Nokia lumiya xl dual sim phone review. Nokia XL - the most common problems and some solutions

The company believed that Nokia smartphones with Android OS would not allow them to stand out from other manufacturers. As an alternative, the well-known Windows platform phone. And although it has gained enough popularity recently, Android smartphones from other companies are sold much more often. Android smartphones are becoming more functional every year, while their price is decreasing. Given this, Nokia decided to create their own version of Android. The developers were faced with the task, on the one hand, to create a smartphone that will run Android applications, on the other hand, it was important that the device was not called an Android smartphone and there was no mention of Google. The operating system has changed beyond recognition. The company has put a lot of effort into making it look different from regular Android. The interface of a new operating system is a collection of elements from operating Windows systems Phone, Android and Asha. The home screen is very similar to the screen from the Windows Phone OS.

The first smartphone on the new operating system, Nokia XL , the company introduced February 24, 2014 at the Mobile Congress in Barcelona. The positioning of Nokia's new smartphone is very simple - "bright smartphone for Android applications." The main audience of this device is young people who feel the need for a smartphone, but do not want to spend a lot of money on it. Enthusiasts and developers may also be interested in the smartphone software, those who love to explore new things. Today we will take a closer look at the novelty and try to identify all the pros and cons of the smartphone.

Contents of delivery

The Nokia XL smartphone comes in a compact cardboard box, which is already familiar to other Nokia products. In the kit, in addition to the smartphone itself, you will find:

— Charger AC-20

— Battery Nokia BN 02 2000 mAh

- Nokia Stereo Headset WH-108

- Quick Guide

The equipment is rather poor, but it is due, first of all, to the low price of the smartphone.

Design

Nokia has always tried to be different in terms of design. The company's engineers often experimented with appearance of their smartphones, but one of the most successful, according to users, was the design of Nokia Lumia. In Nokia XL, as well as in the Asha line, they tried to create a cheaper version of the case, similar in appearance to the Lumia line. However, in Nokia smartphone XL uses inexpensive plastic, and the case is disassembled.

Another feature that is typical only for Nokia smartphones is a wide variety of color solutions. If most companies try not to present many different body colors, Nokia, on the contrary, considers this a plus. Thanks to this, the user always has the opportunity to choose exactly the color that he likes.

Smartphone Nokia XL can not be called compact. It measures 77.72mm x 141.35mm x 10.87mm and weighs 190g. The smartphone feels quite wide, and the sharp corners make it a little uncomfortable in the hand. If you convey the feeling in words, the device can be described as a "heavy brick". However, Nokia XL is designed just for fans big smartphones, so the buyer, for sure, will be ready for such dimensions of the device.

As for ergonomics, everything is familiar here. On the right side of the smartphone is a paired volume rocker, just below the on/off button.

At the top end there is a 3.5 mm jack.

The microUSB connector is located on the bottom. The left side of the smartphone is completely empty. It doesn't have any buttons.

The back surface of the smartphone is quite simple. It has a speaker hole, a 5-megapixel camera lens and a flash, as well as the Nokia logo. On the front panel there is front-camera for video calls and a single button below the screen, which plays a dual role: a short press - a step back, a long press - return to the home screen. The solution is ambiguous. Some will like it, some won't. Matter of habit.

The build quality of the smartphone does not cause any complaints. A matte case is used, when pressed, it does not play and does not hold together. For a budget device, the quality of the materials from which the case is made is excellent.

Under the back cover is the battery, as well as two slots for microSIM cards and a slot for a card microSD memory.

Display

The smartphone uses a 5-inch screen. An IPS-matrix with a resolution of 800x480 pixels and a color depth of 24 bits is installed. In most situations, the picture looks good. However, considering the screen size, the resolution is not enough. Nevertheless, if you do not require something special from the device, the majority of users should like the screen. The brightness of the display is quite high, there is an automatic adjustment. In bright light, the image dims, but remains readable.

The display of the Nokia XL smartphone has good viewing angles, the image is not distorted when tilted.

I did not like the fact that the fonts do not have anti-aliasing, in most situations they do not look very good. In any Android smartphone from any other manufacturer, there is no such problem with fonts as on Nokia XL. The same situation is with the menu icons. They are not very well adapted to the screen resolution and to the operating system. I hope the company will fix this shortcoming in the next updates of the operating system. In the screen settings, you can specify the display of the clock in standby mode. This feature has been used in Nokia phones and smartphones for quite a long time and will be very useful if the user does not wear wrist watch. The Nokia XL smartphone also has a proximity sensor, during a call the screen is locked.

Technical features

The Nokia XL smartphone is built on a Qualcomm chipset and is referred to on the Nokia website as the Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225. This is already a rather outdated type of chipset. Even in not new Nokia The Lumia 520 uses the MSM8227 chipset, which is somewhat faster. Nokia XL dual-core processor clocked at 1 GHz. The device uses the Adreno 203 graphics coprocessor, its performance is also quite low. Among the "budget" devices Nokia XL is not the most productive solution. The reason is the use of inexpensive components from Qualcomm, which are inferior to analogues from other manufacturers. However, if you do not intend to run resource-intensive 3D games and heavy applications on Nokia XL, the performance of the device will be enough for you.

Nokia XL has 4 GB of internal memory, as well as 768 MB of RAM. Unfortunately, all devices built on the Qualcomm platform are more demanding on random access memory than their MediaTek counterparts. After downloading, about 326 MB of RAM is free. Android's memory management is good enough that apps get the right amount of memory and use as much memory as possible.

For data storage, 1.29 GB is allocated in the phone's memory, 1.17 GB is shown as a memory card, plus the user can install their own memory card up to 32 GB. The main disadvantage of the nokia XL operating system is that all applications are installed in the phone's memory, that is, the user is limited to exactly 1.29 GB in size and this cannot be avoided. Installing applications on a memory card is not yet supported. Perhaps this will be fixed in the next versions of the operating system.

In all other respects, the Nokia XL is a typical Android smartphone. There is the ability to transfer files via Bluetooth, there is Wi-Fi, there is USB mode Mass Storage when connected to a PC.

The Nokia XL smartphone supports two SIM cards, but there is only one radio module in the device, so only one SIM card can be active at a time. This is a cheaper version of the implementation of the presence of two SIM-cards, which is currently the most common on the market and in devices of this price segment. The smartphone supports WCDMA networks: 900 MHz, 2100 MHz and GSM networks: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz. In the settings, you can choose one card for SMS/MMS/calls, or specify them as standalone, that is, they work independently. The list of calls indicates which card you called from.

Interface

Nokia XL interface is a collection of elements from operating systems Windows phone, Android and Asha. The smartphone is awakened using the side key or by tapping on the end. We see the lock screen, which can display the latest events - mail, SMS, calls, programs, and so on. You can slide your finger in one direction or another to get into the selected program or remove this reminder.

Unlike regular Android OS, there are only two options for locking the device - PIN code or password. The interface in Nokia XL has been redesigned so much that it's hard to recognize ordinary Android. The whole ideology of Android was forgotten, and instead Nokia came up with the concept of Fastlane.

If you move the home screen to the side, a menu will open, which is called Fastlane. Menu copied from budget Nokia phones Asha. Fastlane is a hybrid of news feed, notification bar and recently list running programs. By clicking on an entry in Fastlane, the user enters the program that sent this entry. Unfortunately, by default, there is no task manager in the phone, however, as well as multitasking. You can switch between applications through Fastlane, but whether they were unloaded from memory or not is impossible to know.

The main menu is tiles like those used in the Windows Phone OS: Phone, Contacts, SMS, Internet, Store, Email, and so on. All installed programs displayed on one screen. It is possible to create folders and save icons inside folders.

Icons can be swapped, the necessary ones can be brought up, while you can change the color of the tiles for the icons. You can use search to find an app. To do this, drag the entire page down, then a search will appear in which you can type the name of the program.

As in ordinary Android versions, the Nokia XL operating system has a drop-down curtain that has 4 quick shortcuts, the ability to switch between SIM-cards, as well as a quick exit to the settings.

The settings menu looks like a normal Android.

All modern Android smartphones have such a feature as voice typing. In Nokia XL, the Pico TTS engine, which is familiar from many models, is responsible for speech synthesis in Nokia XL. different manufacturers, it is quite primitive and does not have a Russian language. Therefore, in terms of voice dialing, Nokia needs to refine its new smartphones.

With the keyboard, things are much better. It's called the Nokia Keyboard. You can, without lifting your finger, enter words, and they are foreseen.

In the ad, Nokia says it's a smartphone for Android apps, without specifying if all of them will be supported. Nokia's branded store has a small number of programs, it can never come close to the branded Play Store. Applications are still few. For example, Whatsapp is missing, as well as Chrome browser from Google. When you search for an app in the store and don't find it, there are five more app stores to choose from, including the Yandex Store.

However, many Nokia XL users have already found an easy way to install applications. They take a regular Android smartphone, find and download the app's APK file, then transfer it via Bluetooth and install it on the Nokia XL. Not the easiest, but really working option.

Nokia does not guarantee the operation of all Android applications on its device. Many applications require registration in the Play Store, which is not and will not be here, as well as there is no support for Google services. There is support only for Yandex services.

When buying an Android smartphone, usually the user can easily sync their contacts with account Google and transfer them to a new device in seconds. This is standard functionality for Android and for any smartphone. However, Nokia XL does not allow you to get contacts from the cloud. There are only two ways to transfer contacts. One is to use the Yandex service, the second way is to save all contacts to a microSD card, then insert it into Nokia X and try to read it. Why Nokia refused to synchronize contacts with the cloud in its new smartphone is not clear.

Built-in applications in general do not cause any complaints. Calculator, alarm clock, browser - everything works.

Liked the navigation. Here Maps allows you to download files for countries and regions to your memory card, which is great. The main memory will be free, but how many maps of different countries and cities you load onto a memory card will depend only on its volume. The usual and familiar navigation interface is used, including for offline navigation.

The music player is normal, FM radio works only with a headset.

Camera

The Nokia XL smartphone has a 5-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. Main camera resolution: 2592 x 1944 pixels. There is an LED flash and auto focus. Camera features: automatic and manual setting white balance, active toolbar, photo editor, face detection, auto exposure, center-weighted auto exposure. The camera has a "panoramic shooting" function. Available color modes: sepia, solarized, normal, negative. White balance modes: cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, daylight, auto. The camera can shoot video in FWVGA (864 x 480) format at 30 fps.

Permission additional camera: 1600 x 1200 pixels A wide-angle lens is being used.

In the daytime, with good lighting, the photos are quite good. At artificial lighting things are a little worse. Examples of photos taken with the Nokia XL camera:

Battery

The smartphone uses a removable lithium ion battery with a capacity of 2000 mAh. According to the manufacturer, the maximum talk time in 2G networks is 16 hours, the waiting time in 2G networks is 720 hours. The maximum talk time in 3G networks is 13 hours, the standby time in 3G networks is 720 hours. With frequent use, the smartphone, of course, like other Android devices, will live daylight hours, but in general, the indicators battery life smartphones are very good.

Conclusion

Nokia XL has a lot of pros and cons. The smartphone has a good ringtone volume, a high-quality case with bright colors, and a nice-looking screen. I did not like the stripped-down Android with an unusual interface, but perhaps this is a matter of habit. Iron is weak. The smartphone does not support resource-intensive applications and HD-video. The camera is average, but in good lighting, the photos are not bad. The main buyers of the novelty will be young people who, for little money, want to get a bright, stylish smartphone with support for Android apps. Nokia has made a new, unique product. If the company manages to keep a nice price, the smartphone should become popular.

Nokia XL Dual SIM - the development of a line of budget mobile phones Nokia, older brother of Nokia X, with a diagonal of 5 inches. The manufacturer added about one and a half thousand to the price and rolled out a device with a “stretched” diagonal, while leaving the same low resolution. At the same time, the dimensions of the device have increased significantly - the smartphone is uncomfortable in one hand. Unusual interface and redesigned Android - it's not so scary. However, the absence Play market- and, in our opinion, this is a serious minus. Although, it seems that consumers have even learned to live and cope with installing applications not only through the Play Market.

The processor of the beginning of 2012 is not the most recent solution, and the increase in RAM from 512 to 768 MB looks, in our opinion, simply not serious. But now the smartphone has a front camera, and the main camera has been slightly improved in terms of characteristics - its resolution is 5 MP. The manufacturer also slightly tightened the battery life - a larger case made it possible to place a more capacious battery. However, its results are still significantly below the average for smartphones in general. Among the pluses, one can only note the support for two SIM-cards, the assembly of the case and a large number of colors for it. We do not recommend a smartphone for purchase, despite the low price. In our opinion, Nokia has done a little work on the bugs and for a small surcharge pulled up the characteristics of the device to the level of inexpensive Chinese smartphones.

Dimensions and weight - 3.8

The 5-inch Nokia XL Dual SIM smartphone is thick, wide, and in its width it rather corresponds to smartphones with a 5.2-5.5-inch diagonal. The thickness of the case reaches 10.9 mm. The device is heavy, its weight is 189 grams, it is only a little short of catching up with such heavyweights as Philips W6610 or Asus Fonepad 6.

The appearance reminded us of a flattened brick, it is inconvenient to hold and control it with one hand. The case is collapsible, the battery is removed. The smartphone is made of polycarbonate, the build quality is good for a cheap model, all parts fit snugly, nothing creaks under pressure.

It should be noted the variety of colors for the body: Nokia XL Dual SIM is available in bright green, orange, yellow, blue, black and white.

Screen - 3.1

The Nokia XL Dual SIM uses an IPS-matrix with a resolution of 800 × 480 pixels, a screen diagonal of 5 inches, a PPI value of only 187. Perhaps, today they no longer produce smartphones with a lower number of pixels per inch, only very cheap phones with a diagonal of 2- 3 inches have ppi below. The viewing angles are average, the brightness level is also average, for most cases it will be enough to read information. However, on a sunny day, reading information from the display is already much more difficult. Due to the low ppi, individual pixels are almost immediately noticeable. In our opinion, this display is far from the best for long reading and watching videos.

Viewing angles and color deviations of the Nokia XL Dual SIM display. As you can see in the test image above, the brightness drops off quickly when tilted, the display has a slight bluish tint, and the blacks fade into each other. With such narrow viewing angles, talking about a shift in colors when the display is tilted is almost meaningless. Read more about the test.

Camera

They decided to improve the Nokia XL Dual SIM cameras a little, if Nokia X had one 3 MP main camera, here the cameras were already pulled up to the level of a typical, budget model: 5 MP for the main camera and 2 MP for the front camera, plus they added a flash and autofocus. In terms of any functions, everything is typical, a standard set of settings. The maximum resolution for photos is 2592×1944 pixels, while video recording is 854×480 pixels, which is very small. But there is a tracking autofocus and a recording speed of 30 fps. Sound is recorded in mono. The front camera takes pictures at a resolution of 1600×1200 and shoots video at a resolution of 352×288, that is, in very poor quality. The manufacturer, of course, formally improved the main camera and added a front one, but the result is still unsatisfactory.

Photos from the camera Nokia XL Dual SIM - 2.3

Working with text - 5.0

The standard keyboard in Nokia XL Dual SIM can be called comfortable. It has markings additional characters, both in Latin and in Cyrillic layout. You can quickly dial numbers - on the top row of keys, additional characters are used number row. Not only stroke input is supported, but also handwriting input. However, there is one significant disadvantage here - switching between languages. To do this, you have to hold down the spacebar and then select the desired language from a long list that has fallen out, this is not very convenient, which is confirmed by user reviews.

Internet - 5.0

The pre-installed standard browser surprised us with the “wealth” of its settings, you can delete personal data in them, save / not save passwords, and that’s it. With a double click, you can go to general form pages or get closer to some area of interest. But, in addition to the standard browser, Opera is preinstalled with a reading mode, text autofit, etc.

Interfaces

Nokia XL Dual SIM supports common wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth (v3.0) and A-GPS. The device is capable of delivering Mobile Internet With using Wi-Fi. The smartphone did without support for LTE and dual-band Wi-Fi. Everything works fine, only in our tests the GPS took a long time to determine its location.

The smartphone can work with two Micro-SIM cards, but alternately, since there is only one radio module in the device. There is a slot for a microSD card up to 32 GB and a Micro-USB 2.0 connector, without MHL and USB OTG.

Multimedia - 1.0

Preinstalled players support a limited number of video and audio formats. In our tests, the smartphone refused to play uncompressed FLAC audio, MOV and MKV video also played with great difficulty. Full HD video plays fine. True, the player does not support subtitles.

Battery - 2.2

We tested the Nokia XL Dual SIM in our two standard tests. The 2000 mAh battery (remember, Nokia X had 1500 mAh) showed not the best results: 4 hours 20 minutes in HD video mode at maximum brightness and about 27 and a half hours in music listening mode.

Performance - 1.6

The device uses a rather old Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play platform with a 1 GHz dual-core processor and an unusual amount of RAM - 768 MB, 3/4 of a gigabyte. The main processor is accompanied by the Adreno 203 graphics accelerator. In terms of filling, the manufacturer left everything as it was with Nokia X, increasing only the RAM, but did not become generous by a whole gigabyte, but added only 256 MB. With daily use, the device practically does not slow down and works, if not quickly, then normally.

The device performed poorly in synthetic tests: 7686 points in the AnTuTu benchmark and 2360 points in the 3D Mark benchmark. You will not be able to play demanding games, as there will not be enough RAM or processor power with a graphics accelerator.

Memory - 4.2

The amount of built-in memory in Nokia X Dual SIM is 4 GB, but only 1.11 GB is available to the user. But there is support for microSD memory cards up to 32 GB. Hot swap memory card is not provided.

Peculiarities

Nothing particularly new, compared to Nokia X, has not appeared: the same converted Android, stylized as Windows Phone. In fairness, it should be said that the launcher can be reinstalled, and the lack of Google services, and especially the Play Market app store, can only be partially compensated by downloading and installing any other stores. Many applications can be installed by downloading the respective APK file and extracting it on your phone, but applications that require registration in Play Market, still won't start. Among the features, one can also note the dimensions of the smartphone: the dimensions of the case are rather suitable for a smartphone with a 5.5-inch display. The interface also has not undergone any changes. In the presence of a desktop with application icons, "swipe" to the left or right, you will be taken to the list of recent activities, which simply stores everything that you have done on the phone recently.

Competitors

On the one hand, Nokia XL Dual SIM is one of a kind, large budget 5-inch smartphones are not so popular, at least among manufacturers, and Nokia XL almost exclusively occupies this specific niche. On the other hand, if you add one and a half thousand rubles, then you can already buy a version of the Lenovo P780 with 4 GB of internal memory, which will be much stronger in all respects, from the display, processor, cameras to the battery.

Don't want to spend more? There's the Explay Rio, also with dual SIM slots, almost half the price, slightly lighter, almost the same display and battery. Nokia XL noticeably outperforms it only in terms of cameras.

LG L80 is only a thousand more expensive, but you get 1 GB of RAM, two SIM card slots, a larger battery, and a lighter and thinner body. Nokia XL bypasses it only a large number megapixels in the front camera.

Remember, I said that Rostislav should write a review about our today's hero - Nokia XL Dual SIM. So, Rostislav is still on a drinking binge, and the review passed to me - as to the most responsible (of the two of us).
Before us is one of the heroes of the Nokia line, running on the Android system. What is the uniqueness of Nokia XL Dual SIM, what are the pros and cons of the smartphone - you can learn about this from our review.

Yes, a review of an "old" device, and we understand and know this.

Specifications

Type, form factor: Smartphone, monoblock
Communication standards: 2G (GSM), 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz, 3G (WCDMA), 900 / 2100 MHz, GPRS (up to 85.6 kbps), EDGE (236.8 kbps), HSUPA ( up to 5.76 Mbps), HSDPA (up to 7.2 Mbps)
Number of SIM cards: 2
SIM card type: Micro-SIM
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play (MSM8225): 2x Cortex A5 (ARMv5), 1GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 45nm process
Graphics adapter: Qualcomm Adreno 203: up to 245 MHz, support for OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and Direct3D Mobile
Display: 5", 800 x 480 dots (187 ppi), LCD IPS, 16.78 million colors, touch (capacitive), multi-touch up to 5 touches, scratch-resistant protective glass with anti-reflective coating
RAM: 768 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Memory card support: microSD (up to 32 GB)
Connectors: 1 x micro-USB 2.0, 1 x 3.5mm mini-jack audio jack
Camera: 5 MP, autofocus, HDR, flash, video recording with a resolution of 864 x 480 pixels at 30 fps, Front: 2 MP
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth V3.0
Navigation: A-GPS, HERE Drive, HERE Maps
Sensors: Accelerometer, gyroscope, light and proximity sensors
Battery: Li-Ion, removable: 2000 mAh, 7.4 Wh, 3.7 V
Dimensions: 141.4 x 77.7 x 10.9mm
Weight: 190 g
Operating system: Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean

Equipment

The smartphone arrived in a small box made of thick cardboard, with a consistent Nokia style: yellow-orange-green.

The package includes a smartphone, charger, headset and accompanying documentation, unfortunately, there is no microUSB cable.

Appearance

The polycarbonate body is made in bright colors typical of the Nokia Lumia series, the corners are slightly rounded.

For its size: 141.4x77.7x10.9, the smartphone weighs quite a lot - 190 grams. And although the case can not be called thick, the gadget itself seems rather bulky.

The front side of the smartphone is completely covered with protective glass. In addition to it, the screen protects the body from scratches, which extends slightly beyond the edges, thereby preventing the display from touching the surface on which it can be placed.

Above the display is the Nokia logo, speaker, front camera lens and light/proximity sensor.

At the bottom of the screen is one touch button: tap on it - "Back", hold - "Home".

On the rear panel, there is a main camera lens and an LED flash on top, and a speaker at the bottom.

Under the removable panel is a removable battery, slots for microSIM-cards and microSD.

On the right side of the smartphone are the power button, volume rocker. Above is the headphone jack, below is the microUSB port.

The build quality is excellent, the case does not creak or flex, there are no gaps, and at first it even seems that the smartphone is monolithic.

Display

The smartphone received a 5-inch display with a small (even for a budget) resolution of 800x480 and a pixel density of 187 ppi.

The IPS-matrix provides wide viewing angles, but also conveys its inherent flaws, namely small shades of yellow and purple. In addition, the display has a small air gap between the matrix and the protective glass, from which the picture deteriorates a little, but this is not so critical and almost imperceptible.

But a significant and main disadvantage is the lack of an oleophobic coating. Fingerprints are instantaneous and hard to wipe off.

Of the advantages of the screen, it is worth noting high level brightness sufficient to read information from the screen in bright sunlight; and comfortable reading in the dark at a minimum level.

Excellent color reproduction, high contrast, good sensitivity sensor, multi-touch technology that supports up to 5 simultaneous touches - all this complements the positive impression of working with the display.

Sound

Nokia XL Dual SIM uses only a mono speaker located on the back of the smartphone. The sound is good, quite loud, but you can't expect much from a mono speaker. You definitely won't miss a call.

The sound is slightly better in headphones, so for watching videos or playing games, I advise you to use them.

Concerning conversational dynamics- there are no complaints. The interlocutor is heard loudly and clearly, even when talking in a noisy place.

Camera

Nokia XL Dual SIM received two cameras at once - a 5 megapixel main camera with autofocus and flash, and a 2 megapixel front camera. Let's consider each separately.

Pictures on the main camera are of average quality, but when shooting on the street they look quite good. You can use the HDR function, set the white balance and ISO in the settings.

The video is shot in 864x480 resolution.

The front camera is best used for video calls only.

As mentioned earlier, the settings of the Camera app are quite wide. In addition to white balance and ISO, you can choose the level of sharpness, auto exposure, noise reduction, saturation, and more.

Interface

Since we have already described Nokia smartphones running under Android control, for us, such a turn is not a surprise.
Nokia XL Dual SIM received Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with Nokia X proprietary shell version 1.1.1.0, which visually equates Android to WP 8. That is, here you will not see the usual desktops with application icons and widgets. No, you still have the same tiles, only on Android.

Working with the interface is quite simple and intuitive: notifications are displayed at the bottom, on the lock screen.
To unlock the screen - swipe on a free area of the screen or double there on the screen. To go to the current notification - swipe to the right.
To go to the "Recent" page, displaying recent activities, you need to swipe to the right on the desktop.

In the notification panel, you can perform standard actions: enable / disable wireless networks, go to settings, etc.

The strangest and most inconvenient thing about the Nokia XL Dual SIM interface is that it lacks Google services. Instead of Google Play you are invited to work with Nokia and Yandex stores.

There are quite a few pre-installed applications: HERE Maps, HERE Drive, "Alarm Clock", " Music player”, “FM radio”, etc.

Iron

As a processor, the smartphone received a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play (MSM8225) with a clock speed of 1 GHz. The amount of RAM - 768 MB, built-in - 4 GB; Qualcomm Adreno 203 is responsible for the graphics.

The main disadvantage of the Nokia XL Dual SIM hardware platform is the inability to install the application on a memory card. That is, you cannot automatically download a heavy application or game to your smartphone. It's upsetting.

The monster Nokia XL has been on the market for quite a long time and in general, judging by the reviews, many of its owners are pleased with this device. At least, the audience liked the manufacturer's focus with Android, combined with an unusually voluminous screen for the current smartphones of the brand. Of course, there is no need to talk about a barrel of honey yet, but nevertheless ... But you can already talk about a fly in the ointment, or rather, about five spoons at once.

Users report that problems with Nokia XL also happen, different and in different ways.

However, the number of such messages is not yet so significant that all the owners of this model without exception could begin to panic.

Moreover, for many FAQ concerning works of Nokia XL, quite informative answers have already appeared. This is what we'll talk about.

So, The most common Nokia XL smartphone problems and how to fix them.

No response to double tap

A double tap on the Nokia XL display should activate it, but sometimes the device ignores such a user action. So far, no one has been able to find out the exact cause of this trouble, but there is an opinion that the problem lies in the software.

They say that Nokia has already informed who it is necessary to know, so we can hope that in the near future the company will take the necessary measures and with the update on duty the trouble will be eliminated forever.

But until this very update came out, some users overcome the problem with the reaction to the double tap in their XL as follows:
1. Click on the screen not twice, but three times.
2. Press twice, but with an additional light pressure.
3. When it is necessary to activate the “sleeping” screen, they tap on it not with a fingertip, but with its harder side part.

Vertical stripes on the screen

The screen of this smartphone is large (“x-el”, after all), so you need to treat it with care. Clearly, a Nokia XL case is needed (by the way, here's the new iPhone X case). But if, despite all the care about the device, you suddenly saw incomprehensible vertical stripes on its display, this does not mean that you managed to damage something.

The reason for their appearance may be a defect in certain components, which in itself is not good. But maybe not. In any case, Nokia claims that before getting upset and carrying a smartphone in service center, you must first perform a full reboot of it (with a preliminary backup data, of course).

Now, if after you returned the device to the factory settings, the strip problem reappeared, then there are no options.

Battery level freezes

Simply put, while the battery is charging, the charge level indicator stops at one indicator. Why? Haven't figured it out yet either. But those users who have already encountered such a problem are advised to simply restart the smartphone, and then the indicator will again begin to show the correct charge level. The solution is temporary, but effective.

Photo quality

Some complain that in low light, the camera on their Nokia XL starts to shoot much worse, and as a result, “photo quality drops to the “Disgusting” mark (quote from the forum). In response, more experienced owners recommend changing the brightness settings from "Auto" to "2" or "3" when shooting with a Nokia XL camera in poor ambient light in order to improve the quality of the photo. You should also experiment with other camera settings to find the best settings for your shooting conditions.

Volume

Infrequently, but XL also has problems with sound volume during telephone conversations, regardless of whether it is an incoming or outgoing call. They write that the trouble appears even at the maximum volume level. Unfortunately, an effective way to fix this problem has not yet been found. Sometimes rebooting the smartphone helps, but not always.

The company believed that Nokia smartphones with Android OS would not allow them to stand out from other manufacturers. As an alternative, the well-known Windows Phone platform was chosen. And although it has gained enough popularity recently, Android smartphones from other companies are sold much more often. Android smartphones are becoming more functional every year, while their price is decreasing. Given this, Nokia decided to create their own version of Android. The developers were faced with the task, on the one hand, to create a smartphone that will run Android applications, on the other hand, it was important that the device was not called an Android smartphone and there was no mention of Google. The operating system has changed beyond recognition. The company has put a lot of effort into making it look different from regular Android. The interface of the new operating system is a combination of elements from the operating systems Windows Phone, Android and Asha. The home screen is very similar to the screen from the Windows Phone OS.

The first smartphone based on the new operating system, Nokia XL, was presented by the company on February 24, 2014 at the Mobile Congress in Barcelona. The positioning of Nokia's new smartphone is very simple - "bright smartphone for Android applications." The main audience of this device is young people who feel the need for a smartphone, but do not want to spend a lot of money on it. Also, enthusiasts and software developers, those who like to explore everything new, may be interested in the smartphone. Today we will take a closer look at the novelty and try to identify all the pros and cons of the smartphone.

Contents of delivery

The Nokia XL smartphone comes in a compact cardboard box, which is already familiar to other Nokia products. In the kit, in addition to the smartphone itself, you will find:

— Charger AC-20

— Battery Nokia BN 02 2000 mAh

- Nokia Stereo Headset WH-108

- Quick Guide

The equipment is rather poor, but it is due, first of all, to the low price of the smartphone.

Design

Nokia has always tried to be different in terms of design. The company's engineers often experimented with the appearance of their smartphones, but one of the most successful, according to users, was the design of Nokia Lumia. In Nokia XL, as well as in the Asha line, they tried to create a cheaper version of the case, similar in appearance to the Lumia line. However, the Nokia XL smartphone uses inexpensive plastic, and the case is disassembled.

Smartphone Nokia XL can not be called compact. It measures 77.72mm x 141.35mm x 10.87mm and weighs 190g. The smartphone feels quite wide, and the sharp corners make it a little uncomfortable in the hand. If you convey the feeling in words, the device can be described as a "heavy brick". However, Nokia XL was created just for lovers of large smartphones, so the buyer will probably be ready for such dimensions of the device.

As for ergonomics, everything is familiar here. On the right side of the smartphone is a paired volume rocker, just below the on/off button.

At the top end there is a 3.5 mm jack.

The microUSB connector is located on the bottom. The left side of the smartphone is completely empty. It doesn't have any buttons.

The back surface of the smartphone is quite simple. It has a speaker hole, a 5-megapixel camera lens and a flash, as well as the Nokia logo. On the front panel there is a front camera for video calls and a single button under the screen, which plays a dual role: a short press - a step back, a long press - return to the home screen. The solution is ambiguous. Some will like it, some won't. Matter of habit.

Under the back cover is the battery, as well as two slots for microSIM cards and a slot for a microSD memory card.

Display

The display of the Nokia XL smartphone has good viewing angles, the image is not distorted when tilted.

I did not like the fact that the fonts do not have anti-aliasing, in most situations they do not look very good. In any Android smartphone from any other manufacturer, there is no such problem with fonts as on Nokia XL. The same situation is with the menu icons. They are not very well adapted to the screen resolution and to the operating system. I hope the company will fix this shortcoming in the next updates of the operating system. In the screen settings, you can specify the display of the clock in standby mode. This feature has been used in Nokia phones and smartphones for a long time and will be very useful if the user does not wear a watch. The Nokia XL smartphone also has a proximity sensor, during a call the screen is locked.

Technical features

The Nokia XL smartphone is built on a Qualcomm chipset and is referred to on the Nokia website as the Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225. This is already a rather outdated type of chipset. Even the not new Nokia Lumia 520 uses the MSM8227 chipset, which is somewhat more productive. Nokia XL dual-core processor clocked at 1 GHz. The device uses the Adreno 203 graphics coprocessor, its performance is also quite low. Among the "budget" devices Nokia XL is not the most productive solution. The reason is the use of inexpensive components from Qualcomm, which are inferior to analogues from other manufacturers. However, if you do not intend to run resource-intensive 3D games and heavy applications on Nokia XL, the performance of the device will be enough for you.

Nokia XL has 4 GB of internal memory, as well as 768 MB of RAM. Unfortunately, all devices built on the platform from Qualcomm are more demanding on RAM than their counterparts on MediaTek. After downloading, about 326 MB of RAM is free. Android's memory management is good enough that apps get the right amount of memory and use as much memory as possible.

In all other respects, the Nokia XL is a typical Android smartphone. There is the ability to transfer files via Bluetooth, there is Wi-Fi, there is a USB Mass Storage mode when connected to a PC.

Interface

The Nokia XL interface is a collection of elements from the Windows Phone, Android and Asha operating systems. The smartphone is awakened using the side key or by tapping on the end. We see the lock screen, which can display the latest events - mail, SMS, calls, programs, and so on. You can slide your finger in one direction or another to get into the selected program or remove this reminder.

If you move the home screen to the side, a menu will open, which is called Fastlane. The menu is copied from Nokia Asha budget phones. Fastlane is a hybrid of a news feed, a notification bar, and a list of recently launched programs. By clicking on an entry in Fastlane, the user enters the program that sent this entry. Unfortunately, by default, there is no task manager in the phone, however, as well as multitasking. You can switch between applications through Fastlane, but whether they were unloaded from memory or not is impossible to know.

The main menu is tiles like those used in the Windows Phone OS: Phone, Contacts, SMS, Internet, Store, Email, and so on. All installed programs are displayed on one screen. It is possible to create folders and save icons inside folders.

As in regular versions of Android, the Nokia XL operating system has a drop-down curtain that has 4 quick shortcuts, the ability to switch between SIM cards, and a quick exit to settings.

The settings menu looks like a normal Android.

All modern Android smartphones have such a feature as voice typing. In Nokia XL, the Pico TTS engine is responsible for speech synthesis, which is familiar from many models from different manufacturers, it is quite primitive and does not have the Russian language. Therefore, in terms of voice dialing, Nokia needs to refine its new smartphones.

With the keyboard, things are much better. It's called the Nokia Keyboard. You can, without lifting your finger, enter words, and they are foreseen.

In the ad, Nokia says it's a smartphone for Android apps, without specifying if all of them will be supported. Nokia's branded store has a small number of programs, it can never come close to the branded Play Store. Applications are still few. For example, Whatsapp is missing, as is Google's Chrome browser. When you search for an app in the store and don't find it, there are five more app stores to choose from, including the Yandex Store.

When buying an Android smartphone, usually the user can easily synchronize their contacts with the account. Google entry and transfer them to a new device in seconds. This is standard functionality for Android and for any smartphone. However, Nokia XL does not allow you to get contacts from the cloud. There are only two ways to transfer contacts. One is to use the Yandex service, the second way is to save all contacts to a microSD card, then insert it into Nokia X and try to read it. Why Nokia refused to synchronize contacts with the cloud in its new smartphone is not clear.

Built-in applications in general do not cause any complaints. Calculator, alarm clock, browser - everything works.

The music player is normal, FM radio works only with a headset.

Camera

The Nokia XL smartphone has a 5-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. Main camera resolution: 2592 x 1944 pixels. There is an LED flash and auto focus. Camera features: auto and manual white balance, active toolbar, photo editor, face detection, auto exposure, center-weighted auto exposure. The camera has a "panoramic shooting" function. Available color modes: sepia, solarized, normal, negative. White balance modes: cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, daylight, auto. The camera can shoot video in FWVGA (864 x 480) format at 30 fps.

Secondary camera resolution: 1600 x 1200 pix. A wide-angle lens is being used.

In the daytime, with good lighting, the photos are quite good. With artificial lighting, things are a little worse. Examples of photos taken with the Nokia XL camera:

Battery

The smartphone uses a removable lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 2000 mAh. According to the manufacturer, the maximum talk time in 2G networks is 16 hours, the waiting time in 2G networks is 720 hours. The maximum talk time in 3G networks is 13 hours, the standby time in 3G networks is 720 hours. With frequent use, the smartphone, of course, like other Android devices, will live daylight hours, but in general, the battery life of the smartphone is very good.

Conclusion

Nokia XL has a lot of pros and cons. The smartphone has a good ringtone volume, a high-quality case with bright colors, and a nice-looking screen. I did not like the stripped-down Android with an unusual interface, but perhaps this is a matter of habit. Iron is weak. The smartphone does not support resource-intensive applications and HD-video. The camera is average, but in good lighting, the photos are not bad. The main buyers of the novelty will be young people who want to get a bright, stylish smartphone with support for Android applications for little money. Nokia has made a new, unique product. If the company manages to keep a nice price, the smartphone should become popular.