Nokia X review: Under cover

Unimpressive 3.15MP fixed-focus camera

The Nokia X has a 3.15 MP camera which is capable of capturing images of up to 2048 x 1536 resolution. It doesn't have autofocus, using what Nokia calls full focus lens - basically a fixed-focus camera with a larger depth of field.

The camera interface is simple - on the right it offers a virtual on-screen shutter, a toggle for switching between camera and camcorder, and a gallery shortcut. There are also white balance, exposure compensation and advanced setting shortcuts on the left.

There are lots of settings into the advanced menu - resolution, ISO, face detection, sharpness, saturation, among others.

Camera app

As the specs suggest, images produced by the Nokia X aren't anything worth writing home about but they will do for the occasional visual memo (not for fine text though - no autofocus is a deal-breaker here) or contact picture. There isn't too much fine detail and dynamic range is limited, but colors are nice and contrast is decent.

Nokia X camera samples

Nokia X is also capable of 180-degree panorama shots at 2500×500 resolution.

Nokia X panorama sample

Photo quality comparison

3MP shooters are getting very rare these days, but there are still plenty you can compare the Nokia X against.

Nokia X in our Photo quality comparison tool

FWVGA video at 30 fps is passable

When it comes to video capture, the Nokia X camera maxes out at FWVGA (864 x 480) videos with a steady framerate of 30 fps.

Video settings

The video quality is hardly any better than the still images - colors are nice, contrast too, but the detail is rather low.

Here is video sample we've uploaded on YouTube.

And here goes the untouched FWVGA video for download.