First Impressions of the yet to be available Nokia XL

Cell phone giant Nokia has made the announcement that the largest member of its Android smartphone range, Nokia XL shall be officially available in the India, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific regions Wednesday onwards. However, the handset is yet to be made available in the Indian smartphone market. The pricing detail and availability is yet to be fixed which is why the device has not been launched yet. Nokia's official blog however claims that the Nokia XL shall be made available for Rs 9,100 almost from Wednesday onwards. This amount excludes subsidies and local taxes.

The handset was announced at the Mobile World Congress held earlier this year in Barcelona, along with its siblings Nokia X+ and Nokia X. At the launch of the Nokia X, the company confirmed that the Nokia XL and Nokia X+ would be made available two months hence.

The display unit is 5 inches in length and is the biggest in Nokia's Android family. The Nokia X+ and Nokia X phones have a display unit only 4 inches in length. The phone runs on the software platform of Nokia X which is based on AOSP or Android Open Source Project and is empowered by Nokia and Microsoft services.

Nokia XL has a WVGA resolution of 480X800 pixels with a pixel density of 187 ppi. The processor used in the phone is a Qualcomm dual core Snapdragon S4 one and it ticks at 1GHz and is supported by 768MB RAM. The inbuilt storage provided is 4GB which can be expanded up to 32 GB using external microSD cards.

The Nokia XL has a 5MP primary camera which is supported by a LED flash. The secondary camera is 2MP. The battery used is a moderately powerful 2000mAh which supposedly provides 16 talk time hours and 720 standby hours. The phone shall be available in orange, bright green, Cyan, Black, Yellow and White variants. This dual SIM phone has social networking apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Viber, WeChat and Skype preloaded on it along with Nokia MixRadio.

Most Nokia fans have seen a trailer of Nokia entering the Android world with the release of the Nokia X. Right after Microsoft completed its acquisition of the Finnish phone giant it launched the larger Android sibling. So far, only Nokia X had hit the market and now the Nokia XL is set to be available in the market.

With a larger profile and marginally improved specifications and a bow to regularly change and update the platform of Nokia X empowering the phone, most individuals might be eager to get their hands on the phone.

Feel and Look
The Dual SIM Nokia XL phone is much bigger than the Nokia X which is much apparent when you compare the two phones. The phone is also thicket than the Nokia X, at 10.9mm and quite heavy at 190g. Anybody acclimatized with the Asha and Lumia platform would find the XL phone easy to use as the boxy design has been borrowed from the Nokia Asha series and the Lumia series has lent the phone its matte finish back cover.

The edge on the left has no buttons while the one on the right has the power and volume button. The bottom and top edges have the micro USB port for transferring data and charging and the 3.5mm headphone jack respectively. On top of the screen, the ambient light sensor and secondary camera have been placed while below it one capacitive button for navigation has been featured unlike the normal 3 button set up on the Android OS. The rear side of the device has flash modules and the primary camera. On removing the back cover, you will see slots for a microSD card and 2 SIM cards.

Most of the industry is getting used to the normal black, slab design of smartphones. The Lumia styles Nokia XL Dual Sim phone might actually be able to stand out in the crowd because of its pop colours and sharp edgy design.

Specifications
The Dual SIM Nokia XL is powered by the dual core, last gen processor Snapdragon S4 play which ticks at 1GHz. The phone is supported by the processing unit of Adreno 203 graphics. The RAM is slightly updated and stands at 768MB. However, for a phone with upgraded software, the RAM might fall short of performance. Swiping through the home screen, wallpaper and Fastlane might feel a little sluggish.

Despite having a screen that measures 5" with a pixel density of 187ppi and 800X480 pixels resolution, the icons and tiles seem to have jagged edges upon close screening. However, the IPS panel on the phone displays blacks quite accurately. A demo of the phone is preloaded which looks quite promising.

Software
Nokia has born in mind user feedback regarding running software on its Android X series smartphones which is why it is constantly modifying the platform for improved performance. There is an newer version of Nokia X on the device which has two distinctive novel features: widgets and tiles for third party applications which can be colour coded according to your preference. The Nokia store now shows links to other application stores in case the default store doesn't have it. An advanced version of logging system on Nokia is the fastlane and it is used to keep a tab on notifications and most used apps. An added advantage to it is that it can be stylised according to user specification.

Camera
The Nokia XL has a 5MP primary camera with an ¼" sensor and flash. Even in dark and low light conditions that phone manages to click good images by focusing quickly. The captured images looked quite good on the phones display unit and there were very few details lost when zoomed into the image to its actual size. For people interested in clicking selfies or video calling, the 2MP camera serves its purpose well.

It is yet to be seen when the device hits the market. Given the love for Nokia, the phone might become a success among buyers.