Nokia is all set to launch Nokia XL smartphone in India in the coming days. Nokia had launched Nokia X smartphone in the month of March. All Nokia X range of smartphones are based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), and this platform is called Nokia X software platform.
The Nokia XL boasts of a 5 inches display with 480×800 resolution. This smartphone is targetted at those customers who prefer larger display especially in India. This device is equipped with a 5MP rear-facing, autofocus camera with flash and 2MP front-facing camera. It comes with 768MB RAM, 4GB Of internal storage, and is packed with a 2000mAh battery, while sharing other specifications with its younger sibling Nokia X. Like all other X series, Nokia XL is also powered by the 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core processor and supports Dual SIM.
We got an opportunity to fiddle with the phone for few minutes at a media event hosted by Nokia India in New Delhi. We give below our first hand impressions:
Design : Nokia XL is the enlarged version of the Nokia X and comes with the same rectangular design and a polycarbonate colourful shell. It has mat finish on the rear and the device is quite bulky as it weighs around 190 grams compard to 131 grams of Nokia X. But it looks solid to hold and there is no problem to put it inside your shirt pocket or in the pocket of your trouser. The body shell of Nokia XL is removable and has a battery compartment that houses a removable battery and two slots for sim cards (micro-sim) and a microSD card slot.
The volume rocker and Power/ Screen lock keys are placed on the right side of the phone and have the same colour as the phone. You can find the micro-USB port at the bottom edge, while the 3.5mm headset jack has been placed on the top.
Display : This phone has a 5-inch WVGA LCD display with 480 X 800 pixels resolution and its density is lower compared to Nokia X due to its bigger display. The viewing angles on the screen were ok in the room and whether the same will be in good in sunlight can be commented after exposing this smartphone in the sun. If you swipe from right to left on the lock screen, this will take you to the homescreen, and which consist of a series of tiles similar to Windows Phone. You have the facility of moving these tiles around by holding and dragging.
A swipe sideways from the homescreen takes you to the Fastlane, which enables users to switch between their favorite apps more smoothly. With Fastlane, users can see a record of their recent activity. Fastlane has features which lets people return a missed call by calling or texting, accept or decline calendar invitations, or control the music player – all from within the Fastlane view. For social-networking geeks,Fastlane is quite useful as with this one can select what appears on their Fastlane feed, read notifications from their social networks and update their status from within Fastlane.
One problem faced by me while playing with Nokia XL is that it takes considerable time to boot up.
Camera : The rear camera of 5MP is of decent quality, but the front of the 2MP impressed us the most as it captures good quality selfies, which is craze among the youngsters.
Like Nokia X, the Nokia XL can run only the Android apps, which will be curated by Nokia, and are powered by Microsoft and Nokia services. The main drawback of Nokia XL and all X series of smartphones is that the users will not have access to the Google Play Store for downloading the apps. The users will be required to download the apps from the Windows Store. You can also install and useThird-party Android apps in Nokia XL.
Like Nokia X, Nokia XL also comes with free access to Here Maps, Nokia MixRadio for free music streaming and downloadable playlists. It is also pre-loaded with a variety of third-party apps and games including BBM, Plants vs Zombies 2, Viber, Vine and Twitter. Nokia is budling Nokia XL with 10GB free space on Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service.
Nokia has not given any indication of price of Nokia XL. But if this device is priced around Rs. 10,000 then it has a good chance to sell in good numbers in India as it will be good value for money in this price range. The price beyond Rs. 10K will not be advisable as Motorola is coming out with Moto E budget smartphone on 13th May and as per our understanding they are going to price it very aggressively in India. Moreover, their is no fun in keeping the price higher initially and then dropping it after few weeks. Let us wait and see what Nokia thinks about the price mechanism.
