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This article was first published 10 years ago

Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Last updated on: March 21, 2014 17:48 IST

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com Shruti Puri

Nokia, after scripting a comeback of sorts with its Windows OS based smartphones, has made a foray into the Android based smartphone market through its new offering, Nokia X dual-SIM. Will this gamble succeed?

Did you get bored of browsing on Windows' interface? Do you envy to play some famous Android games but can't stand the thought of switching from Nokia to some other brand?

Or, do you love Android OS but want to enjoy Nokia's quality too at the same time? Do not worry, for there is a solution in sight.

The new Nokia X serves all these perks right on your plate!

Yes, Nokia X (now owned by Microsoft) is the first Android (owned by Microsoft's rival Google) smartphone and right at the launch event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, it was confirmed that the company played it cool by venturing into this new field after splashing the Windows-based Lumia series all over the market.

Let us have a look at this Windows-Android hybrid.

Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Operating system and UI

For many months, Nokia X has been the hot topic of discussions in the market, thanks to its new operating system and UI.

With Nokia X, the company has implemented the Nokia X software platform that allows you to download and enjoy all the Android-based apps and games like Skype, Plant vs Zombies 2 and many others.

Basically, Nokia has customised and built this OS in such a way that it is compatible with the open source Android platform. The new OS has brought in some changes, for example, the full homescreen can be customised according to your mood.

You can resize, rearrange the apps and tiles, group the apps into folders, and most importantly, can get Android widgets for the things you need the most.

Not to forget is its new Fastlane feature, according to which, your recently used apps can be seen in their entirety, right on one screen, to facilitate easy browsing.

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Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Display

If we talk of its exterior looks and design, Nokia X seems to be very similar to the Lumia series and once you get introduced to its features, you might get around to the notion that Nokia X will soon replace the low-end Asha line-up, considering that Nokia X is also a mid-segment handset.

The device features a sharp, crisp 4-inch touchscreen with a WVGA resolution of 800 x 480 pixels coupled with basic features like brightness control, tactile feedback, orientation sensor, Nokia Glance screen, wide viewing angle and screen double tap.

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Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Camera

Like all other competing brands, Nokia X also comes with quite an appreciable 3MP camera that offers basic camera features like 4x digital zoom, fixed focus, Auto and manual white balance, active toolbar, still image editor, face recognition, auto exposure, center weighted auto exposure, panorama lens, many capture modes, etc.

To a certain disappointment, there is no secondary camera provided, which might give an upper hand to its existing rivals, specially from Micromax.

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Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Processor and memory

Nokia X certainly hosts one of the best processors available today, that is, Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1GHz mated with 512MB of RAM, which is pretty low, and 4GB of internal space.

This processor will give you a smooth and lag-free user experience, thereby giving you the chance to enjoy Nokia's legendary quality and Android's customisable OS under the same roof.

To avoid storage problem, Nokia X has a microSD card slot that can hold up to 32GB of memory card.

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Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Connectivity

Adopting the latest trend of dual-SIM feature, Nokia has provided the same support to its latest Nokia X smartphone. The company has always acknowledged the need of the device to be connected and so, Nokia X too, comes with almost all the local and global connectivity features like 3.5mm audio connector, microUSB, Bluetooth 3.0, 2G, 3G, GPRS, EDGE and Wi-Fi.

This is one field, today, where the features go just a little bit up or down depending on the cost of the handset.

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Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Competitors

Today, the market is so intensely competitive that you just can't expect to get through the lane so easily.

Nokia X certainly faces many contenders like Nokia Asha 311, which offers only 128MB of RAM compared to 512MB RAM of Nokia X.

Samsung Galaxy Star Pro offers only 2MP camera whereas Nokia X offers 3MP with some of the very astounding camera features.

Micromax A51 Bolt also surrenders in terms of processor, for it offers only 832MHz of clock speed as compared to 1GHz clock speed of Nokia X.

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Will Nokia's love affair with Android succeed?

Image: Nokia X Dual SIM
Photographs: nokia.com

Conclusion

Nokia X is certainly your stop, should you want to enjoy the Android experience on a robust quality driven platform from Nokia.

As such, there are no major drawbacks and the new changes seem to have given this Nokia phone, a very fresh look altogether.

The chances of this experiment getting undone are almost nil and by making this move, Nokia has rather hooked millions of Android lovers.

The coming few months will see the direction this new device would eventually take, but for now, we can only say that a genie has been let loose and let us see what outcome it achieves!

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Tags: Nokia