Nokia 6301 user tips

I got a Nokia 6301 a few weeks ago (Fido) and thought I would make this thread for people to swap information about this nifty phone.

The first problem I had was in opening the 6301 to put in the battery and Sim card. The case was hard to open and the official instructions were not helpful! They show a person pressing down on the center of the battery cover and that didn't work at all, I was afraid I would break or bend something.

Eventually I found that the trick is to press in and then down on the edges of the battery cover about 1 cm above the bottom, as shown in this image:



This phone does not get a lot of talk time from the battery, like the similar Nokia 6300. Maximum 3.5 hours talk time, so daily charging (or more) is almost mandatory.

Here is a trick to extend the battery life between charges.
In the Settings / Display menu, make the following adjustments:
Screen saver Off
Power saver Off
Sleep mode On

The above settings will cause the display to go totally black after 2 minutes, to reduce the drain on the battery. If you turn Power Saver On, it will use too much battery power to maintain a constantly-on partially visible display screen (like always leaving a few lights on in your house).

Turning off the Wi-Fi radio and BlueTooth will also extend the battery.