Nokia's X6 and N97 put to the touch test

The Finnish telecom giant launched the unlimited-music downloads Nokia X6 and the N97 Lite today to add to the launch of the N900 last week.

The X6 is basically the old Xpress Music phones in a new guise, but is far enough removed from its predecessor to generate some excitement. Like the Xpress, you can download an unlimited amount of songs, it is much more elegant, and has a terrific 32GB memory space, which makes up for the fact that you can't transfer any of the files to another device. And to be on the safe side, there's also the X3, not as good but one-third the price.

How do the products stand up to scrutiny? The X6 is the aesthete's phone,
and beneath its delicate features it has a pretty impressive processor speed, making for easy management of applications. The touchscreen has iPhone-like sensitivity.

Contrast this with the N900. You might wonder why Nokia felt the need to put a keyboard in an otherwise decent-looking phone, but you get your answer when you toy with the touchscreen. It is much harder to use – in fact, the Nokia employee demonstrating it had turned off the touchscreen keyboard. "I prefer the manual keyboard," he said, before trying to save it mumbling something about sweat on his fingers. Too late, mate.

When I tried using it myself, the phone refused to respond to my touch at all. I finally got the knack of it, but couldn't help contrasting it with the X6. Apparently the advantage is you can use a stylus with ease with the N900 – useful for drawing pictures if you're that way inclined.

But to be fair, Nokia is quite clear that this is a mobile internet device of sorts rather than a smart phone. In its category, there are few phones that do a better job. It has some excellent features, and with its 600 Mhz processor, runs most applications really well – I opened about seven or eight at random, without eliciting any delay or complaint from the device.

Attention to detail is also great, with a little pop-up tool that tells you when you've received a message on another window and a tool option for cutting and pasting text using the touchscreen facility. Managing your files and pictures is also made easy.

The next weapon in the armoury is the N97 Lite, which is a stripped-down version of the excellent N97. This is probably the bottom-up approach, catering to consumers who aspire to be in the smartphone category. Though a price has not yet been released, it promises to be a lot cheaper than the N97.

On the whole, it is a really aggressive push on the part of Nokia to get back in the game. On first impressions, I would say it could well be successful – I really liked the X6 and the N97 Lite. The jury is still out however on the N900.