This series started with a feature of the Huawei Ideos U8150 and a lot of you seemed to agree that the Ideos indeed was an iconic device. Our second feature is the Nokia X. I will not be surprised if most of you cannot relate with it as you did with the Ideos but the Nokia X was an icon for one reason, it was Nokia’s first attempt at an Android-powered smartphone (sort of).
The Nokia X was released back in February of 2014 and before it we had Nokia Lumias, the Nokia Asha series that was released in 2011 and the other Nokia devices.
The highlight of Nokia X was the fact that it ran Android, not the kind of Android we were used to but it was Android. Nokia had realized that the Windows Mobile platform was not catching on as they would have wished and the popularity of Android was skyrocketing.
The Nokia X ran on a heavily modified version of Android 4.1.2 Jellybean. The excitement of the Nokia X running Android ended the moment you unlocked the device and see that it looked almost identical to the Metro UI we had become accustomed to with Windows Mobile.
To add insult to injury, someone thought it was a good idea not to use Google Apps and instead use Microsoft Apps. This meant that one could not access the Google Play Store alongside all the perks that comes with Google Apps Services. The device had its own version of an app store that was bare bones and despite Nokia claiming that it could run Android apps, most apps didn’t work on the Nokia X.
Anyway, the Nokia X featured a 4.0-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 480*800 and multi-touch support of up to 4 fingers. Powering the device was a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play processor, 4GB internal storage and 512MB RAM.
The camera department featured a 3.15MP main camera and no selfie camera. The battery size was 1500mAh and came in bright colors such as bright green, bright red, cyan and yellow.
When the Nokia X launched in Kenya, it came pre-loaded with local Kenyan apps such as the Daily Nation App, Nairobi News App, Ma3Route App and Mledger Mpesa App and cost Ksh.12,500.
We actually have a hands-on video of the Nokia X:
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The Nokia X might have been Nokia’s first Android-powered smartphone but today, the company has a few devices running on Android with Google Apps and services supported, a lesson learnt by Nokia, the hard way.
Erm, that would be Microsoft.
I still hold on to a Nokia X2 to this very day. Hands down the best Nokia X ever made. What still appeals to me is the Fastlane launcher. I don’t know why Microsoft never ported some of those efforts to their official Arrow launcher.
I was being subtle on the Microsoft hint with Microsoft Apps
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