The Nokia X6 is the very first phone in a new line for Nokia, the tune-toting X Series. Is it the debut we’ve been hoping for? Read on and find out how it fares in our full Nokia X6 review…
The Nokia X6 has one major difference over previous Finnish smartphones: instead of the resistive tech and stylus deployed with all its other blowers, the X6 comes with a capacitive touchscreen.

That means it’s far more responsive to finger prods, and it shows. Typing out a text messages with your fingers has never been easier on a Nokia handset, and it won’t fail to register a single letter you tap. It’s not for everyone, true – some people find the ability to flick through a phone with the edge of their nail helpful – but we appreciate timesaving over pixel perfect accuracy for doodling on a phone.

On the software front, Nokia’s standard smartphone OS, Symbian S60, makes the transition well. All the action buttons on screen are large and easy to tap, without compromising the number of menu options compared to other Nokias. We’re particularly fond of the contacts bar that lets you put a row of favourites on your homescreen you can swipe through and quick dial with a jab.

As we’ve said before, Symbian S60 is beginning to creak though, and you occasionally see the rough edges, particularly when you tilt the screen from landscape to portrait and back, leading to long pauses of screen blackout while it readjusts.

Whether you like the iPhone or not, there’s no denying its snappy switchover shows this shouldn’t be acceptable any more. The lack of auto correction when you’re typing in landscape is also disappointing, as is the browser’s hobby of crashing while loading not particularly data-heavy websites.

As a music phone though, the Nokia X6 is as good a start for the X Series as you could hope for. Comes With Music works just like it does with any other supported Nokia phone, letting you stock up on all the tunes your broadband line can cope with, and playing them back without a hitch. The music player is solid, and smartly embeds itself on your homescreen as soon as you press play.

The sound quality meanwhile is superb: even with the supplied earphones, you can pick up all the detail in the baseline, and given they also come with a slimline remote for track skipping on the cable, you won’t want to switch them out for your own. To cap it off, the Nokia X6 has a 3.5mm audio port in just the right place, at the top of the phone, so you can pop it in your pocket and head out the door (Yes, we’re talking to you here, BlackBerry). The speaker’s also up to the mark, dishing out great tunes and call quality for your chats.

Visually, the Nokia X6 looks fantastic. We adore both paint jobs, and while it’s still got that solid, reassuring look of a Nokia smartphone – there’s traces of the N95 in its case – the narrow profile and sharp screen (640×360 pixels, the same as the Nokia N97 and N97 Mini) keep it up to date.

It’s not all sunshine with the Nokia X6’s hardware though: while it’s light and firm to grip, the buttons leave a little bit to be desire. The call, reject and menu buttons along the bottom feel a bit wobbly, but it’s the screen unlock button that really grates. You have to slide it down to wake the Nokia X6 up, and unless you have long nails, you won’t always pull it off when you quickly tug the phone from your pocket. On the plus side, the battery life is solid, and will see you through a day, even with Wi-Fi and email turned on, with some multitasking thrown in.

The Nokia X6 is a very different phone to the recent Nokia N900. Both are flagship phones, but with its slim case and capacitive screen, the former’s aimed at a more casual crowd who just want a stylish phone that’s easy to navigate rather than hack, and will let them leave their iPod at home. Just don’t expect to be running any next-gen Maemo apps on it anytime soon, and you’ll be in for a treat.

Verdict
For casual phone users, it’s a great leap forward for Nokia’s touchscreen line. Now if only someone would fix Symbian itself…

Love
Responsive screen

Hate
Creaky buttons, Symbian’s rough edges are really showing

The spec
Screen: 640×360, 3.2-inches
Connectivity, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth, TV-out
Camera: 5MP
Storage: 32GB
Size/weight: 111.0×51.0×13.8 mm /122g