Nokia X3

If all you want is a phone with good music playback, then the X3 is for you

 

 

Decent design and build, great audio quality, powerful loudspeakers

Outdated interface design, display has poor viewing angles, average camera, basic web browsing capabilities

 The Nokia X3 is an update to Nokia's old 5300 and 5200 budget music phones. It has a tidier and freshened up design and looses the XpressMusic tag for a smaller and cooler sounding name but mostly with the same hardware underneath. Let's see how well this one performs.

Bundle

• Nokia X3
• Battery
• Charger
• Headset
• USB Cable
• User Guide
• Software CD

 Design & Construction

The Nokia X3 has a traditional slider phone design. It's very compact when closed and can be easily held in hand. The body has a matte finish, which feels good to touch. It's similar to the one on the Nokia X6. However, unlike the X6, the X3 feels a lot better built, which is strange as it costs less than half of what the X6 does.

The slider mechanism of the phone feels solid and it slides up and down smoothly with a nice clicking sound greeting you at the end of each run. The phone also gives you plenty of surface to grip and slide the phone.

On the front you have the earpiece on top of the 2.2" QVGA display. On the left of the display are the music playback control keys. They are flush with the body, so you don't hit them accidentally. Below the display are the two soft keys, call/end keys and the five way D-pad, all very large and well spaced out.

Along the sides you will find the volume control buttons and the camera shutter buttons. I wasn't completely satisfied with them but more on that later. On the left side of the phone is the microSD card slot, which is covered by a plastic flap that is difficult to open and close.

On top of the phone is the 3.5mm headphone jack, the micro USB port and the charger port. Apart from charging from the dedicated charging port, the X3 can also charge off USB, unlike the X6. The X3 has two loudspeakers at the top and bottom, which are placed under silver colored grilles.

On the back of the phone all you see is the 3.2 megapixel camera lens on top. The battery cover has to be slid down to open, but when we first got the phone it was so stiff that we had a hard time opening it. Also, since the phone is a slider, sliding open the cover would result in the phone sliding open.

The overall build quality on the X3 was good. It wasn't the most solid phone we have seen but it was definitely much better than what we saw on the X3. 

Display & Keypad

The Nokia X3 has a 2.2" QVGA TFT LCD capable of displaying up to 262k colors. I was unimpressed by the quality of the display even though the resolution was good for a phone in this price range. The viewing angles of the display were horrible, so much so that there was a difference between what your left and your right eye sees. The display visibility under sunlight was also pretty low. The phone does not even have a brightness adjustment feature, neither automatic nor manual.

The keypad on the X3 was average. Since the keys weren't distinct I would often press a neighbouring key instead of the one I wanted. The keys below the display were nice and large and gave no problems. The keypad is lit in a soft white backlight. The light inside the D-pad can blink according to the music that is being played on the phone, but this feature can be disabled if required.

The keys on the side of the phone were bit of a pain to use. The volume keys were absolutely tiny, which did not make sense on a music phone (or any phone for that matter). Even the camera shutter button was too slim. It's not as if there was a lack of space on the phone for bigger keys but for purely aesthetic reasons the usability of these keys has been sacrificed.


UI & Applications

Nokia X3 runs on Nokia's S40 operating system. Although Nokia keeps making minor changes to it, on the whole it hasn't changed much over the years. In today's day and age it feels outdated and the lack of features is evident. Things such as ability to minimize Java applications and run several apps at once, something that Sony Ericsson phones have been doing since K750i, are still missing from S40. The built-in apps are also not very impressive in terms of look and feel. The OS lacks the polished look of the newer operating systems and has no business existing in 2010.

By default the X3 comes with a few Java apps built-in.


Connectivity

The Nokia X3 is a quad-band GSM handset. Unfortunately you only get 2.5G connectivity with GPRS and EDGE but no 3G. You also get Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0.

The call quality and network reception on the handset was fine. Both people at both ends could hear each other clearly. The loudspeakers on the phone were very powerful, so you can clearly hear the ringtones and loudspeaker calls. The vibration strength was also good.

The web browser on the X3 is the same old browser that older S40 phones used to come with. It isn't the new Webkit browser found on the 6700 Classic or the Opera Mini found on the lower end phones. If there is any part of the OS that feels most outdated, then it is the browser. The browser only works well with sites optimised for mobile phones and is found to be completely out of its depth when handling full PC websites. Add to it the fact that the display is too small to see anything that is not mobile optimised means you wouldn't be and shouldn't be doing too much browsing on this phone. Of course Opera Mini is available but it's not the v5 that most of us are used to now and you only get v4 for the X3.


Multimedia

The Nokia X3 has a 3.2 megapixel camera. Unfortunately, apart from the somewhat exciting resolution, everything else about the camera is pretty unexciting. There is no autofocus or even a flash for shooting in the dark. The camera settings are also pretty bare, making it a point-and-shoot camera suitable for shooting landscapes during daylight but nothing else. The image quality is pretty mediocre as well, even when taken in broad daylight. It's best not to shoot in low light with this phone.

The X3 is essentially a music phone and that is something it excels at. For starters, the phone supports MP3, AAC as well as WMA, three of the most popular music formats. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack and dedicated music keys. Unfortunately, it comes with a rather sad pair of headset in the bundle, but at least you can use your own earphones or headphones with it, thanks to the standard headphone jack.

The audio quality on the X3 is excellent. It's also incredibly loud with headphones so you can use big headphones with it as well. The loudspeakers are excellent as well. They are super loud and sound great. The phone truly is a mini jukebox.

If you are more of a radio fan, then the X3 also has an FM radio on-board. The audio quality is good and so is the reception strength.


Battery Life

The Nokia X3 has an 860 mAh Li-Pol battery. In our testing, with moderate usage the phone easily lasted for about two days of usage on a single charge.

Verdict

The Nokia X3 is a good music phone but apart from that it doesn't do anything particularly great. Priced at Rs. 6,500, it's a bit expensive as well. Samsung offers a lot more value for money handsets that provide more features and better all-round performance. But for someone who just wants good music playback the X3 is a good choice.