Emporia is best known for its range of smartphones aimed at the senior market The Emporia ME6 is the latest device from the senior phone manufacturer, and we have reviewed several of their previous models such as the Emporia Smart.5 & Emporia Smart 4. What makes these devices stand out is they provide essential technology available to an audience that may feel they have been left behind.

What makes the new Emporia ME6 different to previous models it is part of the brand’s moves into the mainstream market they want to make it available to people of any age but still offer some of the features that Emporia are well known for. Here are the modern features:

  • 5G Android device with 6.58-inch touchscreen
  • Triple Lens 50MP+2+ TOF-MP camera
  • 8MP Selfie Camera
  • Biometrics – Physical fingerprint sensor on the side
  • NFC compatible – Suitable for making mobile payments

Emporia standard features:

  • Emergency Button
  • NFC used for glucose monitoring for diabetes management
  • ASHA protocol – Best option for hearing aid compatibility
  • Easy user interface

First Impressions

The Emporia ME.6 keeps a lot of the features you come to expect from a senior phone such as an easy interface that cuts things down to the essential apps and an emergency button for contacting relatives should you need it.

This emergency button I feel would be useful for walking alone at night and you come into danger. This button can also be reprogrammed to get quick control to access functions such as your camera. Finally, the Emporia ME6 is only available in black and retails for £300 via the Emporia website & Amazon.

Design

The Emporia ME6 will not win any awards for design It is quite basic and comes with a 6.5-inch screen and weighs in at just over 200g so it will feel quite lightweight in the hand.

This phone comes also comes with a fingerprint reader on the side button which makes it easier to log into your phone and bypass passwords. This device also comes with NFC technology which is very helpful for making contactless payments when you’re down the shops.

This phone comes with a triple camera on the rear that comes with a 50MP lens and decent low-light support. Considering who this phone is marketed to the images offered a lot of detail even in less-than-ideal conditions. On the front of the phone, there is also an 8 MP selfie camera which does the job when taking selfie pictures or using it for video calls to the family.  We have taken a deeper look at the camera later in this review.

 

Under The Bonet

Open this device up and you will see it’s powered by a 2.2ghz octa-core processor and comes with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Need more storage you can expand the storage with a MicroSD card, or you can consider cloud storage options if you wish.

This device is also 5G compatible and comes with Android 13 operating system. What Emporia have done to make this phone stand out is you can switch from the familiar Android interface to Emporia’s cut-down tile-based interface that allows you to simplify the system down to the most essential elements.

Changing the interface is quite beneficial if this phone is for someone who is less comfortable with technology. You can switch interfaces without much tech expertise and it’s easy to switch it back and forth.

Camera Review by James Robertson-Milligan

The Emporia ME6 boasts a 50MP which is a standard offering in a lot of the phones we test. What I generally like is that the camera bezel sits nicely into the phone casing and does not protrude. I did find the location of the emergency button could cause an issue but after noticing this button can be switched to a shortcut key took away any concerns I had.

The camera also comes with an 8MP selfie camera nestled into the middle centre of the front of the device. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review, I could not find any other specs for the camera on the internet or Emporia’s website.  If you look at the camera settings on this phone, you have the usual functions you will find on most Android phones such as:

  • Night Mode 
  • Video
  • Photo
  • Film 
  • Portrait 
  • Pro mode – situated in pro mode includes Panorama, UHD, slow-mo, Time lapse, Macro and intelligent scanning. 

This is a good selection of features but what I did notice was it lacks wide angle and only has a 4x zoom. Now I use a lot of wide angles to get more of the subject am taking such as landscapes or aviation photography so I did miss a more decent zoom.

Now when using this camera, I found the functions are easy to use and navigate around with a simple one touch and away you go. We have run this camera through its paces let’s see how it performs:

  1. Taking a standard Photo – The pictures came out okay with a good colour and a decent amount of clarity as you might expect from a 50MP camera.

  1. Panorama – I found this works okay and had no major issues. When taking a photo in this setting you get your guideline to help you get a nice level photo. The result was pretty good showing good depth and clarity with true-to-life colours.

  1. Pro Mode – Personally this is not a mode I use that often as I have a DSLR but you now see this function come as standard on Android devices. It’s a nice feature to have if you do not own a DSLR but on a phone, I just find it fiddley and take too long to get the right settings. I also find you lose Zoom on this function. So it’s a point-and-click when you can do the same in standard settings which will auto everything up for you. I think Android should just remove this setting but that is just my opinion. Still, the pictures came out solid with good tones and depth.

  1. Zoom – The Emporia ME.6 is not a phone to pick if you want zoom you get a poor 4x zoom instead of the more standard 10x zoom. If you want to zoom in on something in the distance you just have no chance. The only bonus here is when you do zoom in you get no shake which is a plus.

  1. Selfie Lens – This phone comes with an 8MP selfie camera which is now the standard on most phones so the outcome is good and what you would expect. Mrs Lifesize Photography features in this. Unfortunately, we were facing direct sunlight, so we were a bit squinty, but the result was still good.

  1. Macro- Now here is a feature I just love! Macro shooting allows you to get up close and personal and get good depth and zoom. Unfortunately, this Emporia device just fell short and the results were really poor. I have tried this several times, but the camera just was not performing.

  1. Portrait- I normally love portrait and nine times out of ten I will use portrait on my phone for shooting images because I love the soft subtle background blur and boldness of the main focal point of the image standing out. However, on this camera, they have the setting, but it doesn’t seem to work properly which is a real let down because once you start shooting in portrait you won’t turn back. I have attached an image from my Samsung to show what a portrait photo should look like taking a photo of the same image so you can see a comparison.

Taken using my Samsung Device

The same picture using the Emporia ME.6

So, in conclusion, The Emporia ME.6 offers a high-spec camera but falls short in some key areas such as Zoom, Macro and portrait. When you compare this phone to others on the market, I feel the price point is a little high and there are devices with a better camera capability on the market. That said I would buy this phone for my elderly mother who just wants to take a photo without worrying about the missing features, but I would question if I would buy this phone for say my daughter who uses the phone to be social and capture the moment.

Overall, this camera is a 3 out of 5 and my reasons are the fact it’s missing wide-angle capabilities and had the macro, zoom and portrait hit the high notes I would have scored this higher.

Verdict

The Emporia ME6 is an easy-to-use 5G-compatible smartphone that comes with a simple-to-use interface perfect for those less confident with technology. If you are confident with technology, you can switch the interface to the standard Android interface.

The ME.6 also provides users with an emergency button that and be changed to a shortcut key if you wish. Plus, it comes with NFC technology for contactless payments and a 50MP triple rear camera that will do a job, but it could be a lot better.

Storage-wise, it’s a little on the small side at only 128GB and 6GB of RAM. This could be an issue if you want to run an app that takes a lot of memory, or you just take lots of photos/videos of the family.  A solution to that is the fact this phone supports the use of a MicroSD card so you can expand the capacity of the phone’s storage.

If you want a phone to support the needs of a senior but looks and feels modern this device should tick most boxes for you.

Product Rating    

Design: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Features: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Camera: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

Value for Money: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

 

Overall ranking: 3.8 out of 5.0 stars – 3.75 stars

The Emporia ME6 is currently available for £300 via Amazon

 

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