Nokia, the largest vendor of Windows Phone devices under the Lumia brand, announced at Mobile World Congress 2014 new phones based on the Android Open Source Project, which gives Nokia customers access to Android apps.
Primarily for growth economies, the Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL are priced to capture the fast-growing affordable smartphone market and provide an on-ramp to Lumia and Microsoft services like Skype, OneDrive and outlook.com.
The Nokia X
The phones won’t come with Google’s Play app store. But users will be able to access apps from Nokia’s own Store, as well as more than a dozen third-party app stores and by sideloading. Most Android apps, but not all, will work directly on the X family.
The Nokia X family features Nokia’s handset design, with a fresh, tile-based user interface inspired by the Lumia family. All devices come with Fastlane, a screen which lets people switch between their favorite apps more smoothly. People can access curated, quality-tested apps from Nokia Store, more than a dozen third-party app stores and by sideloading.
The Nokia X family is also an affordable introduction to popular Microsoft services, including free cloud storage using OneDrive. With the purchase of any Nokia X family smartphone in select markets, people will get one month of Skype’s Unlimited World Subscription for a limited time, ideal to make international calls to landlines in more than 60 countries and to mobile phones in 8 countries.
The first device, the Nokia X, comes with a 4″ IPS capacitive display and 3MP camera. The Nokia X+ is optimised for multimedia enthusiasts, who can enjoy even more games, music, photos and video thanks to more memory and storage.
The Nokia XL
Both the Nokia X and Nokia X+ will be available in bright green, bright red, cyan, yellow, black and white.
The third family member, the Nokia XL, boasts a 5″ display with 2MP front-facing camera – ideal for Skype video calls – and a 5MP rear-facing, autofocus camera with flash. The Nokia XL will be available in bright green, orange, cyan, yellow, black and white.
The entire Nokia X family is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core processor and supports Dual SIM, letting people switch SIM cards to get better tariffs.
The Nokia X will go on sale immediately, starting at EUR 89 (Php5,429) and rolling-out in Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The Nokia X+ and Nokia XL are expected to roll out in these markets starting early second quarter, with a suggested retail price of EUR 99 (Php6,039) and EUR 109 (Php6,649), respectively.
