Home > Nokia E6 and Symbian Belle: what we can expect
Nokia E6 and Symbian Belle: what we can expect
By Martin James on September 20,
 2011 at 00:00,

The Symbian Belle update is all set to touch down before the end of the year, and one of the handsets we're looking forward to see making a step forward is the Nokia E6. Let's take a look what to expect. 

Check out our Nokia E6 hardware review

Symbian Belle was officially announced at the end of last month, and while our first taste of the new operating system is set to come with the launch of the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 next month, Nokia has revealed the good news that it'll also be arriving in update form to all the Nokia smartphones currently running Symbian Anna.

And among those is the Nokia E6, which only went on sale a few months ago and itself was actually the first handset on the market available with Symbian Anna.

But that's not its only notable first: it was also the first smartphone to appear featuring both a capacitive touchscreen and a full physical QWERTY keyboard, giving it unique versatility from a usability point of view that is only set to improve with the arrival of Symbian Belle.

So what are the chief highlights we're looking forward to from the Symbian upgrade? Well for starters there's the increase in the number of homescreens you'll have to work with to six. In most cases this will see a doubling of the existing tally from Symbian Anna, but the Nokia E6 is unique in that it already gives you four homescreens, but assuming it will still be heading for the same tally of six that's still an impressive 50 per cent increase.

But it's what you'll be able to do with those homescreens that really sets Symbian Belle apart. The next Nokia operating system will come with the versatility of free-form resizeable widgets, which will come in a range of sizes so you can arrange your homescreens to prioritise the features and tools that suit you, something we can't wait to see in action.

And that's not the end of the highlights to look forward to. There's also the reworked status bar, which you'll be able to pull down to reveal full details on important details such as messages, notifications, missed calls and the like – a feature that should prove especially useful given the limited 2.46-inch screen real estate available on the Nokia E6.

Additionally, Nokia has also redesigned the lockscreen to provide more information than before and multitasking previews will actually deliver live real-time views of your apps and services so you can check out their general status without having to make them active, which should prove a real time-saver on a business-focused device such as the Nokia E6.

Time will tell if Nokia is working on anything specific for the E-Series all-rounder to arrive as part of the Symbian Belle upgrade, but even if not the forthcoming update has a superb range of new features that should give this business phone a real shot in the arm, delivering some great new ways of taking advantage of its many existing strengths.

Is there any particular Symbian Belle feature you're looking forward to seeing on your Symbian Anna smartphone? There's certainly plenty to choose from, but drop us a line in the Comments below to let us know what you think the highlight will be.

Tags: Anna Belle E6 Homescreens Nokia E6 Symbian Anna Symbian Belle upgrade widgets
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  • Jari Aarnio

    There is already five homescreens (not four as mentioned) on E6.

  • Bbfan1

    The phone is dead. Symbian is dead.

  • JS

    Jepp, five homescreens.. My only concern about the Belle-upgrade is the size of some of the widgets, how much space they will occupy on the small screen of the E6. For example the mail-widget or the new android-style clock.

    But Belle is looking good and I’m sure it will please the users, me included.

  • Jengal

    Yet another pointless anti Nokia jibe, back under your rock mate.

  • felix

    I do also think that the phone will massively benefit from the Belle update as the menu structure will become less confusing and maybe a tick faster – although the phone is already fast enough from my modest perspective. I was fascinated by the speed of the Nokia Maps application (just tried the phone for about an hour in a shop), that’s one of the reasons why I am not going for a Blackberry (which has the fantastic optical trackpad that I love so much).

    But more importantly there will (hopefully soon) be the announced upgrade allowing for multiple exchange accounts. That is what I am really looking forward to.

  • http://twitter.com/russellhawker Russell Hawker

    The E6 needs to have the @ symbol in the notifications area at the top of the screen when a new email arrives (like in the E71). It is really shocking that this feature is currently missing – especially as the E6 is supposed to be the upgrade route for E71/72 users.

    The notification light in the 5-way button is currently useless because it is far too din to see except in very dark conditions. The light must be turned up much brighter AND it needs to include the option of notifying when emails arrive.

    Vibrate is too weak. This needs to be stronger (I believe a firmware update can fix this easily).

    Lots of apps in OVI are not yet updated for the higher pixel density E6 screen compared to the E71, so lots of detail and buttons are far too small to use.
    Eg:
    - Facebook app (based on the former Snaptu app), works fine but everything is tiny.
    - Online maps in ViewRanger (the pre-downloaded OS sheets are fine as they can be enlarged without the text shrinking again).
    - Most weather apps

    Also, the browser shows web pages adjusted for mobile phones far too small. try looking at the Daily telegraph webpage – it automatically goes into the mobile site and all text is so microscopically small that it is unreadable (the current solution is to use Opera Mini).

    I want the widget that existed in the E71 for email notifications (blank when there is nothing new and then shows up a popup with the latest emails) back.

    I want the function that tells you how long a call was (like E71) straight after the call.

    I want the camera app to be available as a shortcut on the one-touch keys – as this would be the only way to have a physical key for firing up the app. Currently, one needs to find an on-screen icon, which can be a fiddle unless you have the icon on every homescreen.

    A better choice of Themes needs to be pre-installed.

  • Kapol

    I agree with Russell Hawker.

    Remarks: you can actually set the phone to show the length of a call. You can assign the camera to one of the hotkey buttons.

    Nokia, please upgrade the calendar, because the current one looks very snoopy. There are several views, where the “!” in a task get into a new line. Additionally, anniversaries also occupy two lines!

    Some of the views are useless, I want to turn these off!

  • Kimotheking

    will it solve the problem of bad vibration alert ?? it’s major disadvantage of the E6

  • gdh

    Forgot to mention the problem with the backlight when set on the first 2 positions – keyboard stays dark which i of course serious issue at night. Vibration is of no concern to me as I couldn’t sense even E72 when in my pocket. The mail widget is a must. Those ugly-place taking widgets are useless for me. And without the @ notification … Glad to see my personal taste is shared by others too :)