Back not too long before Christmas, My-wife-the-shrink and I decided to upgrade our phones. Both of us had Sony-Ericsson z520as, and both of us despised them. Well, actually, the phones weren’t bad, but the software was terrible. I suspect it was awful to begin with, and after Cingular added their crippleware to the mix, it was truly execrable.

I was browsing the new AT&T site and discovered we were qualified for upgrades, so we decided to divest ourselves of the Sonys. We loved our old Nokias, so we settled on Nokia N75s — not free, but close, at $19.95 a pop for Symbian smartphones. Again, Shel didn’t care as long as it sounded good, and the Eldergnomie wanted to play. (We like to have the same phones in case one needs to use the other’s in an emergency.) We briefly considered iPhones, but it was way too much money for phones that aren’t even 3G-capable. Maybe next time.

Although the Nokias seem slightly flimsy in the hinge area, we’re satisfied overall. However, neither of us is enamored of the garbage AT&T (nee Cingular) loaded into them. The software defaults to the provider’s inferior portals, and are locked in to their services, the menu arranged to give prominence to anyplace you can spend money. They even hide the excellent browser built into the Symbian OS in favor of a cludgy one that uses more bandwidth (naturally), is slower, and has a lot of built-in links to online service offers, etc. that just get in the way, sort of like a Dell computer. The Symbian browser is buried in the Applications folder.

After playing around for a month with the data service (and canceling it) I pretty much had a feel for the phone, liked it (The sound and speakerphone are great!), and determined that it was worth the trouble to clean up the mess and turn it into an original-issue Nokia.

The first thing I had to do was request an unlock code from AT&T. Since I’ve been a customer — first of AT&T, then BellSouth, then Cingular, and now AT&T — since 1995, that was no problem. (Their policy is that you must have been a customer for 90 days.) I told them I wanted to travel outside the US and use local carriers, which is true. It took a couple of days to get a call from a nice lady, who then emailed me the code and instructions. Two minutes, and the N75 was unlocked.

Next step was to change the phone ID from AT&T’s to Nokia’s proprietary number, so that I could download an upgrade to the Symbian OS. This was accomplished by downloading the Nemesis Service Suite free application and following the directions. Another 2 minutes. (Be sure the phone is set to PCSynch Mode and, BTW, this should work with just about any AT&T branded Nokia, but don’t email me for instructions. Check out the online forums the way I did. It’s time you learned to use them.)

Next step is to use Nokia PCSuite to back up the phone. Back up everything. The Symbian upgrade will remove AT&T’s modified OS and replace it with the latest from Nokia, but it will format your phone in the process. DON’T FAIL TO DO A BACKUP! You have been warned.

After that, run Nokia Software Updater according to the instructions on the site. It will take 20 or 30 minutes, and you’ll need to use a cable connection. Make sure the phone is in PCSuite mode when you start.

When you’ve completed the above, your phone will be the same as if you’d purchased it at the Nokia store — which is to say, one Bare Nekkid Lady. Make sure it’s in PCSuite mode again, run Nokia PCSuite and restore the data you backed up, and you should be in business. Take a few minutes to look over the new GUI. It’s close to the same functionality as AT&T’s — with some added functions — but not exact, and it looks a bit different. The built-in themes rock!

Note 1: Your backup may not include AT&T’s game package. My games folder is empty, which is fine with me. Leaves more phone memory free. Also, the backup may hang up at about 80 - 90%. Wait about 10 minutes, and if nothing happens it’s finished. Close PCSuite, re-boot the phone, and all should be well. If not, repeat the restore process. DO NOT DISCONNECT THE PHONE WHILE PCSuite IS OPEN!

Note 2: I purposely didn’t go into detail about this process. You can find details on The Goggles Do Nothing, and several other online sources such as HowardForums.

Enjoy!