Nokia X3 Touch and Type Review

The Nokia X3 Touch and Type (also known as the Nokia X3-02) is one of those phones that won't break the bank, but might still blow your mind. Why, you ask, might such a simple-looking phone make me stop in my tracks? With the name being an indication of what's so special about it, the Nokia X3 Touch and Type couples a quirky 4x4 key keyboard with a 2.4" resistive touch screen and Wi-Fi all in a candybar form-factor and at a pretty budget price.

Physically, the Nokia X3-02 is thin, measuring in at 9.6mm thick and weighing 78g. It will fit into any pocket or purse. We really have to credit Nokia on the design of some of the less premium phones we've reviewed lately. Despite a mostly plastic body, the Nokia X3-02 still impresses with a build that makes a statement, and a quality that leaves us feeling confident the phone will last.

The screen is a comfortable for the purpose size at 2.4", and with a resolution of 240x320 pixels, delivers a standard viewing experience for an S40 phone. Being a resistive screen the Nokia X3-02's doesn't have the same smooth feel as the screens on other higher end Nokia phones and glare in bright light isn't fantastic. The other annoying thing about S40 is the lack of brightness control. Nevertheless, overall, the screen is perfectly usable, and we found it to be among the more responsive resistive touch screens we've used.

The top of the phone is the widest part. Panning down the handset from top-to-toe, the X3-02 narrows towards its tapered bottom end. The screen area is given pride of place, with four glossy keys below (call, messaging, music and end), and the matted numeric keys below that. A point to note is that the numeric keys take a bit of getting used to. To their credit, they're large, well raised and easily distinguishable, however, the '0', '*' and '+' keys don't sit below the numbers as one might expect, instead, they align on the right hand side. As mentioned, the keypad's 4x4 layout isn't standard. The keys though feel good to the touch with a satisfying click, and interact nicely with the touch screen soft keys on the bottom part of the screen. Keep panning below the keys and you reach a grill that garnishes the loud speaker.

Flip the phone on its back and simplicity is the name of the game. With a two tone finish, the plastic part of the body is a gun metal type silver, while the aluminium back cover has a darker brushed metal look. Above the battery cover is the 5MP camera, with a Nokia insignia and a model number acting as subtle decoration on and below the battery cover.

Interface:

Press a button on the Nokia X3-02, and the screen prompts the user to press it in order to unlock the phone. Unlocked, and the screen shows the standard S40 interface, which makes for an interesting touch screen experience. The words "touch-screen UI" have come to suggest slick graphical interfaces that swish and swipe and glide with the finger's every wisp. Unfortunately, much of the touch-screen-enabled S40 is more shift and stutter than swish and swipe, clunkily scrolling through lists with a low frame refresh rate. While short lists are fine, long lists are definitely less than preferable as they tend to highlight the phone's graphical limitations. Now onto the positives of the touch screen experience, because there are quite a few. Firstly, it is very responsive for a resistive touch screen phone, let alone such a well priced one. For grid based menus such as the main menu in S40, it works a treat and having a touch screen is much more intuitive than a d-pad. The haptic feedback also does a smashing job of letting you know your press has been acknowledged. Nokia have also placed realistic expectations upon the screen's uses, having kept touch-input screen super-simple. The Nokia X3-02 won't even make you think about a stylus. Everything in the interface is big, finger friendly and simple.



Camera and Multimedia:

With no flash or autofocus, the Nokia X3-02 nevertheless has a high resolution 5MP camera. Its performance however is pretty average. For example, while it produces good outdoor shots at a distance of more than a meter. It won't shoot any close up shots or low lit shots at any usable level of quality.

Colour reproduction is fair, though inconsistent. Pictures have a habit of looking dull and low contrast, especially when taken indoors, however, if outdoors and the lighting is good, you're giving yourself the best opportunity of getting it right. Detail is also inconsistent. With improved lighting, photos taken on the Nokia X3-02 are decent, and make for good 6x4 or 7x5 prints (such as the picture of the pub), however as soon as you dim the lights, photos become processed more and detail is washed out. Contrast is also pretty low, with images looking flat. As you will see from the indoor shots, noise isn't a strong point of the phone's camera. When lighting is adequate, it keeps noise to an overall low, however, as soon as real-world indoor lighting strikes, the Nokia X3-02 lucks out.




Nokia X3 Touch and Type Sample Video:



The music player does a good job of music playback. With the onboard loudspeaker performing exceptionally well, even at higher volumes, the 3.5mm headphone jack outputting some decent sound right down to the music button making it easy to access music wherever you are, the X3-02 is a musical treat.

Connectivity:

One of the key selling points of the Nokia X3 Touch and Type is its range of connectivity options. For such a slim S40 phone which won't break the bank, Nokia have done a good job of getting Wi-Fi and 3G on board. There is also Bluetooth 2.1, so other than a GPS, it's missing very few of the connectivity options that higher-end smartphones have in their arsenal.

As far as web browsing goes, the X3-02 is pretty good, and among the best for an S40 handset. While the proprietary browser initially loads up well and is great for pages formatted to mobile view, as soon as you load up a full size page such as phoneArena.com, it stutters considerably. Zooming in and out of the page is also problematic, bringing up an indication that the zoom is "pending". This can take a few seconds, enough to kill the fluidity of the web browsing experience. The X3-02's saving grace however is Opera Mini that comes pre-loaded. It's smoother, quicker, and with two levels of zoom, easier to get your head around than the default browser. Text is wrapped to the screen, and it worked very well with the touch screen on the Nokia X3-02 making it our browser of choice on this handset.

Email is also something the Nokia X3-02 is no slouch at handling. It has simple set-up for Ovi Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and support for other email providers requiring slightly more information. The interface of the mail client is very user-friendly, and smooth, working well with the touch-screen.

With all the software you'd expect to see on a modern phone, such as a basic, yet comprehensive enough MP3 player, calendar and organizer tools as well as a Facebook and email client, no software on the Nokia X3-02 will give you reason to rejoice. This functionality coupled with the great connectivity and usable hardware on board the Nokia X3-02, does however mean that it can be regarded as one of S40's higher offerings.

Without any notable interference or poor audio quality on either end, the Nokia X3-02 also did a good job as a phone. Making a call from it left us able to hear the caller clearly, though we would have liked the volume to be a bit higher at times. In contrast, the loud-speaker did an excellent job, producing loud, audible sound. When being called from the Nokia X3-02, recipient's had no problem with audibility or volume, and reported good overall quality.

Battery life on the Nokia X3-02 was also pretty good given some of the advanced features on the Nokia X3-02. With a quoted 5.3 hours of talk time, and 432 hours of standby time, in reality, we found that the phone lasted a good couple of days with Wi-Fi switched on and pretty regular use. Light use produces about 3 days.

To sum up, we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Nokia X3-02. It is a truly innovative Series 40 phone that mixes cool ergonomics with a wonderfully affordable price tag and good overall styling. The touch screen implementation only enhances usability and it is clear that Nokia made a concerted effort to make connectivity a primary concern. In turn, if you're looking for something more affordable than a smartphone that can still manage your email and surf the web, and can get past the keypad layout, the Nokia X3-02 comes recommended. Alternatively, you can consider the Sony Ericsson Zylo if you're in need of a GPS on your phone, or, if you're looking for a simpler offering with a similar interface, the sliding Nokia X3-00 would be another worthwhile consideration.

Nokia X3 Touch and Type Video Review: