The Nokia X family of Android smartphones announced.

After years of waiting and a huge number of user requests, Nokia finally out the Nokia X family of smartphone devices. The new Nokia X was announced during Nokia’s press conference with CEO Stephen Elop at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 in Barcelona Spain. Powered by non other than Google’s Android OS with Nokia using the Open Source project version of the OS forked especially for Nokia. Since they run on Android OS, expect these devices to run common Android apps with Nokia providing access to hundreds and thousands of apps with Nokia’s own Store app and services.

To start with, Nokia is introducing not one but three Android devices. These devices sits between the affordable Asha feature phones and the more expensive Lumia series of devices. Targeted to developing markets, the 4-inch Nokia X as the base device, Nokia X+ which is basically the Nokia X with an upgraded RAM and comes with 4GB microSD card out of the box and the Nokia XL that features a larger 5-inch display.

Nokia X and Nokia X+

The Nokia X features a 4-inch IPS LCD display with 480 x 800 resolutions, A 1 GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, 512 MB of RAM with 4 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot with up to 32 GB support. The camera on the back is a basic 3.15 Megapixel shooter with 480p video capture capabilities at 30 fps. For connectivity, the new Nokia X is equipped with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and HS, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps, EDGE and GSM quad band.

the Nokia X+ on the other hand is basically the Nokia X with a slight bump on RAM and the accompanying 4GB microSD card in the package. From its processor to its display is basically the same, the RAM on Nokia X+ however is boasted with 256 MB more making it having 768 MB of RAM available for the system. Both devices is powered by a 1,500 mAh battery and that is removable if you may ask with Dual SIM support.

Nokia XL

The Nokia XL features a more improved spec’s compared to its smaller siblings with added features. Comes with a 5-inch display, the Nokia XL brings larger and wider experiences.

Spec wise, the Nokia XL just like the Nokia X+ do share almost the same internals as the base model Nokia X, its processor is the same Dual-Core 1 GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU, a 768 MB of RAM and the 4 GB internal storage. The Nokia XL is also equipped with microSD slot for memory expansion which supports up to 32 GB of microSD cards.

Aside from the size difference, the Nokia XL is also equipped with a much better 5 Megapixel shooter on the back with LED flash making it more suitable on taking photos among the three devices, it also comes with 1.3 Megapixel camera on the front for that selfie and video calling.

Though the new Nokia X runs Android OS, the UI that Nokia implemented doesn’t seem to look more Android at all, instead it resembles more like the Windows Phone interface and together with Nokia Glance and Fastlane, Using the Nokia X is more like Nokia as expected than having a familiar Android native and themed devices. Forking Android OS means loosing access to Play Store and Nokia is no exception, Though they have provided a native Nokia App store themselves, many users and analysts feared the absence or full compatibility of Android apps for the Nokia devices.

Even the cloud services itself does not report to Google, Nokia opted for Microsoft services for that matter and integrated these services to android system fluidly. Nokia also provided its own native and exclusive apps to work with the new Nokia X devices which brings the possibility of Nokia to provide Nokia and Microsoft services to Android users, that possibility may not be that soon enough but who knows.

The Nokia X, X+ and XL will be available worldwide with different colors, and will launch in various markets starting today with the Nokia X. The Nokia X+ however will be available later on the second quarter. The Nokia X will cost around €89, the Nokia X+ will then cost €99. While keeping it affordable, the Nokia XL will cost more making it the most expensive among the three at €109.