The Nokia X is Nokia’s first android powered handset. This handset is powered by dual core processor and houses dual SIM slots. The Nokia X is priced at under Rs. 8,500. The X is good but not that impressive find out why.
Nokia X box pack
Contents inside the box – handset, 1500 mAh battery, user guide, travel charger and red colored earphone.
Design and Display
The X looks exactly similar to the Nokia Asha 5xx models. There is a single navigation (touch) button at the front bottom. The handset weight is 131 grams with battery and dimensions are 63.13 x 115.65 x 10.90mm. Build quality is very good and it feel good to hold.
The volume rockers and the power button is on the right side, micro USB port at the bottom and 3.5mm audio jack on the top. The rear and the sides are with matte finish. The X is available in 7 different color options. This is a dual SIM handset (micro SIMs) with dual standby mode.
The 4 inch IPS screen is with 800 x 480 pixels resolution. Touch is smooth. Nokia Glance Screen and double tap options are also available. Viewing angle is okay, not that good. There are accelerometer, light and proximity sensors.
OS, Memory, Storage
The X runs on the Nokia X platform version 10.0.3 which is based on Android 4.1.2. Nokia has made the interface look almost like as seen on the windows phone – one screen scroll down, live tiles effect etc. You really don’t get the android feel when you look at the interface.
There is on-board 512MB RAM of which 197MB is available. Of the 4GB storage 1.29GB is allocated for apps and 1.17GB as the phone storage. Apps can be installed on the external storage. OTG is not supported. OTA updates are supported.
Performance
The chipset is MSM8625 qualcomm snapdragon dual core processor clocked at 1GHz with Adreno 203 GPU. The handset does lag at times.
Benchmark
- Quadrant Standard – 2903.
- AnTuTu – 7633.
- Nenamark 2 – 32.3 fps
- Multi touch – 2 points.
Gaming and Entertainment
The handset cannot play 1080p videos – it can play 720p videos. There are a lot of games that comes pre-installed but I tried the Asphalt 8 – it got installed on the external storage. The game was playable in very low visual quality but at times it did lag.
Camera
There is a single camera of 3MP resolution (fixed focus). The quality is okay. There is no flash support. You can record videos in 864 x 480 pixels resolution.
Others
Sound is very loud and clear. Google play store is missing, instead you will find the Nokia store. You will not find a lot of apps on the Nokia store as you would on Google play. However if you have the APK files the same can be installed on the Nokia X. 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS worked without any issues.
Battery
This handset comes with a 1500 mAh battery. After 17 minutes the battery dropped by 8% (running benchmark apps and playing some games). For the 2nd time I played the Asphalt game for about 28 minutes the battery dropped by 26% and the max temperature was 43 degrees.
You can expect 3 hours of backup time with heavy usage but when playing high end games like the Asphalt 8 the battery % will drop much faster.
Verdict
The Nokia X running on the Android OS is not that impressive. The handset does lag at times. Nokia has customized the OS, revoked access to Google play and Google services. This could further cause sync issues with some apps.
The price of approx Rs. 8,300 is also seems too high – Nokia Lumia 525 with windows is a better option.
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Nokia X handset and Gaming review
FWVGA video shot using the Nokia X handset
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