Likea summer festival or X Factor contestant out to impress Simon Cowell, Nokia's Xseries is all about the music. The X2 is the latest in the line-up, rocking acandybar design and straightforward numerical keypad, as well as dedicated hardkeys for quickly accessing the aural delights stashed inside. You can pick it upfor £109 SIM-free, pay £89.99 for it on pay as you go, or land it for just £10a month on a two-year Vodafone contract.
Nokia X2
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Sound of music
The Nokia X series wasborn out of the ashes of the XpressMusic line, and the X2 is thephone that most resembles a blower from that old-school range. From itscandybar form to its hard music keys and uninspiring colour schemes, it's hard to tell this phone is a member of the newer X series clan.
But that it most certainlyis. The key focus here, as with all X series cells, is music. While there's nointernal storage to write home about (a mere 48MB to be precise), there'smicroSD support for cards up to 16GB, meaning the X2 can handle around 4,000average MP3s. The music software itself is no different to that on any otherdevice running Symbian S40. Navigating albums, playlists and artists isbreezy and the wide format support, which includes AAC and WMA, means you canload the X2 up with tracks from iTunes as well as other download stores.
What's meant to set the X2,and other X series phones, apart from their Nokia siblings are thededicated music keys, which sit flush down the left-hand side of the device. It has to be said that it's not the easiesttask to figure out which button does what, just by looking at them at least. Themiddle key handles play/pause, while the top button skips tracks forward and thebottom ones pushes tracks back. They're definitely handy if you just want toslip through tunes while tapping out a text or zipping round the Web, but usingthe standard navigation button to get around tracks when in the music player itself ismuch easier. If anything, the hard keys feels like a regression from the olderXpressMusic phones. They were much more obvious and sat on much slimmer, sleekerdevices.
Interface quirks
By and large, the Symbian S40 userinterface is implemented well on the X2. There's direct access to a (ratheraverage) Facebook app, as well as the chance to dive straight into the radioand music player apps. Pleasingly, Ovi Store is available from the front page,too, bringing a slew of cool add-ons to the bargain end of the market. Thatcertainly adds to the X2's appeal and makes it a phone well worth investigatingfor app-savvy but budget-conscious punters.
Accessing the mainmenu is a tad awkward, however, requiring you to find your way to the top of the front page'smenu before hitting the central nav key. It's a quirk suffered by all S40phones and really does prove infuriating after repeated trips into the wrongmenu system. The home screen is crammed with goodies, but it certainly feelscramped at times. This is more the fault of Symbian than the X2, although the low-resolution 320x240-pixel, 56mm (2.2-inch) screen could be a smidge brighter. Itdoesn't render icons particularly well.
Decent design
The X2 isn't spectacularbut, for a plasticky phone, it does feel remarkably solid. It certainly feelsthicker than its 13.3mm, but the tapered edges and rounded back mean it sitswell in the hand. Likewise, the numerical keyboard feels secure despite thebuttons sitting flush with the device, which is normally a recipe for disaster. They keypad isnot quite the same standard as those on the ace C series, but we foundgetting up to speed with it took a matter of minutes.
The X2's camera is a realstand-out, especially when you take into account the price. At 5 megapixelsand with an LED flash, it's every bit as classy as similarly priced, low-endAndroid efforts such as the HTC Wildfire. It takes crisp and clean shots, evenin low light, and although there aren't any varying shooting modes (other thanchanging colours and tints), it's ideal for taking quick shots for shoving straightonto Facebook or Twitter.
One major letdown, however,is the lack of 3G. This doesn't impact so much on email performance, but itmeans getting online is akin to using the Web way back in 1999: sluggish and utterlyinfuriating. Why Nokia insists on dropping this vital technology while loadingup Web-reliant services such as Ovi remains a mystery.
Conclusion
The Nokia X2 is aserviceable handset with plenty to recommend. It certainly won't leave an iPhone-sized dent in your bank balance, either. On the flip side, Symbian S40 is an acquired tasteand the failure to include 3G is hard to overlook.
Edited by Emma Bayly