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Back in the day, before Apple fixed the iPhone to make it viable for business users, Nokia’s E-series phones such as the E71 were the kings of the hill thanks to their excellent keyboards and support for Exchange and Office files. Much has changed since then, however, so we were slightly disappointed to find that the E-series has hardly changed in the intervening years.
It still has the same, excellent keyboard, and support for Microsoft’s Office and Exchange product families is comprehensive. The E6 is slightly thicker and heavier than its ancestor, however, but makes up for it with a far better screen with four times the resolution; in fact, the 640×480 screen has an even higher pixel density than RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9900, at 326dpi.
On top of that, it has a capacitive touchscreen, which complements the directional pad. Overall build quality is excellent, with a tough metal back cover and sturdy covers for the memory card slot and microUSB port. Battery life in our light usage test was exceptional, as we’d expect from a Nokia: it’ll play music for almost three days non-stop, so you certainly won’t need to charge it every day.
Another obvious improvement is the camera: an 8-megapixel snapper plus a front-facing 0.3-megapixel version for video calls. No video calling software is included, however, and Skype for Symbian doesn’t support video calls yet. Photos and videos taken with the main camera were surprisingly noise-free and having a dual-LED flash means that you aren’t limited to daylight shots. Unfortunately, even brightly lit shots lacked strong colours.
It’s in the software department that time has really taken its toll: today’s iPhone and Android phones have intuitive touch interfaces that make them vastly more productive than the previous generation of smartphones, and Nokia’s Symbian operating system hasn’t kept up. It’s had numerous cosmetic changes, but the underlying logic of its interface has remained largely unchanged and it’s nowhere near as usable as its competitors’.
It still has its fans, but they are a dying breed. Even RIM’s BlackBerry OS has surpassed Symbian in usability, mainly by re-organising the options menu into more logical groups, signposted with memorable icons. Symbian’s options, however, require either deep familiarity or reference to the user manual.
The pre-installed apps cover the basics, such as calendar, contacts and email, and there’s even some basic social networking. Office apps are the E6’s strong point, with a version of QuickOffice that lets you edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and a copy of Adobe Reader for PDF files.
You’re very limited when it comes to adding to the pre-installed apps. Symbian’s Ovi Store is still dominated by games, ringtones and videos rather than serious productivity apps, and with Nokia moving to Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, you’re unlikely to see many new apps or updates.
Symbian is a sinking ship, and Nokia really has no right to tempt its fans with this excellent hardware; while the phone itself is has some great features and is well-built, we simply can’t recommend its arcane operating system. Anyone tempted by it should take the plunge and convert to another operating system as there are plenty of other great handsets around.
