We get our hands on the Nokia XL. Here's what we think.
Microsoft announced the Nokia XL at a relatively low-key event in Mumbai. It’s essentially a 5” version of the Nokia X, so it’s definitely larger, hosts some slightly more powerful hardware and a higher-resolution camera. The device itself is very rugged and, as Microsoft was quick to point out, it’s very well-built considering that it’s a budget phone.
We’ve already demoed Nokia/Microsoft’s new UI for their Nokia X series phones (as can be seen in the video here) and there’s really nothing new to report with the Nokia XL. It’s the same UI on a larger screen, but we will say that it seems to be a tiny bit zippier than on the Nokia X, but just not as zippy as we would like it to be. Despite the high-praise we do have for the build quality of the device, we’re disappointed that it wasn’t more powerful.
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Anyone who’s used a budget Android phone in the past is painfully aware of the performance lag that is very apparent on a device with low RAM. Windows Phone and iOS can perform with less than 1GB of RAM, but on Android, it’s not just another stat to brag about on paper. It’s surprising that Nokia went with 768MB, but we suppose it was a trade-off (for a larger screen at that budget) that Nokia deemed to be worth the loss in performance. There’s no official word on price and release date as of yet, though around €105 or approximately Rs.9,000 (as quoted at MWC), excluding taxes, is what Microsoft claims the phone should be priced at eventually.
OS and Ecosystem
The real story here is not the actual device itself but the services that the new platform offers mobile users. For most users, a device running Android is a device that tightly integrates the Google ecosystem and especially for us Indians, an Android phone without Google is as alien as an iPhone without iOS.
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That said, the AOSP version of Android that’s running on the X-series phones is so heavily skinned that you don’t really know that you’re running Android in the first place. You will miss out on the abstruse joys of Google Now and the convenience of Google Maps, but it’s not the end of the world and Microsoft services aren’t that bad.
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When you buy this phone you buy into Microsoft’s ecosystem and this does get you Skype integration, offline navigation and a host of apps that you could never have hoped to access via Windows Phone. Speaking of apps, Microsoft claims that with the tools they provide, it will take at most four hours to recode and republish an incompatible Android app on the Nokia Store.
PlayMe
If apps are one side of the coin, then music is the other and Nokia has taken advantage of the partnerships that they have with various publishers to provide you with free music streaming services (via MixRadio), but that’s not all. The “Play Me” service effectively scrobbles your entire music collection and creates “mixes” that should suit your taste. If that’s not enough, you can actually download those mixes to listen to music offline! You still don’t own that music of course, and you do have to refresh the mix every 30 days if you want to continue listening to that mix, but it’s definitely nice to have that option, especially considering the extremely low 3g penetration we have here.
Final Thoughts
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The Nokia XL is a decent enough device. If it really does debut at the price Microsoft and Nokia hope to debut it, it might actually turn out to be a viable alternative to most budget Android phones in the market. We’ll be conducting a full review of the device very soon, so do keep an eye on this space for more details.