Aside from looking good, smartphones these days should be able to do just about everything, from Twitter and Facebook, right down to making you a cup of coffee in the morning. Except for the last part, it would appear that the bar has been raised for phones in the market, with expectations all across the boards. Will Nokia’s X6 hold up to those expectations?
With its 3-inch screen, the X6 comes as small enough for most people. Roughly about the same size as a small candy bar, it fits rather well into my pocket. The X6 have a clear screen in the front with a sort of a creamy vanilla disposition at the back. To distinguish itself from other phones, it had a red/blue/pink plastic piece on both the top and bottom portions of the front screen, as well as a silver lining on the left and right hand sides.
Although I found the X6’s glossy front quite appealing (even if it did smudged from fingerprints easily), I didn’t think too much of its battery cover. It felt kind of flimsy, and the clips that held it in place had this tendency to just out every once in a while, especially after a hard bump or two.
If there’s another thing I don’t understand about the X6, it’s why the speakers had to be on only one side of the device (on the bottom left) – resembling that of my netbook – as opposed to being balanced on both sides. On the volume side, it wasn’t particularly loud either, and at times they sounded rather stretched, especially at the notches close to its maximum volume. Sure, you could probably hear the phone ringing in an empty office room, but many times in the outside world, I needed to rely on its vibration to let me know that there was a call coming through.
When I first got my hands on the X6, I found that it had a rather smooth interface, which was a solace for sore fingers. The phone also emitted a slight vibration whenever you touch the screen, as if to let you know that it was in operation.
The process of tapping on the screen is a bit iffy. Sometimes I had to tap a couple of times on a link before I could get it to open. I also had to be careful about where I put my fingers, because I found myself opening the wrong application more than once. But practice taught me that I needed to be decisive and stab at what I want; that way worked fine.
Although rather clean in its processing in the beginning, the X6’s OS – Symbian S60 5th edition hung up on me a couple of times. I also found the X6’s accelerometer to be a bit wonky, sometimes switching between view modes when you didn’t need it, or even refusing to do so for some functions, such as making new contacts.
Perhaps, the most prominent feature that I have found concerning the X6 is its ‘Comes With Music’ ability. As part of the X6 package, ‘Comes With Music’ grants Nokia users a one year subscription to Ovi Music. Nokia told that users would have access to over a million legal music tracks, from Rihanna all the way to perhaps even ZZTop. That’s the killer feature of this phone and the reason why you should buy this phone.
Nokia X6 seemed to be fairly stocked on every Internet service there was (including AccuWeather) except for the other penultimate social networking service, Twitter. Yes, Amazon, Facebook, Youtube, MySpace and even Friendster were all there, but twitter was mysteriously missing from the list, forcing me to look for a client over Ovi Store.
On the subject of surfing the Net, I was less-than-fond of the X6’s browsing experience. While partially the fault of some web site designer (with not-so-mobile-friendly-sites), the X6 crammed a whole page into its little 3-inch screen, forcing me to use its zoom function.
The X6 is not a bad phone by most standards, although you get the impression that Nokia released it a little too early, instead of letting its developers tinker around with it a little more. Catching my attention the very first time I got my hands on it, I seemed to like it less and less over the next few weeks, especially with its interface. But it has its good moments here and there, especially with its ability to use ‘Comes With Music’. In short, it’s an ideal music phone that can pass as an unpolished smartphone too.
Pros : Attractive front cover, ‘Comes With Music!’
Cons : Screen smudges easily, Not-so-solid-design, Has tendency to lag, Headphones lacking bass
Nokia X6 Specifications :
Standard Package : Nokia X6, Nokia WH-500 headset, battery, power charger, USB cable, user manual, mini DVD, Comes With Music leaflet.
Size/Weight : 111 x 51 x 13.8 mm / 122g
Screen : 3.2-inch, 64 x 360 (pixels)
Aspect ratio : 16:9
Internal storage : 32GB
Memory : 256MB RAM
Popularity: 7% [?]
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