When we first got our hands on the Nokia E6, we were pretty impressed with it. It seemed like a very solid package, with a high grade industrial design, felt great in the hand, and basically was the classic Eseries feel that made us fall in love with the E72 and E71 before it.
However, the E6 is different from the two, because its offers more than a QWERTY keyboard in a business series form-factor. It also offers a full capacitive high-resolution touch screen. Is the whole combination good enough to provoke feelings of nostalgia among its targeted audience? Will it end up in a lot of people’s pockets? Read on for our review.
First up, the specs list. The E6 features a very decent set of specs, though compared with some of today’s flagship manufacturer offerings, it’s not as competitive.
Read more details about the Nokia E6 specs at the Nokia.com Product Page.
Firmware:
The Nokia E6 in this review is on firmware version 021.014 which was the latest version available at the time of this post. Features might be added or changed in later software versions.
The Retail Package:
The Nokia E6 ships with the basic retail box contents like a headset, usb-to-microUSB connector, and charger. Unlike its predecessors it lacks a carrying pouch, or TV-Out cable.
More information over in our Nokia E6 Unboxing Post. Also worth noting that the E6 comes in three different color variations: Silver, Black and White.
The Design and Build Quality:
Admittedly, the Nokia E6 is pretty darn slick. Nice clean, sharp lines, with classic Nokia Eseries styling which all give it a very distinguished look and feel, at just 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm. Nokia’s always been good at creating good hardware, and here’s a good example of just that. Just like the E71, and E72 before it, the E6 is build like a tank, being very solid and very durable, yet managing to weigh just 133 grams.
The 2.5 Inch capacitive display, we thought, was one of the best features of the E6. The screen is at VGA resolution, which means its one of the most tightly packed pixel bearers in the market right now, even more so than the iPhone’s Retina Display. This means super sharp viewing on the E6′s screen, with high quality videos looking pretty fantastic, with a good amount of color and contrast. Viewing angles are also pretty decent, though yes, we have been spoilt by AMOLED screens, and would have liked to have seen one here as well. On top of the display, you’ll find the earpiece, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and the front facing camera for video calls.
But the main attraction in our opinion, has to be the good ol’ tried and tested QWERTY form factor that Nokia has been generally good at. The E6 build upon the E5′s styling, and refines it even more. Below the screen, you’ll find the clear-marked Call/Call-End keys, on either side of the 5-way D-pad and four one-touch shortcut keys for Home (Menu), Calendar, Messaging and Contacts. As always, these keys can be configured to open other apps or perform other functions on a long-press or short-press of the key.
Below that, is the four tiered QWERTY keyboard, with each key individually raised at a curve.
The keys have very good feedback to them when pressed, and we were typing out plenty of words-per-minute after getting used to it within a couple minutes of usage.
Each key is easily identifiable, and the key placements are intuitive enough. That being said, the E6 is a bit narrower than its predecessors, and hence the keyboard might be a tiny bit cramped for folks with very large hands. On the white colored E6, we did have a tiny bit of trouble with Dust collecting in the gaps between keys though.
On the right side, you have the volume buttons, with a mute/voice-tag key in the middle, and a sliding screen-lock key at the side.
On the left side, you have the microUSB port alone, covered with a hard plastic flap. Very useful to keep dust out.
At the bottom, you’ll find only the standard Nokia charging port.
And at the top, you’ll find the power button, 3.5 mm Audio Jack (with TV-Out), and a microSD slot.
At the back of the Nokia E6, you’ll find the 8 Megapixel EDoF Camera, with a Dual LED Flash, and a mono Loudspeaker.
The Symbian Anna OS and User Interface:
The E6 runs Symbian Anna, which is the latest version of the Mobile OS right now. Visually it’s a bit of an evolution of the previous generations, adding curved corners to icons, improving transitions, and basically helping the E6 look like its running a more modern operating system than the S60V3 that it’s predecessor, the E5 ran on. For a full detailed list of what you can find here, dont forget to check out our What’s New with Symbian Anna post.
The fact that the E6 has a touchscreen, makes interacting with it a lot more intuitive than with the E5, E72 and E71 before. Everything you’ve seen in Symbian^3 touch devices is here, like adding or changing widgets on the multiple homescreens, along with the new icon set and improved browser bought along with Anna. All that running on a 680Mhz processor with 256 MB of RAM, that keeps the whole thing running along fine, with very few instances of lag.
But apart from a couple cosmetic tweaks and a few performance improvements all around, Symbian Anna is still the same Symbian^3 at its core, which might put some folks off, since the menus and notifications work in the same way, and the homescreen widgets are limited in terms of customisability. But even then, the upcoming Symbian Belle update is supposed to revamp the entire UI, so if you find Anna’s aesthetic tired, there’s always the fact that Belle will change things up when it comes along.
The Camera:
The Nokia E6 comes with an 8 Megapixel Full Focus EDoF camera with Dual LED Flash. There’s no dedicated camera key, so you’ll have to access it through the menu, or maybe a shortcut on your homescreen. It’s pretty fast at taking pictures, but ofcourse, this is due to the fact that it lacks auto-focus. Which in turn means, no macro shots or anything closer than about 20 inches, unless you want it looking really blurry.
Image quality overall is pretty average, with a decent amount of detail, and okay colors (which do seem washed out in some images). Sharpness is moderate, and the camera interface has plenty of options, like scene modes, self-timers, color tones, face detection, white balance settings, ISO, contrast, sharpness and a whole lot more. There’s also a front facing VGA camera for video calls.
Coming to Video, the 680 Mhz processor manages to allow you to record 720p HD videos at a nice 25 fps (frames per second). Again colors can get washed out at times, and frames are skipped once in a while, which might annoy some folks out there. You have a similar set of features in video mode too, but quality-wise it’s pretty average.
For a better idea of the E6′s camera, check out our Nokia E6 Camera Samples Post.
The Multimedia:
It might not be marketed as a Multimedia phone, but the E6 has a pretty decent set of features for it, with the same imaging and video editing tools as the N8 and X7. You can crop, rotate, add frames or text, or various effects to your images, or use the video editor to join clips, or add transitions or music.
The Music app is basically the same as Symbian^3 before it, with standard file support, and Stereo FM Radio with RDS support.
The built-in video app plays MPEG-4 and DivX/Xvid encoded files out of the box, which is pretty great. The screen size might not be ideal for movies, but the high resolution means the experience is pretty decent, provided you have a good quality move file. In our tests, we managed to playback files upto 720p resolution just fine. And there’s always that microSD slot for cards upto 32GB, if you want to plonk some more movies and videos in the E6.
All that means the E6 actually offers a pretty decent multimedia experience. Not too bad at all for a business phone, eh?
The Web Browser:
Admittedly, Symbian’s web browser wasnt exactly the prettiest of the lot, thanks to a dated and cluttered user interface, with just general clunky operation. The Anna update fixes all of that, with a reworked Browser (version 7.3 if you’re keeping count), that has support for Flash Lite, HTML5 (ish), multi-touch gestures and hardware acceleration to make things move along smoother. The user interface is improved and is much more cleaner and minimalistic now. It’s all much improved over the previous version browser, but the experience can still be choppy at times, on large websites.
The interface itself only consists of the back button in the corner that’s always visible, and a settings button on the other corner of the screen. As a result the screen is much more viewable, while you can always get to the number options available, just by tapping the settings icon.
The Connectivity:
The E6 boasts a whole range of connectivity options, including pentaband 3G, Quadband GSM, Built-in A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, Wifi, microUSB port with USB-OTG and a 3.5mm Audio jack with TV-Out.
Call quality is just as good as you’d expect from a Nokia, and the overall volume on both the earpiece, as well as the mic (according to our caller), was clear and loud.
The Office Apps:
Being a business phone and all, the Nokia E6 includes a full version of Quick Office (to handle all your Excel, Powerpoint and Word Document needs), a PDF reader, and F-Secure to make sure it’s all safe. There’s also Nokia’s Social Hub pre-installed for Facebook and Twitter, though we’d recommend avoiding that app, when there are many better alternatives available on the Ovi Store.
The A-GPS and Navigation:
Ofcourse, like all Nokia devices nowadays, the E6 comes with free turn-by-turn voice guided navigation thanks to Nokia’s Ovi Maps. The GPS locks on in a matter of seconds, and the Digital compass is incredibly useful. You can download local maps and points of interest for free, and it all works. Definitely one of the best advantages of a Nokia handset currently.
The Battery Life:
Underneath the back panel, is a 1500 mAh battery.
Nokia says you’ll get 14.8 hours worth of talktime out of it, and about 18 days worth of stand-by.
We found that it can very easily go two days of moderate usage with a few calls, wifi internet browsing and text messages. We even managed to stretch it out to three days on light usage. Which admittedly, is pretty darn great.
Everything else:
It’s also worth mentioning that most Symbian^3 touch apps and games, like Angry Birds, or Fruit Ninja and the like, work on the E6.
Though some apps, need to be adjusted by developers to fit the new screen resolution. Most work just fine though.
Also another point to note, is that the E6 supports USB-On-The-Go (USB-OTG) so you can plug in any usb drive or device and it should work fine. Unfortunately there is no adaptor included in-box, so that’s a seperate purchase. Similarly, the 3.5mm Audio Jack also supports TV-Out, but again, there’s no cable in the retail package. Probably to keep costs low?
Video Overview:
Here is a video overview of the main features of the E6, and out final verdict.
The Conclusion:
Rating: 
The Nokia E6 is actually a very solid little business phone. The build quality is great, and so is the screen performance and battery life. Symbian Anna improves things a lot, which means previous owners of the E71 and E72 might finally have a worthy successor. But while the hardware is beautiful here, users of other operating systems might not be as impressed.
Alternatives include the HTC ChaCha or the Samsung Galaxy Pro which run Android & are slightly cheaper, and the odd Blackberry phone or two. But in our opinion, none of them look more the part, than the E6 does. Recommended? Definitely. Personally I could really see myself using the E6 (Just that I’d like an AF camera atleast, please?), so if you arnt too crazy about taking pictures, and want a smartphone that does basically everything you’d want, in a great form factor, and has great battery life, I would definitely recommend checking it out. Buuuuuut like we said, if you’re an Android or iOS user, you might want to try it out first. Hey, better than those boring Blackberry models nowadays though, eh?
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
Hey Jeff , what's the landing price for E6 these days ? My existing phone is almost about to die and was much impressed by the E6 reviews . Also, do let me know if there are any options to get a cheap deal on the E6 , since I don't plan to invest a lot on phones these days. Regards,
Heya Santanu! Out here in Delhi they're going for about Rs 14,000 I think. They're pretty affordable on eBay or Flipkart if you dont mind shopping online :o)
i know e71 and e72 supports internet calling or 3rd party voip calls does this phone is compact able with these software as that of e71 pls reply
The E71 is a real gem compared to the E6. Configurability in the E6 is minimal, camera is lousy, font size is really TINY for the screen overlays and "tool tips". The E6 has Psilok for the font size, but this changes settings systemwide. Final opinion : Changing to the E6 is a DOWNGRADE.
video sucks...dont fake accent dude...
That IS my accent "dude" :P
Does Symbian Anna bring the "Edit label" feature in Contacts details back to Symbian ? It was possible on the E71 and I use it a lot to differentiate multiple numbers of the same type on a single contact.
Unfortunately, No i'm afraid :( You still cant edit labels.
Definitely a nice device. Gorilla glass makes it a favourite for me, and I as well wish that there was AF in this one. They could've put 5MP with AF instead of a useless 8MP. Well oh well.
Great Review. Will probably get an E6, used to love my good old E71. One Question: does the E6 have a FM transmitter?
Unfortunately, No :( It's such a convenient feature you'd think Nokia would plonk it on to more devices. Sigh.
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