Customer Reviews

Nokia C6 Unlocked GSM Phone with Easy E-mail Setup, Side-Sliding Touchscreen, QWERTY, 5 MP Camera, and Free Ovi Maps Navigation (Black)

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

I am overall satisfied with this phone, Pros: I like the fact I can pop my operator SIM without jailbreaking/unlocking the phone - built in wifi, full bluetooth functionality, fm radio, and gps are very nice to have and enable many interesting apps and uses. Home screen panels let you put shortcuts and content all in one place. You can use it as a mobile hotspot with the JoikuSpot app. Ovisotre has a good amount of additional apps, and there are a lot of Symbian applications that can be installed from the PC or directly in the phone. The full qwerty keyboard is very nice and the battery life is good even with moderate to heavy browsing gps navigation. you can also carry a spare battery. the camera is good by smartphone camera standards.
Cons: I have not been able to hook yahoo, hotmail or gmail account with the built in email program, I had to use a third party app called Emoze. Too bad the built in app can't be used as a regular pop3 / imap client. The built in sms messaging app does not support threaded views, you'll have to buy an additional app for that (ThreadSMS - at least it is cheap). You'll want to replace the included 2Gb micro sd card (almost filled with OviMaps files) with a bigger 4Gb or 8Gb one if you are planning on uploading many music files / videos, etc. you cannot charge the phone via the usb port. The phone does not include a stylus, you can get the job done with your fingers or nails, but for some operations it would be nice to have the extra precision.
In summary this is a nicely priced phone given the specs and features it has, and most shortcomings can be solved with additional apps, memory.

This is my third Nokia phone and as usual I am very satisfied with this phone.I brought this phone when it had no reviews. Just after buying the phone, I saw some negative reviews after I purchased but still thought of giving it a try. I am happy I did not return it without trying it myself.

The basic features of this phone are really great. It has excellent signal strength and sound clarity. Also touch screen works quite fast and it is very easy to use just like other Nokia phones. The only issue with the phone is the memory which is 2GB but can be extensible up to 16GB. If you use maps, your memory will get exhausted very fast. The camera and music players are also very good.

This is my first smart phone. In the past, I've always opted for cheap and typically prepaid, but after finding I could not call an international cellphone with my cheap Tracfone, and a major disaster had occurred in the country I was flying to, I decided that having a phone that would not work in the country I was heading to, nor the ability to make cellular contact, if I chose, it was time to upgrade.

I can now make international calls to cell phones and landlines. Because the phone was unlocked, it gave me the option to choose what phone I wanted in my price range and to choose between the GSM cell providers. The wireless works great. I can use the wireless feature to access my email and other web functions without having to get charged by a wounded bull (ATT) for traffic. The qwerty keyboard is better than many I have ever seen. The keys are a lot bigger, but the phone is still smaller than the latest HTC models.

Some people have complained about the touch screen not being sensitive enough and that it's better to use a stylus. I find that it is just fine with my fingers. Yes, it doesn't seem completely solid when it's in a closed state (when the keyboard isn't in the slide-out mode), but it does feel solid when you are using the qwerty.

Also, I love the fact that I don't have to use the qwerty keyboard to dial a number - the onscreen touch numerical keyboard works fine. There are some features that I haven't explored yet, but it has great sound when you're playing music and while it's loaded with some applications I didn't care for (Myspace, Friendster etc), you don't have to keep them.

While it comes with a 2gig chip, I upgraded to an 8 gig and you can go up to 16gig, which is a nice option if you want to use it as an MP3 player.

Update August 2011: Extremely happy with my purchase. Flew back to New Zealand and picked up a 2degrees SIM card at the duty free shop, before clearing customs. By the time my luggage was checked for my next flight, I had a working phone and a New Zealand cell phone number - without the nasty international roaming charges. (The phones will also work with Vodafone NZ's SIMS.)

06/20/2011 UPDATE: Bought this phone in September 2010. There is still a slight lag (in the form of a "white screen") in between applications but other than this and the slight heft (weight) to the phone, it is a good sized pull out keyboard phone. For a while the Ovi maps and Ovi store apps did not work, I finally figured out I needed to delete the old files from apps manager and redownload Ovi maps and Ovi store. The trick is it is a Catch 22, you cannot download Ovi maps with Ovi store (the PC sync did not work for me in the first place), and you cannot if Ovi store did not work, I finally went to the browser and searched download ovi store and did it that way and once I go Ovi store working, downloaded Ovi maps and then everything works now. The music was a trick, you need to sync to your PC and copy and paste to the C6 after created a "Music" folder, then in the C6 press music and then library and then "Options" and then refresh the list and then your copied and pasted music will show up, otherwise you will be figuring out why it does not show up after a while, you need to manually refresh the music library!

I added somore more apps like a flashlight and games, etc. It is 100% working and a nice little phone. However, my main phone is a Samsung Nexus S 4G from Sprint because it is a PURE GOOGLE experience on android, it is faster and smoother, and because I rely on gmail and Google calendar and Google everything apps, it just works for me. This C6 is a travel phone for me, for example I also have a Motorola Ming A1200 flip phone I used in Europe and the C6 will also be a travel phone for me when I do not need to take my larger Nexus S 4G with me traveling. So the C6 is powered off, all set up, and stored away in my closet until my next travel trip (the last time I took it I went to Idaho and Oregon on business) because the battery life on the C6 lasts a whole day+, the flip phone Ming A1200 was even better, a few days battery. The Nexus S 4G I charge every night and can't beat the apps and user experience on nexus S.

Recommendation is 3 stars now from 2 stars. I would recommended it but would advise of the heft and the white screen. Everything works on it though, but with MS Exchange you can only add one email address so I have a MS Exchange address and a Gmail address, which is basically what I need for email.

11/1/2010 UPDATE: HAD THIS PHONE FOR A FEW WEEKS NOW, THE "WHITE SCREEN" BETWEEN SWITCHING SCREENS, ETC IS GETTING ANNOYING NOW, FOR $300+ OR SO I PAID FOR THIS PHONE I EXPECT A FASTER PROCESSOR. I AM CHANGING MY STARS FROM 4 TO 2; I WOULD NOT BUY THIS IF I KNEW HOW ANNOYINGLY THIS WHITE SCREEN WOULD BE.

I am reviewing Nokia C6 here first since I had time to play with it, I will review the N900 soon in a bit under the N900 product site on Amazon (I reviewed the N900 on 10/13/10 so look for it under my "Kingmonkey" ID). The C6 . . . I couldn't decide between Nokia N900 and C6 (did not want new N8 coming out end of September 2010 since there was no physical keyboard), so I bought both N900 and C6. Phones do not come with a case to hold, which is a disappointment considering how much each phone costs. For some reason Nokia only sells OEM cases for these phones to the European market, if you go to Amazon UK site or Nokia EU site you will see cases made for N900 and C6, so I had to go to Amazon UK site to order an OEM case for N900; the C6 on Nokia EU site has some nice ones but could not find them on Amazon UK and on Nokia EU site I cannot order them online being from the USA as you need to go to a retail location in Europe. Anyway got some generic case (more like a pouch) for the C6 from Amazon UK.


The C6 is a nice looking, stylish phone, good size phone, not too thick or long at all, it's fairly small and fits in your shirt pocket if you are a guy. Made of quality materials and feels like a quality product from the weight of the phone and also when you slide the keyboard out, it is stiff and not moving about. The top row keyboard key is a little close to the top half of the phone so when you type your thumb hits the top and gets in the way; not a deal breaker for me as I just learn to adapt. Those with bigger hands (fingers) may find the keyboard a little cramped but I wanted a smaller smart phone compared to the other ones out there such as Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Droid, so it is expected to be smaller overall as that is part of the appeal. Physically that was the only issue, again, Nokia is stylish, smart looking, and as always, love their Nokia ringtone theme. One last thing on the physical side, being a middle of the road phone (between N8 and lower end Nokia phones) it doe snot have al of the bells and whistles hence the lower price. One feature I wish it had, like the more higher end N900, is a camera lens cover, the camera is just exposed to dust, etc; the C6 does come with a factory "screen protector" and since this is a new phone and you can't buy a screen protector just yet I suggest leaving it on to protect the screen, since after I set up the C6, the screen protector is scratched from my use of the phone (normal use with fingers swiping back and forth, mind you, I take care of my nice things, gently putting it down, wrapping it in napkin until my pouch comes in the mail, wash my hands and dry them, no lotion, before I handled my phone), so even with all of this the screen still gets scratched slightly if you look at it at an angle. Anyway will need to buy a screen protector when they are available and hopefully the one that came with it will last.

On the software side, the 2GB microsd chip only holds the California map and voice navigation (street names + male voice both for US as two separate files); that's about 2GB total. If you want all of US and other countries, need to buy a 16GB microsd but even with this not sure if it can hold all the maps as you will need to delete some still as some maps are several gigs(I think 16GB additional gigs is the limit the C6 can handle for a microsd card). I don't travel a lot outside of California so it does the job and don't need to buy a bigger sized microsd card for now, I can wait until I need it and by then the microsd card price will go down.

The other major issue is I use Google calendar, right now you can use MS exchange to set up google mail, calendar and contacts but it imports ALL of my gmail contacts into my C6 even though I don't actively keep in touch with all of them, I suppose you can choose to update only calendar and gmail and skip the contacts, don't remember if this is an option. The calendar also only updates my main Calendar so others I created, including Holidays calendars, bill due date calendars, etc do NOT get imported. This was a deal breaker for me so I deleted this newly created/added gmail account and all of the contacts and email and calendar got deleted, which is what I wanted and it went back to how it was, being empty. By the way when you import this way, any contacts or information you had in the calendar gets overridden with the new import, so my one contact I created with a photo and all got overridden with the import. I had to reenter it. Anyway my workaround is to use instead of MS Exchange option on Nokia to add Google accounts like gmail and calendar, etc, I used the "Gmail" option via the email icon to set up the email account and it works well. As for Google calendar, there is a Google Mobile site and one bookmark webpage you can set up is for Google Calendar, so for my Internet application I set my default homepage as the Google calendar address so when I want to look at ALL (holidays, bills, color coded too) of my Google calendars I just open up that bookmarked web page homepage and it is there updated in real time by Google. As for the Ovi calendar, don't use it, maybe I'll look at it just to see what day it is every sooften. So I get my Google calendar but via a webpage site, not the Ovi calendar because like I said the MS Exchange way to sync gmail mail and calendar and contacts only gives you the main calendar, no other calendars created as discussed above.

I also downloaded OVI software to my PC and the linking between the C6 and Ovi software on my PC works well, this is how you sync the photos, maps, contacts, etc from your PC to the C6, also faster way to update your C6 with software updates since you download them from the PC first and then link your C6 to the PC via a USB cable and the data transfer is faster. Otherwise you would have to do it over airwaves on the C6, which is slower even using 3G but you can connect to wifi if available using the C6.

I customized my desktop icons, which is pretty cool, I added a couple rows of frequent contacts, then 3rd row from top Gmail, then a couple row of shortcuts below such as web access, a bookmarked web page, calc, camera, last row has messaging icon, then I downloaded an app for messaging, including google talk, from the Ovi app store by searching for "messaging"--it's called Nimbuzz and with this you choose your account type, Google talk, Yahoo messenger, whatever . . . at first I was lookign and looking for Google Talk app but it does not exist, you have to access Google talk through this 3rd party app Nimbuzz or something else equivalent (it was a free app) and it works perfectly fine. The C6 home screen icons,being Symbian software based, is a bit "cartoonish" when compared to more sophisticated phones like the N900 or Droid icons or Blackberry 9000 Bold, but it's fine and the learning curve is not steep to learn to master the C6 menu and navigation as discussed above.

Overall I am happy with the Nokia, good size, small bar type smart phone, good looking, quality materials. The C6 is Symbian based and my N900 is Maemo based so another reason I bought both to compare and see how I like them. C6 works with ATT 3G so since I have an existing ATT SIM card it works great, the N900 I signed up for a T-Mobile individual plan text+web+voice and the N900 3G only works with TMobile 3G, So I am set here; if I used the ATT SIM card the ATT 3G does not work with Nokia N900 and would have to settle for EDGE (non 3G). Email me at darian.chin at gmail dot com if you have questions.

Pros:
* Biggest pro, it's cheap! Compared to other similar level smartphones, you know the price is right.
* Wi-Fi, it really does help having wi-fi specially for people like me, who are on campus most of the times. Means no actual need for a data plan. :)
* The QWERTY physical keyboard is probably the best thing about the phone. It's so comfortable to type with and the keys are just so of high quality. Full navigation using the keys if you hate using the touchscreen.
* The camera is of real high quality. Night pictures are a little off, but during the day, you don't really need your camera with you.
* The quick contacts widget display is just one of the best things about this phone. Makes it so easy to do about everything with favorite contacts. Other widgets available too!
* Ovi Maps is also a deal breaker. Thats a fully functional GPS device right there. Works perfect too. Just takes time to pin down your position though.

Cons:
* I hate the OS. It's a little buggy and does crash whenever I open the apps marketplace. So no apps for me :(

Neutral:
* The touchscreen is not so awesome, but it definitely isn't bad either. In fact, after the Iphone, this is the closest responsive touchscreen I have experienced. I'm talking in comparison to other cellphones such as Nokia N95 for example or Samsung Impression.
* Although i don't use the handwriting feature, its a 50/50 feature. It understands most of the letters I write, but I guess its too slow for me.

I've been using this cell phone on the last week and so far no complaints regarding it at all. I've had the chance using all its features that had worked pretty good. You just have to be careful to close all Apps after you use them otherwise it can freeze.

I had two Nokia smart phones before, the latest being the model E72. It is impressive how Nokia made a the phone operation even easier than before, the menus are very intuitive and when in doubt, just click the help option for instant access to the user manual.
I was familiar with the PC Suite software but the new Ovi software is a step ahead for seamless integration with MS Outlook and PC communication. It is also worth to mention that the Nokia C6 can be used as a modem, connecting your notebook PC to the internet enywhere there is a GSM or 3G network available.
The battery life is much better than other touch screen phones out in the market, such as iPhone. My wife has a Motorola Dext Blur and the battery life gets nowhere near the C6!
This model is highly reccommended for people over 45 like me that is having trouble reading texts in small screens, that was one of the reasons for replacing my E72 for the C6.
A warning for Nokia users of E-Series phones: don't expect the battery of touch screen phones to last as much as that of your phones, this is a price to pay to have a bigger screen.
I bought this smart phone for professional use so it was good to see that configuring the e-mail accounts were fast and easy.
For those who like to listen music on the cell phone a piece of advice: use a good quality ear buds instead of the of the headset that comes with the phone. You will be surprised with the high quality of the sound of the Nokia C6.
The 5MP camera takes great pictures and there is even a built in LED flash that does a good job when the ambient light is weak.
Possibly the only downside that I have experienced so far is that the screen is easy to scratch, apparently Nokia saved money using a low quality material there. I advise the purchase of plastic skins along with this phone, this will provide protection aginst scratching. On the other hand the touch screen works well, no worries there, though I prefer to use the keyboard which has a scroll for up/down/left/right control of the screen and menus.

Had the phone for over a month and I totally love it. Its more than I need. Its convenient because you can use the touch screen or full keyboard. Its not big and it fits in my pocket perfectly. I dont like phones that have bigger screens or are too big and bulky. My phones usually take a beating and Nokia usually withstands my daily beating and abuse of my phone. I have dropped this phone at least 3 times in the cement nothing has happened to it and no scratch on the screen. Has many little applications but I dont really use them. I use the phone for calls, text, dictionary, calendar, alarm and calculator. For ring tones I download songs from my computer to phone and use real MP3 files. The USB cable is included. Hope my review is a little help.

I was looking for a phone to make calls, manage my calendar, severals languages, 3g in 850mhz band, and i can use applications for my work.

This is the best phone for the best price.

henry castro from costa rica

I bought this from [...] (via Amazon), but I currently live in Costa Rica. I love this phone. It has powerful reception where other have little or none at all. Sound and image quality of the screen is great. It comes packed with a great deal of software, and the Ovi Store had everything else I needed for free. The 2GB mini SD memory it comes with has been more than enough for me to this point. Assuming this device is wonderful (for the given price), my only cons are:

* It can't be recharged via usb

* Pictures taken with the main camera appear a little blueish. Probably need to play a little more with the ISO / White balance settings...

* When using the sliding keyboard, the upper row of keys is uncomfortable to reach using your thumbs.

* It sometimes "became a little confused" when you make certain movements, rotating the screen when you didn't need it.

Sadly, Ovi Maps doesn't have one for my country, which is very disappointing, as I was misinformed of this from the Nokia website, but now I'm getting used to this and looking for alternatives.

Friends of mine who have Sony Ericsson Xperia or Nokia n97 where amazed with this device, because of a higher image quality in the first case, and an easier to use sliding keyboard and very similar functions at a cheaper price in the latter.