Nokia E6 smartphone

Back in business?

Honorary successor?

Alas, one gem from the E72 and other recent E-series phones is absent: the DLNA client, Home Media. This turned the phone into a very handy remote control for your home media server. It was lost in the transition to Symbian^3, although some DLNA functionality has turned up in a new app called Play To. Just not the same functionality.

Not a bad snapper for a nominally business-centric smartphone

Play To is about getting video from your phone onto your TV, rather than (as before) playing music on your home server on your phone, but it's all rather moot since the client won't run on the E6 anyway.

In the trivia department, I should note that no Nokia in memory has come with as few themes or wallpaper options - just two variants of the same black theme - as this one does.

We'll return to judge whether the E6 stands up to the impressive claims for battery life in a long-term test - the battery needs conditioning on new phones, and some devices demand more from a "normal day" than others. So far, though, so good.

That folding-pin charger

Verdict

There are a few loose ends, and one potential show-stopper of a bug. My review E6 didn't always answer phone calls - with the phone hanging up before I had a chance to answer it. I'm not alone in experiencing this.

Other bugs are cosmetic, but annoying. When you put the phone into Offline mode it will repeatedly tell you: "Conn.lost". Er... thanks. Then, when you put the phone back into a General (online) profile using the status indicator still tells you the phone is "Offline" - even with the signal indicator showing five bars.

The sun might be setting on Symbian, but the E6 plays to its traditional strengths, and marks a return to form for a product line where battery life and call quality are valued. I can see it going on forever - if Nokia can fix the bugs. ®

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