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.
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