Update - the Nokia X6 has now been updated to include a 16GB version, which strips the Comes with Music offering and is available at a lower price too.
The persistence of manufacturers when it comes to touchscreen mobile phones has to be applauded.
It might be that only a few - notably HTC, Apple and Palm - have really cracked the marriage of hardware and software - but that hasn't stopped everyone else attempting to achieve the same success. Nokia's own efforts have been hit and miss.
The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic isn't without its good points, but all of Nokia's touchscreen phones so far have had resistive screens.
- Also read: 15 best mobile phones in the world today
Among other things, that means they all came with old-fashioned styluses, and didn't work properly when you touched the screen with more than one finger. That meant reduced typing speeds, and user gestures that are so intuitive on other phones – pinching to zoom on the iPhone, for instance - were unavailable.
Nokia has heard its customers' complaints.
The X6 looks like a traditional slider phone - at 13.8mm thick it certainly looks like it could accommodate a physical keyboard. However, there are hardly any buttons to be found as the 3.2-inch touchscreen is capacitive, theoretically making a physical keyboard redundant.
There is a wealth of features besides. A whopping 32GB/16GB of internal storage and an FM radio make it tempting for entertainment even before you consider Nokia's intriguing Comes With Music service.
Even the camera has received the kind of attention you don't see on cheaper models - a 5MP sensor behind Carl Zeiss optics gives the X6 plenty of sheen.
But is the touchscreen a gimmick? The S60 operating system has a number of detractors, and just because a phone ticks all the right boxes on a specification sheet doesn't necessarily mean it'll make its users happy.
Your comments (17) Click to add a new comment
jackxp7
March 27th 2011
17. Specifications Mobile Nokia X6 8G
http://www.technews5.com/2011/03/specifications-nokia-x6-price-nokia-x6.html
General
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100
Announced
2010, June
Size
Dimensions
111 x 51 x 13.8 mm
Weight
122 g
Display
Type:- TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size:- 360 x 640 pixels, 3.2 inches
* Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
*Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
*Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Sound
Types Vibration; MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes, with stereo speakers
3.5mm jack Yes
Memory
Phonebook
Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records
Detailed, max 30 days
Memory Internal
8 GB storage, 128 MB RAM
Card slot No
Data
GPRS Class 32
EDGE Class 32
3G
HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP
Bluetooth
Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port
No
USB
Yes, v2.0 microUSB
Camera
Primary 5 MP,
2592x1944 pixels,
autofocus, Dual LED flash,
video light
Camera Features
Geo-tagging
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cathymac
August 31st 2010
16. I have had a nightmare with this handset and have only had it for two months. The touch screen stops functioning on a regular basis and the lock key on the side has now jammed. To add insult to injury I have just received my O2 bill showing several expensive phonecalls that i never made. O2 have been less than forthcoming. I'm kicking myself for signing up for 18 moths of this!!!
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motorolave440
July 3rd 2010
15. Any new version of Sybian is upcoming for Nokia, so that it can enhance the functions of NokiaX6? Because the present version is making my cell phone very slow.
http://www.cdmacellulars.com
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macmathuna
May 27th 2010
14. cont... apart from having the better camera, better speakers, quicker sat-nav, 4'x'memory, iconic looks and excellent battery life, where else can the x6 out-score the nexus1, which i consider to be the ultimate smart-phone. well, no-where-else. that's your lot for the x6. the nexus1 just goes into hyper-drive from there on-in. but the x6 is still an awesome bit of kit and its beautiful looks are cameron diaz-ique!!
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macmathuna
May 27th 2010
13. cont.. i've both the x6 and nexus1 and the x6 leaves the nexus1 standing in its sound quality by a country mile. the x6 is full and bassy where-as the nexus is tinny and screechy in comparison. and the x6 sat-nav is way, way faster at finding and routing addresses. the feamale voice-over is far sexier on the x6. the nexus1 one sounds like a bailiff!
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macmathuna
May 27th 2010
12. the nokia x6 is a beautiful looking phone and it fits in your hand like a phone should. you can get a good firm grip unlike the other slab-type phones that when held tightly feel uncomfortable and unnatural. the x6 has a brilliant camera with double led flash which is great for low-light conditions. the best and loudest speakers of any smart-phone and it has two of them!!
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macmathuna
May 27th 2010
11. The screen area has nothing to do with the diagonal length. In theory you could have a diagonal line 10km long and 2 nanometers in width and have a screen size of less than 1 sq cm. The only way to get the screen size is to times the length by the width.
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gillyisgay
May 20th 2010
10. Excellent phone, reliable, business like, stylish. Everything you could ever want, makes the iphone look average.
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pedaunt
May 18th 2010
9. Glad we got that sorted out. Now elpardo, on the topic of 8yr old education standards, you posted:
"I suggest you look past 8 year olds maths to basic secondary school maths and you'll see that your wrong."
Did you mean "...you're wrong."?
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skimble
May 13th 2010
8. Urgh, you're right. The angle is necessary to defining the rectangle from the length of the line. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking that day and I apologise unreservedly for my error!
However the debate is kind of redundant. I've measured my X6 (the 16GB version, which arrived since I posted) and it has a 3.2" screen ANYWAY!
As to whether a longer diagonal always means more screen area, we can be able to work that out with pythagoras' theorem. Dividing the screen diagonally results in two right-angled triangles.
As we all know the square on the hypotenuse (the diagonal) is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
Given this relationship we can confirm that the lengths of the other two sides will vary in a fixed ratio according to the angle of the hypotenuse.
If the device had a square screen the angle would be 45 degrees and the lengths of the other two sides would be 2.26 cm, for a total screen area of 32.94 cm.
(Working: We know that the hypotenuse = 3.2 inches = 8.128 cm. This squared is equal to side a squared + side b squared and that A and B are identical. Therefore A^2 + B^2 = 66.06 and thus A and B both equal sqrt of half this = sqrt 33.03 = 5.74 )
If we compare this with the area of the actual device screen, we get:
Side A = 4 cm and Side B = 7cm for a total area of 28 sq cm.
From this particular example we can see that varying the angle of the hypotenuse does indeed mean that the screen area can vary and thus direct comparison of diagonal screen measurement is only useful if one is comparing devices with the same aspect ratio.
According to my internet research the iPhone actually has a 3.5" screen. (so maybe they got them the wrong way round?) With the iPhone's 4:2 aspect ratio, we know that for every cm in one direction the other direction is 2 cm and the hypotenuse therefore equals sqrt (1^2 + 2^2) = sqrt 5 = 2.24 cm. Dividing the total hypotenuse length by this gives us the number of horizontal and vertical units - 3.97 x 1 horizontally and x 2 vertically. That means the screen is 3.97cm wide by 7.94 cm tall and the total screen area is therefore 31.52 - bigger than the X6.
If my maths are wrong, please let me know. =)
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professor
May 11th 2010
7. Uhm..... There seems to bit of dodgy maths going on here: In order to define the diagonal of any given rectangle you don't only need the length of the diagonal but you need to define its angle as well. Effectively if you place the diagonal at an angle of 45 degrees you will define a square and if you place it at an angle 25 degrees you will define a long shallow rectangle (The square will have the greater area despite having the same length of diagonal). The length alone doesn't define anything specifically, you also need to look at the angle.
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skimble
May 5th 2010
6. To court_t: I'm sorry, but you are wrong.
The whole point of providing a diagonal measurement is that it fits one, and only one, rectangle. If you don't believe me go ahead and draw a line that's 3.5" long and try to construct a square around it.
I've just drawn it out for my own amusement and in total the X6 has a screen which is approximately 6 square centimetres (2.36 square inches) larger than the iPhone's 3.2" display.
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bradavon
March 17th 2010
5. When you compare this against the HTC Legend/Desire or Sony Ericsson X10/X10 Mini/Mini Pro, Nokia's Smartphones still look bland, bland, bland.
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scottgilbert
March 13th 2010
4. So court_t who is right?
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court_t
March 10th 2010
3. Correct me if I'm wrong but for a given fixed diagonal length, if you look at the range of rectangular shapes from short-and-wide through square to tall-and-narrow, the area calculations describe a parabolic curve which peaks at maximum area when the rectangle is a square. This means that the comparison of screen areas is not intuitive and needs some high-school maths applied in order to reach an answer from the data given (i.e. diagonal and aspect ratio).
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elpardo
February 12th 2010
2. I suggest you look past 8 year olds maths to basic secondary school maths and you'll see that your wrong. a rectangle screen and a square screen can have the same diagonal length but the square screen will have a larger surface area
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7endetta
February 9th 2010
1. "With its 3.5-inch diagonal, you could be forgiven for thinking it's bigger than the iPhone's 3.2-inch screen, but the reality is that the different aspect ratio - 16:9 to the iPhone's 1.5:1 - means you actually get more real estate on Apple's phone or the HTC Hero, with which the iPhone shares screen size and resolution."
Are you joking ? Have you got any basic knowledge of geometry ?? Then pick a ruler and measure it like an 8 year old to see that bigger diagonal means exactly that - Bigger Screen Area..
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