Nokia’s E series has always managed to pull off the business look phones giving close competition to their QWERTY counterparts from Blackberry. With Nokia E71 being a hit among the masses, now we have a new breed called the Nokia E6. Although the Nokia E72 didn’t hit it off as well as expected, but how about this phone? Is it going to be a winner?

Nokia E6

Design

In a head to head fight with the Blackberry phones, the Nokia E6 is a candy bar phone with a QWERTY keyboard. Tipping the scales at 133g and measuring in at 115.5 x 59 x 10.55 mm it’s not exactly the lightest devices out there, but at the same time, it doesn’t pull you down either. Its solid design added with the sturdy black plastic and chrome bezel finish makes it a classy phone too. The phone comes with a tiny 2.46 inch touchscreen display that runs at a resolution of 640 x 480. There are a few buttons on the front, namely the send/end, home, calendar, mail and contacts buttons plus a D-pad in the middle Although the D-pad doesn’t double as an optical trackpad like on the Nokia E72, it’s definitely not something we missed. The QWERTY keyboard although not as spread out as on the HTC ChaCha, has been given a matte finish as well as a progressively backlit LED illumination which is controlled by the light sensor found above the display. On the top you find the 3.5mm standard audio jack and the microSD slot. On the right are the volume key and the voice command buttons. Underneath these buttons on the right is the physical lock slider while on the left side is the microUSB port. Flip the Nokia E6 and there’s an 8MP EDoF camera with dual-LED flash waiting to be discovered.

Nokia E6 front view

Features

Unlike the other smartphone makers out there, Nokia isn’t really too keen on keeping up with the processor race, although it’s hard to understand why. Anyway, the ARM11 processor which runs at 680MHz is the core to this phone. This may have contributed to some of the lags we had while testing the phone. Nokia also throws in a 256MB RAM which isn’t up there with the rival phones either.

The recent announcement by Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop that the Windows Phone is due to take over from the Symbian OS, it’s with a sad tone that we inform you that the Nokia E6 runs on the Symbian 3. Although it is the latest version, the fact that it will be phased out in a few years doesn’t make it so appealing. However, the OS did boast better UI as well as streamline Nokia Maps. Adding on to that was the boosted browser and various other tweaks aimed at business users. The homescreen comes with the option of having 5 panes the widget positioning is still the same. However, due to the ultra tiny screen each pane could only fit 3 widgets.

Nokia E6

Although we might have mentioned the screen being small at 2.46 inches, we have also mentioned time and time again that we should never judge anything by its size. The display on the Nokia E6 runs at a resolution of 640 x 480. Do the maths and this means 326 pixels per inch! This is the same as iPhone 4’s Retina Display. So it’s obviously got some real vibrant and clear colors that were a delight to the eye.

Nokia E6 1

Nokia has definitely made its mark by making brilliant cameras for phones. However, with some models, Nokia introduces the EDof full focus optics cameras that we are not so sure about. If the performance on the Nokia E7 wasn’t bad enough, the Nokia E6 has kept the bad elements. With this phone, it’s an 8MP EDof camera with dual-LED flash. Most of you might already know the weakness of the EDof camera, but for those of you who don’t it’s the macro photos. However, when it came to photos from a distance, the results were much better with the colors appearing accurate and clear. As for the video recording capabilities, the Nokia E6 is capable of taking 720p videos in H.264 format at a rate of 25 fps. However, the fact that there’s no HDMI output is rather sad.

With the Nokia E model phones, the internet browser is something that needs a mention as it’s what most people look for in these phones anyway.  The browser has been updated making it faster than browsers on the older Symbian OS. The fact that it supports Flash is a plus point too. Although the screen is small, but panning around the webpage was a breeze. Besides, pinch-zooming support together with the trademark double-tapping zoom feature makes it all the more fun to use.

Nokia E6 2

The Nokia E6 had no problems when it came to call quality as it didn’t drop a single call, much to our delight. There were also no issues with the earpiece as it was loud and crisp. The person on the receiving end informed us that they could hear our voice clearly too. Speakerphone doesn’t disappoint too. The 1500mAh battery was also a great deal. It was able to give us up to two days of battery life without needing a recharge with average use.

Nokia E6 3

Pros and Cons

The improved browser together with the full QWERTY keyboard was two really great things about this phone. Adding to that was the awesome battery life of the Nokia E6.

The small screen was probably one of the downsides to this phone. The camera’s inability to take macro photos wouldn’t go to well with some users too.

Conclusion

When compared to the other Nokia candybar handphones that have hit the market previously, the Nokia E6 is definitely a breath of fresh air. Nokia could have done more with the screen size but then again, it’s got it plus too. So at the end of the day, it’s a pretty neat phone to use.

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