Carrying on the Android-based smartphones family, Nokia XL is the latest one which is yet debut in the market. I had the opportunity to play with the Nokia XL in Mumbai yesterday. Here’s what I feel about Nokia XL:
Design
The Dual SIM enabled Nokia XL can be called as Bigger Nokia X with better camera, more RAM and battery. Phone’s rectangular design feels solid while holding in hands. The phone has a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 480*800 pixels. It boasts a 1 GHz Dual Core Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play Processor along with 786MB of RAM to help more applications to stay in memory. 4GB internal memory along with 32GB expandable memory is provided.
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- Nokia XL
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- Different Colors of Nokia XL
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- Different Colors of Nokia XL
Major improvement in Nokia XL over Nokia X is the camera. It has a 5MP rear camera with flash and a 2MP front camera which is extremely good for taking selfies. 2000mAh battery can easily take you through the day. Other standard features such as Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS are provided.
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- Insides of Nokia XL
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- Camera
My views
Difference color choices for the phone as well as the expected price may be a plus point in sales. Even though Nokia X family devices run on Android 4.1.2, they have developed their own UI for making it easy to use for users. While using the Nokia XL, you won’t feel like using an Android phone.
With a single button design, Nokia XL has multitasking support. The single back button, when long-pressed, takes you to the homescreen. Homescreen is similar to what we have seen on Windows Phones. Tiles are can be customized to have different background colors or sizes. The tiles UI is accompanied by the FastLane feature which shows the recent things happened on your phone as well as notifications. Lockscreen is simple and similar to Windows Phone lockscreen. Swiping the notifications to right takes you to the app itself.
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- Lockscreen
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- Notification shade
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- Homescreen
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- FastLane
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- MixRadio app
Special apps such as Here Maps, MixRadio are provided to enhance the user experience. Touch wasn’t as responsive, though Nokia said that they are improving by taking user feedback. Both the primary and secondary cameras are excellent for taking pictures.
Conclusion
Even though it is one of the first Android smartphones from Nokia, they have got some excellent hardware and software inside. Battery life does feel promising. UI can be made smoother with some optimizations. Front camera is awesome for taking selfies. Overall, if the phone arrives in expected price range of Rs.10,000-11,500, it can be a good buy for people looking for simple UI and a strong phone.
