Nokia E6 here, with Symbian Anna

The first Nokia to ship with the new version of its old operating system, Symbian Anna, has arrived in South Africa – but faces resistance as consumers wait for Nokia to integrate Windows Phone 7 into it devices.

Nokia E6, the company’s latest product in the range that brough the best-selling Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 to life, is now available in South Africa. A compact QWERTY smartphone, coupled with one of the highest resolution touchscreens in its class, is positioned as the tool for people who need to get things done while they’re on the move. According to Nokia, busy e-mailers and social networkers will enjoy the responsive keyboard and compact design, allowing for easy single-handed operation.

However, given Nokia’s very public embrace of Microsoft and its declaration that it is moving to the Windows Phone 7 operating system, Symbian Anna will be seen by many as a stopgap.

This could well dent demand for the phone. However, a slump in demand would speed up Nokia’s integration of Windows, regardless of how good Anna may turn out to be.

Features of this latest Nokia smartphone include a bright 2.46-inch glass LCD capacitive touch display, boasting a resolution of 640×480, four times the pixels of its predecessor. Sporting 8GB of internal memory, with support for MicroSD cards up to 32GB, storing a variety of multimedia content on the compact device is easy. Battery life is rated for up to a month on standby and connectivity options abound with pentaband 2G/3G network support for world travellers, WiFi connectivity through 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 with support for stereo headphones.

The 8-megapixel full focus camera has a dual-LED flash, 2x digital zoom (3x in video mode) and offers HD 720p video recording at 25 frames per second.

Like other Nokia Symbian smartphones, the Nokia E6 comes with free global walk and drive navigation through the latest Maps, as well as push email and IM. Symbian Anna brings up to five home screens, an improved browser and redesigned interface and iconography. Bundled software includes QuickOffice, World Traveler, JoikuSpot Premium and F-Secure Mobile Security, with more available for download through Ovi Store.

The Nokia E6 is available in South Africa through most major network operators and service providers on a variety of contract packages. Check with your service provider for exact details and costs.

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