Nokia India has today launched the Nokia X, part of the new Nokia X family of affordable smartphones that run Android apps, which will start selling in India from today onwards at MRP of Rs. 8,599. Nokia X will be available in bright green, bright red, cyan, yellow, black and white colors.
Finally, Nokia has realised the importance of Android smartphones and had showcased its first-ever X range of smartphones based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), in the recently concluded Mobile World Congress. These smartphones are Nokia X, X+ and XL, and run on the new Nokia X software platform, which is based on Google’s Android. This means that these devices are not pure Android phones but instead run a forked variant of Android. These phone can run the Android apps, which will be curated by Nokia, and are powered by Microsoft and Nokia services. In Nokia X series of smartphones, the customers can use Android apps alongwith Asha and Lumia range of Windows phones features for the unique experience. However, the main drawback of Nokia X 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.
According to Nokia India, the other two variants of Nokia X series will be launched in India within 60 days.
The key feature of Nokia X range of smartphone is that these devices features two screens: home, which features a fresh, tile-based design and Fastlane. Fastlane enables users to switch between their favorite apps more smoothly. Fastlane captures everything people love, and 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.
Nokia X sport 4-inch 480×800 scratch-proof display and is powered by 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor. This smartphone comes with 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card. This phone is fuelled by a 1500mAh battery. Nokia X is equipped with a 3-megapixel rear camera, but there is no front camera.
Nokia X comes with free access to Here Maps, with offline maps and integrated turn-by-turn navigation, and Nokia MixRadio for free music streaming and downloadable playlists. All devices are also pre-loaded with a variety of third-party apps and games including BBM, Plants vs Zombies 2, Viber, Vine and Twitter.
The emphasis on Nokia X smartphone is on Microsoft services such as Bing search, Skype communications and OneDrive file storage. Nokia is bundling the Nokia X with 7GB free cloud storage using OneDrive and additional 3GB of consumers enable camera back up.
Speaking at the launch event, Mr. P Balaji, Managing Director, Nokia India,said,“India is one of the fastest growing markets for smart phones in the world. With the launch of Nokia X, we are adding more ammunition to our smartphone portfolio. We believe Nokia X is a unique combination of Nokia quality and experiences, Microsoft services and Android apps. It will resonate with consumers and set a great precedent for the level of quality that can be achieved in the fast-growing, affordable smartphone segment.”
Mr. Balaji added that there is lot of scope for budget smratphones in India in the range of $ 100-199, which works out to approximately in the range of Rs. 10,000. Although, Nokia is too late to come out with Android based smartphones, yet they feel that still they can make a mark in India with these devices.
We shall be reviewing Nokia X smartphone shortly.
