The mostly anticipated Android powered devices from Nokia have finally become official at the Mobile World Congress; quoting its commitment to offer innovative yet diverse devices, Nokia released a total of five budget devices at the event held in Spain, including the Nokia X line-up that come pre-installed with Google’s Android OS. After the device maker was acquired by the world’s leading software maker – Microsoft, anticipation for smartphone powered by other operating system other than Windows remained just an imagination and I’d say the move has taken rivals by surprise. In the most simple but sensible terms, I’d expect Nokia to stick with Windows since it belongs to the software giant but then I guess throwing in a couple of low-end android’s doesn’t hurt.
- Nokia’s android line-up namely; Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL have a reasonably affordable price tag intended to capture the fast-growing affordable smartphone market while providing an on-ramp to Lumia and Microsoft services such as Skype, OneDrive and outlook.
Commenting on the development, Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Devices & Services Stephen Elop said, “Nokia had connected billions of people around the world, and as of today they demonstrated how their portfolio is designed to connect the next billion people to great experiences.”
Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL
Stretching beyond the Lumia family, Nokia has introduced the notably X family featuring devices that run on its rival’s android operating system. The trio features Nokia’s renowned built quality and design alongside the world’s popular android OS but with a little touches here and there to integrate Microsoft’s goodies such as outlook and OneDrive. Alongside third party apps, users will be able to sideload applications from Nokia store plus its signature Here Maps application.
All the trio are powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512mb ram and notably a MicroSD expansion slot. Nokia X features a 4” IPS capacitive display and 3MP camera, while the Nokia X+ is optimized for multimedia enthusiasts, who can enjoy even more games, music, photos and video thanks to more memory and storage. Both the Nokia X and X+ will be available in bright green, bright red, cyan, yellow, black and white. Nokia XL is the biggest of the trio featuring 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 line-up supports Dual SIM functionality, letting people switch SIM cards to get better tariffs. Nokia X is expected to cost from KES 10000 in Kenya and will be available in Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The Nokia X+ and Nokia XL are expected to roll out in the same markets with a price tag of EUR 99 and EUR 109, respectively early second quarter.