Nokia announced its first Android powered smartphone, the Nokia X at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. The device runs on Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and does not have the Google services and API. Instead Nokia has added its own store and API along with Microsoft services. The device comes with a 4 inch WVGA display and runs on Snapdragon dual core processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. The device also ships with a 3MP primary camera and there is no flash included.
The device comes pre-installed with quite a lot of apps including Facebook, Twitter, BBM, WeChat etc along with good amount of games. The device is priced at Rs 8499 in India and available across almost all retail stores and online stores.
Here is the unboxing video of Nokia X.
Inside the box you have the Nokia X, red colored earphones, charger and also manual. The device comes in variety of colors like Red, White, Black, Yellow, Green and Cyan. Here are the first impressions of the device.
Design wise the device looks very similar to recently released Asha phones except for the change that the back cover is not glossy like Asha, instead Nokia has added a matte finish back cover which is removable. The built quality and fit and finish looks really good and the phone feels solid in hands as the display is pretty small at 4 inches.
The device has power button and volume keys on the right side along with 3.5 mm jack at the top and microUSB slot at the bottom. At the back there is the 3MP camera, the Nokia branding and the speakers. The display is WVGA (800X480) which is the same you find on the Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 525. The display looks pretty decent for its price and the colors are good.
The OS as we mentioned before is AOSP with custom UI from Nokia and looks very similar to Windows Phone with tiled interface. Nokia claims that there are pretty good amount of apps available on the platform already and you can also sideload apps by downloading the Android APK and transferring to the phone memory. You can also move installed apps to memory card as the internal storage is at 4GB and there is support for expandable storage via microSD card.
Although the OS is pretty smooth, it does have a certain amount of lag in some areas. If you try installing apps via side loading you might feel there is a lag although this is just the primary stage to ascertain whether the device runs perfectly. We will have more details on the performance of the device later.
We will also have the detailed review and tips and tricks on the Nokia X platform coming soon.
Where else could have been sold an cheap phone other than in India?!
It looks like a ordinary soap bar! Are these the phones that Microsoft wants to get ahead of Android and iPhone?! 521GB of RAM?!