14 DAY TRIAL // Nokia X, the very first smartphone from the Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia to land on shelves with Google’s Android operating system loaded on top, is now available for purchase in the Philippines, after landing in India earlier this week.
The handset landed on shelves in the country today, with a price tag of P5,990 (about $136 / €98) attached to it, and can be found in the greater Manila area and key provinces, a recent article on Rappler.com claims.
At the same time, the news site notes that the smartphone was released in four different color versions, including bright green, bright red, black and white.
Nokia X was made official about two weeks ago, during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and is set to hit shelves in a variety of markets out there as an entry-level device.
The handset does not include impressive hardware specifications, but Nokia designed it mainly for emerging markets, such as the Philippines, where it should attract users mainly through its low price tag.
The smartphone arrives on shelves with a 4-inch touchscreen display capable of delivering a 480 x 800-pixel resolution.
Moreover, it is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, which is paired with 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal memory. However, a microSD memory card slot is also available, so that users could add extra storage to the package.
On the back, Nokia’s Android handset features a 3-megapixel camera capable of video recording, while being powered by a 1500mAh battery.
Nokia X runs under Android, but it was stripped off of Google services, with Nokia’s own set of applications and other offerings replacing them, such as HERE Maps, and Nokia Store.
Although it won’t offer access to the Google Play Store, Nokia X should still deliver a nice range of applications to its users.
In fact, Nokia will bring the phone to the market with various pre-loaded software inside, including Facebook, Twitter, Vine, LINE, Skype, Viber, WeChat, Plants vs. Zombies 2, Fruit Ninja, and Bejeweled 2.
In addition to the lack of Google Services, Nokia X differs from other Android smartphones through the inclusion of a Tiled UI, which was inspired by the Fastlane interface available on Nokia’s Asha devices.
Over the past few years, Nokia has attracted a lot of users to its side with its Windows Phone devices, especially those aimed at the entry-level of the market, and it is expected to continue doing so with Nokia X as well.