Most people still swear by BlackBerry when it comes to business phones. While Android and Apple cater to those who prefer lifestyle-oriented smartphones, Nokia has been steadily releasing a stream of handsets which attempt to woo the busy jet-setter. The Nokia E7 was branded ‘The Communicator', but failed to cause much of a stir. With the new E6, Nokia has gone back to the QWERTY keypad design. The only question is – will the Symbian Anna interface help this handset eat into BlackBerry sales?

Overview

There are many, myself included, who still swear by Nokia handsets, solely based on their sturdiness and excellent battery life. An E63 user myself, I was down in the dumps when my phone drowned last week due to a mishap involving a leaking water bottle. All the more reason for me to be overjoyed when, just in time, the neatly packaged E6 arrived at my desk. Looks wise, the phone resembles all the QWERTY models from Nokia's E series. Even so, there are some visible differences with the E6. It just looks so much sleeker – a shiny black bezel, chrome-plated lipping, matte-finish back cover and lightweight look and feel. Unlike the other E models, this one doesn't feel plasticky, and I have to admit, I liked the design more than a BlackBerry.

The keypad is spaced over four rows, and the keys provide firm, tactile feedback. The keys are large and well-spaced, with a generous spacebar key.

Unlike the previous QWERTY handsets, the E6 is equipped with a capacitive touch screen. The 2.4-inch TFT LCD has a high pixel density, which really shows of Symbian's colourful icon scheme. The phone has a nice selection of physical buttons. Apart from a Call and End button, there are also four buttons for Home, Calendar, Email and Contacts of which the last three are customisable. Nokia has done away with the optical trackpad of the E72 (popularised by BlackBerry), and the E6 features a physical one instead with four directional buttons.

User interface

There's been a lot of talk about Symbian Anna, mostly because the E6 is one of the last in the line of Symbian handsets being launched by Nokia before they go the Windows way. Among the changes that users will see in Symbian Anna are a new version of Ovi Maps, faster browser, improved text input and QWERTY typing in portrait mode (the last feature doesn't apply to the E6 because of its physical keypad, but we'll tell you more about that in the X7 review).

Symbian Anna offers four customisable home screens. However, there are fixed slots for widgets and icons. At least these are colourful and neat, adding some youthful appeal to the phone.

All applications and settings are accessible from the main menu, which I thought was easy and intuitive to navigate. For social networking, you can access your Facebook and Twitter in a unified Ovi Social app. Push mail can be configured to practically any account, and we set up our Gmail quite easily. The widget on the home screen only shows the two most recent mails, so even if you want to quickly glance at your inbox, you'll have to open the Email app. The Calendar app really impressed me, with its neat and organised layout and multiple options.

The browser is an improvement from other Nokia phones, and loaded pages quickly. It supports multiple windows, bookmarks and lets you send links directly from a page via text, Bluetooth or email. Pinch to zoom and double tap are also supported.

The E6 comes with an 8-megger clicker, which gave us some really decent shots, with and without the flash. There are a bunch of scene modes, manual controls and photo editing options as well. A front-facing VGA camera can be used for video calls.

Connectivity wise, the phone is endowed with Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi and a Mini USB port.

Performance

In terms of call quality, the E6 was brilliant. I never had problems with dropped calls, even in the midst of heavy traffic, call quality was clear and loud. The E6 is powered by a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, a far cry from the dual-core players that are now flooding the smartphone segment. I did have some issues with phone freezes – often the touch screen would become totally unresponsive, and sometimes the screen would freeze while opening an app, taking up to 30 seconds to revive.

The proximity sensor also malfunctioned quite a lot – and I've had serious issues with this on the N8 as well – on almost every call the touch screen would inadvertently get activated, and either mute the call, activate loudspeaker or put the caller on hold.

Battery life was better than the average smartphone, giving us about a day and a half of heavy usage.

Our verdict

The Nokia E6 is the next best thing if you want a business smartphone that's not a BlackBerry. Push email, a good calendar and sleek looks give it professional appeal. However, its high price point could put off a lot of buyers, who might opt for an entry level BlackBerry or mid-range Android handset instead.

Love: Excellent keyboard, good battery life

Hate: Occasional freezes, pricey

Rs 18,679

ketaki@thehindu.co.in

Twitter: @ketaki86

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