Nokia X review: Under cover

Controls

The Nokia X's right side features a power button and the volume rocker. Both controls are solid to press and comfortably placed within your thumb's reach. You can unlock the X with the power key, but you can also do so with a double tap on the screen.

There is nothing on the left side of the X.

The right side of the Nokia X • the bare left side

The top pf the Nokia X accommodates the 3.5mm audio jack, while the bottom has the microUSB port you'll use for charging and computer connections.

Nokia X top and bottom

Popping out the battery cover isn't as easy as on the Asha series. You have to almost bend the phone at one of the corners, so careful not to drop the X while doing it.

Once the battery cover is removed, you'll get access to the 1,500mAh Li-Ion battery. The two microSIM compartments are next to the microSD slot, but none of those is hot-swappable. The battery needs to be out of its compartment for the SIM/SD cards to be accessible.

A peek under the battery cover

Display

The display on the Nokia X is a 4" IPS LCD unit of WVGA (480 x 800 pixels) resolution, which boils down to around 233ppi. That's pretty much enough for comfortable web browsing, media viewing and even reading documents.

Nokia X's IPS display

The pixel arrangement is standard RGB - it's an LCD screen so you wouldn't expect anything less.

Nokia X display matrix • Nokia Asha 501 display matrix

Colors are nice and punchy although the screen is hardly the brightest around bright. The response is good too, not top notch, but good enough for a budget smartphone.

And here go the scores from our dedicated tests - contrast levels are mediocre, which was to be expected in this price range and the brightness isn't particularly high.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Nokia X	0.39	247	637	0.64	461	715
Nokia Asha 501	-	-	-	0.37	354	947
Nokia Asha 503	0.28	178	647	0.56	358	635
Nokia Lumia 520	-	-	-	0.51	422	834
Sony Xperia E	0.19	157	813	0.50	433	875
Sony Xperia E dual	0.21	181	844	0.54	473	870
Sony Xperia tipo	-	-	-	0.75	561	751
Samsung S7500 Galaxy Ace Plus	0.27	239	873	0.6	528	888
Apple iPhone 5	0.13	200	1490	0.48	640	1320
Motorola Moto G	0.35	315	906	0.57	550	967
Sony Xperia C	0.18	151	842	0.66	639	962

The screen is also highly reflective, which combined with the uninspiring brightness makes the Nokia X display particularly hard to read in bright sunlight.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3.549
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Nokia Lumia 925
  3.402
• Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  3.127
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  3.118
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2.950
• HTC One S
  2.901
• BlackBerry Q10
  2.856
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• BlackBerry Z30
  2.790
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Sony Xperia ZR
  2.672
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• HTC One Max
  2.537
• Nokia Lumia 720
  2.512
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• HTC One (M8)
  2.371
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  2.262
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• HTC One mini
  2.003
• LG G2
  1.976
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• LG G Pro 2
  1.922
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1.865
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Meizu MX3
  1.754
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• BlackBerry Q5
  1.682
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• LG Optimus GJ
  1.666
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  1.622
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1.578
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  1.563
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
  1.393
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1.321
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• Nokia X
  1.291
• Nokia Asha 501
  1.270
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

Battery life

The Nokia X boasts a 1,500mAh battery unit, which Nokia says it'll last half a day on calls or 17 days on standby with two SIMs.

Our tests revealed the battery is indeed enough for half a day on 3G calls, which is good considering the small capacity. Its performance on video playback and web browsing is rather mediocre though. The dual-SIM stand-by is OK, but nothing impressive and we are not sure if the Nokia X will make it to the 17 days promise. All of our tests brought the Nokia X overall rating of 38 hours. That's how long the phone will go between charges with an hour of calling, browsing and watching video daily each 24 hours.

For a more detailed breakdown of the Nokia X battery performance check out our blogpost.

Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.

Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.