The Nokia X2 sits at the bottom of Nokia’s feature phone range, rocking the lowly Symbian S40 while the all singing, all dancing Symbian 3 nears launch on high end phones from Espoo. The Nokia X2 appeared first in India and emerging markets, but it’s now also available over here, for those wanting a cheap and simple handset. The Nokia X2 has some decent features, but is it worth the cash, or are there better entry-level phones out there? Read on for our full Nokia X2 review to find out.
There’s nothing unusual about the Nokia X2′s form factor, with traditional candybar styling. The front is dominated by a glossy finish, available in either white or black, and there’s a 2.2-inch screen. The display features a 240 x 320-pixel resolution, and is pretty unremarkable. It’s bright, but there’s nothing to set it apart from other feature phones.
There’s a large D-pad below the screen, with navigational, call and end keys by the side. You’ll find an alpha-numeric keypad below that. The keypad itself offers keys of a fairly decent size, and they’re also responsive.
When it comes to quality, the Nokia X2 is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s good for the price – with a brushed aluminium backplate adding a premium feel, but the effect is let down by the plastics on the side of the handset. Finished in contrasting red or blue, they promise to add style, but it feels pretty low rent to touch.
On the plus side, you will find a set of media keys integrated neatly into the side strips. You’ll be able to pause and skip songs or video files, and you can also adjust the volume or activate the camera.
The Nokia X2 is pretty good as a music device. Internal memory may be extremely limited at 48MB, but there’s also a 2GB microSD card included as standard for your favourite tracks. With support for up to 16GB cards, there’s lots of potential for upgrades too.
The 3.5mm headphone jack means you’ll be able to use your own earphones, and the bundled in-ear set are also good. The integrated speakers are loud and remain free from distortion, and there’s a decent FM radio.
Although the Nokia X2 fails to match modern smartphones when it comes to a web browsing experience, it still does a pretty decent job. This is because Nokia has gone with the excellent Opera Mini web browser. Opera Mini does a great job of resizing web pages to a 240×320-pixel resolution, and you can use the D-pad to scroll over the web page, zooming into the section you want to read. Images could be more detailed, but text is clear and easy to see.
Check out our Best Nokia phone Top 5 here
The Nokia X2 features a camera with a surprisingly high megapixel count, considering the bargain-basement price tag. At 5-megapixels, it has the potential to be a great camera, following in the footsteps of Nokia devices like the Nokia N97 Mini.
Unfortunately, lacking autofocus, and the Carl Zeiss optics of high-end Nokia phones, quality isn’t quite as good as we were hoping. Photographs taken with the Nokia X2 look a little under exposed, with colours appearing muted and lacking overall vibrancy.
The Symbian S40 operating system is easier than ever to use, with links to your favourite apps available at the bottom of the home screen. There are also links to the integrated radio app above that, along with links to your music files, and the Ovi Store. It’s not in anyway powerful, but for listening to music, chatting to friends online and occasionally checking the footie scores, it gets the job done painlessly.
All-in, the Nokia X2 is a pretty good handset for the money, but it struggles to stand out from other devices. Sure, it’s got a 5-megapixel camera, but it’s not as good as we were hoping, and we’ve seen some 3.2-megapixel snappers produce similar or results.
In its favour, the Nokia X2 does offer an exceptional battery life, and we managed to get nearly a week of use between charges. Unfortunately, though, the biggest competition comes from two other Nokia handsets. First, there’s the Nokia C3. Offering better quality, usability and a neater design, it costs an identical £109.
Then there’s the Nokia C5, our favourite Nokia phone of the year so far. It costs between £20 to £30 more unlocked depending on where you look, but manages to stuff in enough hardware to power through the more advanced Symbian S60, and even act as a free satnav. With so little in the price to differentiate between them, we know which we’d rather have.
