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An In-Depth Review of the Underwhelming Nokia E6 – Ultimately Returned,
I have owned Nokia Symbian smartphones since the 6682, and in the E-series, I have owned the E71 and E72. I loved both the E71 and E72 phones, and I had very high expectations for their successor. Many of my expectations were met, but the phone has several serious issues that prevented me from giving a higher rating.
Form Factor & Build – 10/10
– Nokia really did their homework when putting together this phone. Symbian Anna is a nice evolution for a hybrid hard key and touch interface. I was skeptical at first, but I’m now seamlessly using both.
– The phone feels very solid, and it feels a little stronger in my hands than even the E71. It is certainly sturdier than the E72.
Battery Life – 10/10
– Battery life is fantastic. As with previous E-series phones, this phone was designed to go the distance.
– The battery is proportionately large and makes up more than half the width of the phone. I think that it was a good move on Nokia’s part to get the extra hours and is a definite advantage over most touch screen phones. As they were still able to keep the phone small, I would say it was worth putting in the larger battery.
Keyboard – 6/10
The Good:
– I am a hardware keyboard addict, and I loath the cell phone industry’s move to all-touch phones.
– In terms of feel, the E6 has another solid portrait layout keyboard from Nokia.
The Bad:
– I can’t believe they put the apostrophe as a function access on the `L.’ I would much rather have a thinner spacebar if I could still have a functional apostrophe – no question. Though not as important as the apostrophe, the double quote and parentheses were relegated to function accessed keys as well.
– The `Ctrl’ key now has its own, coveted bottom row position, but what’s the point? The entire user guide only mentions it once, and it is supposed to help with copy and paste functionality. I didn’t even remember that my E72 had this key (it was a secondary function to the `silent mode’ shortcut – something foolishly done away with in the E6).
– The E6 has slightly raised keys, but Nokia got rid of the domed keys from the E72 which I preferred for typing speed.
– The keyboard backlight has taken a step back from previous models. By default, the backlight won’t turn on in seemingly random situations and never turns on when entering the lock code – even in pitch black darkness. When I first drafted this review, I gave the keyboard a 3/10. After lots of digging and playing with settings, I found that the keyboard backlight is controlled by Menu>Settings>Phone>Display>Brightness. If you turn the brightness setting above 50%, the keyboard and screen backlights work 10x better, and the keyboard backlight is on when typing the lock code!
Screen – 9/10
– The screen is beautifully detailed, the color appears accurate, and the black levels are very good.
– The touch interface is remarkably good. I have found it to be one of the more accurate touch screens I have used, and multitouch gestures work consistently.
– I had to mark it down slightly because the default backlight setting is much too dim and gets even dimmer when the sensor deems it appropriate. The screen is beautiful when the backlight is well-illuminated, but it’s hard to read when it’s often too dim at the default setting.
– I immediately deactivated the touchscreen vibrations as they felt cheap and were noisy.
Notifications – 5/10
– I really miss the `breathing light’ from the previous two phones. This made the phone brilliantly easy to watch for the status of emails, sms, and calls even when the phone had to be completely silent during a meeting. There is a menu setting to enable the breathing light (off by default), but it seems to have respiratory problems as it is dim and hard to view off-axis.
– I have not had any problems with the vibration as reported by other users. Symbian tailors vibrations to match audio tones even when the tones are turned off, and they might just need to make a tweak to get it working properly again.
– The charging light is annoying, bright, and cannot be turned off in the settings menus. I have to cover my phone when I place it on my nightstand.
– Email notifications are abysmal – More on this later.
Sensors – 8/10
GPS: Seems to work well as in previous models and is able to quickly lock on a signal.
Electronic Compass: This is a pretty slick new feature, but it seems to be a little off. I have retried the built-in calibration every way I can think, and it still seems to be about 10degrees off. It also doesn’t notice if I turn the phone 180degrees.
Accelerometer: I haven’t found many practical uses for this feature on the Symbian Anna phone, and I quickly disabled the feature to deny calls or turn off my alarm by `turning’ the phone. This seems like a recipe for missing calls and…
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|Excellent “Phone” – Battery Life+ VoIP+ Bluetooth+,
I’ve been on the smartphone band wagon from the beginning. I have used devices from every platform, and I have a high bar for satisfaction. The Nokia E6 does not completely satisfy me, but it does what I need and does it well.
I really became tired of toys posing as phones. How many of you are sick of smart phones which fail the basic premise of being a phone? I know I am and that’s what brought me back to Nokia. Simply put, Nokia makes the best phones.
There’s a myriad of criticisms I could throw at Nokia, more specifically Symbian. But despite it’s short comings, it still manages to offer a compelling device in the E6. Any criticisms you read about the E6’s email handling are absolutely true. It’s rubbish. However, I have found ProfiMail which brings the power of desktop email clients to the mobile platform better than anything else. Its UI is questionable, but it’s an excellent email client. I’ve never seen a client that handles IMAP boxes this well with incredibly fast and accurate searching. So if you’re considering the E6 just go ahead and factor in the $24.99 to include ProfiMail in the price.
Beyond that, all I have to say is VoIP. The E6 is a powerful SIP/VoIP device. This along with it’s penta-band antennae/tuner make this an invaluable tool for the globe trotters out there. It’s kinda painful to set up, but once you do you can have nearly free VoIP international calling in your hands.
The other “amazing” aspect of this device is the battery life. With moderate use I need to charge my phone once every 3 days. Now you can carelessly install/configure software to suck your battery dry, but if you’re conservative with the configuration you can have quick access to data intense applications and “amazing” battery life. I say “amazing” because the current standard for smartphones these days seems to be around 12 hours of moderate usage.
Additionally, the bluetooth stack on this device is so much more advanced than anything out there. It’s Bluetooth 3.0 and supports these profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, BIP, DUN, FTP, GAP, GAVDP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, OPP, PBAP, SAP, SDP, SPP. It’s the only phone I’ve had that I could get to work with AcuraLink (Acura’s in car messaging system). I know some others have mentioned issues with Bluetooth on this device, but my experience has been flawless.
I have had problems with the E6, but they are on par with problems I’ve had with every single smartphone I’ve ever used (more than 30 different devices). The software is not perfect. It will occasionally lock up. You will have to reboot the device when this happens. I recommend being judicious with 3rd party software as this seems to be the root of most of those type of woes.
Overall I’m considering purchasing a backup E6 to have when this device is lost/damaged/worn out. That’s how much I’m appreciating this phone. I would also like to hedge my bets on Nokia’s brain dead corporate direction in moving to the Windows mobile platform (Did the CEO even look at the amazing N9 before canning it?). If you keep your expectations reasonable and really want a smartphone that excels at being a phone, then you really can’t go wrong with the E6.
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|this is very difficult;best phone ever; worst problem however; worth it? YES,
So I basically buy a phone a month. Androids, lg’s, samsungs, every nokia (except the n8 and n9 – no keyboards) and I keep praying that one will be the one. This e6 is it so far, even with the most serious Nokia problem ever.
why? because so many other things have been fixed – but not all.
I will try to list all issues with e6 especially as compared to older e72, e63, n97, n97mini, e7, astound (c7)
This e6 does have Anna from factory. Only 8gb of internal mem. SDhc slot. Ultra fast boot up, screen shows main screen in about 10 seconds, tho it does continue to load more in background such as bluetooth and wireless (wifi) connection. Very handy since you will experience random reboots (biggest problem ever! with any nokia!) Reboots happen most often when using the gps and phone is not mounted in a shockproof mount!
Dont mistake the shockproof mount as the quality of the phone is superb as usual for nokia. This phone is by far the most useful phone ever made; especially from nokia.
Main reasons this phone is the most useful:
Speed – menus are almost instant!
Change screens -instant!
Email eyecandy is finally tolerable!
menu key is instant!
Stupid bug if you don’t properly complete the factory setup questions, gives error everytime you start it complaining it cant find setup wizard which just dissappears quickly.
Best parts of this phone:
FAST
Not windows, not ios, not android!
Has almost all the google software as separate apps like maps and email!! Awesome.
independent browser! Works awesome! (minus the pinch to zoom, which I hate. The volume controls do not operate the zoom-lame.)
More space to hold phone at bottom beneath keyboard!
directional nav key!
No optical thumb dumb thingy as ‘new’ phones use – so no headaches in useability!
Full capacitive touch screen which adds ultimate in efficient and speedy usability!
nearly all touch buttons are intelligently sized and positioned!
Full 3.5g speeds! (10mbs approx!)
Tmobile full support, with free internet programability! No high speed data ‘tax’ (ie blackberry plan etc)
Yes, I have it on my phoneweb plan for $10!
Awesome nokia browser
very very good email program including full mail for exchange imap support (but only one mail for exchange acct : with speed keys for navigation!
Intelligent contact manager AND calendar – fast very efficient and most useful as compared to any ‘new’ smartphone!
Very intelligent navigation – when done in one app such as looking at a calendar event by pressing calendar key inside of contacts, it will take you back to where you were – in the contact! AWESOME
very bright dual leds for flash and flashlight.
Full keyboard, but space bar removes some needed keys as it is too wide! E72 keyboard was much better.
Main problems with this phone:
Random reboots when in motion outside of fixed location when driving, biking etc) mainly when using gps/music, but does happen with nothing other than mail for exchange / email on homescreens
CAMERA SUCKS for important pics! IT is fast, but there is NO Auto Focus! the N97 cameras kill this P.o.s.
tight camera lock slide, grinds plastic after several days of constant use.
phone auto locks after phone call is disconnected even if you are in the middle of typing a calendar event/contact etc (retarded)
Phone still beeps annoyingly when other end of call hangs up before you do, I have been told over and over again that this is because of tmobile, um but this is an unlocked phone right ? so where is the setting??? Nokia? Do you ever listen??? No. Cause you are so awesome with your $6 stock price right?
Go Stephan Elop! (nokia ceo)
Bottom line:
Best Business phone EVER. So incredibly sad that I have to plan on it rebooting while driving. Good thing it reboots in 10 seconds, almost fully in 15 seconds! (almost like they knew it has to reboot fast) haha
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