Of the recent handsets announced by Nokia, the one thing they all had in common is the inclusion of a QWERTY style keyboard. It is indicative of a real shift in perception of such devices, away from a traditional business device and more into a socially acceptable messaging device. And social messaging is a big part of the Nokia C6. Part of the new C Series Core range of devices from Nokia, the C6 is a well feature packed device sitting firmly in the mid range, which carries an impressive SIM free price of around €220.
To look at initially, the C6 resembles many recent Nokia devices that also boasted a touchscreen, such as the 5800. The difference is that the C6 does not rely just on the touch display for data entry, with the inclusion of a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The keys on the keypad are of a good size, and text entry shouldn’t be an issue. Closed up the device measures in at a respectable 113 x 53 x 17mm, and weighs in at the top end of the acceptable scale at 150g. The touch display is a TFT screen, supporting up to 16 million colours, with a pixel resolution of 360 x 640 and measuring 3.2 inches across. The display has a built in auto rotate option, which kicks in when the QWERTY keyboard is opened, as well as within applications that support this feature on the device, such as the web browser. A proximity sensor disables the screen when in call, to stop you accidentally activating apps or undesired in call features.
The Nokia C6 runs on the tried and tested, and very familiar, S60 operating system, v5 which is optimised for touchscreen interaction. This is the same OS as found on the 5800, N97 Mini, etc. The device has full support for Nokia messaging, and through this you can integrate with all your messaging contacts, via various social media platforms such as Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and also via email, with additional support for push email included. The C6 offers a variety of top end data connectivity options, a surprisingly full spread given the market placement and cost price of the phone. The handset is a quad band GSM device, with full 3G data options, and quad band HSPA, with download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and upload speeds of 5.76 Mbps available. The handset also includes full WiFi 802.11 b/g connectivity, and backs it all up with both GPRS and EDGE. There is a Micro USB port for connecting the device to a PC, and Bluetooth 2.0 is included, with A2DP support for wireless stereo transmission.
The C6 includes a 5.0 Megapixel camera, with autofocus and LED flash, with face and smile detection options available in the settings menu. Video recording is enabled, and there is a front facing camera for face to face video calls over 3G. The handset also has a built in GPS receiver, which allows you to add location information to captured images via geotagging, and also allows you to use the device as a portable SatNav device, with full aGPS support. Nokia OVI Maps is available, which gives you full access to voice turn by turn navigation, for free. There is plenty of memory available for storing additional maps and images, plus all your other media, as the C6 offers 200 MB of internal memory, which can be expanded via Micro SD memory cards, with the C6 officially supporting cards up to 16 GB in size. In most regions, a 2 GB card should be included in the retail package.
General media support on the phone is strongly represented, with a stereo FM radio with RDS included, plus a media player which supports multiple formats including MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC+, WMV and MP4. The layout of the music player is very intuitive, and adding additional playlists to those automatically available is a simple process. The web browser on the handset is very capable, and presents most web pages well. Kinetic scrolling allows you to flick through long web pages, and support for Flash Lite 3.0 is also included.
The Nokia C6 will be available in either Black or White, and should start shipping before the end of the current quarter. Although the features of the handset clash with other Nokia devices in the mid tier market, the aggressive pricing point should help to ensure that the device sells in good numbers, and will be a particularly attractive option on many free gift and half price line rental deals.
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