Nokia E65 - Anyone tried it in Japan?

[RyoHazuki]

Hi All,

I am currently an AU user but going to switch to Softbank in a few days.

I am going to get the Nokia N73 with a contract from Softbank.
I was wondering if I can take out the USIM off the N73 which I will get from Softbank and use it on the Nokia E65 which I am supposed to get very soon (it will come as sim-free) and use it in Japan.

Assuming I can do that, what features would I lose if I dont use a phone which was provided by the carrier itself. Do they have the software flashed into the phone or everything is kept on the USIM?

I would prefer to use the Nokia E65 with the Softbank USIM while I am in Japan and use my foreign SIM when I am on a business trip in europe.

Thanks in advance mates!
Chao!

[GomiGirl]

I haven't yet played with the Vanilla E-series with a Japanese SIM. However, from previous experience, you can swap the sims around no problem into an unlocked phone and also between locked phones from the same carrier.

HOWEVER, you will <probably> not be able to access the Softbank menus and you may have trouble setting up the access points for email, multimedia texting etc. This is the sort of thing that is flashed into the phone software - it is not kept in the SIM. Your phone number should work fine for calls and basic SMS's but am unsure about the data menu and the email services as these use proprietary gateways.

Probably using the browser you are going to be hit with roaming fees but again I am not sure how they are setting up the access points.

But as I said, you can use fine for texts, phone calls etc at the same rate.

[IkemenTommy]

Yep. As long as its not carrier locked, you can swap the 3G sim card.

The only problem is that you wont be able to input/read Japanese fonts and probably can't access the Yahoo menu.

It's still a great phone though as it has WiFi. You can install the portable skype software on it and you can make all the free calls. It's a pretty jesus phone.

[GomiGirl]

I think they are releasing a vanilla Japanese E-series.. that is a japanese language pack but not carrier locked. For sale in Japan. That is what I heard anyway but I may be mistaken.

[RyoHazuki]

I haven't yet played with the Vanilla E-series with a Japanese SIM. However, from previous experience, you can swap the sims around no problem into an unlocked phone and also between locked phones from the same carrier.

HOWEVER, you will <probably> not be able to access the Softbank menus and you may have trouble setting up the access points for email, multimedia texting etc. This is the sort of thing that is flashed into the phone software - it is not kept in the SIM. Your phone number should work fine for calls and basic SMS's but am unsure about the data menu and the email services as these use proprietary gateways.

Probably using the browser you are going to be hit with roaming fees but again I am not sure how they are setting up the access points.

But as I said, you can use fine for texts, phone calls etc at the same rate.

Cheers! thanks for your reply.

Actually, if wont be able to use the Email service it will be quite useless to me as I mostly use the keitai for mail and synching my appointments and tasks, i rarely talk.

I agree with IkemenTommy that the E65 is a jesus phone, the Wifi really appeals to me.

I guess Softbank reps wont be able to tell me whether they will be able to configure my phone if i bring it from abroad or so.

As for the japanese, I think that since the Nokia 6600 you can download a language pack for the symbian based phones, free of charge. Though, i need to chekc it out.

[RyoHazuki]

Just wanted to give a quick update.

I've been to thailand and hong kong looking for a Nokia phone that may work in Japan (I use Softbank). I've seen quite a few new models by nokia, some of them really appealed to me in spite of their hefty price tag.

However, I decided not to buy a mobile phone due to the fact that none of the phones had Japanese support. I was told they can install Japanese support only on the ..... N73 obviously.

The mobiles I considered were the N95 and E65.

I hope Softbank will decide to bring one of them so I can change it.

Cheers!