Nokia E6 review: The E spirit

Introduction

Don't let your E71/72 smartphone read this. No, it won't have a heart attack or anything. But you don't want it suddenly feeling sad and useless. You certainly realize the E71/E72 duo is getting old and rusty. Like it or not, it's time to move on.

The Nokia E6 will not take No for an answer. A super crisp VGA touchscreen, the finessed Symbian Anna, the strong messenger bloodline and the stainless steel armor are a tempting combination. The package will make long-time Eseries users feel right at home and cheer the upgrades.

Nokia E6 official photos

Touchscreen or D-pad is not a decision you're forced to make. It will come naturally instead. Where the small screen won't allow the required level of touch precision, the D-pad will fill in. Five homescreen panes to fill with shortcuts and widgets will do better than the good old Active Standby with alternative setups for business and leisure.

Most importantly though, to even the most old-school of Eseries loyalists, touchscreen will be a fair price to pay for finally upping the screen resolution to acceptable levels.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA
• Symbian Anna OS
• Messenger bar, stainless steel body, four-row QWERTY keyboard
• 2.46" 16M-color capacitive TFT touchscreen of 640 x 480 pixel resolution; Gorilla glass protection
• 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
• 8GB internal storage, 1GB ROM, microSD card slot
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• Digital compass
• 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash, 720p video recording @ 25fps; geotagging, face detection, smart zoom in video
• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port, USB-on-the-go
• Flash and Java support for the web browser
• Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
• Smart dialing and voice commands
• DivX, XviD and Matroska video support
• Social network integration
• Office document viewer and editor
• Excellent battery life
• Excellent audio quality

Main disadvantages

• Symbian Anna is still catching up with Android and iOS
• The tiny touchscreen has no room for big fingers
• Fixed-focus camera
• Relatively limited 3rd party software availability

This phone seems to have almost everything - well, save for HDMI and an actual life-size touchscreen. But we're talking Eseries and the E6 is the business. It feels like Nokia really wanted to rekindle the magic. The E6 makes the E72 look like a routine, cursory attempt at an update. Where the E72 wanted quietly keep on cashing in, the E6 is keen to make a difference. A tall task indeed, considering the times.

Nokia E6 live shots

Let's waste no more time on the introduction and cut to the chase. Follow us on the next page for our traditional hardware inspection.