It seems like a lifetime ago, but it’s been just five years since Nokia ruled the smartphone roost. The Finnish handset giant offered devices for every pocket and purpose and, for the business minded, the candy bar Qwerty keyboard devices in the E Series range of phones were a great choice.
Now, Nokia has released a new model in the series, the E6, and although it has a number of redeeming features it leaves the inescapable impression that while it’s good it’s not good enough.
Arguably, the E71 was the high point in the series, offering enormous functionality in a compact device, complete with a Qwerty keyboard. But sadly, it’s been downhill from there, starting with the E71’s follow-up, the buggy E72.
The E6 is the follow-up to E5, which Nokia hoped would directly challenge BlackBerry. Considering how few of them we’ve seen in the wild, that bout clearly went to the Canadians. This time around, the competition is a little stronger. Aside from its pleasantly responsive keyboard, the E6 has a capable touch-screen display, an 8-megapixel dual-LED flash camera, as well as the latest version of Nokia’s Symbian operating system — it’s called Anna.
We’ll start with the good: the E6 feels and looks great. It’s a hardy device that looks like it could take a real beating. It comes with 8GB of on-board storage, and supports microSD cards up to 32GB. The screen is responsive and, considering its size, its resolution of 640×480 combined with the same pixel density found on the iPhone 4 is more than sufficient.
Also, the central directional pad beneath it has been returned to the press variety after the trackpad-like one found on the E72. There are also a couple of small but pleasing features on the E6, like the ability to turn on the dual-LED flash via the lock/unlock slider on the right-hand side of the phone. There’s also a car charger and a windscreen cradle included in the deal.
The E6 offers a variety of home screens, which can be customised with shortcuts and applications, the latter available via Nokia’s poorly stocked Ovi store. Arguably the most impressive thing about the E6 is its battery life, doubtless due in part at least to its diminutive screen. We left the device switched on and idle and found it still had 75% battery days later. Try doing that with any other smartphone!
Then there are the connectivity options. The E6 is as well kitted out in this department as you’d expect from a business-orientated device. It supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and fast 3G connections. It also has an accelerometer, GPS, a digital compass, a 3,5mm headphone jack and a microUSB port.
Browsing support is also somewhat improved by means of an updated, snappier browser, and support for pinch-zooming and a default zoom level enabled by means of a double-tap. Nevertheless, large pages still don’t seem to load as quickly as expected, and the size of the screen makes browsing taxing.
Nokia’s mapping applications have always been pretty decent, and the E6 takes it one step further by allowing users to download maps to their device for offline use — particularly great when roaming overseas.
Now, the bad. The most obvious downside of the E6 is that, in a sense, it’s already obsolete because it’s running Symbian. With Nokia expected to release its new line of Windows Phone 7-powered devices at the end of the year, the E6 interface feels dated, despite having had an overhaul.
Then there’s the problem of the screen. Sure, it’s responsive, it boasts the same pixel density as an iPhone 4, and the ability to navigate the user interface using either touch or traditional button presses is great, but as the screen is less than 2,5 inches, everything feels squashed and it’s all too easy to hit the icon or letter next to the one you’d aimed to.
The screen seems even smaller when one considers that the entire E6 is around the size of most touch-screen smartphones today and if you’ve got used to one of those, the E6 will certainly feel antiquated.
Although the camera boasts more megapixels than anyone needs, and while the dual-LED flash is a welcome inclusion, it lacks autofocus, meaning close-up shots of any sort — and particularly macro shots — are impossible. The E6 shoots video at 720p in a variety of formats, and does so fairly well, and in its defence the screen is fantastic when it comes to playing video content.
Perhaps the greatest letdown is the fact that it has the same 680Mhz processor found in its predecessor, meaning it’s been asked to do more without any more power. The result is a sluggish interface and an infuriating “loading” circle when running multiple applications.
TechCentral’s Craig Wilson reviews the Nokia E6 (via YouTube):
Looked at in isolation, the E6 is a respectably equipped device. But then Nokia has always made good hardware, particularly when it comes to its high-end devices. The problem with the E6, and frankly with most recent releases from Nokia, is the Symbian software.
Nokia’s Windows phones can’t get here soon enough.
The E6 is available for a recommended retail price of R4 499. — Craig Wilson, TechCentral
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