The Nokia E6 is billed as a business smartphone but in this age of social networking, we think the successor to the Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 has far wider appeal. Find out what we mean with our Nokia E6 hardware review.

The Nokia E6 is a QWERTY smartphone running the latest version of the Symbian^3 operating system, also known as Symbian Anna. The design of this smartphone is very much a development of the Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 but Nokia has made sufficient changes to make this the ideal device to upgrade to.

Check out our Nokia E6 unboxing

With a full metal jacket and a glass 2.46-inch screen you’ll find the build quality is pretty amazing. We love how solid it feels in the hand. There is a nice balance between the 2.46-inch screen and the QWERTY keyboard.

Nokia has designed the Nokia E6 to make the most of the space available. So, you’ll find as small a bezel as possible around the end of the screen and keyboard and the edge of the device itself. In between the screen and keyboard you’ll find a 5-way direction D-Pad, which you can press to set the screen into action. Flanking this are four function keys (Home, Calendar, Messaging and Contacts), with calls buttons on the outer side of these.

Having one-touch access to these main functions makes business life a little easier. The QWERTY keyboard is a great size, with Nokia reverting back to the older 37-button array. This means the Spacebar is bigger, which we’ve found does make typing easier. The keyboard is a pleasure to use and firing off emails and longer replies to messages is really easy.

Measuring 115.5 x 59 x 10.5mm, the Nokia E6 is a shade larger than previous models and weighing in at 133g, it’s also slightly heavier but when you consider you get a larger screen, wider keyboard and more powerful and robust feature-set, it’s a gain well worth accepting.

The Nokia E6 is the first business smartphone in its class to come with a Full VGA screen. With a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels it means that not only apps and messages pop to life, you’ll also find that video is vivid. Putting that into real terms, that’s twice the resolution of the Nokia E72, so suddenly giving a quick demo or presentation on your smartphone becomes a real possibility.

The big difference between this smartphone and previous models is the addition of a touchscreen display, which brings a new way of accessing apps and services. We’ll look in detail at how the Symbian Anna operating system handles in a future review. However, we will say that having the touchscreen does help speed up user operations.

When it comes to memory, you’ll find 350MB built-in, which is supplemented by 8GB of user storage. The microSD slot, which is located on the top of the phone along with the 3.5mm audio jack and On/Off switch, readily supports cards up to 32GB in size, so memory shouldn’t be an issue with the Nokia E6.

On the left-hand side of the Nokia E6 you’ll find a USB slot, while the right-hand side Screenlock, volume controls and a button for muting calls, which also works with the built-in Dictaphone options.  All ports have nice, firm covers on them, which is a nice touch.

The 8-Megapixel camera located on the back of the Nokia E6 comes with dual-Flash LED, which uses the same EDoF technology as found on the Nokia E7, so while it lacks the cutting-edge prowess of the Nokia N8 you’ll still be able to take pretty decent snaps with the camera. We’ve been pretty impressed with what it has to offer so far.

The Nokia E6 has to be the best looking and cutting-edge QWERTY business device out there. The build quality is tough but stylish and the user-interface is smooth. If you’ve been looking for the perfect excuse to upgrade your Nokia E71 then you’ve just found it.

Check out our Nokia E6 hardware review photo gallery: