CoolNewStuff

The Nokia C6 is no lightweight at 5.29 oz (150 g). The handset is plump on account of the added physical keyboard, which fattens it up to 0.66 inches (16.8 mm). Thus the handset only approaches the outer appearance of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic at the front, but when you hold it, it feels chunky.

The C6 is a slider phone that looks, from a distance, like the N97, which was last year’s top-of-the-range Nokia phone and turned out to be a bottom-of-the-pile disappointment. Up close, however, the C6 looks and feels much cheaper. The slider mechanism is reassuringly solid and springy, but the case itself is dull and plasticky.

The 3.2” TFT screen that is present on the Nokia C6 has resistive technology, 16M colors, and the 360×640 pixels nHD resolution. The screen is fairly responsive for a resistive display, but it can in no way be compared to any capacitive offering. It does what it can for the technology used when in direct sunlight, which is not much, unless you set it on full brightness. The device is very easy to operate with one hand, since it is pretty narrow, due to the 16:9 aspect ratio of the screen. The only thing that bothers us about the display is its resistive nature.

Underneath the screen are three buttons in a row – the middle menu key, flanked by the send and end keys. Above it are the ear speaker, the front-facing cam and the sensors – proximity and ambient light. The screen half needs a solid push to open and close when you want to gain access to the physical keyboard. It doesn’t tilt up like on the N97 series, but has a metal plate underneath it for added rigidity in an otherwise all plastic phone. We had the black version, but the phone is also offered in white.

The C6 doesn’t look too bad on paper. It’s got Wi-Fi and 3.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity for fast Web surfing over wireless or 3G. But Web pages don’t look great on the 81mm (3.2-inch) resistive touchscreen. It isn’t as bright or sharp as the competition, and we found the Web browser slow and clunky to use. There’s also no multi-touch zoom, and there’s no other quick method of zooming into the text on a page either. Double tapping the screen does zoom in, but it doesn’t reformat the text to fit the screen, which would have been a welcome touch.

The microSD slot cover on the left is pretty hard to open unless you have dragon fingernails, but the microUSB port flap on the top is fine in that respect. The top also houses the standard audio jack. The right hand side is reserved for the volume rocker, the lock slider, and the camera key. We finish the round trip at the bottom, where the charging port and the microphone are. There is no USB charging unfortunately, so anywhere you go, you have to bring the mains adapter with you, instead of the short and sweet microUSB cable.

The design as a whole leaves a bit sub-standard impression. The phone looks and feels as if the department in charge has been roughly combining clues from previous Nokia touchscreen and physical keyboard handsets, without putting much thought and effort.

So in conclusion, if you’re a Nokia addict, and you’re desperate for a touchscreen phone, hold onto your cash for the N8 later this year.