From now on, the work I publish around the web will be collected there, so please feel free to drop by and say hello. Maybe bring some cake too!

Hint: You might even find some new features that I haven’t posted here…

At first glance, you might say the C3 is just a more reserved version of the X3, and, for the most part, you’ll be right.  But there are still some subtle differences to be found, so let’s have a closer look…

Size and weight : Both phones can be considered compact and slim, with a barely noticeable weight in hand. Still, the Nokia X3 pushes the limits even further by having a thinner, although a bit wider, body. Oh, and it’s lighter too.

Nokia C3 vs X3

100 g vs 78 g

111 x 47.5 x 11 mm  vs 106.2 x 48.4 x 9.6. mm

Screen. Both phones utilize a 2.4 inch resistive touch screen with 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA TFT) resolution, ensuring a relatively sharp picture for it’s physical size. The represented color pallet of the screen also looks decent, although with no surprises. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test it’s sunlight legibility. Naturally, the working experience with the Nokia C3 touchscreen proved to be  as enjoyable as with the X3, and I initially had problems discerning whether it’s a capacitive or a resistive screen. As I mentioned in my X3 preview, the S40 interface has been modified with larger icons and other UI elements to compensate the limited screen size.

Keypad. This one is quite obvious. The Nokia C3 comes with a traditionally arranged keypad with horizontal bars between each row of the keys for increased typing comfort. The X3, on the other hand, has a 4×4 grid keypad that has additional multimedia and messaging shortcut keys in the top row. The downside? There’s virtually nothing that separates keys in either direction, and only a slight slope at the bottom of each key helps to improve the situation. Still, the keys on both devices are generously sized and offer great tactile feedback, but it’s worth noting again here, that the few extra keys have made the X3 into an entirely different kind of animal.

Other input elements: The Nokia C3 comes with dedicated camera and lock key that are sadly missing on the X3. Removed to keep the design seamless, no doubt.

Battery: Here’s where the Nokia C3 justifies the few mm more it has under it’s belt in comparison to the X3. The C3 comes with a 1050 mAh Li-ion battery against 860 mAh Li-Ion battery on the X3. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though, as the power consumption should be nowhere as close as on the smartphones. Charging on both phones is possible using the 2 mm port and also via microUSB.

Internal memory: According to Nokia site,  there’s no memory card included in the retail package, so this might really hurt:  there’s 30 MB of  internal memory available to the Nokia C3 user vs 50 Mb on the X3. Both are disturbingly low numbers, and storing anything more than a few camera photos and apps is, of course, out of question.

Camera: Both have a 5 Mpix, extended depth of focus (EDOF) cameras with accompanying LED flash. So yes, it’s basically fixed focus, albeit with some minor improvements. I suspect the overall performance will be quite similar to that of Nokia E5, but your guess is as good as mine at this point.

Connectivity: The Touch and Type series phones are pretty much on par with modern connectivity standards like 3G, HSDPA and Bluetooth (v2.1), but also packing support for WLAN networks. The only thing that’s really missing from the lot is the GPS functionality, but isn’t that a bit too much to ask for here?

Take a look at the brief but nevertheless interesting demo of the Nokia C3, recorded directly from Nokia World 2010:

With all that in mind, which device would you prefer? The stylish and ultra-slim Nokia X3-01, or the more classic looking C3-01? Choices…

Since it’s announcement during the recent Nokia World event, the E7 has gotten quite a lot of attention. And for a good reason. It was passionately dubbed by Annsi Vanjoki as the direct continuation of the Nokia’s ‘communicator’ legacy, and thus, has quite some shoes to fill. But before we move head first into the device itself, let’ relive the very first moments of Nokia E7 at Nokia World in the following video, starting at the 11:16 mark:

Short demo of Nokia E7:

The pictures doesn’t do the E7 justice. Yes, ‘it’s BIIIG’. The E7 is no small business. But at the same time, it doesn’t feel like a brick. It’s seamless and sleek design is truly remarkable, especially if we compare it to it’s spiritual predecessor, the E90. In closed state the E7 looks and feels like a slightly bigger version of the Nokia N8. With a slightly wider body and a similar thickness to the N8, the device also feels incredibly solid. You won’t find advanced camera optics of the N8 here – instead, the bulky camera module on the back has been removed to keep the device as slim as possible.

There’s also a more functional reason for this, namely so that the E7 can sit firmly on flat surfaces while working with the qwerty keyboard. What I’m not impressed with is the camera cover, which is at exact same level as the backside of the phone. I guess the engineers were really pushing the limits as to how slim the E7 can be, otherwise I can’t see the reason why the camera lens couldn’t be put in a slight recess of sorts for better protection.

The slider itself resembles the N97 in the way it looks and tilts the screen at a specific angle, yet it  doesn’t quite work in the same fashion. I was pointed out by the people who also had some hands-on time with the device that you actually have to push it a bit from the top, rather than pushing the upper part dead-on from it’s sides. So it might require a bit of practice until it becomes natural, but overall, it’s not an issue. When the slider is finally engaged, the rest of the movement is as smooth and matter-of-fact as you’d expect from it, locking the screen into open position at the very end and giving the E7 the certain ‘oomph’ factor the N8 strangely lacks in my opinion.

But that’s, obviously, is a completely different story. Nokia has done a great job at separating it’s new devices from each other, and it’s hard to choose a device without some sort of compromise in a certain direction. For the N8, it’s the lack of the Amoled CBD (Clear Black Display) and physical keys, for E7, it’s the absence of the superior camera hardware and a microSD card slot. Yet it almost feels like a perfect combo, these two devices – one for work and the other for leisure -  but other Nokia phones, like C6-01 or C7, can also be easily added to the mix.

During the little time I had (it’s never enough..) to play with the E7 in Nokia World experience lounge, the physical qwerty keys felt definitely closer to the Nokia N97 mini keys rather than N900′s. For starters, the E7 offers a generous work space for the qwerty keyboard. That, in turn, makes it so much more easier to work with emails, office documents  and whatnot – definitely better than, again, the cramped keys on the N900. When compared to the N900, the keys are also slightly larger and with a tad shorter travel, but by no means I can say that the E7 keys have poor feedback.

Speaking of feedback, I was also quite happy to see the redesigned and much improved menu key on the E7. In comparison to the N8, it has been moved from the corner to the middle area under the screen, and it has also been slightly raised rather than totally flush with the rest of the phone like on the N8. And the difference is quite noticeable: you thumb doesn’t aimlessly wander under the screen until it feels the slightly softer area that is the menu key. The raised  boarders of the menu key on the E7 means that the time to adjust your finger to properly work the key is reduced to minimum. A dream!

The rest of the phone speaks volumes by itself: anodized aluminum body, up front – hardened glass , HDMI port -  just like the Nokia N8.  These two devices go hand in hand in many ways, yet they successfully manage to offer their own, unique experiences to it’s user. Aside the usual corporate features that are essential for business users, during the Nokia World Q&A session with E7 product managers we were also promised some additional software tweaks in Symbian^3 operating system, so the phone would in theory run snappier than the N8. From my experience, even with the pre-production firmware the device ran pretty much lag free, and the screen responded promptly to my finger inputs. In a nutshell, the E7 runs on the same processor and has about the same RAM as the other recent additions to the Nokia Symbian^3 phone family. The graphical accelerator, however, was promised to handle the much bigger 4 inch screen of the E7 without sacrificing performance. It would be very interesting to see how the E7  fares against other Symbian^3 phones in field conditions, but by the end of the day, not everything solely depends on how much Mhz’s and Mb’s the phone has ticking under it’s hood. Symbian OS is proven to be less demandive to system resources, and less power consuming as well. Let’s keep that in mind, when and if comparing it to other operating system phones out there in the market.

Link to the full Nokia E7 gallery

Finally, we move onto the  already mentioned Q&A session we had during Nokia World day 2. What are the differences from the Nokia N8 camera? What business applications the E7 is going to have?  These, and some other relevant questions were raised, and for the most part, answered in the following video, thanks again to @dani2xll for providing it! Incidentally, yours truly, can also be seen in the video, sitting to the left from the product managers

Nokia E7 Q&A:

So that about sums it up what I feel about the Nokia E7 at the moment. For me, the E7 was the absolute winner of the whole Nokia World show. For others, it’s greatest strengths might be less important, and they might look at the likes of Nokia N8 or C7, for example. Many questions have been lifted during Nokia World regarding the E7, where rumors and blurry spy photos turned into an ace looking successor of the Nokia’s communicator line.  The E7 has an edge over the competition with a truly attractive design, built materials, and thought-out qwerty keyboard. And did somebody forgot about the desert – the HDMI and USB OTG functionality?

Yet the biggest question remains, that actually sounds more like a request at this point… when is it finally coming out?

Not incidentally, the new Nokia baby, the N8 was mentioned in more than a few occasions mainly for it’s superior media capabilities. Speaking of which, there was also a solid chance for bloggers to win a spanking new Nokia N8, and if my memory serves correctly, @mikemacias and @S60inside won the lottery, both of whom will probably receive their N8′s in the following weeks.

Anyway, you’ll get an idea of what the evening was like while watching the video, and perhaps even spot a few familiar faces in there… Since  the recording proved to be rather lengthy for the likes of YouTube, I’ve split it in two parts. Enjoy!

Photos by Roman Schweigler

Meet the Nokia X3. Or,  if you like it better that way, X3-02. Confusing? Most certainly, as there’s already a Nokia X3 with a slider form factor, released in late 2009. Especially confusing is the fact that ‘X3′ is clearly visible on front of the device. Suddenly, using the righteous X3-02 isn’t so attractive anymore, now is it? But let’s leave this for later discussions, and instead have a quick virtual tour around the device in question.

Ha – a matching shirt, almost!  I asked if I can get one of those, even the pink ones would do for me, but nada…

The very distinct ‘V’ shape of the chassis of the X3 is also less noticeable in real life than in the official photos I had seen out there. And perhaps I’ve grown tried of the masculine, all-black N900, but the pink doesn’t look so bad on the X3…  Add the slim form factor and incredible lightness of the device (77.4 g), and you have a good contender for a female type of phone. Of course, there’s a lot more going on than just the exterior- X3 is also one of the first so called ‘touch-and-type’ Nokia phones, that run on the S40 series platform. While using the alphanumeric keypad isn’t news for S40 phones, the inclusion of a fully capable touchscreen is. The sensitivity of the touchscreen is impressive despite the fact it’s resistive, with the UI being clean and simple, and large enough to avoid any problems fingering the rather small, 2.4″  screen area with the standard 240 x 320 pixel QVGA resolution.

I quite like where Nokia is going with the X3, combining the old and familiar with the relatively new. For the users who feel like they are not ready yet to take a dive to touchscreen only controls, there’s now a way to have a go with a touch sensitive screen without leaving the comfort of having physical alphanumeric keypad. There’re no navi keys to be found here, but once the user realizes the sheer beauty of navigating through menus just by touching the screen, going back to the old ways could prove to be difficult. The keypad itself doesn’t leave many surprises, but one thing should be noted is that there’re four keys per row instead of the standard three, with the first row dedicated to call keys and two shortcuts keys. Each key also has a slight slope at the bottom part for better distinction between the rows.

The connectivity options would be pretty much standard issue for smartphones, but for an affordable S40 phone like X3 the specs are actually quite good: 3G, HSDPA, Wi-fi, bluetooth (2.1) and microUSB port. There’s a 2 mm charger port, but according the Nokia official site, USB charging is also possible. The internal memory is rather small (50 MB), and knowing the price group of the phone, there’s a very slim chance that a micro SD card will come in the retail package. Understandable for such a slim body, the Nokia X3 is equipped with a very basic 5 Mpix ‘full focus’ camera. Why even bother, you may ask? Just ’cause…

So there you have it, the Nokia X3- a simple to use, compact and lightweight non-smartphone, offering the best of both worlds of touch and type.

You can have a look at the rest of the Nokia X3-02 pics in my flickr album here.

Perhaps a slightly deeper explanation is in order.

We all live to experience and explore emotions. It is what makes us feel alive. But the path we choose to do so is never completely the same. We’re free to go where we choose, try as many different things as we want. But now, our digital lives are increasingly taking over. The need to communicate is growing out of proportions. That is only a natural progression into new the modern age, yet it gives a whole new meaning to survival. Life seems to accelerate. But there is a solution. Mobile phones are poised to offer it’s owners the flexibility and speed that are so important for the success in virtually all aspects of their lives.

With time, mobile phones learned do so much more. They became the initiators and organizers of our experiences – the very same essential little things that fulfill our lives. And I grew to realize that with my own mobile phone. It was a Nokia.

My Nokia phone gave me the canvas of my digital life, a gateway to different experiences. My interest in mobile phones and industry was born with Nokia phones, and like all things that are first, they remain in your mind, forever and strong.

As I grew, my Nokia phones kept evolving, becoming faster, smarter, and more aware of the surrounding world. But one thing never really changed. It is that warm, familiar feeling. It always stays with me, and I trust it, because I know it for such a long time.

The steady mobile evolution that Nokia was driving forward was the one that also taught me to appreciate the mobile technology I’ve come to use daily now. My journey started with Nokia NGage, and it was first to show me that mobile phones can be offer immerse entertainment, anytime and anywhere. Nokia N70 was first to teach me that phones can be smart and attractive at the same time, and Nokia N73 – that I can trust my phone’s camera to capture the most dear moments of my life.

There was a milestone event in the year 2007. Nokia N95 came out, breaking all previous assumptions on what mobile phone can do. It was first to prove to the world, that’s it’s possible to have it all in a single, compact device. It’s a multimedia player, a gps receiver, a versatile camera and it’s also a mobile phone that works. It’s not one thing, but many. Does it sound strangely familiar? The Nokia N95 created a following of immense proportions, but the history will always remember it as the first.

And finally there’s the Nokia N900 that stays with me to this present day. It is the mobile computer in my phone in my pocket that I had always wished for. I still keep exploring what it can do. It satisfies my drive for constant online connectivity perfectly – handling my emails, instant messaging and, of course, giving an uncompromised web browsing experience. And on top of all that, it ensured me, that I can expect great things from Nokia in the future. And that future is coming close. It’s almost here. Nokia World is where it all starts.

But why are smartphones became attractive to me? Early on, I’ve spotted that smartphones carried the biggest bulk of innovation in the industry. Now there are increasingly popular and can be found anywhere. They are the big things that come in small packages. They are also the many small things that bear invaluable importance, only for me. To feel like being part of something while enjoying a complete solitude. It is that feeling of home and safety, right in your palms, while being exposed to different opinions and events streaming from my phone. These contrasting values come together in a wonderful and unique way – supplementing each others strengths and negating weaknesses.

So it quickly became the tiny corner of my digital life, packed neatly in my pocket. I can take it wherever I want, shape it how I want, store pleasant memories and all sort of other things that make me feel good about. And yes, I can also call the world whenever I wish, staying connected with people that matter to me.

These are the reasons for my undying love towards smartphones and mobile industry.

And thus it’s easy for me to explain why I want to be part of Nokia World. It means to be part of something that matters to me, but on a much larger scale. And I won’t be alone. I will have the opportunity to see and meet people I have always looked up to. And finally live up to that very moment, when there’s nothing in the way for me to simply come over and shake their hands. Tell them – thank you. Being there, a mutual understanding comes into play- we know why we are here – we are united in our interest towards Nokia phones. For then I’d say – ‘I learned from you, and continue to do so, while also trying to find my own way in this world. No, we never actually met before, but I feel like I’ve known you for a long time’.

Nokia does that. It connects people, in many different ways.

Spending several years closely following mobile events I discovered that my passion outgrew of just being a hobby. It became a lifestyle and a place where I can focus my energy on, and encourage myself with dreams about the future. From the more practical point of view, my interest helped me develop critical thinking and take my English writing skills a step further, giving me the freedom to reach out to a much wider audience. I discovered the simple joy in sharing what I have learned. Because I know, at the same time, I’m learning from them.

While I love to discuss newly announced phones and other events in the industry with like minded people, it started to lose it’s magic. Somehow the news always came to me with a notion of jealousy. Something is missing. And it only grew in intensity, almost stealing the pleasure in actually learning about the news. The answer, as I later found out, was plain simple – I need to be closer.

But there are boundaries I cannot overcome without help.

I wish to experience how it feels to be on ground zero of events that will define the future of Nokia and mobile industry. See as it happens and observe, as it resonates throughout the rest of the world, reaching millions of people who also wish stay connected with the help of Nokia.

Everybody feels that changes are about to happen.

Nokia World. Phones running the much improved Symbian^3 operating system will be showcased. More will be unveiled on the promising MeeGo platform that will hopefully set sails of new and powerful Nokia flagship before the end of this year. In the end, all these news and announcements will carry one simple yet very effective message – Nokia is back!  The anticipation is almost unbearable. For me, it will be the time to fall in love all over again.

It’s more than just phone. It’s more than just emotions. It’s my Nokia.

I’ve written this essay not only to attempt a ticket to Nokia World, but also to have a way of reaching you guys and wishing the best of luck. It’s time to turn the tide, and more than ever, the world is watching closely.

Thank you for considering me!

Ever since it’s release under the Nokia’s Cseries branding, the Nokia C6 was bound to attract some attention. And for a good reason. The budget price range is quite unusual for what it offers in return: attractive design, a touchscreen enforced with a slide-out qwerty keyboard and all the connectivity you can eat, including voice guided GPS navigation. With a few caveats, it’s not difficult to spot the simple yet beautiful concept behind the  Nokia C6 – you get what you see, without going into overdrive with expenses.

The retail packaging

Nokia decided that the subtle design of packaging of Nseries is a bit  inappropriate for the lower class phones, and changed it to a more flashy, blue packaging. On a tighter budget, the buyer needs to look for the smaller things that complete a positive picture, so to say.  Confusingly enough, a white version of the Nokia C6 can be seen on the front of the box, even though my review unit was the black one. I find both color versions to be fairly attractive, but being classy as I am, my preferred choice would go all the way to black.

As one would expect, the content of the retail box is a bare minimum. Thankfully, Nokia didn’t try to cut any corners and all the essentials are still present, including a charger, an ultra-short USB cable and a simple stereo headset. The charger unit utilizes Nokia’s own proprietary port, and somewhat disappointingly, you cannot charge the phone using the microUSB port. The phone also comes with a 2GB microSD card, which should be enough for a casual smartphone user, but a need for bigger capacity card may be in question later on. Following the latest trends, there’s no disc in the box; instead the installation files for the Ovi software suite can be found on the memory card when you connect the phone to a computer.

The first contact

Interestingly enough, design and feel of the Nokia C6 draws closer associations with the 5800 XPress Music than the N97 mini, both of whom the C6 shares more than a few similarities hardware wise. Perhaps it’s the familiar shape of the call and menu keys that gives it away (if it proven to work on other models, why not use it again?), or the overall plastic feel of the handset. But perhaps one of the biggest initial surprises comes from the rather hefty weight of the C6, which outclasses even the N97 mini, despite the later having more metal elements on it’s body. The lone piece of metal here, unless I’m rudely mistaken, is the frame that wraps around the keyboard on the lower part of the slider, but I’ll get back to that a bit later. Minus the glossy plastic front, the phone is encased in a soft touch plastic that ensures a firm grip and virtually no love for finger prints. Overall, the built materials are adequate for it’s price range and even removes some of the headaches more expensive handset owners are experiencing.

You can view the complete, full-resolution gallery of Nokia C6 here.

Above the 3.2 inch resistive touchscreen, on either side of the earpiece, we come across the usual set of sensors, including the proximity and lighting sensors (for regulating the backlight level of screen), as well as a front camera for video calling. The voice call quality and the reception is top notch, something that is equally good across all kinds of Nokia phones.

Going further, on top of the device, there’s the opening for the 3.5 mm headset jack, and right next to it, a microUSB port that is protected from the outside world with a plastic cap. While I’m definitely far from being an audiophile, I’ve found the sound output via my Sennheiser headphones pretty good – not great, mind you – but fairly acceptable for the pricing level of Nokia C6.

The right side is crowded. First off, there’s the volume keys, that, quite annoyingly, do not work while the screen is turned off. There’s also the screen block switch in the middle (where your thumb is supposed to be –  provided you’re holding it in your right hand) that  I’ve found a bit fiddly to use like on the N97, leaving doubts about it’s long term usability. To conclude this side of the phone, there’re also a dedicated key for taking snapshots with the camera. Holding down this key it’s also possible to quickly launch the camera application, again, as you’d come to expect.

On the contrary, the left side of the phone is relatively plain with only a microSD card slot near the centre.  Looking at the the bottom side, there’s just the Nokia proprietary charger port and hole for the microphone. A subtle nice touch is that the port shines with white ring of light while the phone is charging, and goes off  when the battery is full. An eyelet for wrist strap can also be found in the very right corner, if you ever might need one.

There’s also a couple of noteworthy elements on the backside of the Nokia C6, too. To start with, there’s an unprotected camera lens that is accompanied with a single LED flash. The camera resides in slight recess but you still have to take care not to scratch it, and occasionally clean it up from dirt to ensure it doesn’t ruin the quality of pics.

Speaking of quality, the C6 shows a rather mediocre performance between other 5Mpix shooters, meaning the color pallet is good in the produced pictures, but the detail seems to be washed away by some weird processing algorithm.  Take a look that the comparison photos with the Nokia N900 for better understanding where the C6 stands:

Nokia N900

Nokia C6

Nokia N900

Nokia C6

Nokia N900 (shot in dark)

Nokia C6 (shot in dark)

You can find the full-resolution photo samples for N900 here and for C6 here.

Just click on any of the thumbnails for the extended Nokia C6 camera sample gallery.

Next up is the lone loudspeaker grill on the opposite corner of the battery cover. It’s not the clearest nor the loudest solution, but it’s fair to say the quality is sufficient not to pass on any incoming calls. For example, I’ve experienced worse results in more expensive Android running smartphones.

The battery cover fastenings are fairly simple, making the whole cover move ever so slightly, and is perhaps another testament of the price level of the C6. Inside, there wasn’t much space left for a bigger capacity battery, so the C6 owners have to settle with just 1200 mAh (same as the N97 mini but less than the 5800 XM). In practice that would suffice for about 1.5 days of moderate usage, but it’s also not hard to drop the charge to nil during a single day. By the way, I had a quite a bit of challenge trying to fish the SIM card out of it’s slot that is accessible only after the battery is removed.

The spring assisted slider opens with a loud and ensuring snap. The upper part of the slider, however, doesn’t lock in closed or open position in a similar manner to the N900, for example. This results in the upper part wobbling ever so slightly while you hold the phone in closed position in portrait mode. It doesn’t seem to affect the usability as much in open, landscape position.

And here’s what separates the C6 from the 5800XM the most: a slide-out, 4 row qwerty keyboard with nicely proportioned keys that have a simply great tactile feedback. Each key is a bit raised from the surface that in turn helps instinctively locate their centre without even looking at them. I’d prefer to have a bit more resistance to the keys like on my N900, but the generous workspace of the keyboard makes the writing process with the C6 a really enjoyable experience. Safe to say, this is one of the definitive strengths of this phone. In comparison, the N97 mini keys have space between them but are considerably smaller.

The touchscreen is decent

The Nokia C6 comes packing with a resistive TFT touchscreen that produces 16M colors. The colors looks faded and cold in comparison to other touchscreen phones I had at my disposal, but the overall picture doesn’t seem to be so bad. Unless, of course, you put it next to more expensive AM-OLED screens. Below you can see a screen comparison test, starting from the bottom: Samsung I8910HD, Nokia C6 and N900.

Having tried both resistive and capaticive touchscreen on a wide range of smartphones, I can say the C6 screen sensitivity is decent enough, and most of  the problems I ran into can be tracked back to the small physical size of the screen. The legibility of the screen in direct sunlight was, however, quite poor, a transreflective screen would’ve come in handy here.

Multitasking for the cautious

Under the hood of Nokia C6, we have an ARM 11 processor pounding at 434MHz, which is the same as in the N97 mini and numerous other 5800XM variations. While the internal phone storage has been upped to around 200MB (compared to just 8o Mb on 5800XM), the amount of RAM remains unchanged  - 128MB, of whom about 50 MB are free after a fresh reboot. The stability and general speed of the system seems fine – a sign perhaps that Symbian is well on it’s way becoming a mature operating system. Yet you only have to run of couple of heavy apps in the background, say, Ovi Maps and Web browser, and you’ll be under a constant threat of running out of precious memory. In most case scenarios, I’ve noticed the system starts panicking and automatically closing down apps when RAM is below the 10 MB or so mark, but if careful enough, it’s still possible to do a fair bit of multitasking, like shown in the screenshots  below (using Handy Taskman and Screensnap):

So the Nokia C6 has one major issue to bear, that will bite it’s user sooner or later:  it’s a smartphone that doesn’t fully understand how to act like one. The identity crisis that runs throughout the handset is not because of the Symbian operating system. By itself, it’s a great platform for multitasking, yet the artificial borders set by system resources from a two years past ultimately becomes Nokia C6 Achilles heel. But we have to look at the larger picture or risk running into a wall here.

Nokia C6 is primary meant to be a smartphone for the casual users. Perhaps they just jumped off the feature phone ship and eagerly look forward get the first taste of what it means having a miniature computer in thier pocket – emails, music player or web – all that, compressed and ready for consumption on the go. The user would want to try those things first, not to measure how good or bad the experience was. And then, if he feels like getting rid of the training wheels and tackle multi-tasking head on, he would be looking elsewhere – at different class ,with higher standards. And heftier price.

All-you-can-eat connectivity

Having cleared that, let’s have a look on how Nokia C6 will try to even the odds against it. Truth to be told, there’s an awful lot going on. Despite it’s price, Nokia C6 has mastered a pretty fancy list of things that completes a modern smartphone. It’s a quad band phone that can also handle HSDPA networks. Then there’s Wi-Fi and  Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support. And on top of all that, a A-GPS receiver is on-board. Not so long ago, we could see this kind of all-you-can eat connectivity only on high and mid-tier smartphones, but the fierce competition in the market dictated changes.

Symbian runs deep, still has a few tricks up it’s sleeve

Nokia C6 runs under the Symbian 5th edition operating system. The more recent classification – Symbian^1 – might sound even less impressive (Symbian^3 phones are about to stream into the market, and S^4 is under heavy development). But instead of discussing the growing pains of the current operating system, like the occasional need to double tap vs single tap in menus or the old and tired UI, let’s focus on things the Nokia C6 can actually do, shall we? That way, we will familiarize ourselves with the smartphones most prominent features and leave more food for though for those who are considering buying this phone.

First in line is the homescreen. It  has become an essential cornerstone for any modern smartphone operating system, yet in that respect, Symbian 5th is somewhat lagging behind the leading mass. There’s just one homescreen page available for the user to customize with widgets that can be fitted into 5 pre-determined slots. The homescreen content can vary from favorite contacts and program shortucts to rss news feed and email widgets. The rest of the homescreen is occupied by interactive tabs of digital/ analog clock, calendar and active profile. Just like on the N97, you can also flick the homescreen page sideways to quickly hide the personalized content and enjoy a less obscure view of your wallpaper. Finally, if you’re really grown tired of the inconsistency of the Symbian homescreen, you can try out SPB mobile Shell for a completely revamped user experience, but at the expense of RAM, further crippling the multitasking capabilities of this phone.

By default, the main menu is organized in a 3×4 grid with the familiar set of Nokia Ovi themed icons. There’s also an alternative version of the main menu – the list view  - but it involves a bit more scrolling work. The kinetic scrolling is present and works a treat in all of the menus, including the contacts book and photo gallery.

Condensed in a 3.2 inch area, the 360 x 640 pixel (nHD) resolution makes the user interface elements appear nice and crisp, while the sensitivity to user finger inputs is fairly good and comparable to the N97 mini, and slightly below the N900 performance.

The Applications folder is where you’ll find most of the content stored on the device. There’s a podcast download manager from Nokia, two apps from Psiloc - Font Manager (with a 7 day full trial) and World Traveler (free but with partially locked features), as well as a handful of  apps for social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or Friendster. Share Online is  a useful too for uploading images and video clips  to various online sharing websites – Ovi and Vox are ready to used – but I’d suggest getting the stellar Pixelpipe to expand it with more online destinations. A couple of news service apps from Bloomberg, Associated Press and Reuters are also installed, and those can be placed as widgets directly on the homescreen.

The Office folder is where all the productivity apps can be found. This includes the Quickoffice document viewer, a mobile dictionary that is expandable with additional language modules, and a simple converter tool. A rather basic file manager is also included, but it’s useful for formating memory cards and making local backups.

The second folder, ‘Tools’ keeps all the system relevant apps in a single spot. Phone setup is something you would normally run when you first switch on the phone, and it helps transfer user data via bluetooth from a compatible Nokia phone, quickly personalize ringtone and theme, and check for pre-installed app updates (I’ve used it to update Ovi Contacts to latest version and download the free navigation package for Ovi Maps). Settings Wizzard automatically configures internet access points and sets up personal or corporate emails. Ovi Sync basically keeps your contacts and calendar entries synced between the phone and the Ovi website. That way, you will always have an up-to-date copy of your important numbers in case you’d lose your SIM card, for example.

Nokia Ovi store hasn’t changed much since I last seen it, but the content got a little more varied. I went ahead and installed Skype and Ovi Maps Racing, and they worked with no problems.

The web browser did an OK job at rendering moderately sophisticated pages, but occasionally crashes while loading heavy, RAM eating, web pages. The browser automatically goes to full screen mode as soon as it has finished loading a page. A clever little feature is the Google search bar that is visible under the address line.

The music player. Several things I’ve found annoying about it. First, it requires the user to manually refresh the library after transferring new songs, and secondly, there’s a certain disconnect with the player that is used within the default podcasts client. The only cure I found is to ignore the playback possibility in the Podcasting  app and use it only as a download tool. As I previously mentioned, the hardware keys to control the volume doesn’t work while the screen block is active. On the upside, it’s possible to change the playback volume with on-screen controls by touching the album art. There’s also integration with Nokia Music store available for a set group of countries.

Ovi Maps navigation didn’t disappoint in Nokia C6 -  a thought-out user interface plus all the necessary features makes it an enjoyable experience. The free voice guidance worked a treat as well.

Conclusion, or where it all ends

Chances are you might still be wondering about the tittle of my review. What are the ’good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘smart’ parts of the Nokia C6? I took the decision to not specifically point those out (more or less) in order to avoid locking the reader in a particular mindset about this device. Instead, if the reader is truly invested, he should be able to discover the parts that matter the most to him while reading trough this review, and then decide, whether the Nokia C6 meets his expectations or not.

For the rest of the people, the Nokia C6 is neither innovative nor evolutionary device. It doesn’t try to be best at anything, nor pretend something it’s not. The absence of extra perks is understandable for it’s price limit. But if you’re simply on a lookout for a capable and affordable device with one of the best physical qwerty keys out there, the C6 is hard bargain to match.

P.S.

I’ve come across reports that in some countries the Nokia C6 costs as much as the N97 mini. Frankly, I think it’s a poor marketing decision, since the mini offers the same set of features, but with better built materials and only slightly worse keyboard (depending on your personal preferences, I, for once, love my N900 qwerty keys). But if the price difference is there, say, 100 euros, why pay more for the N97 mini, if the C6 can basically do the same. And if having a qwerty keyboard isn’t so important to you, the alternatives expand dramatically – the good ol’ Nokia 5800XM is ready to rock, and has probably dropped in price considerably since it’s original release.

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You’re more than welcome to leave your  thoughts about on Nokia C6 in the comments section down below – market perspectives, praises, things that Nokia should’ve handled differently – anything. In addition to that, it would also greatly help if you have some useful suggestions on how I can improve this and my future reviews Thank you for reading, and good luck!

Write speed from PC to phone:

Nokia C6: Kingston Class 4 microSD card  ~ 2.6 Mb/s vs ~2.9 Mb/s Noname microSD card;

Nokia N900:  Kingston Class 4 microSD card ~ 6.6 Mb/s vs ~ 6 Mb/s Noname microSD card.

After looking at the above figures I think it’s rather obvious that there’re almost no significant difference in USB transfer speeds between the two memory cards that were used. While I can’t guarantee that my results are 100% correct, the overall picture is quite telling, I’m sure of it. The outcome shouldn’t comes as a surprise, since the Nokia C6 I’m currently reviewing is a budget smartphone foremost and it would make perfect sense the manufacturer tried to cut expenses wherever possible. Surprisingly dull, however, is my find that the C6 doesn’t support charging via microUSB port, probably another indication of older parts being used.

But that’s perfectly alright. It’s not the Nseries chart stormer for ultra-tech geeks (like me). For about 200 euros you get a device with a 3.2 inch resistive touchscreen, a very convenient and easy to use 4-row qwerty keyboard that is perfect for social media and emails, a decent enough 5Mpix camera, and all the connectivity you can eat plus free GPS navigation with Nokia Ovi Maps. There’s just no other word for it, it’s a steal!

To conclude this quick mindstorm session, here’s my unboxing and quick tour video of the Nokia C6:

Nokia N900

HTC  Desire

Lot’s of nice little detail shown by both 5Mpix cameras, but Nokia N900 in particular impresses with warm and life like colors. Judging solely on the end results, I’d pick the N900 as a clear winner here, even though the produced pics look much better on the HTC Desire AMOLED screen.

You can easily find the extended, full-res version of  Nokia N900 and HTC Desire camera sample gallery on my flickr page!

Update 1: One week has passed with HTC Desire, and I can confidently say this smartphone has grown really close to my heart. I’ve reviewed a couple of Android devices before (the most recent being Android 1.6 running XPeria X10), yet I’ve never seen anything as special as HTC’s Sense UI. It’s not just an overlay UI on top of the stock Android OS 2.1, but it’s a set of widgets, applications and other little customizations and tweaks that bring the already fluid and intuitive Android experience to a new level. I  can already see how this, coupled with the ever expanding Google online services, can easily hook more customers in who are looking for a solid smartphone experience.

Of course there’re a few noteworthy problems here and there. While the built materials are top quality, design wise HTC played a very safe game, there’re little eye catching features aside from 3.7 inch touchscreen that offers a really vibrant  and sharp image. Another no-go  is the very  mediocre camera. While I really enjoy the built in features like touch-to-focus and face detection, the weak LED flash and lack of 720p video recording  makes the Desire a poor man’s show. And finally, the ridiculously low space  available for installing applications -120 Mb-  a limitation that I had run into disturbingly fast. It’s not clear why the manufacturer didn’t equip it’s leading Android flagship with a bigger internal memory since extending functionality with heaps of various apps from Android Market place is such an integral part of the smartphone experience. Romors has it now, that Android 2.2 will allow installing apps on the microSD card and put the powerful 1Ghz processor to a good use with HD video recording and Divx/Xvid codecs support.

Seems like many of my mentioned problems can be easily fixed with future firmware updates. The only question remains, whether customer will be wiling to wait or simply look for an absolute winner elsewhere. Samsung Galaxy S is more than a capable alternative since HTC is no longer the only top player in Android smartphone field, even though the most experienced.

The full contents of the European retail package of HTC Desire (minus the mini disk with documentation)

Camera gallery

(Just click on the thumbnails to open the camera sample collection)

Unboxing of the Desire, a powerful high-end smartphone from HTC, running Android 2.1 and sporting 3.7′ capacitive AMOLED touchscreen with multi-touch support. HTC utilizes it’s own customization on top of the stock Android OS v2.1 (Eclair) called Sense UI that ensures a seamless and beautiful experience across all smartphones released by the manufacturer.

The internals are equally impressive with Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 GHz processor and 576 MB of RAM, and a ‘touch to focus’ 5Mpix camera with sharing features to social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Flickr.

HTC Desire is equipped with a Li-Ion 1400 mAh battery that should last around a day for most users, but it strongly varies depending on the number of online services running in the background.

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