Nokia seemed to have heard consumer plea of a Nokia-made Android device as they announced the Nokia X globally last month and made it available in India from this week. We had a brief encounter with the device early this week and this is what we think.
Nokia X has a design clearly inspired from its current breed of Lumia phones. The Nokia X has a unibody-like plastic back cover that can be changed with different coloured shells, just like the Nokia Lumia phones. It’s durable enough to withstand falls and looks premium, both of which what you expect from a Nokia phone.
The software is where everything gets different. For starters, the Nokia X is powered by Android Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and is pretty much like the Android running on Amazon Kindle tablets. In short, Nokia X leaves out all the Google services, which means you don’t get the pre-loaded Gmail app, Play Store, Maps etc. However, users will get a replacement of every service that has been left out. For instance, the Nokia X has its own email client, HERE Maps and access to Nokia Store along with 3rd party stores like Amazon Appstore, Aptoide, Yandex. Nokia is also giving free lifetime MIXRadio service along with support for Microsoft services like OneDrive, Outlook and Skype.
The user interface is also similar to Lumia with its tile-based icons that can be moved around with a long press. If Android-like interface is what you miss, 3rd party launchers can achieve it with a simple install. Nokia X also features Fastlane, which was introduced in the Asha line of devices.
Hardware-wise, Nokia X is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB RAM and frankly with the limited resources it has, the phone shows some signs of lag. It also has a a 3 megapixel fixed focus camera, microSD card slot, dual-SIM support and 1500mAh battery.
While you’ll have to wait for our detailed review to see if it’s worth the spend, our first tryst with the device was a mixed bag.
Leave a Reply