Shorty's first impressions Nokia E6 with Symbian Anna.

[shortylickens]

-- Not a full review yet --


:HARDWARE:
Body is gorgeous, nothing fancy, just typical Nokia elegance and simplicity. Feels very solid in the hand, even better than my moms new Curve 9360. Easy to hit volume buttons, nice slider to lock in one quick motion. Can access the SD card from the top, right next to the power button. Nothing sticks out except the few things that need to.
The keys are nice but a bit tiny, and I have relatively small fingers. The 4 way rocker for the menus works well, and the center button is separate so its easy to hit.
Battery charges quickly but I dont yet know how long it lasts. Nokias are usually better than everyone else. Screen is pretty and sharp, good colors but not especially bright.
Wifi seemed a bit weak, couldnt find my router 14 feet away and frequently dropped it. My other phones and laptops never have this issue. Tmobile reception was good, but ditto all my other phones. Voice quality is excellent, as with all Nokias. Speakerphone was kinda weak as were ringtones. Not up to Nokias usual standard.
Touchscreen works well but frankly on a display this size its not terribly useful. I hold it two handed to get easy access to the keys and reaching up to hit screen buttons is a hassle, as opposed to a big full screen touch smartphone like my HD7, which I hold one handed and type with the other hand. Even worse is that apps sporadically swap between being button dominant and touchscreen dominant, so its hard to get used to things. However, one thing I do miss is doing everything from one layout, as opposed to constantly spinning my HD7 to find the perfect format.
Processor choked on element heavy web pages and web videos, even SD. Mobile Youtube was very slow and clunky. Was using Wifi the whole time, dont wanna think about how poor it would be on cellular. About the only thing speedy was going through the home screens, but theres not much on them anyway.


:SOFTWARE:
Initial startup was very simple, it didnt force me to go through all kinds of nonsense before I could use the phone. Eventually it offered to update software, which was easy. No Bella but it did have an improved navigation app and some other little fixes.
Homescreen....
Interface....
Profiles...
Setting up email.....
Themes and Wallpaper....
Navigation....
Office Apps....
Web browsing...

MORE LATER

 

[shortylickens]

Homescreen: Not as nice as WP7. Too much swapping through small screens with relatively tiny icons. Hard to pin stuff to desktop and rearrange things. Most of the icons dont really look like anything, usually have to select them and wait a couple seconds for a description to pop up.
Interface feels kinda clunky. Too many swipes and clicks to get anything. Calender is a perfect example. Yes, theres a hard button for it on the body, under the screen. But once you get in it requires a lot of taps to get the layout you want. They do make it easy to create a new event (one button to get in there) but putting in all the details and finalizing is cumbersome. Since I couldnt effectively link to my Gmail account I dont know how well it pulls my already created appointments.
Only email I could set up was Exchange, not regular personal. Nothing worked.
Miss having a Back button like on Android and Windows Phone. Makes it easier to see where I've been.
Changing lots of settings in the Options menu requires a crapload of clicks, and its a little more detailed than WP7, but not as easy to use. I do like having profiles, thats something more phones need. Only my moms Blackberry does it better.

Only has two themes and they both look the same. If you wanna get any more you need to set up an Ovi account, even for free stuff. In fact there isnt much of anything you can do without Ovi. No wallpapers or images/clipart of any kind.
Tried to download some maps with the navigation software, but the wifi kept dropping off and couldnt get it. 3G is too damn slow, the Virginia map is 214 megs. And thats just roads, not POI's.
Office apps seem nice initially but are quite limited, and I dont see the point of paying for apps on something I may or may not keep.
Web browsing was very slow and clunky. Most vids wont display at all. Screen pinching didnt help the display at all. Stuff never quite looked right.

Onboard Guide was basically useless. It only tells you things you could figure out for yourself. Any in depth help and you have to go to the printed manual. Oh wait, they didnt include one. Just a shitty quick start guide. Never did figure out how to set up any email besides exchange, and I dont see any reason to make an Ovi email address.
The offline navigation would seem nice if I could get it working. Shame cuz thats a huge advantage over the other guys, who make you pay for such a feature.
It has all the usual stuff for a smartphone OS like file manager, color notes, dictionary, voice memo, calculator, etc. It does have some nice things like an active weather widget, travel adviser, photo editor, video editor (not powerful enough to warrant regular use), driving mode, and universal search. Never did find out all the things that can be made into an active widget, since most stuff didnt work at all. Weather app was a little too pretty and not great at providing basic info all in one screen.
No games preinstalled (but I got the unlocked international version, so maybe the software setup is different.)

The social network app doesnt work, just sits there with that stupid spinning hourglass thingy.

The big issue for me was email, cuz so many other things like Tasks and Calender are directly related to it. Without mail and with a crummy interface for PIM apps, I dont see many reasons to keep this device.
Moms Blackberry is the same form factor but much easier to use out of the box. She can also set up personal email without any hassle.

Nope, I prefer my HD7. I can see everything important without clicking, thanks to the simple home page with live tiles. Also, they leave enough room for text labels under easy to understand icons. They also make it easy to find your apps and pin them to the home page, and rearrange them.

Nokia better kick ass with their WP7 devices, cuz I wont settle for anything less than a polished full touchscreen experience. Yes, I am spoiled, but I like things that work.

I will say however that for the average Nokia user this is probably the best they've ever done, and if you love the way they do things, this is your new gold standard.

 

[shortylickens]

 

[shortylickens]

As you can see in those pics, the tiny widget on the tiny screen makes email alerts and appointments difficult to view.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, decided to send it back.

Final Verdict: Almost as good as the new Blackberry's, not nearly as good as a modern smartphone.