In part 1 of my Nokia X6 16GB review (that's the Nokia X6-00, officially), I looked at its hardware and general performance. In this second (and final) review part, I look at the X6-00's software and interface, before summing the device up. Is it just a 5800 upgrade? Or a stepping stone to newer devices like the Nokia N8? Most of all, who is the X6 aimed at and will it succeed?
Read on in the full article.
I owned an X6 for about three weeks. Mine had the earlier software and had some issues that have since been addressed.
I found the device to be supremely capable and practical. Coming straight from a 'old skool' 6210 navigator,I have to report that things like searching for contacts and speed dialling were more long-winded, but that is true for all pure touch-screen devices I have tried.
The touch keyboard is cramped and not best for people who need to type a lot. I was fine because I mainly use my device for browsing, phoning and taking pictures. I too was a bit disappointed with the camera, although it is way better than iphone for stills. You do need to spend some time getting used to it.
I had a screen failure (v unusual from what I can see; the bottom 1cm of the screen became unresponsive unless the phone was very warm or in landscape mode) so I used the opportunity to upgrade to an N900.
In some ways I still miss that X6; it's small with a big clear and bright screen. It browses really well, has a good camera with superb flash (that you can use as a torch with a free app) and has very good battery life (for a touchscreen media phone) It's rugged, reliable and has plenty of apps to customise. It plays music really well, has a good podcast client and handles emails, texts , facebook and twitter really well. Best of all it is a really good PHONE.
The biggest disappointment for me was that dust could be seen under the glass screen within days. My local nokia service centre can clear this out for a few quid (they did not recognise this as a warranty issue) but the best way to prevent this is to keep the X6 in a leather pouch rather than straight in the pocket. Oh, and get a silicone jacket to protect the soft plastic case from scratches and improve grip.
There are only a few phones I'd swap my N900 for now and the X6 is the only touchscreen device amongst them. I still favour it over my wife's N97 Mini and that has a 'real' keyboard - the Nokia X6 really is that good in my opinion 😊
"Qwerty text entry on the 3.2" touchscreen remains something of a challenge, seeing as Nokia still hasn't implemented any kind of word completion or correction..."
At least my N97 mini has AutoCompletion, but it is very well hidden. 😊
You need to be in a open editor with HW keyboard open and T9 active. Then select Options->Input options->Settings->AutoCompletion (I am using English as UI Language, so the actual names of the setting items might be different).
Thanks. That was VERY well hidden. Noted as a tip for the future 8-)
But is the X6 better than the HTC legend which is 5 pounds a month cheaper (GBP 20) on contract at Vodafone ? Given S60 v5 I would say not, which could explain why worryingly I`m seeing ever diminishing numbers of Nokia`s in London these days` or rather not seeing them. Against modern smartphones the 5800/S60 v5 just can`t compete.
Nokia desperately their new platform phones out in the marketplace and symbian even more desperately needs it if it is to avoid becoming an OS backwater.
Quick example in last weekend`s Telegraph magazine they talked about the HTC Desire being not only as good as an iPhone on paper but being one of the first phones to begin to match the user experience(incidentally only 5 pounds a month more on contract than an X6, no comp and that`s without considering the new HTC wildfire which is going to kill on price). I was reading a financial website yesterday which was talking about how apple and the ipad were scoring a big success and how important mobilke computing had become and that Google`s android was becoming a major rival to Apple and what microsoft`s response had been` but not one mention of symbian. No I know everyone points out shipped volume but symbian is rapidly becoming an irrelevance and given that Nokia don`t have one highend consumer oriented (rules out N900) phone on the market and haven`t had for 6 months and don`t look to have for another 6 months (the N8 is clearly aimed mid market) is it really surprising that nokia and Symbian can`t get any column inches. It`s pretty apparent that Samsung have effectively dropped and Sony look as if they might have too (indeed tacit admission was made on this site by a Symbian employee when talking about S^3 and saying he felt it would make Samsung and sony look again at symbian).
Nokia need new products and a new OS and a new look and feel to that OS and they need it now and frankly if they`re finding it so tough to make symbian work in a way that is appealing to consumers then they`re better off dropping it. as they`re stuck again being the only company developing on symbian. While they`ve been fooling around making symbian open sourece but not actually getting any real improvements to the market Android has come along and stolen their thunder let`s count the number of Android devices (and cost levels) versus symbian devices this year.
I`ve said repeatedly here that Nokia and symbian keep promising wonders in the future but that record has been playing for 2 years now and there`s been no delivery (hence Nokia`s recent poor results) by the time the wonder that is S^4 finally appears the game could very well be over.
The X6 simply doesn`t stand up to available android and others choices and it isn`t even that good value.
snoFlake wrote:But is the X6 better than the HTC legend which is 5 pounds a month cheaper (GBP 20) on contract at Vodafone ?
Miles better at some things, yes. Loudspeakers are 100x better. Not exagerating. Camera a bit better. Microphone better. Memory out of the box better. Signal and Wi-Fi performance better.
Miles worse at others, of course. Legend is stylish and great metal build. Plus Android. Overall, not a clear cut decision, though I agree the X6 could be a bit cheaper.
Nokia desperately their new platform phones out in the marketplace and symbian even more desperately needs it if it is to avoid becoming an OS backwater.
An OS backwater that has 40% world market share? Not quite a 'backwater' yet, I feel!
clearly aimed mid market) is it really surprising that nokia and Symbian can`t get any column inches. It`s pretty apparent that Samsung have effectively dropped and Sony look as if they might have too (indeed tacit admission was made on this site by a Symbian employee when talking about S^3 and saying he felt it would make Samsung and sony look again at symbian).
Fair points, though the Vivaz has been selling quite well, I hear. Wish Samsung would release an i8910 HD follow-up. Or at least a Symbain^3 firmware for it!
I`ve said repeatedly here that Nokia and symbian keep promising wonders in the future but that record has been playing for 2 years now and there`s been no delivery (hence Nokia`s recent poor results)
'Poor results'? You did see the Q1 figures that we've been quoting? Sales have been up and up again. Admittedly less top-end flagship sales, but still impressive numbers.
slitchfield wrote:An OS backwater that has 40% world market share? Not quite a 'backwater' yet, I feel!
I hope Nokia and Symbian are not so complaisant about their market share. Success in the new world of mobile computing platforms will be driven by availability of applications and clients for web-services. When I recently tried to move from a 3GS to an N97 Mini I found that quite a bit of the software that I use on a daily basis was not available on Symbian. I am not a developer so I don't know how much the "it's so hard to develop on Symbian" story is true but there does seem to be less development of new applications and web service clients on Symbian than on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, or even Windows Mobile despite it's recent death and burial.
I really hope this will change with the release of Symbian^3 but I doubt it can while Symbian has next to no market presence in the USA and the majority of new software development still comes from Silicon Valley
slitchfield wrote:'Poor results'? You did see the Q1 figures that we've been quoting? Sales have been up and up again. Admittedly less top-end flagship sales, but still impressive numbers.
I think he was talking about Nokia's corporate results which have been a great deal less than stellar for some time now and which have driven their stock price through the floor.
> but symbian is rapidly becoming an irrelevance
Come on snoFlake (and others echoing similar sentiments). You're a known Android/iPhone fanboy.
PLEASE can those who like Android/iPhone at least have the character and fairness not to make ridiculous statements like this. Honestly, anyone reading your comments simply can't take you at all seriously - you're making all your future statements into a joke, losing credibility.
Symbian's on the rise, as shown by sales figures, touchscreen market share and so on. Nokia grew market share in the pre-XMas quarter when iPhone was flat, despite it being iPhone's traditional growth quarter.
Just because you have spent money on an iPhone or Android handset, stop thinking and saying ridiculous things about Symbian and Nokia, things different to what proper leading analysts who know what they're talking about say, and things that are completely disproven by every release of analysts market share and sales figures that come out.
You are being driven by the fear that in buying an iPhone/Android handset, you have wasted your money, and that actually Symbian might be better than you thought. Have the guts to admit this to yourselves.
Yes Nokia have stuff to prove, especially with the N8, but it looks AMAZING. Admit this. Admit the truth of the sales figures and market share of Symbian, which is STILL way more successful than it's rivals. And once you've admitted these things, then make your criticisms of Nokia from that point. Not from some fantasy land you live in where Symbian is no longer relevant! LOL 😊
@ good old Unreg`d
My phone - N97.
I own nokia shares. (which incidentally at 7.96 are back within few % of their `09 low`s and even closer to 1998 low of 7.75 meaning that in 12 years stock has made nothing, bear in mind also 2007 high was just over 28.5 euros not so pretty, lucky I bought at 9.5 despite/because of some broker recommendations to sell in Sep2009 because I thought Nokia could turn it round and that they must have new hardware in the pipeline and that their services play would cohere, looks like the brokers were right so far. Do yourself a favour and compare that performance against RIM,Apple,HTC and then try to convince me again there aren`t serious problems)
Funny kind of Nokia hater, android/iphone fanboi.
Oh and PS
I bought the stock before I purchased the N97, it would have never been the other way round. If only 😃
Nokia's handsets are at the bottom of the smartphone chain. Face it, even magazines don't consider Nokia's smartphones as "smartphones."
But why do I have a Nokia phone in my hands??
Nokia's stock price is a combination of market saturation, limited growth and an overly US centric perspective from the investors.
When a company reaches market saturation - i.e. when growth stalls or flattens - its stock drops. Happened to Nokia 2007, happened to Microsoft in 1999, happened to RIM at the end of 2008, is beginning to happen to Google and will fairly shortly start to happen to Apple. That's just the way it works.
Your real indicators of stability are the ability to sustain a market whilst remaining profitable. Nokia has done this.
I have an X6, it's nice enough but needs a bigger screen and the quirks in Symbian^1 also need to go. I like it because it combines a lot of things I like.
As for the magazines not considering them as smartphones, call me when the analysts don't. That's what matters.
Just read on phonearena that Nokia might be changing to Windows Mobile,but will wait to see how the N8 symbian3 does before they change there ideas,The Symbian software should be really able to compete with Anroid or iPhone,but losing touch which seems odd ,the X6 music player should be made simple like the 5800 one,an hope Nokia with the Aluminium case on the N8 keep using metal instead of plastic on the Top End Mobiles
I think Nokia has bought the necessary time it needs, with the X6, to bring Symbian to a competitive level with S^3 and certainly keep it relevant for the mid term with S^4. They clearly are building an ecosystem for the future and strategically aligning with key players (Microsoft-Bing for search and Intel Meego and Atom) that will keep Nokia relevant and not just a handset maker. I think they understand that even a handset maker with a large portfolio cannot remain profitable, vis a vis carriers and direct competitors, without a compelling ecosystem. Apple successfully proved this with an inferior phone. Google will leverage this concept even further with Android. Nokia has great OS' in both Symbian and Meego, with Meego outclassing Android 2.1/2.2 and Apple OS4 when it comes to higher end handsets. As hardware gets better and better, Nokia is well positioned both in its strategic alliances and with its Meego OS to lead. Symbian's inherent efficiencies will protect Nokia's flank in the ever expanding mid-low tier portfolio. There are 4 billion handsets in the world and if recent history proves correct, a reasonable 120% penetration suggests the next 4 Billion is a massive target audience for the inherent efficiencies of Symbian. With Qt, it should generate the necessary economies of scale amongst the developers to keep this important community engaged while Nokia executes this umbrella strategy. The US blogger community is wholly focused on the USA...you'd think GWB was a tech blogger these days. A unilateral mindset is dangerous in this global race...do not count Nokia out.
@stevelitchfield
I do think the x6 will sell well if they place it at the 5800xm's price perhaps to finally replace it. (not that I think the 5800 is not good but it has bee out for a while).
I have had a nokia x6 for about 2 months. In some ways I love it, in others i hate it! The main pluses are the free off-line maps from OVI. As far as I know they are the only company to give you any map in the world for free to download to your phone. As a GIS technician and general map geek, I love this. All phones come with maps these days but how often are you out and about with no phone signal? Off line maps are a brilliant bonus.
The screen is really good and sensitive, makes a lot of difference that they added kinetic scrolling to the menus. However the screen is rubbish outside in the sun, but then are any of the phones good outside? Maybe LED?
The three major cons are that Nokia have yet again released a phone without sorting out the firmware.
2nd that the OS is appalling; its slow, the user interface is rubbish and things are buried in menus in places that don't make sense.
The third problem is the almost unusable gallery, it is the slowest photo gallery I have seen in a phone! It can take an age to load up the photos and sliding between pics can take a few seconds. I'm no technological wiz kid but I am guessing this is not just down to hardware and CPU speed, ram etc but also down to bad firmware.
If the X6 was graded in hardware to be able to run symbian 3 when it arrives then I would say that this phone could be great.