14 DAY TRIAL // When making the Nokia X family of devices official in February this year, Nokia said that they were aimed mainly at the emerging markets around the world, and the release of Nokia XL in Ghana this week confirms it.
The handset comes with a nice range of appealing capabilities and can offer a pretty decent experience to its users, despite the fact that it runs under a forked version of Android, one that lacks the usual set of Google applications and services.
Nokia XL was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, as the largest device in Nokia’s series of Android-based smartphones. It was released in Ghana with dual-SIM capabilities inside.
It comes with a 5-inch IPS LCD touchscreen display capable of delivering a 480 x 800 pixels resolution, while being powered by a 1GHz dual-core MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play (Cortex-A5) processor.
Basically, the device was designed for the entry level of the market, where it should perform quite well, especially given the fact that it puts together the Android and Nokia names.
The mobile phone lands on shelves with 768MB of RAM inside, as well as with 4GB of internal memory. Moreover, it was released with a microSD memory card slot, with support for up to 32GB of external storage.
On the back, Nokia XL sports a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, and support for video recording. A 2MP front camera for making video calls while on the go was also included in the package.
The specs list of this smartphone also boasts HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps connectivity, along with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities. Moreover, the handset comes with a built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support.
Nokia XL has been released with Accelerometer and proximity sensors inside, while being powered by a Li-Ion 2000mAh battery (BN-02) that can deliver up to 13 hours of talk time, or up to 720 hours of standby time.
The mobile phone runs under the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean operating system, though this is the AOSP version. Instead of offering Google apps and services, it comes pre-loaded with Nokia’s own products.
“The Nokia X family, flag shipped now by XL serves as the perfect introduction to the world of Android apps, coupled with signature Nokia experiences, and the most popular Microsoft services like Skype and One drive with 10GB of cloud storage,’’ says Debbie Shepard, head of marketing, Nokia West and Central Africa, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile.
Nokia XL is the second Android-based smartphone from Nokia to have been released in Africa, after Nokia X was launched in Nigeria earlier this year, citifmonline reports.