The emporia ME6 smartphone is one with two faces you could say with more thrown in for those who want to keep things simple and play it up with just the normal Android skin.
emporia is known for their simple phones and with last year having their first full fledged smartphone so to speak the SMART 6 but still keeping it easy with this one you can pick which way you want to go and gear up for the full experience when confident enough too even the convoluted sub menus Android has to offer.
It is like any other smartphone when it comes to the specs for their price point which in this instance is very good after testing out and seeing it at launch so I will not bore you to tears with specs etc that are listed below and a detailed video walkthrough so you can see what you are getting into.
The build quality is excellent here in my view and looks more premium than one would expect with nice soft edges that do not dig into your palm and a nice camera array set-up on the rear and prying eyes will be asking questions especially with the red circled heart icon on the rear which we are custom to with emporia devices and that is the panic button that can be remapped to take photos if you wish you can also use it for a torch silent mode or have it do nothing. The camera set-up is just nice anyway and not a huge hump we tend to see to much of today and is annoying now.
You now have an information center on board too which keeps all in one place similarly to your standard phone today but kept simple however this is only on simple mode.There is talkback mode which reads all actions done on device which is really handy. You can see more in the video below on how to switch between modes and it is simple and a key feature thanks to that little man in the corner that I labelled.
Ok so daily tasks then, this phone performs rather well not that the target market would have the phone loaded to the hilt like me but I loaded it and it done as any other phone has done so there is plenty of power under the hood should you happen to have a lot going on like me which is OTT for most daily users.
The screen is vibrant by the way and excellent for media consumption and you have biometric options with face or fingerprint unlock which both worked well you also have audio description to let you know what is going on in supported movies and shows.
Multitasking is fine doing your social and emails is fine and any other taxing applications you might have on the go.
The camera is decent too even with low light shots it is not the best in the world of what you would expect from a 1000 euro plus phone It did a decent job with excellent audio on recording too again you can decide with the samples below.
If you like music well this phone has a trick up its sleeve too and the audio experince is excellent and helped me out alot when testing other product the last few weeks it also has a super voice input option for recording text and ASHA support which means you can stream audio directly into the hearing aids via LE bluetooth.
Overall this is a decent mid range phone for someone who wants that bit more but there is much more under the skin here packed with features for those with some difficulties and certainly something they need in their life.
Key use case scenarios
1) The user makes the decision: clear, easy user interface or conventional Android mode. The emporiaME.6 starts up in the familiar Android mode by default. The mobile phone can be switched to the clear, reduced easy mode with just two presses. Or straight back again. It is a conscious decision that YOU make.
2) The Info Centre, which is only available in simple mode. This is where all notifications come together in one place. Whether it’s a missed call, new email, WhatsApp message or a notification from Facebook Messenger, you can keep an eye on everything here.
3) The external, directly accessible panic button. Press firmly once and help is automatically called. Good to know if you’re walking home alone at night, for example. Or if you are planning a lonely mountain tour. 360 hours (15 days!) of standby time should be enough even in this case.
Features
- 5G smartphone, 6.58-inch touchscreen
- Physical panic button with 999 / Quick-key
- Triple-lens 50+2+TOF-MP back camera
- 8 MP selfie camera
- Fingerprint sensor for biometric identification
- NFC for contactless payments
- Optional easy mode
