Nokia C6-00

You'll have many happy hours of text-chatting

Smartphone Review: Nokia C6-00
by Sim Cheng Kai
05:55 AM Aug 13, 2010

IT MAY not feature a cutting-edge design or a blazing-fast processor, but if you're addicted to Facebook, email and instant-messaging (IM) on the go, then the Nokia C6-00 may be just what the rehab centre ordered.

Looks-wise, the C6 will impress your parents more than it will impress your peers. This matt-black phone sports clean lines and a neat, symmetrical physique, as well as a glossy screen top and a 1mm-thin glossy rim.

The Symbian S60 5th-edition touchscreen slider comes pre-installed with the official Facebook app, and integrates with Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat. The latter two are Nokia's fuss-free email client and IM app that are compatible with Google, Windows, Yahoo and Nokia's Ovi email and IM services - no tacky email set-up fields like naming your "POP3 server" required.

The Facebook and Ovi Mail apps also appear as widgets on your screen's home page by default, so you can check the latest three or two messages, respectively, at a glance. Meanwhile, your Ovi Chat contacts are located conveniently on a tab adjacent to your phone contacts' list. Multiple-party conversations can be initiated under a "Group" tab.

These social networking options are supplemented by a slide-out keypad that's comfortable to thumb-type on - even for people who have humongous fingers like mine - thanks to a set of big, concave keys. To the right of the keypad is a directional pad that's just as solid - a noticeable upgrade from previous Nokia phones like the N97 mini, which the C6 is roughly the size of (113.4x53x16.9mm).

However, the larger keypad comes at a price. In the N97 mini (and its non-mini predecessor), there is a catch that props the screen up at an angle, tilting it downwards, when you slide the touchscreen. This provides a nice viewing angle of the screen when the handset is set on a table, and also prevents users from accidentally sliding the keypad out.

On the C6, however, there is no such catch. The screen slides straight up in an incredibly smooth motion (which some users might prefer), but the keypad also slides out downwards unintentionally - for example, when I'm pressing on the camera shortcut button.

Nevertheless, the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash here is competent, and the default photo-taking app lets you geo-tag photos and use digital zoom during video recording. The camera lacks a Carl Zeiss lens, though (featured in some other Nokia handsets).

Making calls with the on-screen keypad is not entirely perfect. I find myself hitting the wrong key fairly often, since the virtual buttons are adjacent to one another and there is no haptic feedback. Call quality, however, is excellent, and though the C6 sports a resistive touchscreen instead of the more sensitive capacitive variant, a proximity sensor will turn off the 3.2-inch TFT screen when you hold it up to your face.

Mobile computing performance is surprisingly smooth on this 434MHz-processor smartphone, save for a few occasional glitches. Sometimes, apps would freeze for no apparent reason, and to the extent that I could not even force-shut them down through the task manager.

However, these situations are rare, and most of the time, I was quite pleased with the device's web-surfing speeds on both the pre-installed browser and the Opera app that I downloaded from the Ovi store.

The small assortment of onboard apps, like Nokia's Ovi Maps which uses the built-in A-GPS to find your location on the phone's pre-installed maps (loads faster than Google Maps), are also handy.

The Nokia C6-00 is available exclusively from M1 at $499 (without contract) and $98 (with a two-year plan).

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/Techreviews/EDC100813-0000120/Youll-have-many-happy-hours-of-text-chatting

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