Whilst the Nokia X6 has been around for a while now, if you’re after an easy to use touchscreen phone for no upfront cost, then check it out. It’s also a great option if you’re after a Nokia music phone (good MP3 player and speakers on board!).
Free on a $29 plan with $50 credit
Vodafone & Three currently have the Nokia X6 handset for $0 upfront on their $29 plans.
Plus for a limited time, they’re also offering bonuses. Vodafone – $50 free credit with online purchase and Three $10 off each month for first 12 months.
Features: The Good
Snap great images with the 5Mp camera with Carl Zeiss optics and LED flash, along with a 30fps video camera that can capture your spontaneous shenanigans Plus you can easily upload to YouTube, Flickr and others via the Media Bar.
When it comes to your music – the 16Gb internal memory, 3.5mm audio jack, volume rocker and (supposedly) 35 hours playback time gives you heaps of reason to listen to and store your music on the Nokia X6, and purchase more from the Nokia music site. The included headphones are quite good and feature a hands free remote and call mic, plus the built-in handset speakers have great sound.
The rocker touchscreen lock button on the side means your phone is easily unlocked – and locked – minimising embarassing unknown calls to your in-laws, or re-launching the net for whatever dodgy sites you were last browsing…
Aesthetically, some knock the matte black finish, but I like the look of it. It looks a little hardier and won’t show as many scratches as it’s shiny brothers (think building site?). Plus the slim shape and clean lines.
It still uses the Nokia charging pin, meaning the chargers and gadgets from your last 3(?) Nokias will probably still work. One of life’s mysteries is that chargers seem to multiply just like coathangers? It also has a micro-USB input (and includes a micro-USB to USB cable).
The phone runs on Nokia Series 60 OS and the 3.2 inch scratch-resistance touchscreen is ample, even for big clumsy fingers.
Easy to setup scrolling home page Contact Bar and contacts, keeping your friends (and social media status updates) at your fingertips.
The Not So Good
One “feature” I didn’t like is using the onboard GPS. Although I haven’t as yet downloaded the Nokia Maps Navigation, following the onscreen maps is made very hard with the accelerometer rapidly and repeatedly switching between landscape and portrait as you drive. Hard to keep your bearings. I’m sure my opionin will change once I download the included lifetime update of turn by turn navigation.
And the only other problem that jumps straight to mind is when you’re on a call, it’s far too easy to hit buttons with your chin that either mutes you, puts the caller on hold and the like. But again, that just takes a little adapting and getting used to.
As with its Nokia N-Series brethren, the X6 is a jack of all trades, offering a great combination of features including a 5-megapixel camera, a decent music player with video supported by the widescreen display, and a slew of business tools to boot. Typically, we find that one area or another tends to suffer when a phone tries to do a little bit of everything, but the X6 is the culmination of Nokia’s developments in each of these areas in other specialised handsets brought together in one place.”
Telstra launched the HTC HD2 in Australia, either on contract or for an outright purchase price. For the non-Telstra fans, you can also find it at some online stores, unlocked. (Just do a quick search and you’ll find it cheaper)
If the HTC HD2 does interest you, but you want to know more before you head instore to check it out (or search online to buy it), then watch out this video unboxing and review from Noah of Phonedog (albeit on T-Mobile).
Free Skype to Skype calls – now on your Nokia handset
Nokia & Skype have announced that Skype’s VOIP software is now available for the Symbian operating system.
“What can it do?”
Now you can make Skype to Skype calls, send and receive messages, share images and video files (via data connection). Users will also be able to receive calls (to an existing Skype number), import your contacts directly from your phone address book into the Skype app and see when other Skype users are online.
Symbian for Skype will work over a 3G data connection as well as a Wi-Fi connection, providing your handset supports Wi-Fi.
“Which handsets are compatible?”
A bunch of Nokia handsets are compatible, including (but not limited to):
Nokia E-Series – E63, E71, E72, E90
Nokia N-Series – N79, N78, N81, N95, N96, N97
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
6210 Navigator
Further down the track Skype plans on extending the Skype client to other Symbian platforms (Sony Ericsson) as well as for Blackberry and Android platforms.
“Symbian is enabling us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures scale for our solutions and compelling services, such as Skype. We’re seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day through Ovi Store now and believe that the Skype client for Nokia smartphones increases the amount of downloads further.”
If you’d like more information, check out the Nokia or Skype sites.
Nexus One – the brainchild of Google (for software and hardware design) and HTC (hardware) was officially launched early this week.
It’s the latest Android Smartphone to wow the non-Apple crowd, or perhaps sway the less loyal Apple fans. Those who are already Android phone or HTC fans may jump straight onboard.
Nexus One Specs
Sporting a fast 1GHz processor and a larger than iPhone (3.7 inches) 680 x 800 pixel high resolution widescreen
5MP camera with LED flash, autofocus and digital zoom
4Gb micro SD card (expandable to 32Gb) and removable 1400 mAH battery.
As well, there’s lots of options for image, video and audio format.
Height: 4.68″ (118.9 mm)
Width: 2.35″ (59.8 mm)
Depth: 0.45″ (ultra slim 11.5 mm)
Weight: 4.69oz (~130 gms)
Where to Buy
Not in Australia!
Whilst it is being launched in the US this week, with Europe to follow – and its availabe for sale on the new Google web store for those in the US – it will be some time before (actually, if) Aussies see it here.
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Whilst the Nokia X6 has been around for a while now, if you’re after an easy to use touchscreen phone for no upfront cost, then check it out. It’s also a great option if you’re after a Nokia music phone (good MP3 player and speakers on board!).
Plus you can easily upload to YouTube, Flickr and others via the Media Bar.
