Nokia X2 Review

Introduction:

Looking for a music on-the-go mobile with stereo speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 5MP camera? Want all that at a pretty good price? Look no further, Nokia's X2 is all of the above in a candybar body, and can be picked up for under £60 offline in the UK. With competition from Sony Ericsson's Zylo and the rest of Nokia's XpressMusic range however, can the Nokia X2 hold its own as the budget music phone for the masses?

Design:

Design-wise, the Nokia X2 is a fun looking piece of kit that manages to avoid looking cheap and plasticy. With a more classical look than some of the older XpressMusic phones (such as the 5310), the X2 has sleeker lines, edgier flourishes and a great looking metal battery cover with a brushed effect. When we, and others picked up the Nokia X2, the fact it was so light came as a surprise, which is testament to how solid the phone looks. It made us wish it was a bit heavier.



You can compare the Nokia X2 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

In traditional candybar format, the front is taken up by the numeric keypad, a call and end button, two soft-keys, a five way d-pad and the screen. At 2.2 inches, the screen's a little on the small side, though with QVGA resolution (240x320), it's sharp enough. With adequate brightness levels, viewing outdoors is fine, therefore while the Nokia X2 won't be ideal for video or photo sharing, it will be good enough for day to day tasks. There are however two minor detractors to the screen, the first being less than ideal viewing angles and the second relating to the fascia of the X2 - it loves fingerprints.


All the keys fall under a single piece of plastic covering the entire fascia, except for the screen, and are divided by raised plastic strips. These provide adequate differentiation between keys for comfortable short text entry and number dialling, but don't facilitate extended amounts of typing.

On the left hand side of the Nokia X2 are the music buttons (play, back, and forward). The right hand side has the volume rocker, camera button and microSD card slot (it ships with a 2GB one), while the phone’s top-side is where the microUSB port, 3.5mm headphone jack and Nokia's 2mm charging port can be found. The buttons along the side are rubberised, tactile and responsive, though could be a bit more raised. The volume rocker could also be a bit bigger for easier pressing (when in the pocket for example), as with the Nokia X2's focus being on music, we imagine it will be used quite a lot.




Overall, the Nokia X2 looks good for the price. It comes in white with blue trimmings or black with red trimmings, our unit being the black version. While it feels a bit light for our tastes, it still manages to feel solid, with no creaky or wobbly moving parts. The cherry on the cake is the aluminium back cover, which adds a nice illusion of luxury to the phone.