Nokia’s E71 and E72 have been big landmarks for the Finish mobile giant as they helped cement the company’s stand in the business phone segment and gave rivals like BlackBerry a run for their money. While the E72 still remains a good buy, Nokia have had to move on with the changing trends in the mobile space and with everyone adopting touch screen, that was the next logical step. The E6 falls in this newly popularised category called 'Touch and Type', which consists of a touchscreen and until now, a full QWERTY keypad.The actual definition of this concept is somewhat skewed as one could even consider devices like the Motorola MILESTONE or HTC Desire Z as touch and type as they fetaure slide out keyapds and touchscreens.

Nokia’s latest smartphone promises the same functionality and ergonomics of the E71 and E72 but with a touch screen flavor and Symbian’s latest Anna operating system. Let’s see how well all of this comes together.

Design and Build Quality
We already had a hands-on with the E6 a while back but now we will take a closer look. Starting with the build and design, Nokia gets full marks in this area. The E6 just looks and feels expensive (even though it's not) and sophisticated. The combination of high quality plastic, stainless steel and chrome trim blend very well to give you a very stylish handset that’s sure to turn heads when you whip it out of your pocket. It’s quite slim as well at just 10.5mm but it feels heavy (133g) and that’s mainly due to the battery.

The display is a tad bigger than the E72 at 2.46-inches and the resolution is doubled at 640 x 480. The capacitive touchscreen features a Gorilla glass display and can produce 16M colors thereby giving you a very sharp and crisp image. This puts the pixel count at 326ppi which is the same as the Retina Display on the iPhone 4. The screen doesn't have any oliophobic coating so finger prints remain a problem. The good thing is that it’s a lot easier to clean, a few good wipes on your shirt and all the smudges disappear.

Nokia has gotten rid of the two ‘Option’ buttons on either side since you can now simply touch the screen to access them. The D-pad is still present and actually comes in handy at times but for the most bit, I found myself using the touch screen more often as it’s quicker. The keypad is similar to the previous models with some slight alterations like a larger space bar. The feed back of the keys are very good and each one is distinguishable from the other so you’ll seldom find yourself hitting the wrong one. There’s quite a bit of unused place at the bottom where the microphone is and I think Nokia could have shifted it a little lower like the E72 thereby giving them more room up top for a larger screen perhaps.

All the ports and connectors are concealed behind plastic flaps. This helps keep out dirt and grime and maintains the elegant look. The power button, 3.5mm headphone jack and micro-SD card slot are placed on the top while the micro-USB charging port goes on the left. On the right, we have a volume rocker that’s backlit along with the voice command button in between. Just below is the slider to lock/unlock the screen. There is no dedicated camera shutter button though. Nokia has added a thin-pin charging port and the charger comes with that connector.

The stainless steel plate covering the back is plain and smooth without any texture. The SIM card fits into a tray which slides into a groove inside the phone. The speaker grill, dual-LED flash and 8MP camera is placed together on a little raised strip of plastic. Overall, I’m quite impressed with the build and design of the phone. Nokia has done a great job in this department.

Features
Interface
The E6 ships with Symbian Anna, which brings with it much needed improvements over Symbian^3. The first noticeable difference is the snappier response and a new set of icons. We have four home screens by default with the ability to add one more. If you don’t require any of them, you can just as easily delete them. To add a shortcut or rearrange them, simply long press on any one of them and and then you can move them around or delete them. The process feels a bit clunky as compared to iOS or Android though.

On the home screen, there's a new notification system on the upper right hand corner. Tapping this area once brings up a little shortcut Window giving you access to the Connectivity menu, SIM card status, Alarm and USB mode, if the phone is plugged in. This system works well and is similar to Android's notification bar. The split-screen keyboard is another new feature in Anna but it's not accesible due to the physical QWERTY keypad. 

Flipping through the home screen is pretty quick for most of the time but now and again, S60’s legacy rears its ugly head and there are slight jerks and lags when opening the main menu or even applications. The animations aren’t as fluid as, say iOS or Gingerbread  - it seems Anna needs a bit more work. The screen also offers haptic feedback so it feels like you’re pressing a physical button. I personally don’t like this and you can disable it in the Profiles menu.

The ambient light sensor does a god job of adjusting the backlight of the screen and the keypad. If the keypad is not used for a while, the light fades away rather than just going off which is nice touch. The back-lighting is also even across the entire keypad and the buttons above. There’s a little light near the USB port to let you know that the phone is connected to the PC. However there’s no notification light for missed calls, unread messages or if you’re charging through the adapter.