The Nokia C6 is a bid to bring Nokia’s top end smartphone skills down in price, while keeping just as much of the power as possible. It’s a laudable goal, but does Nokia pull it off, especially when the software of its very best phones last year was widely panned? Find out in the Symbian S60 software section of our Nokia C6 review.
Read the rest of our Nokia C6 review:
Nokia C6 review
Nokia C6 review: Keyboard and screen
We’ll dive straight in and get to the point: Nokia does not pull it off. We’re really sorry Nokia, but we’re not doing this anymore. We’ve warned you time and time again that touchscreen Symbian S60 just won’t cut it, and while the Nokia X6’ responsive touchscreen went some way to fixing that, you’ve just fallen back into your old, awful ways with the Nokia C6. We’re not going to give you a pass this time.
While we still don’t mind Symbian S60 in certain scenarios (On super cheap, tiny smartphones like the Nokia C5, or BlackBerry bashing emailers like the Nokia E72), Symbian S60 5th edition, the brew found on Nokia’s touchscreen blowers, is just dire, and the Nokia C6 falls into the same old pitfalls and UI nightmares. How Nokia still hasn’t fixed this while Apple’s iPhone and even Android phones have been offering up smooth and hiccup free software for years now is frankly baffling.
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While the general layout of touchscreen Symbian S60 on the Nokia C6 isn’t so flawed – adjustable widgets on the homescreen, large tiled icons in the menus, multitasking system tray brought up with a hold of the menu button – actually using it causes all sorts of headaches. Rotating the display by popping open the keyboard causes a screen white out that can last for well over five seconds. Loading the camera takes even longer. Even with text prediction on, the Nokia C6 still doesn’t seem to know many words, and both iOS and BlackBerry OS’ auto punctuation puts it to shame. The browser is slow, and though it’s a touchscreen, you won’t get any of the pinch to zoom action that even RIM has seen fit to start adding to its smartphones.
Our favourite example of just how painful Symbian S60 5th edition is to use is the myriad number of Wi-Fi (or WLAN) options you’re presented with. It should be pretty obvious to Nokia that if you turn Wi-Fi on on the Nokia C6, you want to use it rather than your 3G connection to surf the web, or for any apps that use data. But no, all this requires separate settings and baffling pop ups.
Sure, you can figure all this out in a short amount of time. But the point is now, even at the price point the Nokia C6 sits in, you shouldn’t even have to. Compare this to the Wi-Fi on/off toggles on Android smartphones and the iPhone, and you’re left with the distinct impression that Nokia has learned nothing in the past two or three years.
On the plus side at least, Symbian S60 on the Nokia C6 is at least power sipping. You’ll easily clear a few days on a charge, which should come in hand for using the phone as a satnav: as standard with new S60 phones, it supports Ovi Maps with free navigation, and if we’re honest, it’s actually more effective than Google Maps Navigation on Android (Especially if you drive abroad frequently). But when these are positives of non touchscreen Nokia phones which we like a whole lot more, it’s hard to come away from using the Nokia C6 happy.
Luckily, hope is in sight. Symbian itself is still a thoroughly modern OS, capable of plenty, and Nokia’s looking to marry that with an improved UI in Symbian 3 the upcoming Nokia N8, and perhaps even in the mid-range market with the rumoured Nokia C9. The problem is, that mid-range market is where the Nokia C6 sits right now, and its software cannot possibly match that of touchscreen rivals. If you value a touchscreen, look to finger friendly phones on rival platforms (The Android fueled HTC Legend falls in the same price range on contract).
If you value a keyboard – well, Nokia’s got plenty of other superior options for you too.
Read the rest of our Nokia C6 review:
Nokia C6 review
Nokia C6 review: Keyboard and screen
