Review: Nokia C6 – good phone, bad timing?

There are times in your life when you come across devices that seem undone by just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. And this is exactly the feeling we got about the recently launched Nokia C6, or the C6-00 as it is called – there’s a C6-01, a totally touch screen device, also in the market. A couple of months ago, they would have been an extraordinarily good phone in its own right. Now, alas, it has been caught up in the frenzy over higher end handsets (the N8 and the C7). It nevertheless remains a remarkably substantial value for money proposition for those simply looking for a touch and type combination with a good camera, thanks in no small measure to a terrific keyboard.

The C6 seems to be right in the N97 and N97 Mini family with a 3.2 inch resistive touch screen and a full slide out QWERTY keypad, although it looks smart with its rounded corners and solid build structure – we also love the blue accent below the screen and keys. Yes, we can see hackles rising at the mention of “resistive”, but we must concede that the display is pretty bright (just keep it out of sunlight, though).

However, what truly impressed us was the slide out QWERTY keypad, which we must declare straightaway is the BEST slide-out-from-side QWERTY we have seen on any handset. The keys are extremely easy to compress and spacious enough, and the space bar, thankfully is closer to the center than the right. Texting addicts will love this, especially as there are apps for Facebook and Twitter on board, as well as Nokia’s uncommonly good email service.

Unfortunately, the keyboard is not the sole way of entering data on the device. If you are going to be in portrait and one handed mode, you will have to use the touch screen, and there do things go a bit wrong, because although this is a much polished version of the OS that bugged the N97, Symbian Series 60 (5th edition) still remains erratic. You will still have to figure where to tap once and where twice for certain operations and the screen will not always respond.

 Typing in portrait mode is extremely difficult as there is no full QWERTY, making one handed texting extremely difficult. And yes, the trademark widgets that deliver news from websites and your mail on to your home screen are there and are handy when they work – they are still immensely moody and function only when they want to. Still, it is one of the most user-friendly Symbian S60 (5th edition) devices we have seen in terms of response and accuracy, notwithstanding the odd quirks.

On the plus side, the C6 boasts of a very decent 5.0 mega pixel camera which gives good results in daytime although the single LED flash makes it a poor option when the lights dim. Music is thriving over the headphones but in speaker mode is kind of crippled by the single speaker. That said, the speaker is pretty good for calls in loudspeaker mode. On the connectivity front, the C6 is loaded, with Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G and Bluetooth. While, we were not over impressed by the same old S60 browser but that apart, things were pretty good, with navigation shining over Ovi Maps.

Apps for download were there in the Ovi Store, and as S60 (5th edition) has now been around for a while; there are plenty of sites offering some fantastic apps for the platform. App freaks will not get the same collection as on Android and iOS, but neither will they be starved of apps, as long as they do not restrict themselves to the still painfully inadequate Ovi Store.

Call quality and reception were flawless, and the batteries lasted us about a day of heavy use with a few hours of calling and live widgets and push mail running – not great, but pretty much par for the course in these battery-guzzling smart phone times. Internal memory stands at 200 MB, but can be boosted to 16GB.

So where does all this leave the C6?

Honestly, we think it is an exceptionally good deal for its price tag of around Rs 13,500. It has decent specs for the price and the excellent QWERTY keyboard more than compensates for the erratic touch screen. We are not going to get carried away and call it the best social networking phone out there, but yes, it is a very decent device for somebody who is looking for a touch screen-cum-QWERTY device within the Rs 15,000 price, and it stands up very well against its two rivals in the Indian market in that category – the Sony Ericsson Xperia 1o Mini Pro and the LG GW620, both of which score points for their Android interface but are frankly no match for the better screen and camera served up by the C6.

The C6 is an outstanding value for money device for text-loving addicts who want a larger screen to play around and the odd element of touch, with decent specifications thrown in. Its biggest problem is the timing of its arrival, which could lead to its being overshadowed and shoved aside. Now, that would be a pity.