Nokia X review: Under cover

Phonebook

The phonebook is divided into three sections that are straightforward and easy to navigate - Groups, Contacts and Favorites. The contact list displays a list of names and pictures only. There is a search field at the top and an alphabetical scrubber on the right. A swipe up from the bottom of the list gets you the Advanced menu and a New contact shortcut.

The Phonebook

You can add various details to your contacts, like numbers, mail address, notes, events or a URL. You can also choose where to save your contacts - SIM 1, SIM 2 or the phone memory. Only two sorting options are available - by first or last name. Contacts can be copied, moved, linked to another contact or deleted either individually or in bulk.

Editing a contact

By the way, Quick Contact functionality available on Android is available on Nokia X too.

Quick Contact

Telephony

The Phone app of the Nokia X is pretty straightforward and works well. The app integrates with the Call log and the Dialer, there is a Contacts tab too. The dialer itself is pretty standard, but sadly it doesn't offer smart dialing.

If you have the dual-SIM version like we did for this review, you get a dedicated the SIM card switching interface in the notification area. It can be accessed from anywhere and so you will never be asked on which SIM card you want to initiate a voice call from within the Dialer.

The Dialer • The call log • Contacts • Dual SIM manager

The in-call screen shows options for the keypad, muting a call, putting it on speaker, holding it and entering contacts. If you leave the in-call screen the status bar will notify you of an ongoing call and within a tap on it you'll be back to the Dialer.

In-call screen

Reception with the Nokia X was consistently excellent and in-call sound was loud and clear.

We've put the Nokia X loudspeaker through our traditional test and we found it loud enough not to miss calls or notifications.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overal score
Apple iPhone 5	66.8	66.1	67.7	Below Average
Sony Xperia C (xLOUD)	65.3	61.7	75.7	Average
HTC Desire 600 dual sim	66.8	64.6	75.7	Average
Sony Xperia E dual	66.6	74.4	62.3	Average
Nokia Lumia 520	68.2	69.0	66.5	Average
Nokia X	67.8	66.2	75.8	Good
HTC Desire 700 dual sim	65.7	66.7	75.7	Good
Samsung Galaxy Grand 2	66.5	66.6	75.7	Good
Nokia Asha 501	73.1	68.1	78.0	Very Good
Nokia Asha 503	75.1	72.1	75.8	Very Good
Motorola Moto G	81.6	75.7	82.7	Excellent

Messaging

The messaging department has everything covered - text messages are organized in threads, there's a chat client with support for multiple services and of course, a feature rich email client with quick setup.

A tap and hold on a Conversation in lets you delete the conversation. Creating a message is pretty straightforward. You can add multiple contacts from your phonebook or simply punch in numbers.

The Messaging app

If you choose to attach an image, video or audio file, your message will be automatically converted to an MMS. If you opt for an email instead a phone number, you'll be also sending a multimedia message instead of a regular one.

The QWERTY keyboard was a pleasant surprise. It looks the same as on the latest Asha Software Platform, but this time around it supports Swype-like input, plus cool swipe gestures for cut, copy and paste. The usual Android cursor and virtual cut, copy and paste shortcuts are available too. The accuracy of the keyboard is really impressive. Both portrait and landscape modes of the keyboards are available as well as text prediction.

The QWERTY keyboards • Keyboard gestures

The email app looks to be a lightweight version of the default Android client. It supports various services such as Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. with easy email setup, but you can always manually configure an account too. It works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols and supports SSL.

The default email view mode is Inbox but Folder view is supported too. Multiple emails can be deleted using the advanced menu at the bottom of the screen. You can switch between accounts from the Mail client's homepage.

A tap and hold on an email will allow you to reply, delete, star, forward or mark it as read/unread.

The email client