 25 minutes) for it extended coverage benefits over its speed benefits.

[harps]

Thanks for the feedback.
If I end up switching across (subject to work thinking worthwhile doing so - which they are due to the large number of failing pearl devices receiving) I'll post my thoughts.

[BenLYP]

Just a follow-up to this topic...

I've just set up an E51 on our BES, and everything is working perfectly, except I can't find a way to Sync the Contacts.

When I try to Synchronise from within the Contacts by going to Options > Synchronisation > Start, it just says "Bluetooth is currently switched off. Switch On?"

In Options > Settings, there are options for setting up a new Sync profile, but I don't know what to put in there, and I wouldn't have thought I'd need to, as when I first activated the device on the BES, the Lotus Notes address book was successfully brought down to the device.

Any hints?

[GaryCutri]

Originally Posted by BenLYP

Just a follow-up to this topic...

I've just set up an E51 on our BES, and everything is working perfectly, except I can't find a way to Sync the Contacts.

When I try to Synchronise from within the Contacts by going to Options > Synchronisation > Start, it just says "Bluetooth is currently switched off. Switch On?"

In Options > Settings, there are options for setting up a new Sync profile, but I don't know what to put in there, and I wouldn't have thought I'd need to, as when I first activated the device on the BES, the Lotus Notes address book was successfully brought down to the device.

Any hints?

Hi Ben,

As you are using Lotus Notes you need to ensure that user has a "Roaming Profile" configured so that the names.nsf is on the server. Then once you activate the device all contacts will be wireless synced to and from the device. Let us know how you go or post back if this configuration is in place already.

Thanks,

Gary

[BenLYP]

Gary,

Yes, I can confirm that upon Enterprise Activation, the contacts were successfully synced to the device. But since then changes made to the address book have not been synced.

The user is setup as a roaming user, with their names.nsf on the server. All the PIM Sync settings are correct (path, server etc) and the Blackberry server has access to the names.nsf.

Cheers,

Ben.

[BenLYP]

UPDATE: I got it working.

I changed the PIM sync Address Book "Synchronization Enabled" setting from True to False, waited a few minutes, then switched it back to True, and straight away the address book changes came charging over the airwaves.

P.S. Please delete the other thread I created for this issue.

[GaryCutri]

Originally Posted by BenLYP

UPDATE: I got it working.

I changed the PIM sync Address Book "Synchronization Enabled" setting from True to False, waited a few minutes, then switched it back to True, and straight away the address book changes came charging over the airwaves.

P.S. Please delete the other thread I created for this issue.

Thanks for the feedback Ben.