14 DAY TRIAL // Nokia Xseries was introduced at Nokia World 2009 and now includes around six different models. Xseries handsets are all about the music. Each and every one comes with separate media controls, Stereo speakers, FM radio and a 3.5mm headphone jack. An interesting fact is that Nokia X6 is the first Nokia handset to feature a capacitive touchscreen, Nokia N8 being the second.
Nokia X2 is one of the less featured Xseries handsets, but is also recommended for those that are looking for a music phone. Most of the Xseries handsets offer access to Ovi specialized services, such as Ovi Music, Ovi Store, but also Comes with Music.
Announced in April 2010, Nokia X2 was launched on the market in July 2010 and can be bought for about USD130 without subscription. Potential customers can choose from two available color schemes: Red on Black or Blue on Silver.
style="color: #aa3333">Design
Nokia X2 isn't among the best looking music phones on the market, instead it distinguishes through its ergonomics. The phone measures 111 x 47 x 13.3 mm and is perfectly pocket-sizable. At first glance, you would expect the bar phone to be very light, but the metallic battery cover on the back adds to the total weight, 81g (including battery). X2 features the same rounded edges, specific to the Xseries. Even though it's a low-budget handset, the phone doesn't look too miserable.
The metallic cover on the back, as well as the plastic on the front and sides gives him a tint of elegance. Unfortunately, the first good impression that I got was suddenly destroyed when I touched the dedicated music keys on the phone's left side and when I noticed how cheap is the plastic that covers the microUSB port. Otherwise, the phone looks solid and compact, which is remarkable for a low-end phone.The front part of the handset is divided in two parts by the 2.2-inch screen and the keypad. It may seem weird, but because of the reduced size of the phone, the screen doesn't look small anymore, even though it is. The keypad's plastic is shiny and well polished, so it may retain grease occasionally, but you won't notice any fingerprints. Unfortunately, I wasn't too excited by the keypad, which is a little bit harder to press. Even those with normal finger will have to use the tip of their finger to use the keys. The big D-pad is much easier to handle.
The phone's right side features a dedicated camera key, a microSD card slot for memory expansion and a dual volume key. You will have to check them out very closely, because the icons imprinted on each of the buttons are of the same color as the cheap plastic. The phone's left side include three dedicated music keys, which are controlling the music player when the headphones are inserted. On the top side of the handset there's a micro-USB port, a 3.5mm audio jack port, as well as a small charger port. The backside of the phone is covered by a metallic plate, except the top and bottom parts, where the Stereo speakers have been placed. The 5-megapixel camera includes a LED flash, but is totally unprotected and exposed to scratches.Overall I would say that Nokia X2 looks pretty decent for a low-budget device that has been manufactured in Romania. The mobile phone has no major flaws in its build.
style="color: rgb(255,102,0)">Display and Camera
The X2 features a 2.2-inch TFT display that supports 262K colors and a 240x320-pixel resolution. As the device is a low-budget phone, the size of the screen doesn't bother too much, but if you want to take advantage of the full Internet browsing capabilities, it may look a little bit too small. The colors, contrast, as well as the quality of the image displayed are pretty standard for a Nokia phone, which means they are very good. While sunlight eligibility is not perfect, you will be able to use your phone outdoors successfully.
The 5-megapixel camera included comes as a wonder for a low-end phone, and it features big LED flash. The module camera features 4x digital zoom, full focus, fullscreen viewfinder and noise reduction. The maximum resolution that can be used for pictures is of 2592 x 1544 pixels, while clips can be recorded with a maximum resolution of 320x240 pixels at 20fps, and can be saved in 3gp, MPEG-4 formats.
In terms of picture quality, the camera is a nice surprise. Even though it lacks any fancy features such as autofocus, face detection or geo-tagging, it does excellent pictures. Especially if you get the right light conditions, the results will be amazing for a low-budget device. The only drawback is the dedicated camera button, which is a little harder to press, so I recommend using the D-pad as shutter. The camera interface is standard with the usual options: Effects, White balance, Landscape. Overall, the 5-megapixel camera performs exceptionally for a low-budget handset.style="color: rgb(153,204,0)">Menu and Software
Nokia X2 runs on an S40 6th Edition interface, which is the latest user interface coming from Nokia. The icons of the menus have been changed, but the 3D animation has been taken off. The firmware includes the Flash Lite player 3.0, and MMS version 1.3. Message support has been also improved to accept 600KB attachments.
There is better support for WMA and WMV codecs, the most important improvement embedded in the S40 6th Edition interface of the new web browser. It now includes the Web-kit-based browser, which you won't be able to use though. Instead the Nokia X2 is using Opera Mini browser when you want to access a webpage. The candybar includes some useful applications, such as Web Search, Alarm clock, Converter, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, Size converter, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as a ringtone. The phonebook can store up to 1,000 contacts. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening the Contacts, Web browser, messaging sections, as well as Menu fonts. Users have access to Ovi Store, as well as Facebook, through dedicated applications. Also, some Java games come preinstalled – Bounce Tales, Rally 3D, Sudoku, Diamond Rush, City Bloxx, Brain Champion, Block'd and Snake III. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any application that you might want to install on it, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case with most Java-compatible applications.style="color: rgb(153,51,102)">Communication
The low-end bar handset is fully compatible with GPRS and EDGE Class 32, but lacks 3G data compatibility. Benchmarks reveal that the device performs pretty decent when it comes to data-transfer speeds (EDGE 150 Kbit/s download and 60 Kbit/s upload, but that may greatly vary depending on location and carrier.
