The Nokia X3 is our first glimpse into the new Xseries and we’re excited to see how things have changed since XpressMusic ran the show. And they have changed, the new angular look is a testament to that. The S40 on the inside has changed as well, throwing Ovi Store and basic multi-tasking into the mix.
Currently the Xseries is composed of two completely different phones. The Nokia X6 is a touch phone running Symbian, and the X3 is an affordable Series 40 slider. It packs stereo speakers, excellent audio quality and a built-in FM radio antenna for a complete sonic experience. All right, we said affordable, so don’t go looking for top-notch gear beside the obvious full music package.
Nokia X3 introduces us to the Xseries
The Nokia X3 runs the Series 40 6th edition but it’s unlike any S40 handset we’ve seen before. For a brief, joyful moment, we thought Nokia have finally given in and added multitasking. The truth turned out to be different but still there were small steps taken in the right direction. And you should see what they’ve done with the Gallery – it’s only a notch bellow the S60 one.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and let’s take a look at the Nokia X3 pros and cons.
Key features
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
2.2" 262K color QVGA display
3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera
S40 user interface, 6th edition; rudimentary multitasking
Stereo FM radio with RDS; Built-in antena (so it plays on the loudspeakers even if you don’t plug the headset)
Stereo speakers
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Up to 26 hours of music playback
Bluetooth (with A2DP) and microUSB port
microSD card slot (16 GB supported, 2GB included)
Rich preinstalled application package
Ovi Store, Ovi Maps and Ovi Share
Main disadvantages:
No 3G connectivity
Smallish display with poor viewing angles and sunlight legibility
Slider action has an unpleasant plastic-on-plastic friction
No accelerometer for screen auto rotation
S40 interface feels clunky and out of date
No true multitasking
No smart dialing or an office document viewer
A bunch of software bugs
Video recording maxes out at QCIF@15fps
The specs look like nothing to be excited about but a shortish feature list never tells the whole story. So, think before you go “Nah, it sounds lame”, because you’ll be wrong about sound. We spent several days with it and now we’re ready to tell you the story behind those specs, the good, the bad and the ugly, the whole thing.
Do we have your interest? Good. Jump to the next page where we open the box and take a look at the Nokia X3. After the hardware inspection we’ll try to explain what the deal is with this multitasking-but-not-quite situation.
In the world of Nokia it's all about evolution, rather than revolution. So don't expect the specs on the X6 to blow your mind. The handset is the next step for the market leader scrambling to make up for a late start in touch- screens. To be honest, the Symbian S60 touch edition has been struggling to catch up with the standard setters in terms of user experience. And the X6 claims to have the answer: the responsiveness only a capacitive screen can bring.
The Nokia X6 is also the first XpressMusic handset to head straight for the high-end. Midrange is the highest the music Finns have gone so we are interested to see how this change of approach works. Nokia have always had a strong appeal to the masses, but pleasing the selected few is undoubtedly harder.
Key features:
Quad-band GSM support
Tri-band 3G with HSDPA support
3.2" 16M-color TFT LCD 16:9 capacitive touchscreen (360 x 640 pixels)
Symbian S60 5th edition UI
ARM 11 434 MHz CPU, 128 MB of RAM memory
5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash
VGA video recording at 30fps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
Built-in GPS receiver
32GB built-in storage
FM radio with RDS
Bluetooth and USB (standard microUSB connector) v2.0
3.5mm standard audio jack
Very good audio quality
Proximity sensor for screen auto turn-off
Accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation and motion-based gaming
Stereo speakers
TV out
"Comes with music" edition gives you a year of all-you-can-eat music subscription
Landscape on-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard
Ovi Maps 3.0 Touch
Further Ovi and MySpace service integration (direct image and video uploads)
Most regional retail packages include a set of the great Nokia WH-500 headphones
Main disadvantages:
X6 is still quite pricey (around 500 euro at the time of writing)
UI is still immature with somewhat inconsistent user experience
Touch web browser not quite polished and with dodgy Flash support
No voice-guided navigation license
No office document viewer preinstalled
Doesn't charge off microUSB
Very poor sunlight legibility
Slow image gallery
No DivX/XviD support for the video player
No microSD card slot (as a connectivity solution)
As you can see in the two lists above there is almost nothing new in the software package, so it all falls on the hardware to justify the high asking price. The well-stuffed retail package is a great place to start but does the capacitive screen improve usability enough to be worth the extra money over, say, the 5800 XpressMusic? And the difference in price is by no means trivial.
Nokia X6 at ours
In the increasingly competitive touchscreen market manufacturers don't have much room for error. The unpolished S60 UI is enough of a burden already, so Nokia X6 has to be near perfect in every other respect. A tall task indeed, but let's see how they've tackled it.
