Nokia XL : My first impressions

Ahhh... Another phone launch. In March I went to the Taj Mansingh for the launch of the much and over hyped Nokia X series. There I got to feel and use the Nokia X and I surely was not impressed as I had written in my blog post. My whole experience was based on the features as told by the company as well as my thinking from the view of the consumer. Needless to say, I was not impressed the last time. This time also when the invite came to me to come for the Nokia XL ( the biggest power packed phone in the X series), I carried no expectations. It was all about wait and watch. This time I headed to The Oberoi. Our cab driver was surely in a bit of hurry and taking some shortcuts through CR park, me and my friend Prashant were there at the venue 45 minutes before the official timing. Oberoi seems like a second home now with Indiblogger already bringing us 2 times there, this was the 3rd time I was there. Slowly sipping the coffee, I killed time.

Pranav

This time it was Pranav who was there from Nokia (yep, the same guy from the last time). The features are impressive when I compare it to the Nokia X, cant compare it with the android devices by any means. These are my first impressions of Nokia XL -

In comparison to the Nokia X , which had the same day sales start, there has been no such thing for the Nokia XL. Talking to the nokia people there, I came to know that there have been no India specific pricing as yet for this phone, it will come in the coming days.

1. The phone is huge and I mean damn big with a 5 inch screen which can almost fit my whole palm comfortably yet not feel bulky. Its lightweight.

Occupies my whole hand..almost

Comparatively bigggg

2. For the newbies, I repeat the same thing which I had written in the one for Nokia X that its not exactly a android phone. Its a normal phone which can run android apps too. Its main software is the Nokia X software platform.

The Range

3. It has a dual core 1 ghz processor with 768 mb RAM. Yep. its just that, not even a bit more. Its a dual sim phone like the previous model too.

4. Available in the colours- white, blue, red, yellow, black and green.

The colours

5. The battery has improved to 2000 mah and almost at par with the other android devices in the market which have a 2100 mah one. So its almost at par with the offering of the industry and the memory is 4 gb which can be expanded upto 32 gb.

6. The phone which I had was without a sim so couldn’t check the battery performance with full features, although managed to take a screenshot.

7. Nokia mix radio, Here maps there as previously.

8. Skype does not come pre installed, it needs to be downloaded. Remember Vine , the video sharing software? thats preinstalled. The One drive offers 7 gb of space and another 3 gb with mix radio. Total 10 gb as before.

9. The phone has dual cameras. The rear is 5 MP with flash and the front camera 2 MP. Impressed with the picture clarity this time as compared to the X. Even the front facing 2 MP camera gives amazing clarity. The highest resolution in the camera is 1600x1200 and with the various features like Face detection, white balance and the few more features. Atleast this time the picture is not grainy or distorted as it was in the Nokia X.

Click with rear 5 MP

Front facing 2 MP

10. Somethings are the same- Fastlane, the single button ( to switch to the home screen and keep the working app in the background to revert back to it), the process of purchasing paid apps ( main balance deduction and operator billing).

11. Youtube is not inbuilt even in this phone. God knows what these people at Nokia are thinking.

12. Unlike the issue with the X, there is no lag with fastlane this time with the XL.

13. The company provided screen guard is not good like the last time too. I expected this model to come with a glossy screen just like Samsung and all which gives a smooth finish to it but it does not happen.

14. Sturdy as always.

15. This time you can colour customise each icon individually. I tried that trick with 5 of the apps in different colours.

Different colour for every icon

16. There are quick launch buttons for Wifi, bluetooth , data connection and the sound setting in the drop down notification.

The Icons.

17. Comes loaded with a host of languages.

Selected the Hindi language

The buck with this model stops at only 768 mb ram although they are saying that the memory can be extended upto 32 gb but its the RAM which powers any phone, not the memory.

Memory

This is my first impression of the XL . With the pricing yet to be disclosed don`t know whether its value for the money Nokia wise or in comparison to the other Android powered devices in the market. The Low RAM, screen quality (not glossy) disappoint me mainly.