Nokia X6 8GB Xpress Music / Sim Free / Unlocked / 5 Megapixel / Touch Screen Mobile Phone / Black

......you update it to the new V20.0.005 firmware released recently by Nokia. OMG! Like a total transformation to the whole OS. Nokia have obviously had a chance to crack all the bugs from luanch and boy does it make a massive difference to the whole user experience. I'm never one to go OTT when it comes to phones, (ex CPW employee and really seen the best and worst there is!!), but this handset has had a bit of a cliched kicking by the mobile press. Okay, this will not scale the dizzy app heights of iPhone or HTC - but for crying out loud what more do people want a phone to do!!! Want the weather, check it before you go out! Wanna watch Sky, watch it properly on your HD TV you spent thousands on! A lot of apps are simply designed to show off your phone to people, i've learnt this over the years :-)

This actually comes with some great installed apps out of the box, AccuWeather uses GPS to get real time weather without having to fuss about with locations, the built in SatNav for driving and walking is superb, (really, Nokia have had years to perfect it and it really shows), the Facebook/Twitter apps are great and are twinned with the phones OS so uploading pics and videos is a breeze.

People moan here about the web browser being clunky, just download Opera Mini 5 and this phone really excels, easily as good as iPhone, (used one extensively and it really shines compared to Apples beast), with lovely fluidity with the capacative screen using just your finger. Ovi is awesome once you get to grips with it, and the built in WIFI has never let me down even at the limits of the connection at home, (eg, at the end of the garden!).

The music software is basically a de-branded XpressMusic, identical to other Nokia devices with this function, and the bundled Bluetooth earphones are superb, these alone are worth 50bucks, plus you can swap them for your own if you wish - take note Sony Ercisson!.

Camera is the almost standard Carl Zeiss 5mp AF unit, and for good reason. Having spent 3 years studying photography at college this camera has the perfect balance and is absolutely ideal for the casual user. The macro close up mode takes pics of superb detail, even the most anal of people can't deny they are very pretty photo's. 12.1 MP does not a good camera make! Great VGA video@30fps tops off the imaging.

Out of the box with the version 12 firmware, people will definitely feel cheated for the cash, the OS stutters and hangs, (no way to turn off, you have to remove the battery and start again!), the RAM fails to flush itself out meaning even the phone log will time out! However the new V20 firmware is now available to everyone, even Three network which i am on. This gives the x6 a massive turbo boost in performance, the interface is now instantaneous, with kinetic scrolling enabled through every menu, the image gallery is now much quicker, Flash works a treat, BBC Iplayer now works even when browsing the BBC website using the Opera browser, and the lowish volume when listening with headphones has now been boosted - plus various other tweaks to make this a thoroughly rounded and VERY capable performer, This is no longer a 'slight disappointment', this is a truly decent piece of kit and i now don't feel stupid i passed up the option of the E72 or Ericsson Vivaz.

Touch phones were never my thing but this is tremendous day after day, even the battery life is good! The dodgy back cover is no issue as i use a rubber casing to keep it safe from dropsies.

Love it, well worth the money, (okay a free upgrade but you get what i mean :-) )

The X6 is the prefect upgrade for those that loved the Nokia 5800xm. It's also a great all rounder with an excellent sounding music player.

My favourite features include:

Build quality, it really feels like an expensive product.
GPS - Probably the best i've used in a phone.
Screen - very responsive and capacitive, like the iphones screen.
Sound - It's stereo speakers are great, much better than most phones and even most laptop computers! It's great through the headphones too.
Speed - Runs fast and smooth.
Storage - 16gb is a good amount for the price, it also has around 285mb of phone memory too, perfect for installing apps to.
Free sat nav - Works very well with plenty of options.
Camera - Takes great pictures which is surprising for a "music" phone.

So I would recommend this phone to anyone and especially to those that liked the 5800 and want something better.

I have a love hate relationship with this phone. It delights and frustrates. For the money the feature count is awesome. What you get is a good camera, excellent music player, GPS, and OVI maps is now completely free and even has voice guidance for pedestrian mode, VGA quality video recording, a lovely bright screen (indoors), and an OS with lots of support for applications at a good price (many are free) but not as many as apple. Its easy to use and texting/browsing web on a capacitative screen is a joy after the resistive one on 5800. But nokia could have done better and produced an iphone rival. It probably didn't wanna interfere with n series. The processor and available ram make it a bit slow, load a nice theme and the speed will halve (not worth it!), do too much at once and it'll grind to a halt, sometimes literally. Biggest issue I have is the aerial is on the bottom of the phone, meaning if you grasp it too tight you ruin the signal. Hold it loosely and you can gain 3 bars! Reception is my biggest problem with it, I've often got none in places other people have a signal. Not sure if this is phone or orange though, was previously on o2, and my spare phone on orange (a 6303 known for excellent reception) also seems to have a weakish signal though it won't lose it as often, so its better, but given this is as good as it gets, the x6 is probably merely good). Well it would be if the aerial was on the top.
So the X6. A 5800 made slimmer with a better and much more responsive screen. You can get much better for 70-100 more, but not much comes close in terms of features at 299. If you don't use all these features then cheaper alternatives may be more reliable and quicker. Jack of all trades master of none sums it up perfectly. There's a lot of trades so 4 stars from me.

Good - touch screen, hi resolution, video playback is great, masses of memory, good mp3 playback. Excellent camera. Good battery life.

Bad - jerky and slow user interface with lots of stutters and 'blank screen' moments. Lack of apps. Facebook app is the only one I've found worth having, and even that seems rather 'buggy' at times.

Screen is decent size, but feels very small compared to iPhone. Customisability of screen layout appears limited.

Build quality is poor. Plastic backing is white, as opposed to the black casing on the front. Backing is flimsy and falls off too easily. I have to keep clicking it back in place. Only had the phone for 2-3 months.

It's OK, but feels somewhat lacking, like they couldn't be bothered to perfect it, and just gave up. Perhaps they are holding back for the next model.

After having a 5800xm, which I was very happy with, I upgraded to the X6 (through o2). The back cover is a thin, flimsy piece of plastic. On the right is a lock/unlock toggle switch that feels like it is going to fall of, and rattles! I've only had the phone 2 months, and one of the external speakers has decided it wants to crackle and sounds very distorted. No support for some of the really good apps I could use on my 5800 (iplayer being 1 I miss most). Capacitive touchscreen is good, and works well, not upto iPhone standards, but an improvement on the 5800's resistive screen. Real shame, as it is such a nice looking device. Not much better than the cheaper 5800, and no way near as well built as a 5800!