Nokia E6

Launched last year, the Nokia E6 is a QWERTY handset that comes with a rather small yet sharp screen, while featuring the company’s traditional business series form factor that reminds us of the company’s golden days when they were the top brand in the mobile phone industry. One of the high points of this device would have to be its 2.5-inch capacitive display that has a VGA resolution and manages to deliver good contrast levels and excellent color reproduction, while the viewing angles are just as impressive.

Sitting below this screen are the Call and End buttons, a 5-way D-pad, along with four shortcut keys to home, contacts, messaging and calendar. The QWERTY keyboard has four rows and consists of individual keys that have been raised for a better tactile feedback. On the right side of the E6 is the volume rocker that sits next to the lock slider, while on the left spine Nokia installed the microUSB port. The bottom of the phone holds the proprietary charging port, while on top you will have access to the microSD card slot, power button and the 3.5mm jack. Finally, at the back it packs an eight megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, along with the loudspeaker.

The smartphone is running Nokia’s Symbian Anna operating system. This OS brings an improvement of the transitions between the menus and curved corners to icons, among others. Thanks to the 680 MHz processor, the Nokia E6 manages to offer a solid user experience but from time to time you will notice some stuttering, but overall you will satisfied with the performance offered by the phone.

We forgot to mention that the 8 mpx camera is a fixed-focus unit so you can forget about macro shots, meaning that any photo taken at a distance closer than 20 inches will be blurry. The quality of the photos is average because even though there is a decent amount of details, the sharpness level is moderate while the colors are a little bit washed out. Some of the camera’s settings include the possibility to adjust white balance, sharpness, contrast, ISO light sensitivity, along with a 2x digital zoom.

This camera is also able to record 720p HD videos at 25 fps. The bad news is that it suffers from the same issues as the still photos. What’s even worse is that it skips frames so the clips recorded with the E6 are not good at all.

On the connectivity front, the Nokia E6 packs Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, GPS, 802.11n Wi-Fi, along with quad-band GSM support and 3G. If you remove the back cover, you will find a 1,500 mAh battery that should be able to last for up to 15 hours of talk time or up to 18 days if you leave the phone in standby.

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