If you thought that Nokia was all about Windows Phone, think again. The Finnish company has just entered the Android market, revealing a new family of phones called Nokia X at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A trio of phones – Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL – make up the new range that runs an Android-based operating system which looks like a mash-up of Android, Windows Phone and Symbian. Nokia is of course owned by Microsoft and has been focusing mostly on Windows Phone over the past couple of years, but its CEO Stephen Elop has insisted that the new Android phones will still benefit Microsoft, through introducing new users to services such as OneDrive and Office.
Those used to Android won’t look at a Nokia X phone and immediately recognise what’s on screen. The new X phones run on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and not KitKat as was rumoured, and the software is skinned with a custom look which doesn’t resemble Android in any way that we’ve seen before. The home screen consists of Windows Phone-like tiles for apps and there’s just one capacitive button below the screen for the ‘back’ function.
Nokia isn’t charging into the Android market with hopes of taking on the likes of Samsung and HTC. The Nokia X will be priced at just €89, the X+ at €99 and the Nokia XL at €109. As you might expect from these prices, hardware isn’t ground-breaking – here’s how Nokia’s new family shapes up:
Nokia X
- 4-inch 800 x 480 IPS display
- Dual core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
- 3 megapixel fixed focus rear camera, 1.3 megapixel 480p secondary camera
- 4GB of internal memory, 512MB of RAM, micro SD support up to 32GB
- Dual SIM
- 2,000 mAh battery
- Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth 3.0, HSDPA
Nokia X+
- 4-inch 800 x 480 IPS display
- Dual core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
- 3 megapixel fixed focus rear camera, 1.3 megapixel 480p secondary camera
- 4GB of internal memory, 768MB of RAM, micro SD support up to 32GB
- Dual SIM
- 2,000 mAh battery
- Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth 3.0, HSDPA
Nokia XL
- 5-inch 800 x 480 IPS display
- Dual core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor
- 5 megapixel fixed focus rear camera, 1.3 megapixel 480p secondary camera
- 4GB of internal memory, 768MB of RAM, micro SD support up to 32GB
- Dual SIM
- 2,000 mAh battery
- Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth 3.0, HSDPA
In terms of appearance, all three look just like low-end Lumia devices – bright and colourful, curved and plastic. From the back, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Nokia X was in fact the Lumia 520. The X and X+ are 10.4mm thick and weigh 128g, whilst the XL weighs in at a hefty 190g and is 10.9mm thick.
All three devices will launch in Eastern Europe, Asia and South America, but won’t be arriving in North America, Western Europe, Japan or Korea. Unfortunately the X phones will not have access to the Google Play Store, nor Google’s suite of apps including Gmail, Maps and Chrome. Android apps can be updated to run on Nokia’s custom platform however, and the company will be providing its own dedicated app store which it intends on populating with thousands of apps. For the more technically minded, the sideloading of apps will also be supported so you can simply load up apps to your Nokia X via a PC and USB.
The Nokia X is available now and the X+ and XL will arrive ‘early in Q2’ – so likely April.