Nokia XL review Part 2

Introduction

Taking note that the Nokia XL is an affordable handset, what it offer is pretty nifty. Having a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera which can be very useful for teleconferencing and selfies.

On paper, the rear camera do looked interesting and can get the job done extremely well. Hereby, I will do a review on the camera and see if it can deliver as spec.

Of Camera

The main camera of Nokia XL is a 5MP camera that had a four times digital zoom and sported a 1/4 inch sensor.

The camera had Auto focus and a focal length of 32mm (which actually is not that wide and I would prefer at least a 28mm or 24mm wide). What I am surprised was that it had inbuilt LED flash too. Which is a welcoming addition for an affordable handset.

The first thing I find lacking was the dedicated shutter button, unlike my Nokia Lumia 1520. It was hardly a deal breaker, but I really like to have one.

The image quality of the main camera is actually quite good if you are shooting at the correct environment and under the correct lighting condition.

If you set the ISO to auto, be prepared for a not that good quality images that is a big disappointment because most people would just leave the ISO to auto. However when I manually

 ISO-100

 ISO-200

 ISO-400

The image quality for small size, even up to ISO 400 is pretty good, of course there are noises taking that it was a small sensor, I am not expecting too much.

The issue I had with the camera is its auto-ISO, which I find is not accurate and somehow the images achieved is inconsistent, some of images are passable, others are totally not worth looking at.

Also under very harsh lighting, images achieved are very 'hard' as seen in the undermentioned photo;

From the photo, if I can direct your attention to the 'white' ground, you can see that all the details are actually gone, replaced by mere white ground and the grasses seemed overly sharpened (of course you can reduce the sharpness in the handset itself - before you take the photo and I believe it will help abit here).

In softer lighting though... image quality could be quite good.

So if you are using the phone camera in controlled lighting or at least know where to position your phone, you can actually achieve pretty acceptable results.

Keeping in mind that this is suppose to be an affordable handset, I think I can overlook most of the issues mentioned.

One good thing about this handset in term of photography, was that there was a LED flash built into the phone for the main camera. This feature was not even there for the Nokia Lumia phones like the 630, 520, etc.

The issue with the LED flash was that, it was not bright enough for most purposes, and as usual, you need to know how to control or set the lighting to achieve a good result.

So I would recommend that you leave the LED flash alone, unless absolutely necessary.

with flash

 without flash

The above two photos are taken at roughly the same time, one with the LED flash activated and another with the flash deactivated. As seen the result are totally different and the flash is not doing the flower a credit. It is difficult to do a standard fill in flash for the camera mainly because of the lack of certain manual control, unlike the Nokia 1520, 1020, etc... but coming from a handset that is selling at S$239, I am expecting the differences, so it is alright.

That said, Nokia XL did have certain level of manual control over its camera, like manual selection for it ISO setting, sharpness level, Contrast level, white balance and exposure. These welcoming features are important for people like myself as I could use these settings to get the shot I wanted.

The LED flash is actually quite useful when certain app was loaded and it can turn your phone into a torchlight.

Video

As mentioned in Part 1, there is no dedicated movie player for the movie, and whatever shot will be recorded into the gallery folder of the phone. Since I am not a good videographer nor was my interest lying in the video aspect, I have tested only whether the video work as mentioned.

One thing is... it is easy to take video, not much fuss over there and the AF worked pretty well. The quality of the video is passable like its still photos, but I am not seeing anything stellar.

The sound recorded is quite accurate when played using the Nokia XL.

I have no complain for the video aspect of the camera.

Conclusion for the Photography experience of the phone

Designed to be appealing to mass market for an affordable handset, I would say that the pro outweighs the cons for the camera. I would not compare it with the 20MP or 41MP camera found on the Nokia 1520 and Nokia 1020 respectively, they are different beasts. The little camera of the Nokia XL hold its ground well alone, it was no much better or lesser than most of its competitions sporting 5MP cameras.

Pro:

- Easy to use camera UI
- Quite good image quality (if you select your own ISO) for its class under correct lighting condition
- came with inbuilt LED flash
- Fast AF that was accurate
- Quite a lot of art filters for its camera class
- Can select own ISO, white balance, exposure, sharpness and contrast.

Con

- No dedicated camera shutter button.
- Inaccurate photo quality when using auto-ISO
- LED flash is very weak and very difficult to control in order to achieve a shot I wanted.
- No manual focusing, controlling of aperture and shutter speed.

Nokia XL Review Part 1

Introduction

I have the pleasure to review the Nokia XL which was sent to me by the good people of Nokia Singapore. And I have already put up a unboxing preview of the set. Overall, the built quality of the Nokia XL is good, very typical of Nokia handset.

Although make of plastic, there are no squeaky, creaky feel to the set, the buttons didn't wobble and the handset feel much more premium than the cost it was up for sale.

Note that this set was targeted at low to mid level consumer (retailing at S$239) which put it squarely against competitors making up of manufacturers such as the Chinese brands - Xiaomi (Hongmi), etc.

Unlike the previous flagship models - Lumia and the lower end models Asha of Nokia, the Nokia X series of mobile phone utilized Android platform. The base os of the X phone are powered by Android 4.1.2, which is not the latest android os, however, I do believe that in time to come, Nokia could and would update its os version to the latest version - afterall the hardware do support the later versions.

Unlike basic or base android os, Nokia had tweaked her version extensively, depending on whether you are used to it or not, I cannot say if you would like it totally.

Nokia XL version of the android os

Stock android os (courtesy of http://www.plusdroid.com/Blogandnews/how-to-unlock-android-pattern-lock-without-internet-connection/)

Hongmi Lewa OS (which is built on Android 4.2) - courtesy of http://techpunked.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/hongmiredmiredrice-lewa-os-rom-wcdma-only/

In actual fact, the Nokia XL version of the android os bear some resemblance to a certain extend to the window phone 8 os, 

Windows Phone 8 os

Which is a good thing actually. I like the windows phone os and it make a lot of sense for me and I find it very user friendly.

Without further ado, let us get on with the review.

Connectivity and Performance

Nokia XL could support 2 SIM cards. SIM 1 accept 2G and 3G network and SIM 2 allows only 2G network.

Presently I am only using 1 SIM card, will try to get hold of a second SIM card by this weekend. So far I have use the phone to make a couple of calls and receive a couple of calls, there are no drop calls and I can hear the other party very well. The sound through the speaker system is loud and clear, even in noisy environment.

I have no issue with making and receiving call. Ringtone is loud enough for me, but I would like it if the vibration is a bit more noticeable. After putting it in my pocket, I can barely feel the vibration.

The Nokia XL had access to wifi and bluetooth connectivity. I have tested the Wifi and connection is very fast. However, when surfing net, I realise that it lagged quite abit and was pretty slow, when compared to my Lumia 1520.

As for bluetooth connectivity, I have connected it to my bluetooth headphone and find that connection is fast and there are no drop connection.

My Lumia 1520 disallow bluetooth keyboard connection, I have not try Nokia XL and is going to test tonight. Will update as soon as I have a result.

Oh... one more thing... NO NFC!

       - Built Quality

As mentioned many times, the built quality is good. There is however an issue that I have with my review set. The headphone jet is a very tight fit to the headphones and earphones. At present, I have tried at least three to four different earphones and headphones (one of which are the supplied earphone). It take some force to completely insert the headphone into the handset.

And I am certain there will be some one out there who thought he/she had completely insert his/her headphone or earphone but in actual fact, he/she did not.

It might be an isolated issue, because I find no such problem with my Nokia Lumia 1520.

       - Screen Resolution

Nokia XL do not display the most amazing screen. Mentioned in Nokia website, the screen display was only at WVGA (800x480) and display 16M colors. However I find the screen quite bright and had tuned down the brightness to less than 50% of the brightness.

If tuning the brightness up, I am pretty certain that it would be readable under bright sunlight. 

      - Some other basic functions

Searching of contacts, sending messages and calling contacts are actually very basic and nothing to write home about. It is not extremely easy to use, it is also not that difficult to use. Nothing really amazing or out of the world here.

Nokia Keypad was being taunted as messy. But when I used it, I find it is still manageable and not really that tough to use.

Music player is good and easy to use, the sound output is great when paired with a good headset.

There are no fanciful control and outlook on the music player, but in my opinion, all that needed to be there are there and it is a basic music player. I like the simplicity of the music player and would not download any other third party application.

I was however surprised that Nokia didn't include a dedicated movie player. All movies are found in the gallery section. There are quite a limited number of movie files that the player accepted. From what I know, they only support MP4, 3GP and MKV. I played the sample movie and found that resolution is not that good, although the movie run smoothly, but I doubt that movie was in 1080p or even 720p.

          - Battery Life

Nokia XL boast of a 2000mAh battery that can be removed and change. At this capacity, however, I personally found that it was not quite enough.

I started off at 0630hrs yesterday with a 100% charge. Start my day with a couple of photo shots without flash, then a couple more with flash. Surf abit of net, mostly looking and replying facebook comments and downloading of a couple of photos in my facebook account. Then I was engaged in a brief chat using whatsapp.

I listened to around 40 minutes of music and download a bit of apps from the 1mobile store. I end my day with around 21% battery at 0000hrs. Note that I have not even start playing games and watching a movie. So with my typical workload, I think Nokia XL should be able to carry through 1 day with a single charge.

Normally with my Nokia 1520, I should be able to go through more than 1 to 2 days (without games and movie).

The good thing is... the battery can be interchangeable and so I can keep two or three fully charged spare batteries, the only thing is that I am hoping that Nokia would come out with a external charger for batteries without needing to charge through the handset.

Store

Although it was android os, the Nokia XL couldn't assess to android market and so the number of applications are very limited. Fret not, there is a third party marketplace that I was being pointed to by the Nokia store itself - 1mobile. There is a couple more applications (all of which are free) in this marketplace.

From this 1mobile, I could assess to the whatsapp application and the instagram applications, while in the Nokia store, these two very popular application was somehow missing.

In future, I am predicting that Nokia might make assessing of the android market possible (but that is just my own speculation and not words from Nokia, so don't hold your breath on it).

Pros and Cons thus far

After 1 day of usage, there are some of the things I like about the Nokia XL and some things I think can improve.

Pros:-

- Great size, highly portable

- Great built, excellent, solid feel.

- Quite a large numbers of colors available and I have this feeling, in future, the rear cover can be interchangeable.

- support 2 SIM cards - very important for people with two SIMs.

- support SD cards to expand memory

- Great user interface - loved the window phone like os (although it was android os)

- Bright screen

- Great music player - although ability to drop songs at one go into a playlist is desirable.

- Loud speaker

- No drop calls

- Easy to navigate and make phone calls/ messages

- Interchangeable battery

Cons:-

- Headphone jet is very tight, need some force to plug headphone into phone.

- vibration didn't have intensity allocation, at present the vibration is quite weak

- although bright, resolution is quite low for the display

- Battery life can be better

- No dedicated media player. Movie was found only in gallery section.

- Movie quality not too good.

- Very little available application thus far even with 1mobile.

- Lag abit when surfing net.

- No NFC.

In the next review I will touch on camera functions, inclusive of video.

Nokia XL (Unboxing of Nokia XL)

The good people of Nokia (Singapore) had send me a Nokia XL set for review. And I am thrilled at receiving the review unit. The Nokia XL is still not on sales in Singapore, but it is targeted to retail at S$239 RRP - without contract (at the time of writing and so it was placed squarely against the like of Chinese manufacturers like the Xiaomi Hongmi handset).

One of the main selling point (in my opinion) was its capability to accept two SIM cards - one of which could support 3G/ 2G network and another could support only 2G networks. As of writing, it couldn't accept LTE or 4G connection.

In this unboxing review, I will only touch on some of the basic things and impression of the handset.

The Packaging

The entire packaging was pretty normal and quite solidly packed (very typical of Nokia handset).
1) Battery (2000mAH).
2) Power Adapter (it actually uses a normal micro USB cable and I have quite a few lying around in my room)
3) earphone.
What was missing was a data transfer cables. Many electronic products came with one. Normally it was used on the adapter and can be removed and use on computer to the handset. However I don't think it was of much of a problem since the cable was actually a standard one and so it was easy to get (if you don't have one) in any electronic shops (eg. Challenger, Harvey Norman, Courts, etc) or if you can afford to wait, you can get from ebay, amazon, etc.
Anyway, I find the packaging pretty standard and normal without much of a surprise. But I really don't expect it to 'wow' me too much, so it was alright.

The box slide open revealing the Nokia XL handset. And the one that Nokia sent me was bright orange (Strange, how they know I like orange?) anyway, it feel solid enough, no creaky feel, even when the back cover can actually be removed pretty easily (I will get into that when I am doing a full review of the set).

The review set came with three accessories,

To the Nokia XL handset

The handset was quite thin and not as big as it sounded, thus making it very portable. 

A quick comparison of the Nokia XL with my old Samsung Note I, both of which are 5" screen. The XL is a little bit smaller in size. Both are very well balanced and so handling the XL is a breeze.

Comparing the Nokia XL with my Nokia Lumia 1520 (which sported a 6" screen) and you can see the difference. The Nokia XL is significantly smaller in size, although quite the same width. Being smaller, means it is much more pocketable.

The Nokia XL as compared to Samsung Note I in terms of thickness.

Well... they looked pretty much the same thickness... maybe a bit thicker. But in my opinion, it doesn't matter. Both feel very good in hand and can fit very well into my pocket.

Courtesy of http://www.nokia.com/sg-en/phones/phone/nokia-xl/#ProductSpecsWidget

Other than the physical size of the handset, I took sometime to carefully inspect the entire handset. It was extremely well made, with a very comfortable feel to it. There are no creaky feel to the rear cover that can be removed to assess to the SIM cards, SD cards and battery.

Overall the Nokia XL is a very plain and simple looking handset, which is a good thing (in my opinion), it is easy to use and very well made, the rear cover is of plastic with a smooth textured finishing that is not glossy (so there are no fear of leaving fingerprints all over). There are only two physical button (one is the ON/OFF switch which also double up as a standby switch and another is the volume control).

As seen here, there are two buttons, one was the ON/OFF (standby) button and another was the volume control button.

The bottom of the handset was a female USB port for the data cable or charging cable.

Another side of the handset didn't has any buttons or switches on it.

The jet for headphone/ earphone was located at the top of the handset.

Finally, after a thorough inspection of the overall ID of the handset, I decided to put in the battery and SIM card. The rear cover is easy to remove, no problem there.

As seen in the above photo, there are provision for two SIM cards (both are micro SIM) and a Micro SD card. SIM 1 could support both 3G and 2G networks while SIM 2 can only support 2G network.

The battery that would be put in to power the set was a BN-02 (2000mAh battery) supplied by Nokia as the XL standard accessory. It is a good fit, but do remember to insert the SIM cards and SD card first before the battery.

Finally, after closing the cover, I began charging the set and will be ready for more thorough day to day test of the handset and see if it actually works as well as it looks.

Conclusion

Overall, the packaging of the new Nokia XL is really not that amazing or out of the world, I am not excited by it, but it served its purpose and I cannot say that it is not attractive. The Nokia XL came with standard accessories which include a battery, an adapter and a earphone.

The review set that I received is of orange in color, which is a good bright color that I liked. Aesthetically, I find it pleasing, all of the buttons are in the right location. Although it lack of a dedicated camera button, but that is not a deal breaker for me.

The handset was solidly built, although lacking of metal casing, but the plastic cover was not in any sense soft and creaky, although the cover can be removed, the catches are well design so you don't have a cheap feel to it.

I have not really test fully the set in my day to day workload, but I will be able to come out with a more detail review soon. This would include, battery performance (not in any scientific test though, just daily usage), camera performance, etc.