The Nokia X is the Finnish brand's big effort to make greater waves
into the low, low end of the smartphone market – and it's enlisted the
help of Android to make that happen.
The Nokia X is a phone that
comes with a fairly decent spec list for a phone that's coming in at €89
before tax (around £75, $120, AU$135) – we're talking a dual-core 1GHz
processor from Qualcomm, 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch WVGA screen and a
1500mAh battery.
However, it's important not to compare to this to the likes of the Moto G,
as it's not meant for the more developed regions in terms of smartphone
use. This is for areas where Android devices are sold at a much lower
average price, but still can do the basic things that others can.
- Sleek UI
- Low cost
- Low storage
- Chunky design
The Nokia X is a phone that comes with a fairly decent spec list for a phone that's coming in at €89 before tax (around £75, $120, AU$135) – we're talking a dual-core 1GHz processor from Qualcomm, 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch WVGA screen and a 1500mAh battery.
With that in mind, the Nokia X is probably a little better than OK. The polycarbonate body is fairly chunky, but in the hand it dovetails well with the smaller screen, as it would be hard to hold something that small and thin.
There's not a lot else on offer here in terms of ports or anything – the mandatory headphone jack and camera (which is only a 3MP option with no flash) are the only other items in a sea of matte plastic.
But this isn't meant to be a phone that's all about design – the Nokia X
is supposed to offer a differentiated user experience from the rest of
the identikit Android phones on the market.
The live tiles idea is really cool – it's essentially just a clever way of doing Android widgets, but while other launchers can make things look too complex, Nokia is doing things its own way and making it all seem a lot cooler.
For instance, there's no 'Apps' key that shows all the little bits of software you've downloaded – now it's all in one long list that just endlessly scrolls. To that end, it can get a bit messy, so Nokia's method of creating folders is needed and something that wasn't possible on Windows Phone.
There's even the chance to change the colour of some apps to match your theme – although the fact you can't do this to all of them means this feature is slightly negated.
You can also see more notifications on the lock screen than you might on other Nokia phones - it's a little boring in terms of design, but works well enough.
The other big change is Nokia's Fast Lane – it's an odd change from the notifications bar, as it's essentially the same thing but one long scrolling page that can be accessed by swiping right or left.
It's cool in some respects, as it allows you to dynamically control things like the music player, and always keeps your most-used apps close at hand. However, there is still the same pull-down bar as on other Android handsets here, but it's only for changing settings.
Come on Nokia, you don't have to change EVERYTHING.
Fast Lane isn't the same as the multi-tasking menu you'll get on the likes of most other Android phones - while long pressing the icon will shut it down, the app apparently still runs.
However, Fone Arena noted that the multi-tasking menu is still there, but you'll need to install specific apps to get it to work - not hard, but its absence out of the box may irk some.
About Nikhil Dhawan
The live tiles idea is really cool – it's essentially just a clever way of doing Android widgets, but while other launchers can make things look too complex, Nokia is doing things its own way and making it all seem a lot cooler.
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