At the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Nokia announced its first Android powered smartphone series, the Nokia X after months of speculations and rumors. Nokia announced three devices running the Android software and these include Nokia X, X+ and XL. Nokia also released the Nokia X in many emerging markets including India.
Nokia X comes with a 4-inch IPS display (480 x 800 pixel resolution), 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 512MB of RAM and a 3MP rear camera. The dual-SIM device comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage which is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. It is also powered by a 1,500mAh battery. Today we will have a detailed review of this device and find out how good is the phone with respect to design, build, performance, camera and battery life.
Specifications of Nokia X:
- 4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) display
- 1 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 play (MSM8225) processor with Adreno 203 GPU
- Nokia X software platform 1.0 (AOSP Android 4.1 Jelly Bean)
- Dual SIM with 3G support
- 3MP fixed focus rear camera (no flash)
- 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
- 512MB RAM, 4GB of Internal storage, micro SD expansion slot
- 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n,Bluetooth 3.0, aGPS
- 1500 mAh battery
- Dimensions: 115.5 x 63 x 10.44 mm; Weight: 128.6 g
Here is the video review of Nokia X, for text version read on.
Design and Build Quality:
Design wise, Nokia X is very similar to Asha series phones which were launched in October 2013 at the Nokia World. The only major difference between Nokia Asha 503 and Nokia X is that the back cover comes with matte finish while Asha series had a glossy finish with a glass like coating. Similar to other Nokia phones, the Nokia X too comes with good build quality and the fit and finish is also good. Although the phone is not for users who are looking for a premium phone, Nokia does not disappoint with the design and quality.
There is only one button on the front which is back button. There are the usual set of buttons similar to any Android phone out there with volume keys and the power button on the right side and micro USB charging point at the bottom and the 3.5mm audio jack at the top. The back panel houses the 3MP camera, the Nokia logo and the speakers. The back panel is removable and so is the battery.
The polycarbonate back cover comes in various colors and you can interchange it by purchasing different colors. The device is pretty easy to hold since the display is only 4 inches and weighs only 128gms.
Display
The Nokia X comes with a 4 inch IPS + LCD display which has a resolution of 480 X800 pixels with 233 ppi density. On record this is not the best of displays to have on a phone, but even with the low resolution it looks pretty ok. Most of the users won’t find issues with the device, but if you have been using HD and Full HD phones, you will notice the difference.
Nokia’s Windows Phone like user interface brings in lot of colors to the home screen so won’t notice that the display resolution is low. The color reproduction is pretty good on the device, but the viewing angles are just ok. But considering the price point, this should be acceptable. The readability in bright sunlight isn’t that great and even at full brightness you will ahve issues reading on this device. Apart from this, the display attracts a lot of dust and fingerprints.
Software and Performance:
Nokia X runs AOSP (Android Open Source Project) and it has Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. But unlike normal Android phones, Nokia has done with heavy customizations in the form of a Windows Phone style UI with tiles. The home screen has all the tiles and all installed apps show up here. Then there is Fastlane from the Asha series, which is basically a history of all actions performed on your device.
So Nokia has stripped all Google Services and API from Android and instead added its own apps and services. So you don’t find the Google apps like Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, Maps etc instead you have HERE Maps, OneDrive, Nokia Music, Mix Radio etc. You will not be able to add your Google account and sync your contacts.
Related Reading: How to Import Google Contacts to Nokia X
For apps, you have the Nokia Store and also support for third party stores like 1Mobile, Yantex etc. You can also sideload apps by downloading the apk and installing them on to the phone.
Related Reading: How to Sideload apps on Nokia X
There is a quick settings option if you swipe down from the top of the screen. Here you can check the network signal and also get access to quick controls and also open settings. The settings page is similar any Android phone with usual set of options.
Nokia X does not come with any great hardware on paper, there is just the 512MB RAM and a dual core Snapdragon processor. 512MB RAM on an Android phone is often considered less and with Nokia’s amount of customization, the device lags in many areas. When pressing and holding the home button, there is a clear lag to open the home screen and this is very much evident that the memory is too low for this device.
Playing games is also not that great on this device. While you can play games like Temple Run, Subway Surfer, Asphalt 8 or Candy crush, the performance of these games aren’t great. But what makes Nokia X stand out is the UI which is pretty neatly done with options to change colors (via update), group into folders and also change the tile size. There is also support for widgets, but adding widget to the screen looks a bit awkward.
Ideally the phone would have great performance with the UI if it bundled with a 1GB RAM. The device comes with 4GB internal storage and out of this only some 2GB is available to user, but good thing is you can expand it via microSD card. You also have the option to move apps to SD card, so you easily have the games on the SD card.
Call quality is really good and there was no dropping of calls. The 3G speeds are also decent as it supports upto 7.2Mbps.
Camera:
The camera on Nokia X is a 3MP fixed focus camera with no flash included. Nokia is known for having awesome cameras on their phones and it is kind of shocking to see Nokia X comes with a basic camera when Lumia 525 with similar price range has a 5MP camera. The fixed focus camera does not do good for the device and the shots are pretty average. The camera has quite a lot of options to offer and much better than the camera UI on most Android phones.
Photo taken on daylight were just ok with decent colors, but some of them had good amount of noise added. The colors are just ok and nothing much to write about. The taking photos takes around 2-3 seconds and there is a bit of shutter lag as well. Taking photos with low light is not a strong point for Nokia X. With no flash, the photos taken with low light conditions are terrible and not worth taking at all. Below are some of the camera samples.
Camera Samples:
Battery Life:
The device comes with a 1500mAh battery and by Android standards the capacity is pretty low. We tested the device with 3G as well as 2G connectivity. With 3G, the device lasted for almost 12-14 hours with calls, gaming, browsing etc and with 2G it lasted much more and was able to get more than a day of usage. You can get detailed information on which app is draining the battery faster and it is similar to any Android phone.
So with average usage, you should be able to squeeze out a day with the battery.
Verdict:
Nokia’s first attempt with Android has many positives like a great and refreshing UI, ability to side load apps, dual SIM, 3G support and more. But there is more work needed on this platform in terms of performance for low end device. If Nokia plans to keep this platform to low end devices, then the UI has to be optimized for low memory. An improvement to the camera is also needed as the competition has better camera. The lack of Google service is definitely a deal breaker for users looking for a solid Android phone, but then you can get these on board if you are ok with rooting your phone.
The Nokia Lumia 525, which was released couple of months back and is selling for almost the same price (or even the Lumia 520) makes much better sense with respect to performance. The main advantage of Nokia X here is the ability to sideload apps. Overall, we feel the platform is promising, but definitely need improvement and updates going forward.
