[OFFICIAL THREAD] Nokia E6: Reviews, Issues, Tips, Tricks & Support Thread

[droptopdown]

While it seems like I may be the only person who has bought (and is keeping) one of these, I thought a actual ownership thread was called for, as opposed to the anticipation thread, which seems to have dissolved into a discussion on blackberry options. As this phone is not long for the world, this may be the only post in the thread...

I have had a functional unit for about a week (the first one came in with a couple of hardware problems). I have owned a number of the E series phones including the E51, E61, E61i, E71, and E72, and have complained mightily about Nokia's habit of shipping with the firmware in either Alpha or Beta test. The E6 is no exception.

Hardware wise, the most obvious initial differences between the E72 and the E6 are the lack of silver outlines around the D pad and associated buttons, and the slightly rearranged keyboard (smaller spacebar). The battery cover is painted instead of silver, and seems to fit better than the out-of-the-box E72's pop open version, although the bend mod of the E72's cover seems to fix that fine. The notification light doesn't work, period. The side charging light is foolish, but not a big deal unless you sleep with the phone sitting on your face. The very excellent E72 feature of spacebar flashlight has evaporated, and the vibration isn't going to attract your attention if you are doing anything other than reading in a library (and not a very good book at that).

Software wise, the E6 is a bit of a dog's breakfast. As with all of the latest E series phones, they have mucked around with the menus to the point that there is no transference of knowledge from your previous experience to this one. All of the menus have been folded, spindled and mutilated to the point that you will feel like it is a major accomplishment to find even simple stuff. The touchscreen is a mixed blessing at best. I have found myself muting or holding calls without meaning to, simply by sitting the phone down, and if anyone knows how to shut off the "change to speakerphone" when you sit the bloody thing down on it's back, please let me know. The email handling is much better than the E72, more reminiscent of the E71 instead. You can configure multiple email "preview boxes" on several different screens, as opposed to the E72's 2 email limit. However, the notification of new emails can be a bit of an issue, I have found the vibration to be ineffective, and the tone can be missed, even with a headset. The screen is very nice, but for someone with not very large hands, the touch points on the touchscreen can run together quite easily. I also have an iPod Touch4, and the mechanics of the iPod touchscreen are much better.

Battery life is pathetic. With the wifi turned off, and 4 email boxes on 15 minute polling, I can make it about 8 hours on a normal business day (using a bluetooth headset). This is a substantial degradation of the E72's 24hr+ rate, and before anyone says anything about battery training, I have swapped batteries with my E72 every day, so half of this is on the brand new (~5 cycles) battery, and half is on my well used E72 battery. I have found no difference between the two.

Most of these issues could be solved (I hope) with some attention to firmware. Considering the current state of the company, I doubt this phone will ever make it to it's true potential. I will continue using it for awhile, but my E72 is staying in the computer case as an instant backup.

[coolcellmunda]

+1 i finally pulled the trigger and bought one for myself here in India

[droptopdown]

About the wisdom of putting a touch screen on the E series. After 2 weeks of use, I can say the touchscreen on the E6 is a problem with phone usage. I use a bluetooth headset, so I am not having face problems, I just can't hold onto the phone without muting, changing to speaker, conferencing or some other unintended action. I am starting to hold the phone with my thumb in the center of the keyboard, because even pressure around the edge is enough to mute.

Email notification is much better than the e72's two box limit, and is totally ruined by the lack of a notification light that you can see outside of a dark box. The fact that vibration is about a tenth of what the e72's is makes the lack of notification light that much worse. The actual Email retrieval is even slower than the e72's retreval, IIRC this has something to do with loading the email up as a html instead of txt? In any event, opening an email and getting to the reading part is a 3-5 second exercise. With some additional work, I have got the E6 shut down to the point I can usually make it through the day without a battery refresh, but put 10 minutes of joikuspot in the mix and you had better have a charger nearby.

The signal on the unit appears to be better, there are areas that my e72 will drop out on that the e6 can (sometimes) hold a call in. Txt message handling is worse. The screen is lovely, and they used all of that high res real estate to put a bunch of touch garbage in that is too small to see and too small to reliably select. What is the point of a touchscreen you need a stylus on to get down to the small select points? Take a look at the iPhone guys, the smallest thing on the screen is still easily selectable.

I would not have been satisfied not getting this phone. However, while I will try it another week, it has already given me enough problems that i am looking longingly at the E72 sitting in my bag. Some of these problems are fixable with firmware. Some of them may not be. It would be nice to just be able to lock the touchscreen while on a call and then unlock it later, or something. I have my doubts about the touchscreen at all in this form factor, but it may not even be an issue with the current Winwhatever thrust at Nokia.

[igarvey]

Can someone please explain to me why Nokia downgraded the camera from the E71/E72 to a fixed-focus camera?

Thanks.

[droptopdown]

Well, after using the E6-00 for two months, I have found it to be a better phone than I originally thought and probably the most irrelevant phone I have ever owned. I shall explain both....

One of the problems that I (and I suspect most people) have with the E6-00 is to expect it to be an upgrade of the E71/72 platform, because it looks like one. This expectation can lead you down a frustratingly wrong path, as treating the phone as an E72 with a touchscreen is not the right way to look at it. While some of the functionality is the same, much of the phone hardware/software is different enough that you should start off with a clean sheet of paper when opening the box. Easy to say, harder to do. On the plus side, the phone is probably the most capable cellphone I have ever used, it can grab a signal where an E72 just sits there and pouts. The call quality is fantastic, the headset and speakerphone work well and paired with a Plantronics 975, people think I am sitting in the office when blasting down the highway at 80 mph with the top down. After quite a bit of reading and work, I now have the E6 running an entire day without battery problems (usually, depending on the workload). It will now run the 975 into the dirt, but if you have to recharge the 975, then the E6 probably isn't too far behind.

Notifications are still an issue, although you can become sensitized to the lighter vibration. The email handling has been exceptional and now with Google Calendars and Contacts set up with Exchange, the unit works outstandingly. My only issues are that you need to do a battery pull every day to keep the bluetooth from petulantly deciding that it will not connect, but also will not let you answer via handset. This could be (but probably never will be) fixed with a firmware update (which I never expect to see).

Irrelevance. Due to problems with AT&T locally (almost a week of call problems due to tower issues), I got a iPhone 4GS on verizon as a backup, and transferred all of my iTouch stuff over to the 4GS. As I must seemingly continue to relearn, never say never. The upshot is that while the E6 is a better phone to talk on, the iPhone is a better smartphone in almost every other way. While the E6 could be a competitor (although it is distressingly slow on the processor side, and the camera is just useless for evernote), with the paucity of apps and the dearth of firmware updates, it is just going to be an interesting footnote in the last days of Symbian (or Nokia). Apps are not the world, there are many things on the 4GS I do through the browser rather than through an existing free app, but the lack of real estate on the E6 screen becomes a major issue when looking at anything on the web. Even email typefaces are exceptionally small for my (perhaps) aging eyes.

If someone was actually working on the E6, it could be a competitor, despite it's shortcomings. However, most people with a smartphone are going to want to be able to look things up without peering through the bottom of their bifocals at it. I will continue to use it for probably another year, but the 4GS sets the bar for smartphones, and the Siri functionality shows that the need for the keyboard is probably going out the window soon.

It coulda been a contender though....

[jojosung]

i just got my wife the E6 to update her E71.
after 1 day of usage, she seems to like it..
like the free app that comes with it as well

[droptopdown]

Update to 25.003. Cannot see where it made much difference, still have bluetooth issues and the phone is still slow as wet gunpowder.

[nnaf]

Hi,

I also have the e6. I have been using it for about a month. It seems I am having problems with sending texts to verizon customers (receive messages from them with no problems); the phone seems to send the messages fine, but for some reason verizon phones only receive the messages part of the time (some messages they receive, others they do not). I also had one experience where someone said he received a bunch of boxes instead of actual letters.

I have been working with one of my friends who has a blackberry on verizon... it seems there is a pattern... he receives one or two word texts fine but as soon as I approach 100-160 characters he will only receive certain texts and the others he does not get.

Just wondering if anyone else with an e6 is having this problem? And if anyone has a solution?

[kingstu]

I doubt very much it is an E6 problem. It most likely is a problem with how Verizon implements their messaging Nokia is known for following the GSM standards in their transmission of something as basic as SMS. Put your sim in a different phone and send a long text to the same number and see if the problem persists. If so, then it is a problem with Verizon and not your phone.

[schuster]

New E6 owner here, upgrading/updating from an E63. The USB OTG (host) capability is intriguing; every place I've looked says that the CA-157 OTG adaptor/cable is the one for the E63. But the phone-side connector on the CA-157 is squarish and the USB port on the E6 is the standard oval-trapezoid shape. Is this model really meant to use OTG?

[droptopdown]

Well, temporarily (maybe) giving up. The E6 has been giving me increasing problems where it will cut off the bluetooth headset when a call rings, but not let any other answering functionality. This has been a problem since day one, but it is now getting to where it happens several times a day, sometimes on the next call after a bat pull. I have tried a couple of different headsets, so that isn't the problem. It is, I suppose, possibly a firmware issue, or something that requires a total reload. I just reached my limit today with four different customer calls I couldn't answer because the durn phone wouldn't let me talk to them. Pulled the E72 back out, updated to current firmware and it has been running like a house on fire. I bought a second E6, still new in the box when I was afraid their might not be a good phone for another few years. Now I may donate it to a museum, it just isn't worth loosing business to try to go down with the ship.

WinPhone looks interesting, but Nokia just keeps dumping phones that aren't quite ready for prime time. I believe I will wait and see what comes of the 920. In the meantime, if the E72 is too much of a bother, I am sure the iPhone4S in ATT will be hitting the market quite cheaply...

[droptopdown]

Well, after a week of running the E72, I am wondering why I didn't do this sooner. It just works. Email works fine (basically, I use it as a warning I need to check something), calls are clear and I haven't lost a call because I couldn't get the phone to pick up.

I have better things to do than screw with a dead end phone, I think the E6 is toast.

[sillieidiot]

you should probably stick with the e71 if you want something that just works and is reliable lol the e72 was a step back even. better cell reception/call quality, but it has constant memory errors. works great if you just don't touch it much though. great thing about the e72 is that it takes a microsim without an adapter lol