The Nokia E6 is the sequel to the Finnish firm's BlackBerry killer, the Nokia E5. Nokia has gifted this successor with a new operating system, a touch-screen display and an 8-megapixel camera, making it an excellent choice for dedicated mobile typists.
SIM-free, the E6 will set you back around £300, with monthly contracts expected to start at around £15.
Practice makes perfect
Despite its poor screen and less-than-stellar camera, we quite liked the Nokia E5. It boasted fantastic build quality and a great keyboard – two things that have thankfully been carried over to the E6.
Nokia's latest Qwerty-packing phone also benefits from seriously appealing design. From the lush metal bezel to the highly-responsive direction pad, everything about the E6 reminds you that for all its faults, Nokia is a company that certainly knows how to make fantastic hardware.
Symbian Anna works well enough, allowing you to edit the layout of your multiple home screens.
Although it's not the heaviest handset in the world, the E6 feels much more significant than its 133g weight might suggest. The device is so robust we'd be willing to bet it's capable of surviving plenty of nasty drops – although we're not brave enough to actually put this theory to the test.
Tapping keys
The keyboard has changed little from the one we so lovingly caressed on the E5, although the torch shortcut – which fired up the camera's LED flash and was mapped to the 'space' key – has been removed. Instead, holding down the lock switch on the side of the phone for a few seconds achieves the same result.
Because the E6 is sporting Anna – a modified version of Symbian^3 with heavy support for touch input – it should come as no surprise to learn that Nokia has included a capacitive touch-screen. The Gorilla Glass display has an impressive resolution of 640x480 pixels (double that of the E5), but at 2.46 inches, it's uncomfortably cramped.
The lock slider on the side of the E6 doubles as the shortcut to the phone's powerful LED Flash.
Still, the OS really comes to life with the addition of finger-friendly controls. Navigating the phone's menu system is much easier, and you've got the added bonus of being able to use the D-pad to select choices.
All about Anna
Although Anna (and Symbian itself) are on borrowed time following Nokia's commitment to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, the OS still provides a decent user experience. You have multiple home screens to play around with, and you can edit the layout of icons and live widgets. It doesn't rival the level of customisation that Android currently offers, but it's a step in the right direction.
It's a shame then that this likeable OS is handicapped by Nokia's decision to use a 600MHz processor in the E6 – the exact same one that was seen in the not-exactly-nippy E5. This choice means the phone grinds to a halt whenever you're loading up a CPU-hungry programme or moving between applications. Needless to say, E6 owners will need to get used to seeing the spinning circle 'loading' icon, as it seems to accompany practically every activity.
The E6 boasts an 8 megapixel camera, but the lack of auto-focus makes close-up shots difficult.
Like the vast majority of Nokia's phones these days, the E6 features support for the company's Ovi Store, a repository of applications and games that can be downloaded directly to your handset. You'll need to sign up for an account if you don't have one already, and don't go expecting the same selection of items that Android and iPhone users are currently enjoying.
Focus on this
Many will argue that the mobile megapixel race stopped being relevant many years ago, but Nokia still seems hell-bent on out-doing all of its rivals. The E6 boasts an 8-megapixel snapper capable of shooting 720p HD video. Image quality is decent enough, but the lens is fixed-focus – a bizarre choice with a megapixel count this high.
Like the predecessor, the E6 is gifted with above-average battery performance, and this makes it a great choice for those of you who don't like having your phone constantly connected to your wall charger.
It's also worth noting that the E6 comes with support for 3G and Wi-Fi, although the sluggish CPU can make viewing web pages and videos a jerky experience. Finally, we're pleased to report that pinch-to-zoom is supported by several applications on the E6.
Conclusion
The E6 is most definitely an improvement over the E5, offering a touch-screen interface, improved Symbian^3 'Anna' OS and a more robust and aesthetically-pleasing design. It's just a shame that Nokia didn't see fit to bolster the anaemic processor and add in an auto-focus camera.
The N6's natural rivals are the ageing (yet still popular) BlackBerry 8520 and the BlackBerry 8900, but the presence of a Qwerty keyboard puts it in direct competition with similar phones, such as the Android-powered Acer beTouch E210.
Compared to all of those devices, the E6 fares extremely well, and if you can put up with its faults you'll come away reasonably contented with your purchase
Edited by Jennifer Whitehead
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sonymad 23 April 2012
Good: Touchscreen and physical QWERTY keyboard Free Maps and sat nav with info Good 8MP camera Much faster web browser than previous Symbian^3 phones High build quality
Bad: Small screen No FM transmitter Disjointed messaging methods No dedicated Camera button Dictaphone/Voice Command button only works on long press
Comment: The Nokia E6 follows on from its E-Series QWERTY predecessors such as 2010's Nokia E5, providing the best E-Series camera yet, touch screen navigation and the home screen capabilities of the Symbian^3 platform.
The Nokia E6 is priced at £320, twice the price of its simpler sibling, the Nokia E5, but £80.00 cheaper than its weightier big brother, the Nokia E7.
When we compare the Nokia E6 with BlackBerry's offerings it is slightly cheaper than the non-touch BlackBerry Bold 9780, at £340.
When we compare sizes, the Nokia E6 (115mm x 59mm x 10.5mm) is slightly slimmer than the E5, while both are longer, but narrower and thinner than the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and narrower than the chunky BlackBerry Bold 9900.
If we then compare the weight, the Nokia E6 has a comforting weight of 133g, making it the heaviest of the bunch, with the Nokia E5, BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Bold 9900 weighing 126g, 122g and 130g respectively.
This increased weight contributes to the Nokia E6's feel of robustness and high build quality, rather than making it feel unwieldy.
Another area which is often compared is the processing power of these powerful phones, with the Nokia E6 sharing its 680MHz ARM11 processor and 2D/3D graphics hardware acceleration with the Nokia E7, beating the BlackBerry Bold 9780's 624MHz processor.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 with its 1.2GHz processor beats the Nokia E5 though. But, until the Bold 9900 becomes available for testing, we can't say whether this difference is worth the likely higher price.
The E6 is the first Nokia handset to come preloaded with Symbian Anna OS upgrade, providing numerous improvements over the initial Symbian^3 firmware installed on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia E7 and Nokia C6.
These include a faster web browser, improved text input, a split screen view during touchscreen typing, a portrait QWERTY for touchscreen typing, new icons and Ovi Maps 3.06 pre-installed.
The text improvements aren't visible on the Nokia E6, however, as all text input is achieved via the physical True-Type-esque keyboard. All of the other enhancements are present though.
Scrutiny of the OS improvements provided by Symbian Anna finds that the only real improvement on the Nokia E6 is the improved browser, as Ovi Maps can be downloaded separately for free and the new icons are available in Symbian next+ mentioned in the Interface section of this review.
TurboZutek 1 April 2012
Good: Processor is fine, good and snappy. Screen is very good. Speech recognition and message reader are great.
Bad: Music Player, Notification Light, WiFi performance not that good.
Comment: I've had Symbian phones right back to the N95 8GB; and I have to say with heavy heart that this new E6 is never near as good as the N95, E71 and E72 I've used :( There are so many features of this phone terribly thought out or barely tested.
The music player doesn't support M3U playlists (like every other one I've ever used, even my 5$ Chinese made 'singlong' player does that). The phone locks while playing music, which makes in car use a scary prospect, to add insult to injury. Music Player only sorts albums by an obscured MP3 embedded tag that no one uses; can't play by playlist or by folder.
The notification light is totally invisible and utterly useless. The 'social' application is terrible and while mail for exchange is decent, you'll be seeing "YOU CANNOT VIEW THIS EMAIL, USE YOUR WEB BROWSER" a lot with Yahoo! and Google. If I wanted to use a web browser, I would NOT have spent £300 on an email enabled smartphone!
So, as I say, some great points completely overshadowed by lots of half baked, half ar$ed 'features' which don't work. Hope Nokia pull the finger out and sort it in the next revision, because until then buying this phone you are really just an unpaid beta-tester.
tim freeborn 1 February 2012
Good: great keyboard, light, excellent mapping, batteey lasts and lasts
Bad: browser is poor in Anna. Belle is better
Comment: i also have an HTC desire Z. Its keyboard is unreliable and crude compared to the E6 and the battery is a joke. Armed with Belle the E6 should be fantastic.
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