Nokia C6 has feel and look of budget version of the Nokia N97 but it is not really cheap either. There are a lot of compromises done to bring the price down and I would rather say that this phone is disappointing at any price.
Slider mechanism
Nokia C6 is a slider phone that looks a lot like the Nokia N97 which was flagship model from this company. I was excited to see to review the C6 since I thought there were more similarities in the two devices apart from the looks but I was totally disappointed. In the hand, the Nokia C6 feels and looks a lot cheaper. Slider mechanism is springy and solid and the case too feels plasticky and dull.
Design
Nokia C6 looks a bit chubby too and the full QWERTY keyboard can be blamed for this. It slides out from beneath the screen and this keyboard quality is pretty average. There could have been more travel and more space between the buttons. That said, I could still type pretty accurately.
There are 3 buttons below the resistive touchscreen which work quite well and the call end button also switches off the phone. But this buttons powers off the phone rather quickly so don’t press it for too long. The buttons look like they are stranded in an empty space on the phone’s bottom and the manufacturer could have done better here with regards to design.
Home screen
Home screen of the Nokia C6 looks quite promising; there are customizable widgets which show live updates from sources like email accounts and Facebook. In my tests, the setting process was a bit slow and fiddly as compared to other mobile phones in this price range.
OS
Nokia first put the Symbian OS in to a touchscreen phone in Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and I never liked it. The user interface has a lot of flaws and even Nokia has acknowledged it. There are small irritations like you will have to double tap on the items for opening and there is also constant prompting regarding which network to use and you will soon develop a dislike for the system. The case isn’t good looking and there aren’t a lot of innovative features as well. Due to these two problems, I find it hard to recommend this phone.
Features
Feature wise, the Nokia C6 looks decent on paper. There is 3.2 MBPS HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity for surfing the Web fast over 3G or wireless. Web pages aren’t that good looking on the 3.2 inch resistive touchscreen. It is not as bright and sharp as other phones in the competition. In my tests, the Web browser was clunky and slow to use. There is no support for multi-touch zoom either and you cannot zoom in to the text. You can double tap for zooming but the text isn’t reformatted to fit the display.
Apps
Nokia C6 comes with A-GPS which keeps you narrow and straight. There is also Symbian OS for installing apps from Ovi Store. You can install Ovi Maps from here which is a cool free sat-nav app. However, Ovi Store is pretty hard to use as compared to the app stores that you get on Android phones like Samsung Galaxy S or iPhone. I found it challenging to even fire it up and I was asked to update the store on my new phone. Once you get there, installing the apps seems like going through endless cryptic messages and errors. The phone gets sluggish too once the app is launched.
Conclusion
Nokia C6 could have been forgiveable for a lesser price; it would have been easily to accept the sluggish performance and cheap looking case. At this price, I find it hard to recommend the Nokia C6 ahead of my current favourite the HTC Desire which also belongs to the same price range. The Symbian OS touch screen is already outdated and much behind what other phones are offering. If you want a full QWERTY keyboard, I would recommend you to go for Motorola Milestone instead.
Specifications
| Band | 2G Network GSM 850/900/1800/1900 |
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