Nokia X6 review

The X6 syncs nicely with Windows Media Player, and we had no trouble transferring a few DivX files without needing to view the phone's folder structure manually, and the same goes for music.

The Nokia X6 32GB version also gives you unlimited access to tunes for a year through the Comes with Music - you can either connect to a PC and transfer tracks over, or switch to 3G and Wi-Fi to download them directly to the phone.

The Nokia X6 16GB version chops off this CwM functionality - at half the internal storage it's no slouc

Flipping between music tracks was fine; swapping out of the video interface proved trickier - the X6's performance foibles rose to the forefront again here.

There are some interesting other features. The Playlist DJ gives you four sliders, representing happiness, love, anger and tranquillity, and the idea is you slide them around depending on your mood to generate a playlist to suit you.

Profiling songs can take a while and requires an internet connection, and takes longer if your music isn't named correctly. The system itself is somewhat hit and miss.

Telling the X6 we were in the mood for some downbeat music resulted in a playlist which contained (correctly) a smattering of AIM tracks and a few Death Cab for Cutie songs, but also included the distinctly un-chilled Whatz Ya Phone Number by 2pac.

Battery life

The 1,320mAh battery in the Nokia was dependable while we had the phone. We made a few phone calls, browsed the internet via Wi-Fi, and watched a few videos, and the X6 lasted around 30 hours away from the charger, which is wholly respectable.

Nokia claims a GSM standby time of up to 17 days, which is impressive, although the sheer number of features offered by the X6 means you're unlikely to leave it alone if you find yourself with a quiet moment. The claimed music playback time of 35 hours is iPod touch-beating.

Organiser

The X6 is compatible with Nokia's ActiveSync application, which gives you access to an Exchange server (and Google Apps), allowing you to use your calendar, contacts and email in the X6's native applications. Frustratingly, the calendar doesn't have a shortcut on the X6's home screen, although this default can be changed in the phone's settings menu.

Otherwise, the X6's default applications are rather thin on the ground. There's no stopwatch included by default, and our review unit didn't even come with a trial version of Quickoffice, giving you no easy way to open Word documents received as attachments, for instance.

Connectivity

Nokia's good PC Suite software is compatible with the X6, and offers a handy way of syncing local information such as calendar appointments and emails. And, if you'd rather not use Media Player to sync music and video, PC Suite gives you the option, as well as transcoding content it doesn't think will work on your phone.