Nokia X3-02 Review 1
It's a difficult time for feature phones, with smartphones fast becoming a viable option at the low-end of the market. On the one hand, most users are expecting smartphone features such as touchscreens and WiFi from their feature phones. At the same time, some folks still want an affordable, solid device that focuses primarily on making calls and sending text messages, with the occasional foray into entertainment and data-based communication. The Nokia X3-02 Touch-and-Type (not to be mistaken with the other Nokia X3) attempts to be that device, by adding a dose of touch and WiFi to the venerable Series 40 platform. Does it succeed? Read on.
Hardware
Nokia sells hundreds of different phone models. Some designs are memorable, some are generic, yet somehow each remains instantly recognizable as Nokia hardware. The X3-02 continues this trend, and manages to be simultaneously appealing and understated. It's a tiny phone in a world of massive slates and sliders, with a footprint barely larger than the legendary Sony Ericsson W800 while maintaining the same ultra-thin profile as the iPhone 4. At first glance, it looks like just another candybar Nokia dumbphone, but with a bigger display. And this is where the Touch-and-Type moniker comes from: the front is dominated by a 2.4-inch QVGA resistive touchscreen paired with a 16-key numeric keypad below. Here Nokia decided to put the star, pound and zero keys in a column to the right of the number keys, with the call, email, music, and end keys in a row above the number keys. The display also contains the earpiece and proximity sensor.
Continuing the walkaround, there's a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB connector (for both data and power), and the familiar Nokia 2mm charging port on the top edge, plus a volume rocker and lock button on the right side. You'll find matching battery cover release latches towards the bottom of each side, and an elegantly sloped and patterned bottom edge hiding the mic and speaker. In back there's a 5 megapixel camera above the battery cover. The X3-02 feels light but not unsubstantial, and build quality inspires confidence. High-grade plastics are used throughout, and the battery cover is stamped from a sheet of anodized aluminum. Our review unit came in White Silver, but the device is also available in Dark Metal, Petrol Blue, Pink, and a lovely shade of purple appropriately called Lilac. The only wear and tear we noticed after a few weeks of daily use was a few microscopic scratches in the plastic outer layer of the resistive touchscreen.
Spec-wise, the X3-02 clearly falls into the feature phone category. It offers touch, WiFi b/g/n, an FM radio, and an unlocked quadband EDGE / quadband HSPA (AT&T-compatible) radio, but lacks any kind of GPS, accelerometer, or QWERTY keyboard. While no specific information is available about the speed and type of CPU used, or about the amount of RAM included, the phone feels adequately responsive running Series 40. The 5 megapixel camera generally lives up to Nokia's high standards for stills (more on this later). You'll find a microSD card slot under the battery cover, but sadly no card was provided with our X3-02. There's only a meager 50MB of usable built-in storage, so we supplied a microSD card. Call and reception quality proved typical Nokia, with top-notch performance all around. The diminutive 860mAh battery easily powered our review unit for 3 days of moderate use -- taking pictures, listening to music, and messaging.
Camera
Despite lacking autofocus and a flash, the 5 megapixel camera performs rather well in most situations. The X3-02 uses an EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) lens. As a result, subjects or scenes beyond about two feet (60cm) are always perfectly in focus, but just like a fixed-focus lens, closeup shots are always blurry. Looking at our sample pictures, color balance is fine, but exposure is somewhat constrained by the sensor, which appears overwhelmed in bright light. Noise is under control, and low-light performance is decent considering the small lens and sensor. Since there's no accelerometer or GPS, shots lack any orientation or geolocation data. The camera interface is basic and portrait only, but Nokia provides a surprisingly capable picture editor. While the X3-02 handles stills with aplomb, it captures VGA video that is best described as mediocre. The sound quality is poor, and the framerate is capped to a jerky 15fps.
Software
Series 40 is used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is generally regarded as one of the more intuitive non-touch user experiences on phones. Adding touch to an existing platform is no trivial task, something Nokia learned the hard way when it transitioned Symbian from S60v3 to S60v5 with the5800 XpressMusic. We're happy to report that Nokia avoided making the same mistakes with the Touch-and-Type version of Series 40: touch on the X3-02 is not a half-baked add-on. The interface is polished both esthetically and functionally, and the user experience remains intuitive. Gone are the 3 physical softkeys and the d-pad, replaced by 3 virtual softkeys (soft softkeys?) and direct touch navigation. There's kinetic scrolling, long presses, and haptic feedback throughout the interface. In addition to vibration feedback when tapping on the screen, you'll feel a haptic "bump" when scrolling to the end of a list or menu.
While it's all very clever, several areas still require improvements. First, you'll find weirdly abbreviated descriptions like "Rest. fact. sett." liberally sprinkled all over the interface. These are confusing and detract from the overall experience. Second, relying solely on a numeric keypad for text input is just painful. We're aware that real estate is at a premium on the 2.4-inch touchscreen, but it looks like there's just enough room for a landscape QWERTY keyboard on the display. Third, Series 40 remains a dumbphone OS at the core, with no consistent notifications and no real multitasking. Nokia bundles apps for email and social networking, but only the latter dispatches notifications. Multitasking is limited to music playback and only functions when the camera is not being used. Finally, no GPS means Ovi Mapsis not available and Google Maps is all but useless without a separate Bluetooth receiver. We're amazed that the X3-02 lacks even simple cell-based positioning.
The default web browser is almost identical to the one in Symbian. It covers the basics (HTML, no Flash), but we experienced problems loading some sites like the full version of Engadget. Thankfully,Opera Mini comes pre-loaded and works like a charm. The built-in email client handles multiple Ovi Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, POP3 and IMAP accounts. According to the menus, Gmail integration also enables access to Google Contacts and Google Talk, but we never succeeded in setting this up. Unfortunately, there's no native Exchange support for email, contacts, or calendars. On the social networking front, the phone includes Nokia Communities along with a Facebook and Twitter client with a matching homescreen widget. For some unknown reason, we kept getting repeatedly logged out of our accounts and prompted for our passwords, so we eventually gave up. Hopefully Nokia will fix this in a future firmware update.
On the plus side, the media player works very well and handles music and videos in a variety of common formats such as MP3, MP4, WAV, H.264, AAC+, XviD, WMA, and WMV. The picture editor also stands out. As for the rest of the bundled software, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a feature phone. For additional content, the X3-02 supports Java apps and comes with Nokia's Ovi Store pre-installed.
Nokia X3-02 Review 2
Introduction
Nokia is trying really hard to build back some lost trust. The new Symbian^3 smartphones are just one weapon in their armory. The other is the touch-enabled lineup of feature phones called Touch and Type. S40 has never before been into the touch business, but the X3-02 is here to change all that.
You have the right to remain skeptical. In fact a healthy does of skepticism is welcome – this market just might not have enough room for yet another touchscreen feature phone. And it’s a S40 phone at that. But you know what – the Nokia X3-02 will not listen to doubters. It’s a phone whose glass is always half full. Half full with touchscreen and half full with keys.
The Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type doesn’t rely on its touchscreen only but on good looks and charm too. It comes in four different colors and has a redesigned keypad. That’s right, Nokia refuses to give up on the good old numeric keypad and it will be an essential companion on the X3-02.
So, you have the touch, and you have the type. There’s the right measure of style too. But that’s not always enough for a classy phone. People want features as well. So, let’s take a closer look at them.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
- Quad-band 3G with 10Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA
- Neat and well built, slim and lightweight, metal on the body
- 2.4" 256K-color resistive TFT QVGA touchscreen
- S40 6th edition UI
- 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera
- VGA video recording at 15fps
- Wi-Fi b/g/n
- Stereo FM radio with RDS, Visual radio
- Bluetooth v2.1 (with A2DP)
- Standard microUSB port (charging enabled)
- USB On-The-Go
- microSD card slot (32 GB supported, 2GB included)
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Innovative vibrating touch feedback
Main disadvantages
- Small screen (for a touch phone)
- No multitasking
- No GPS
- Fixed-focus camera
- No document viewer
- No smart dialing
- No video-call camera
- No accelerometer sensor
There are quite a few things left off of this S40 handset, but it’s the first with a touchscreen on board. Wi-Fi is a rarity on this platform too. In fact we’ll admit quite ahead of our conclusion – we do like the Nokia X3-02 already.
But it’ll take more than that. You’ll have to simply love it. You’ll have to not notice the bad. One thing the Nokia X3-02 won’t give you is multitasking. Another important absentee is GPS and navigation. We just can’t have everything, can we? That might be quite an omission for some, but we hope the performance and ergonomics will make up for that. Let’s see how those shape up right after the jump.
Nokia X3-02 Review 3
Ever enjoyed a ‘What’s missing in this image?’ game over a cup of coffee on a lazy weekend? If you’re wondering why we’ve recalled this comfortable picture of indolence, it’s because of what Nokia has been doing to our eyes lately. Take the X5-01 we reviewed not too long ago and you’ll know what we mean. It looked like the sawed-off half of a handset. We’re going to kick off this review of the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type by explaining why the phone is sniggering away at our slightly confused initial glimpse.
And yet again, we know the tech specs should have warned us in advance, but unboxing a new gadget always puts everything else out of our minds. So it is a few seconds before we realize a central navigation button was not destined to be embedded onto the face of the device and hence the look of incompleteness. Nokia says we have to do with the rest of the buttons and the touchscreen for this phone. The appearance cannot be called nondescript by any means. The moment you lay eyes on it, you’re going to be wondering why it doesn’t air the familiar feeling of a feature phone. Overall, the exterior is slick and slippery. We say so because it’s easy for people with relatively large hands to simply not notice it sliding right out of a hand.
Out of the pink, white silver, petrol blue, lilac and dark metal options, we were handed a review unit of the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type in the last mentioned paintjob. Along the sides are placed a microUSB connector, a 2mm charging port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, volume controls and a solitary button for summoning the locking mechanism. Lined along the display’s base are buttons for dialing/answering or canceling/ending calls, messaging and music. Out of the tastefully sloping base blares the speaker and opening the rear battery compartment is a cinch with the convenient latches on either side of the lower ending. The microSD slot can take up to 16GB cards, though the one we were given was of 2GB capacity.
This Series 40 6th edition Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type turns on to a rather plain interface with the regular Go to, Menu and Names options placed at the bottom of the UI. At the same time, you can satiate the clutter monster in you by customizing the homescreen with widgets, shortcuts and favorite contacts till each of one them is screaming about feeling claustrophobic. The 2.4” touchscreen on the front is of the resistive type and it plays out visuals in 240 x 320p QVGA resolutions. Some might see a gaping hole for an on-screen QWERTY keypad here. We see one too, but it’s cramped, and Nokia did well with not submitting to the temptation of adding a virtual keyboard.
It takes time getting used to the lack of a directional keypad for navigating through the various functions, though the display does help the cause very obligingly, in spite of being resistive. It’s flush with long presses, kinetic scrolling and haptic feedback to a really useful extent. We don’t find ourselves starved for communication options as the phone comes with Nokia Messaging Services 3.0, IM via Ovi Chat, a unified MMS/SMS editor, Flash messaging and Nokia Xpress audio messaging. Apart from the regular serving of utilities like world clock, converter, Ovi Store, stopwatch, countdown timer and My Nokia, it also arrives pre-loaded with the Opera mini browser.
The supported technologies for summoning the powers of the web include Adobe FlashLite 3.0, Java MIDP 2.1 and video streaming. There’s the expected access to MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and other social networking services too. We’re treated to connectivity options like WLAN 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, GPRS, EGPRS, HSDPA and HSUPA. The audio quality is first-rate for music as well as calls, while the speaker is an average performer in these departments. The music player accommodates WMA, mp3, AAC, eAAC and eAAC+ music codecs, metadata ID3 tags and album art. The playable video formats cover MPEG-4, 3GP: H.263 and H.264 codecs. Nokia’s also bundling download, streaming and progressive download among the other particulars. When it rubs down to surfing the web or watching videos, the screen resolution is nowhere near perfect for reeling out a properly satisfying experience.
The camera peeking out of the back panel is a neat 5MP, which is pretty decent for a feature phone. It’s of the full focus type, forcing it to perform awkwardly during close ups. But it’s not bad at all for regular shots and balances color efficiently in spite of the missing flash and AF attributes. The QVGA video captures at 30fps and VGA recording at 15fps does leave room for wishful thinking though. As for how long you’d be able to survive in the wild without feeling desperate for the sight of a wall outlet, the 860mAh Li-ion battery keeps the X3-02 powered for four days of average usage. We guess extended battery life is one of those plus points about owning almost any other handset not falling under the smartphone category.
