Nokia E6 review
Nokia has been all over the news this year. Not so much because of revolutionary new devices, but more because of interesting (and slightly controversial) decisions to partner with Microsoft and begin producing Windows Phone 7 phones.
In light of this, it’s more than a little interesting to see a new Nokia Symbian phone being released.
What’s in the box?
Smartphone makers have taken a very minimalist approach with regards to packaging without sacrificing much of the actual packaged materials. At first glance, the Nokia E6 seems to shy away from this movement, but for an obvious reason.
Inside, you’ll find the usual: phone, charger, data cable and headphones, along with a decent quality pouch. However, in a second compartment inside the box lies the answer to the size conundrum: a car dock and charger.
This is a great addition for those who like to use a car dock for their phone, or for those who would just like the comfort of knowing they have the option to.
Hardware
Internally, there’s nothing particularly amazing about the Nokia E6’s hardware.
It’s powered by a 680MHz ARM 11 processor, with 256MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage space that’s expandable by 32GB via microSD, while HSPA (up to 10.2Mbps), WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 fill up the connectivity side of things.
The screen is slightly out of the ordinary in that it’s a 2.46” display on a mobile phone with a portrait keyboard and has a resolution of 640×480, which is quite high for a phone in its class.
Oh, and the kicker: It’s a capacitive touchscreen.
Nokia E6
Design and build quality
Covering the battery and SIM card is a stainless steel backplate that pops off easily thanks to a switch below it. Above that are the loudspeaker and 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash.
On the left is the microUSB port, covered by a protective flap. The right side holds the volume buttons, a voice command activation key and the screen lock switch.
On top is the power button, 3.5mm headset jack, and an easily accessible microSD card slot, while the bottom only contains the charging port. The charging port is more than a little confusing, as the E6 also appears to charge via microUSB.
The top is slightly slanted towards the back which results in the headset connector being able to move ever so slightly, causing sound to switch erratically from stereo to mono and vice versa.
Screen and responsiveness
The screen quality was surprisingly good. The higher resolution really shined through here as colours appeared clear and clean, while text was crisp. You probably wouldn’t want to read books or extremely large articles on it, but for email, texts, social networking and the like it’s excellent.
Responsiveness was also quite good, though it became clear after a while that some controls are just too small to confidently use on the smaller screen. Some dialogs and buttons required precision that fat fingers just can’t achieve.
Sound and call quality
Sound quality through the on-board speaker was good, but like with most phone speakers it’s nothing spectacular.
The bundled earphones offered surprisingly rich sound quality and were much more comfortable than those packaged with other manufacturer’s phones.
Call quality was acceptable: recipients reported clear sound on their side, and incoming sound was good too.
Keyboard
The Nokia E6 has a 4-row portrait QWERTY keyboard with each key slightly raised.
It takes some getting used to and even then virtual keyboards on, admittedly higher-end phones, handle better. The keyboard on the E6 is also not as easy to type on as most Blackberry devices. That’s not to say it’s bad, more that it has a way to go before it can start rivalling the top dogs.
Camera
The rear-facing 8 megapixel camera is capable of taking fairly good shots in both well-lit and low-light situations – the latter thanks to the dual-LED flash that substantially brightens a scene. However, it does lack autofocus.
The lack of autofocus is a problem if you want good quality (read: non-blurry) close-ups, but it’s not much of a problem for the occasional happy-snap.
On top of good pictures, the Nokia E6 can also capture almost stutter-free 720p video. For the most part, video capture is high in quality and detail.
Battery life
Battery life was excellent in day-to-day use.
With either a WiFi or 3G connection on, reading and writing some emails and texts, checking social networks, browsing, and listening to music, the Nokia E6 made it through 2 days and still had some life left. Leaving it idle drained very little power.
Software and performance
The Nokia E6 comes packaged with a host of applications, though the most notable update is to the underlying Operating System itself, Symbian Anna.
Symbian Anna brings a few new features. Firstly, you have five new home screens that you can customise with shortcuts and widgets and (finally) scrolls with your finger swipes instead of having a pause between swipe and transition.
There’s also an improved browser and some more interface enhancements, but in use it still felt antiquated next to competitors like Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7.
Other pre-installed software includes QuickOffice, World Traveler, JoikuSpot Premium (a mobile hotspot application) and F-Secure Mobile Security as well as Nokia’s other services like Ovi Music, Maps and their own instant messenger. Nokia certainly doesn’t lack in the bundled services department, though not as much can necessarily be said of its Ovi Store.
In the area of performance, the Nokia E6 is let down by its rather mediocre processor and RAM specifications. Applications take much too long to launch and switching between more than two at a time is an activity fraught with frustration.
On occasion, with Mail open in the background and Social open in the foreground, it also happened that clicking a link in Social would bring up a message saying that the maximum number of connections has been reached.
Conclusion
In the end, the Nokia E6 failed to impress on many levels. It does some things well, but not much – if at all – better than competitors.
At a price around R4,500 it gets even harder to recommend the Nokia E6 over other, higher-end, smartphones in the same price range.
The Nokia E6 is worth including in your list of possibilities, but my guess is that it won’t be your final decision.
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