Microsoft has today announced a new Android phone…let that sink in for a while. After completing their purchase of Nokia back in April, Microsoft obviously didn’t kill Nokia’s Android product, but has instead continued development and today announced the Nokia X2, an upgraded version of the Nokia X which was released in February.
Outwardly, the Nokia X2 will retain the same design and shape as the Nokia X but with a ‘brand-new cool translucent outer layer’. The X2 will be available for €99 in six colours – glossy green, orange and black, with glossy yellow, white and matt dark grey.
The internals though will include a few upgrade, like a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor, 1 GB RAM, 4GB on-board storage with MicroSD card slot hidden behind a 4.3″ LCD Screen. The Nokia X2 also has two cameras, an upgrade from the original. A 5MP rear camera updates the 3MP on the original and a front-facing camera for Skype calls.
Full Specs
- 4.3″ WVGA (800×480) LCD Display at 217PPI
- 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor
- 1GB RAM
- 4GB on-board storage with microSD card support (up to 32GB)
- 5MP Camera with Flash and Auto-Focus with Front-facing camera
- Wifi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS
- Radios:
- GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
- WCDMA: 900/2100
- 1800mAh battery
- 121.7×68.3×11.1 mm @ 150grams
The phone also gains a new capacative button, this time a Home button. This means the X2 now has two capacative buttons: Back and Home, which will hopefully be less confusing than the original.
Software wise, the Nokia X2 brings the Nokia X Software Platform 2.0 to the table. This includes Fastlane – the one and only saving grace of the original. This time around, with Microsoft in the drivers seat, a range of Microsoft applications have been included: Outlook.com, Skype and OneDrive. OneDrive also received an update today to include 15GB of storage for users, making it match the size of free space from Google Drive.
The app store remains the Nokia App store, with backup from Yandex. You can of course still side-load applications, but anything reliant on Google Play Services will not run. The Amazon app store works quite nicely however, so that option is always there.
As the Nokia X never officially came to Australia, there’s little hope that Nokia Australia will ever release the X2 here. If you do want to lay your hands on the Nokia X2, you should be keeping an eye on Mobicity who provided us with our Nokia X. It looks like a decent update to the original, but it may be a matter of too little too late for Microsofts Android hopes, or maybe that’s the plan.
