Nokia"s plans for its first Android-based smartphone have been the talk of the Internet for several months but today the company finally confirmed plans to release such a device, the Nokia X, during its press conference today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. In fact it will launch three devices; the Nokia X, the Nokia X + and the Nokia XL
All three devices devices will run on a version of Android that will be highly modified by Nokia, and will connect to a number of online services from Microsoft, rather than from Google. Those services will include Skype and OneDrive. The phone will allow users to connect not just to an app store run by Nokia but third party app storefronts such as Yandex. Side loading apps via MicroSD cards and the phone"s file manager will also be available.
Nokia"s own services such as HERE Maps and Music Mix will be included in the Nokixa X products. The phones will be incorporating what Nokia calls FastLane. It will give users a notification bar when activated that will show recent calls, texts and apps.
People who buy any member of the Nokia X family will get 1 month of free Skype calls to both mobile phones and landlines and 10GB of free OneDrive space.
As the previous leaked screenshots have shown, the UI for the Nokia X devices will be similar in looks to Microsoft"s Modern user interface used for Windows Phone and Windows 8. While the Nokia X and the Nokia X + will both have 4-inch displays, the Nokia XL will have a larger 5-inch screen. The Nokia X + will have some extra memory and storage via a microSD card compared to the Nokia X smartphone.
The Nokia X will go on sale this week for the price of 89 euros. The Nokia X + and the Nokia XL will go on sale sometime in the second quarter, with the Nokia X + selling for 99 euros and the Nokia XL selling for 109 euros.
Update: Nokia"s blog has posted up some more information about the Nokia X family. All three smartphones will have Qualcomm"s Snapdragon 8225 dual-core processor running at 1GHz. The Nokia X will have 512MB of RAM while the Nokia X + and NokiaXL will each have 768MB of RAM.
The Nokia X apparently has no on-board storage but does support a microSD card up to 32GB. Both the Nokia X+ and Nokia XL will include a 4GB microSD card. The Nokia X and X+ will have a 3 megapixel rear camera while the XL will have a 5 megapixel rear camera with autofocus and flash.
While the Nokia X will go on sale immediately in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America, there is no word on when it will be launched in North America.
Source: Nokia | Image via Nokia