Not the flavour, of course, but a standalone Nokia X6 (without the inclusion of Comes with Music) has been announced by the Finnish company. Expected to retail at 350 Euros (£305), this plain X6 is aiming at the consumer space that the 5800 made its own during 2009. This is sensible strategy from Nokia, but unfortunately has a few flaws that will need to be worked out.
The main one is the X6 itself. The current firmware, as reviewed here on All About Symbian (parts 1, 2, 3 and 4) has problems, especially in Music player, that makes the core functionality of music almost unusable for anything other than very short periods. No matter the price point or bundled service, until the firmware is updated and the bugs cleared out, we can’t recommend the X6.
But once the music player is sorted out, then the X6 is going to be a nippy wee beastie of a phone. As the review points out, it’s almost there as a consumer grade device. The price of the original X6 was far too high, but two changes in this announced package are bringing the price down.
The first is the loss of Comes with Music. To some this will be painful, in which case go get the original bundle! Free mainstream music for a year is attractive, but not for everyone, especially as it adds a significant premium to the device to give the major labels and publishers their dues.
The other cost saving is a dropping the internal memory from 32GB to 16GB. Part of me wonders if there has been a clinical study inside Espoo as to how much music the average Comes with Music owner carries on their phone compared to a regular music-enabled phone, and they’ve come up with a number that is just below (the memory size) one step below 32GB. Only part of me thinks that was what happened – more likely “it’s cheaper and creates a dividing line in our portfolio.”
No matter what’s been shaved off, the X6 is starting to look more attractive at that current price point. The question is whether Nokia believe in it here, and if they’re happy to promote this device when there are other Nokia smartphones that cost just a little bit more, and just a little bit less, than the X6. The range of phones from Nokia that have the same basic Symbian S60 functionality is starting to get very crowded in the £220-£320 market, so the X6 is not only fighting the competition, but also its best friends.
On balance though, very few buyers go on just the price - most target the feature set and fashionable status, and the X6 does have an advantage here. The capacitive screen gives it the sex appeal and tactile levels almost demanded after the iPhone and Android devices on the market, while the almost single sheet style of the front of the unit, with a hint of colour in the trim, is certainly a winner on the fashion front – this isn’t just a phone – they have number pads, small screens and buttons everywhere. Not the X6 – this is a classy piece of electronics.
Throw in the mix of colours now on offer (and much as we may go 'really?', that splash of pink on one model is going to be popular) and you start to see how the device could carve out a nice niche for itself and build up enough momentum to become as big a hit as the 5800 was.
It’s not quite there yet, although two more steps - to make it more stable and less costly - and the X6 will have muscled its way into the limelight, ready to continue the fight for the mid-range mass market device. It’s not a fair fight, and a lot of that is because the device is being pulled back by its creators, but it is straining at the leash. Today’s announcement gives it a little bit more room to push forward, a little bit more aggression.
I’m sure Nokia are just slowly winding up this tiger, taking the time to get it right. That development is now being done out in the open and I hope this doesn’t cripple the X6 before it can run.
-- Ewan Spence, Jan 2009.