I recently got the chance to sample the upcoming Nokia X6 music phone. One word to describe it? Excellent. Or should I say, "Xcellent"? I was surprised in more ways than one after using it, primarily because I was rather disappointed with the last touchscreen Nokia music phone that I used, which was the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The Nokia X6 gave me no problems whatsoever during the few minutes that I tried to navigate through its menus and give its built-in features a spin. If you are currently looking forward to putting the Nokia X6 in one of your pockets, you may want to check out this hands-on preview to tide yourself over until "the big day" finally arrives.
The Nokia X6 was first announced back in September 2 during Nokia World 2009. Its official features include 32GB of on-board memory, up to 35 hours of music playback, a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, and a 3.2-inch 16:9 nHD capacitive touchscreen display. It's the first device of its kind from Nokia to use a capacitive touchscreen display like many other popular touchscreen devices today, and I have to say, it does the job right, as expected.
I mentioned in the beginning of this post that the Nokia X6 gave me no problems at all during the short time that I used it. That doesn't mean I don't realize that a few minutes usage is not enough to give a final verdict on a handset that's not even scheduled to arrive here until early next year (if ever). And also, the Nokia X6 that I handled for this preview was only a prototype, though it seemed to function without any major hiccups at all, hardware or software-wise. So now that those are out of the way, let me tell you more about the phone itself.
The Nokia X6 is designed quite like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, though it has a slimmer profile and sharper edges. It retains the size of the touchscreen but opts for capacitive instead of resistive and borrows a few other design cues from the 5800 such as the camera setup and position of ports. Overall, the design of the Nokia X6 seems like a perfect picture of the shape of things to come from Nokia, and it is in quite a good shape indeed.
After opening up the menu and launching some familiar-looking apps, I started to have some doubts about the Nokia X6. It was running the exact same software as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic--Symbian S60 5th Edition, which frankly I think is at its weakest position in the market right now in terms of adoption and growth. But I was relieved of a few of my worries when I found that the phone was very responsive to touch input and had a speedy user interface. Nokia has adopted Symbian to touch input fairly well. Now all that's left is to offer users more functionality by way of additional built-in features and downloadable apps that further expand the phone's functions.
Still, even with only the built-in apps at my disposal, I was able to enjoy the Nokia X6. The built-in stereo loudspeakers, located on the right side of the phone, produced very loud sound but was lacking in bass. This is easily remedied by using any type of headphones or speakers that use a 3.5mm connector. The 3.5mm headphone jack is located on top of the phone along with the power button, microUSB port, and 2.5mm charger plug.
Speaking of the charger plug, I was told by Nokia Philippines product manager Mike Smith that Nokia has plans to keep using the same 2.5mm charger plug for now on more of their upcoming phones as opposed to fully embracing USB charging as the way to go for future products. It's a bit disappointing, if you ask me, but it's not really that much of a hassle these days so I think we can let this one pass. Perhaps when all phone manufacturers agree on a universal charging standard for cellphones, we'll finally be able to ditch those small and easy to carry chargers that save us energy. Maybe someday...
Anyway, back to the Nokia X6. Its face houses not only the 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display, but also a front-facing camera, ambient light sensor, earpiece, and touch-sensitive media/contacts bar button (besides the Nokia logo, of course).
As you can see from the photo above the Nokia X6's screen becomes quite a pain to use under direct sunlight, but I suspect that the display was set at the lowest brightness setting at the time this photo was taken and that cranking up the brightness a bit will help improve the display quality. Legibility under direct sunlight has been a problem with nearly all phones ever released anyway, so I don't see this as a major flaw.
The built-in 5-megapixel camera didn't blow me away, and the dual-LED flash underneath it didn't really help much. I can't show any photos which I took with it, but you can take my word for it, the camera is not phenomenal and won't replace any standalone digital camera and DSLR in terms of performance. It does stand a chance when it comes to portability and ease of use, though. From the home screen, all you have to do is press the dedicated camera shutter key on the side for a few seconds to launch the camera app, and start snapping away. The unprotected lens can be a problem, though. So a carrying case might come in handy.
Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS come in handy as well. The Nokia X6 has them all and more. But that's expected of almost any phone released these days so in this manner, it does not disappoint. What makes it even better in this regard is that Nokia has improved the built-in S60 browser on the Nokia X6 so much that you'll be far and surfing away with it in no time after firing it up. Navigation is easy peasy, and as I said earlier things get processed fast as part of a speedy user interface.
When it comes to battery life, users can expect at least a day or two of heavy use before charging. Although honestly, these days I think it's no longer important to know how long a gadget's battery can last, but how it gets charged. Pretty much any smartphone released nowadays features at least a day's worth of heavy mobile computing juice, and that's good enough for most people. What's more important for some is how convenient it is (or not) to recharge their drained smartphone's batteries. Nokia's sticking with the tried and tested old method of 2.5mm chargers with this one, and I can't say there's anything wrong with that.
The Nokia X6 isn't scheduled to arrive in the Philippines until next year, so you're going to have to wait a fairly long time until you can get one. Andf I've been told by the same Mike Smith from Nokia Philippines mentioned above that the X6 won't even be available in local stores, which is of course a shame for all those looking forward to it. Whether it does or does not appear officially in local stores, I'll try to acquire one for a full review. Until then, I can only recommend the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic (pictured above), sort of a smaller version of the Nokia X6, but with a resistive touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera and no 3G data. I will review that certain music phone next.
