British resources, citing sources inside the retail chains and service centers, state that Nokia N86 8MP has some kind of hardware problems.

Their nature is similar to one that of N900 and N97 – microUSB connector is unreliable, and when connecting the charger it simply slides into the device. Some users claim that after charging the cluster just falls out along with the wire.

An employee of Nokia service centre announced: “In our Nokia Care we didn’t have a single case of complaints of the USB connector in N86  registered”. Media suggest that such cases are not rare and the Finnish vendor is continuing to pretend that everything is in order and not paying any attention to the problem.

MeeGo , the unified mobile platform of Intel Moblin and Nokia Maemo, attracted attention of an imposing number of new industry players: from equipment vendors and suppliers of games to software developers and providers of embedded solutions.

In general, it is not clear yet whether MeeGo should be positioned as a competitor of Google Android or other OS, but it makes sense to simply accept this system as one of the alternatives for strengthening the market presence of project participants.

The nonprofit Linux Foundation, which oversees the project, has announced the following list of companies which are going to join MeeGo: Acer, Amino, Asianux, ASUS, BMW Group, Collabora, CS2C, DeviceVM, EA Mobile, Gameloft, Hancom, Linpus, Maemo Community Council, Mandriva, Metasys, Miracle, MontaVista Software, Novell, PixArt, Red Flag, ST-Ericsson, Tencent, TurboLinux, VietSoftware, Wind River, WTEC and Xandros.

Reminder: MeeGo, which was announced MWC 2010 Event in February, is intended for working on a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, TV sets, automotive systems and so on. It will allow to create applications that will work on several types of devices without simultaneous adaptation. Nokia Ovi Store will be the store to introduce MeeGo-applications. The new platform will co-exist together with Symbian, but it is made for installation in more expensive gadgets, such as Nokia N900.

Nokia has announced that it will not protect the music files from the Chinese Nokia Comes with Music with DRM-protection. Thus, this means that residents of the skies will be able to use the downloaded melody unlimited times without time restrictions!

Nokia X6 32GB, Nokia X6 16GB, Nokia 5230, Nokia 5330, Nokia 5800w, Nokia 6700s, Nokia E52 and Nokia E72i phones are sold in China together with Comes with Music service. If in other countries the so-called DRM-protection was applied to downloaded melodies (limit on the number of plays and / or duration of the composition), the Finns gave up this idea in the Chinese market.

Indeed, it is easy to guess that people of the skies would not have to pay for the same song twice one way or another. Therefore, the rejection of DRM seems quite logical. The latest music phone Nokia X6 became available for sale in China not so long ago. The unlimited downloads of audio files will be to the point, as/after all it has 32 GB internal memory!

The only thing that the future owner of Nokia X6 32 GB will have to part with is the sum of approximately $600, – at this price the new musical leader of the Finnish company will give odds to many modern smartphones.

According to the reports of some web resources, as well as to analysts from Morgan Stanley, Nokia and Motorola may be interested in the purchase of the Palm corporation . However, it should be noted that Research In Motion and HTC may also get interested in this transaction.

Companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Samsung Electronics, Lenovo and LG Electronics are also listed as possible candidates which, however, might not get that interested in purchase. At present, the creator of the series of Pre smartphones and the developer of mobile platform WebOS, Palm company together with Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners looks for a buyer.

Let us remind that this year, at the end of February, Palm disclosed the results of financial activity: the volume of earnings disappointed the company’s leadership as well as analysts, and dead losses in the third quarter of 2009 fiscal year totaled $ 22 million (in the second quarter it was $ 13.7 million).

The second device presented by Nokia yesterday is the smartphone Nokia C6  ones more based on Symbian.

The novelty is a stylish side-slider, equipped with a large 3.2-inch touch display with a resolution of 640×360 pixels, which is very convenient  for internet usage and other opportunities. The smartphone runs Symbian 9.4 operating system, the size of its body is 113x53x17 mm, and it weighs 150 grams.

The developers equipped Nokia C6 smartphone with a 5 megapixel camera with Autofocus and Flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 3.5 mm jack for headphones, a free pedestrian and car navigation of Nokia Ovi Maps, and many other features.

Nokia C6 will cost around 220 euros without taxes and subsidies, it is noted that the device will be on sale in the second quarter of 2010.

The third smartphone presented yesterday is the phone from E-series of Nokia smartphones. It is stressed that Nokia E5 combines high functionality of business devices and entertainment opportunities.

The new device is executed in a usual bar form factor with QWERTY-keyboard, the size of the case is 115x59x13 mm. The information is displayed on the 2.4-inch TFT-display, the resolution of which is 320×240 pixels. Due to the battery with the capacity of 1200 mAh, Nokia E5 is able to work  up to 18 and a half hours in talk mode, and 696 hours in standby mode.

The smartphone runs  on Symbian 9.3 OS with ARM 11processor, the clock frequency of which is 600 MHz. The developers equipped Nokia E5 with a 5 megapixel camera with Flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, slot for microSD memory card. Any kind of headsets may be used for a convenient and quality of music listening- the smartphone is equipped with a 3.5 mm audio jack.

The new device will be available in the third quarter of this year for  about 180 euros (price excluding taxes and subsidies). Several color versions of the model are available: black (Carbon Black), White (Chalk White), Blue (Sky Blue), Brown (Copper Brown), silver (Silver Grey).

A few days ago it was rumoured that Nokia will present Nokia N8-its first smartphone based on  the Symbian^3 OS. It has recently been reported that an event called “Everyone connect” does not have anything to do with this smartphone. The Finnish producer has presented three new devices made primarily for communication.

All three devices are equipped with QWERTY-keyboard, providing access to a variety of e-mail accounts, as well as to social networks.

As the Head of Nokia Markets Anssi Vanjoki notes: “Our phones for communication are very successful. Services that provide quick access to corporate e-mail and instant messaging are very popular on our QWERTY-smartphones such as in Nokia E71 and Nokia E63. People want to use social networks, to exchange messages, to use e-mail with the help of an available device. Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 are made exactly for this purpose”.

Nokia C3 is the first phone of Series 40, equipped with a QWERTY-keyboard and providing access to social networks directly from your display. You can view, comment, update your status and share photos on your favorite web sites like Facebook and Twitter. The phone will also be equipped with Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services.

Among other features of Nokia C3 are  a 2.4-inch display, a 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, slot for memory cards. The new phone is scheduled to go on sale in the second quarter of this year, it will cost 90 euros without taxes and subsidies. As for the external performance, the device will be available in several colors: pink, grey and white gold.

All innovations in Nokia phones are made gradually, that’s why the new Nokia X6 cannot be called a revolutionary device in any case. It is rather an attempt to offer customers a decent sample in the market of touchphones where the Finnish vendor appeared much later than its direct competitors. In addition, Nokia X6 is the first XpressMusic phone in the segment of high-end devices (earlier the company was limited to the release of middle class music phones), as well as the first Finnish touchphone with a capacitive screen.

Nokia X6 is available in the market in two models – Nokia X6 16GB and Nokia X6 32GB. The only difference is the amount of internal memory – 16 GB and 32 GB respectively.

Nokia X6 Specifications:

• Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), WCDMA / HSDPA (900/1900/2100 MHz)
• Platform: Symbian OS v9.4, S60 5th Edition
• Display: touch-sensitive, capacitive, 3,2”, 640 x 360 pixels, 16:9 ratio, TFT
• Camera: 5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, dual LED-flash, autofocus
• Additional camera: yes
• Processor: ARM 11, 434 MHz
• RAM: 128 MB
• ROM: 512 MB
• Internal memory: 16 GB and 32 GB
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• A-GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11b / g)
• Accelerometer
• microUSB 2.0
• Proximity, lighting, location sensors
• Audio: AAC, AAC +, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AU, AWB, eAAC +, M4A, MIDI Tones (poly 64), Mobile XMF, MP3, MP4, RealAudio 7, 8, RMF, SND, SP-MIDI, True tones, WAV, WMA, WVE
• Video: 3GPP (H.263), Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, RealVideo 7,8, WMV 9
• Images: BMP, EXIF, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, JPEG 2000, MBM, OTA, PNG, TIFF, WBMP, WMF
• Games: Spore, Asphalt4 and DJ Mix Tour
• Battery: BL-5J, 1320 mAh
• Talk time: up to 8.5 hours in GSM networks, up to 6 hours in WCDMA networks
• Standby time: up to 18 days
• Time during video playback: up to 3,6 hours
• Time during audio playback: up to 35 hours
• Dimensions: 111 x 51 x 13,8 mm
• Weight: 122 grams
• Formfactor: bar with a touchscreen
• Type: smartphone
• Date of announcement: September 2, 2009
• Release date: the fourth quarter of 2009

Key disadvantages:

• High price
• Crude user interface
• Internet browser with a touchscreen interface has not been improved enough for a general functioning, support for Flash leaves much to be desired
• No pre-installed applications for viewing documents
• There is no availability of  charging with microUSB
• Slow functioning of  the image gallery
• Video player does not support DivX / XviD
• No slot for a microSD card
• In terms of software Nokia X6 can not surprise users with something absolutely new, that’s why the imposing price of the touchphone is explained, first of all, by the “hardware” and positioning.

In the Box

Along with the phone, in the box of Nokia X6 the buyser can also find a headset of Nokia WH-500 – a decent gift for lovers of quality sound. The price of the headset itself is quite comparable with the price of a cheap Nokia phone, and although Nokia WH-500 is certainly not the best example of audio devices, the quality of the headset excels in the quality of usual headphones, with which Nokia phones are complemented.

It is worth considering that in some countries, Nokia sells X6 without a headset, so before buying a phone, make sure to ask about the box contents.

In addition to the phone and headset the box includes a battery charger, a microUSB cable, a booklet with the key that will be required to activate the service Comes with Music and the standard user manual.

Display

The main advantage of Nokia X6 is certainly the 3.2-inch touch display with 16 million colors and a resolution of 360 x 640 points. The size and resolution of the  display according to modern standards are something average, but the major innovation of the display of Nokia X6 is the capacitive technology due to which only a slight touch and not a confident press is required to control the phone functions. An obvious, but minor shortcoming of the capacitive touchscreen is the inability of using the stylus.

Unfortunately, the improved speed of  the responsiveness of the capacitive screen is practically reduced to crude software of the phone. Quick response is noticeable when dealing with simple menus, where the phone is not required to perform many calculations, and with more complex operations all the advantages of capacitive display are minimized by slow software functioning.

Another disadvantage of the touch-screen of Nokia X6 is the fuzzy image under directed sunlight. Moreover, in this respect Nokia X6 is one of the worst in the line of Nokia.

User Interface

Despite the fact that Nokia X6 is the first phone with a capacitive touch screen, released by the Finnish company, Symbian S60 5th edition has not changed at all. That’s why the owners of Nokia touch phones will be familiar with the touch OS of the new X6. The first thing to mention is the convenient kinetic scrolling, available in almost every menu of the user interface, from viewing documents to the image gallery and the list of contacts. The kinetic scrolling does not work in the menu with icons (including the main menu).

The principle of scrolling in menu with icons is definitely inconvenient for those, who use Nokia touchphones for the first time. It will be simply incomprehensible: to look through the icons, you must send/direct the arrow of selection to the opposite edge of the display.

Despite this flaw, the general scrolling in Nokia X6 has been implemented as well as in Apple iPhone. After all Apple sells one of the best phones with touch control. Inclusion of the text input mode automatically displays the full virtual QWERTY-keyboard. Fans of widgets will not find them in the new X6.

Thus, S60 5th edition user interface has both advantages and drawbacks – it depends on the experience of the users and their habits. For those who had previously worked with Nokia touchphones, the new Nokia X6 will seem totally familiar. However, for users who had previously worked with alternative touch platforms, S60 5th edition is not the most convenient interface.

Music Player

Music player of Nokia X6 is quite functional and at the same time, it is usual, without changing since Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The music library is automatically sorted by song title, genre, album. The player supports the ability to create playlists and equalizer settings.

The process of adding new tracks to the library is limited to one movement – renewal option selection. If you download new songs on the phone with Nokia PC Suite PC-based applications, there is no need even for that. Music player of Nokia X6 supports a huge number of different audio formats, thus it is almost impossible (unless you’re a fan of Lossless)to come across an audio file that the device does not recognize.

Music player of Nokia X6 can operate in the background regime- in this case a small icon appears on the desktop indicating the name of playing track. In the turned form you can control the basic functions of the player.

Playlist DJ

One of the innovations in multimedia arsenal of Nokia X6 is the application Playlist DJ, in functionality similar to the Sony Ericsson SensMe, but it is controlled in a bit different way.

The application provides the user with four sliding scale – Joy, Passion, Anger, and Tempo. Depending on your mood you can set certain values, then Playlist DJ will choose the appropriate tracks from the library and will create a playlist. Another interesting feature of Playlist DJ is the creation of playlist of similar songs, that is songs, which, according to mood, are similar to the current playing track.

Music Store and Comes With Music

Most of the new Nokia models support Music Store, but in case of Nokia X6 phone the owners will receive a free subscription for a year to an impressive collection of songs presented in Nokia Music Store – Comes With Music. Practically, this provides a possibility of infinite and free download of any kind of music – and taking into account the 32 GB memory Nokia X6 allows you to store really a great collection of tracks. One shortcoming is the protection of DRM files.

Music Store interface is as simple as possible – banner of the popular singer from the country of mobile phone owner, the search bar by the compositions, to search for songs and albums by genre or charts of the selected country. In addition, on the main page of Music Store new releases, the most popular songs and albums, a few playlists are  also presented. Before downloading a song or an entire album you can listen to 30-second extract of the tracks.

Video player

The display with imposing size makes watching videoes on Nokia X6 into a pleasure – but the lack of DivX and XviD endecs makes video files playing difficult.

To avoid difficulties, you can use the built-in application Nokia PC Suite, which automatically converts video files of any format in files with format and resolution supported by the phone. Of course, this method has its drawbacks – the converter compresses even the highest quality video file, as a result of which the image is too pixelized.

Using RealPlayer or Video Сenter (access to which is through Media buttons, located above the display), you can not only view the video files stored in phone memory or in memory card, but also watch video contents online.

Camera: Advantages and disadvantages

Nokia X6 is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera with a maximum resolution image of 2592 x 1944 pixels. Carl Zeiss optics guarantee  high quality images.

User interface of the camera is analogous with the interface of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and is similar to the N97 and N97 mini – a few changes had little impact on the final result.

All camera settings can be found in a common menu – except for the activation of the flash, as there is a separate icon for this feature. The number of settings is large enough: from manually customiazble balance of white and ISO, to exposure, contrast and brightness. In addition, the interface of the camera supports the ability to insert tags.

Despite rather impressive functionality, the camera of Nokia X6 does not have the majority of new features offered by manufacturers of camera phones – for example, the function of face and smile detection, glare prevention.

The camera interface in record mode does not differ from image shooting/making mode. Camera of Nokia X6 supports VGA-video shooting or files with a resolution of the display (640 x 352 pixels) – in both cases with speed of 30 frames per second. Video quality is high: colors and white balance are sustained almost perfectly.

Internet Browser

Standard web browser S60 is now even more convenient with the appearance of the kinetic scrolling X6. This, however, does not mean that the new browser of Nokia touchphone has absolutely no flaws – developments for Android and iPhone platforms in terms of interface convenience are far ahead.

Nokia X6 browser has a good algorithm for rendering, displaying the majority of sites correctly. Among the convenience features are password manager, auto-completion, different sizes of fonts. The built-in RSS-reader supports most formats of RSS-tapes, and the download manager allows you to download any type of files. In addition, Nokia X6 browser supports pop-up block function.

As for large pages, mini-map and function for searching by keywords are provided. Despite the declared support for Flash, Nokia X6 browser makes it very uncomfortable to view online videos on YouTube and similar video hosting services: in some cases, the player simply does not load, while in other cases a simple turn of the display hangs the browser in panoramic mode.

Ovi Maps

Nokia X6 is equipped with a built-in GPS-module and, thanks to its large display with high resolution can become a very useful and convenient navigation device.

In addition, Nokia X6 provides the preinstalled Ovi Maps application. An impressive set of maps is available free of charge. Guide Michelin and Lonely Planet are also included.

The program includes 2D and 3D maps, satellite and hybrid maps – for the latter internet connection will be required. The process route (tracing) is easily optimized in accordance with the preferences of the phone owner.Ovi Maps are also suitable for pedestrian navigation.

Ovi Store

The customers of Ovi Store will be provided with different categories available for purchase and download of applications – including games, audio and video content, applications and category of applications already installed. The structure of the client of Ovi Store is extremely simple – a list with the name and logo of each of the applications, categories, price and rating.

When selecting the application additional details are shown on the screen – product description, information about the size, reviews of user who had download the application earlier, the ability to leave a comment, a list of similar applications.

Applications

Nokia X6 comes with lots of programs. Among them is Ovi Files, which after installation provide access from the phone to all files stored in computer memory, to which the phone is connected to. Anytime files application helps to store in the web up to 10 GB files, which are available even when the computer is turned off.

Amazon is a simple application with various categories and search mechanisms, opening the list of results directly in the web site of Amazon. For fans of social networks Facebook is preinstalled in Nokia X6.

Conclusion

The new Nokia X6 is the first phone with a capacitive touch screen and the first phone in the line of XpressMusic, claiming a place in the segment of high-end phones – a model which certainly deserves attention. With the release of Nokia X6 the Finnish vendor, apparently tried to strengthen its position in the market of touch phones, taking into account the needs of users.

The main problem of Nokia X6 is the software, such is the case also for the other smartphones by Nokia. S60 user interface is not  convenient and attractive enough to ensure Nokia touchphones’ leading positions in the market. High hopes are pinned on the coming platform Symbian ^ 3. The first phones with Symbian ^ 3 will be released in the second half of this year.

Nokia X6 is distinguished with sufficiently high value, although in the segment, on which the model focuses on are already presented similar devices at much more attractive prices. Taking into consideration the significant deficiencies of Nokia X6, the high price of the device is questionable – especially since Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, 5530 XpressMusic and 5230, which are much cheaper, have functionality similar to that of Nokia X6. Another serious drawback is the similarity of X6 to other Finnish touchphones. Designers seem to operate at their full capacity.

FInd more Nokia X6 reviews at TestFreaks

Nokia and Continental have recently announced about the integration of efforts for the development of Terminal Mode – a new technology developed by Nokia for the mutual integration of various applications on a single car display.

As it is said in press release of the company, this partnership is aimed to “a significant increase of drivers’ convenience considering the unification of telecommunications, GPS navigation, social networking services and music player, as well as automotive sensors in a single device that enables drivers to fewer distractions from traffic”.

Terminal Mode was announced a few weeks earlier at the Motor Show exhibition in Geneva. Alpine, Harman Becker and Fiat have already expressed their interest in this product.

Nokia worked together with German working group Consumer Electronics for Automotive (CE4A) for the standardization of this technology, developed by Nokia Research Centre in California, in accordance with international standards.

The press centre of Nokia says, “Nokia is still in urgent need of mobile applications available through the Ovi. Our goal is to unite people in what they consider to be the major. That’s why we think about how to make people feel as comfortable as possible in their cars. Now we are working hard to gain control over the smartphone through a large touch screen in cars, which will allow drivers to pay more attention to control of the road”.

The smartphone tablet Nokia N900, based on Maemo operating system not so long ago was supported by Firefox mobile browser. In addition, it has a built-in browser and both software solutions supported with Flash technology. It became known that members of Maemo community have installed Google Chrome browser on Nokia N900. That is not the official version, it is created using the Chromium source code and is based on the release for Debian 32 bits. By the way, Google Chrome browser also has support of Flash.

In fact, we got a desktop browser operating on a mobile device. As the developer Jacekowski reported, the file for installation as well as installation instructions can be downloaded from his site. According to him, Google Chrome operates on Nokia N900 well enough, although it has some shortcomings. Jacekowski noted that his assembling of Google Chrome for Nokia N900 has successfully passed the Acid3 test with the support of web standards browser.