The Nokia X3 is a slim, budget offering from the Finns. With no touchscreen and modest memory, it still has pretensions of being an attractive music device with a low cost to boot.
While the recent Nokia X6 touchscreen topped the rebranded X-series music phone bill with smartphone functionality and a heavyweight 32GB of onboard memory, the Nokia X3 is a much more modest affair.
It works the signature Nokia XpressMusic design look again, sporting bright red or blue music player controls down the side of the display, and comes with a 2GB MicroSD memory card in-box, a standard 3.5mm headphone socket, in-ear earphones and an FM radio.
However, there’s no high-speed 3G connectivity, let alone Wi-Fi or GPS functionality, and its onboard camera is an average 3.2MP shooter.
Initially available for around £90 with various pay as you go deals (or £129 SIM-free), the Nokia X3 is clearly aiming for the cash-conscious music phone buyer after a smart-looking device, pitching it squarely against the likes of the Sony Ericsson W395.
Design and handling
The Nokia X3’s bodywork is tidily proportioned, measuring 96(h) x 49.3(w) x 14.1(d) mm closed and weighing 103g.
It has an average-sized 2.2-inch 262K-colour QVGA display dominating the front that’s reasonable for this sort of handset.
There are no touchscreen controls – under the display is a regular navigation D-pad flanked by a standard issue quartet of soft key and call end buttons on a flat glossy black front control panel.
These buttons are adequately spaced for hassle- and error-free navigation, although the glossy front is a touch plasticky.
But the metallic red or blue music controls and trim bordering the display and the matt black bodywork used around the rest of the phone add a sharp look to the design – not HTC Legend levels of design, but not bad for 90 of your English pounds.
These three thin music control buttons (forward, rewind, play/pause) enable users to operate the music player when it’s playing in the background, although they’re aren’t essential for controlling the phone – the navigation D-pad can take care of that too.
The slide-out keyboard is a bit of a throwback to Motorola RAZR styling, with a flat brushed metal pad separated by illuminated ridges. It’s sufficient for texting at decent speeds, though it doesn’t have the super-light touch of the best texting phones, and larger-fingered users should be wary of straying thumbs.
Around the sides are routine camera key and volume buttons plus a MicroSD card slot, covered by a fairly tight plastic bung.
The standard 3.5mm headphone socket sits correctly on top of the phone, next to a microUSB data connector and thin-pin charger socket.
All-in-all, it feels slim in the hand and pocket, and is comfortable to handle – what more do you really expect from a £90 handset? LG is doing the same thing with the LG Pop – so we’re glad to see Nokia is playing in the right area as well.
The Nokia X3 user interface is Nokia Series 40 rather than the S60 smartphone platform, so is standard issue, uncomplicated and straightforward to operate.
It’s based around the usual type of grid main menu, which drills down into basic sub-menu option lists – all of which should be very familiar to anyone who’s packed a Nokia mobile before.
The home screen setup is standard stuff too; in fact, there are two home screen set up options you can choose between.
The out-of-the-box default home screen has a row of five scrollable icon shortcuts towards the top of the display and additional lines on the screen for media player and radio status and info, calendar and message updates plus other information.
These home screen shortcuts and info/content options can be user-defined – as can further D-pad shortcuts – with dozens available to select as shortcuts including functions, applications and even any bookmarked web pages – intuitive for a cheaper handset like this.
Alternatively, you can de-clutter the home screen by switching that mode off in the settings menu and sticking with a simpler setup that utilises the D-pad and softkeys only for shortcuts.
It’s up to you, although the default home screen does provide more immediate information.
Within the menus, the Nokia Series 40 6th Edition user interface is easy to navigate and operate. The functionality isn’t such that the menus are overloaded with confusingly laid out options, so it should be undemanding for any Nokia newcomers too.
We found call quality on the Nokia X3 not quite up to the usual high standards we expect from Nokia handsets.
Outgoing calls were often muffled and audio sometimes ropey even in areas where signal strength was good.
It was surprising on our review sample, as we usually have no problems with Nokia’s high standard calling performance. For instance, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is not that much more expensive, but has a much higher level of call quality.
We tried the phone in a number of places with varying signal levels, and its performance was average at best.
Volume level was good enough, however – it can be cranked up enough to cope with noisy urban conditions.
The keyboard is perfectly manageable for tapping out numbers, and the typical Nokia Series 40 phonebook allows for numerous bits of contact information to be stored for each entry.
The Nokia X3 puts in a decent messaging performance, supporting the usual text and multimedia messaging plus email and instant messaging.
The flush, one-piece keyboard provides a reasonably responsive way of tapping in texts with some proficiency.
Texts can easily be upgraded to MMS messages, with a toolbar of icons ranged along the bottom of the screen for adding photos, sound clips, video clips, and so on. It’s easy to operate and intuitive to use.
Messages are presented in ‘conversations’, with a threaded string of incoming and outgoing messages for each contact you’ve recently been in touch with.
The X3 uses the Nokia Messaging Mail email client, which enables you to set up email for a new Ovi Mail account or set up details from an existing POP3/IMAP4 email account.
Settings are pre-loaded for several services, including Windows Live Hotmail, Google Mail and Yahoo! Mail – you just need to tap in your email address and password – and you’re away.
Other email provider accounts can be set up quickly and easily in a similar way – settings details are taken care of automatically.
The email user interface is reasonably attractive for a budget handset, and emails are sensibly ordered and headers viewable in lists on the screen.
Some attachments, including JPG images, can be viewed, but not all file types are supported (we couldn’t view PDFs, Excel and Word documents, for instance). You can send documents from the phone though.
With no 3G, large attachment files can take some time downloading or uploading, but then again that’s not really what the Nokia X3 is designed to do.
The email client has a fair selection of options to manage accounts, including the facility to send instant messages directly from your email account, and you can use the number pad keys as shortcuts for certain options.
You can also send quick replies to emails, with 9 preset messages available that can be selected and sent in a couple of key presses – useful for fast acknowledgements of incoming mail.
Multiple email accounts can be stored and accessed in the Nokia Messaging Mail application, and you can set the phone to regularly check email accounts automatically for new messages.
Instant messaging is supported on the Nokia X3, with Nokia’s own IM application enabling you to use Ovi IM, and support for Windows Live Messenger in a separate IM app in the messaging folder.
You can send and receive short messages to other IM users online easily and speedily, and leave it running in the background.
Nokia once again doubles up on the browser front in the Nokia X3, including Opera Mini software as well as Nokia’s own-brand browser.
Lacking 3G or Wi-Fi to fire up online speeds, the X3 relies on 2.5G EDGE/GPRS data connectivity.
On mobile-optimised sites the onboard Nokia browser goes along at an acceptable pace, rendering sites efficiently enough, with a useful progress bar running along the bottom of the screen.
As with other Series 40 phones, the Nokia browser operation is based on selecting from menu options rather than an on-screen toolbar or shortcuts, so it’s not the slickest browser around compared with some of the budget touchscreen phone browsers now in play.
There’s only one windows and no tabs. It does support Flash Lite though, and can render pages reasonably well, if a little languidly.
The Nokia X3 has pre-loaded bookmarks for a selection of online services, including Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, which take users to mobile-optimised versions of these sites.
However, streaming video clips from YouTube is hit and miss – and if you’re out of EDGE coverage, forget it.
Opera Mini provides a more fluid and slicker non-touch browser experience that has a more desktop-style appeal.
It includes address and search bars and history on the home screen, plus a full web page overview when you land on a site and controls for zooming as a softkey option.
It’s a more intuitive – and quicker – browsing experience, and pages render very well on the Opera app.
Other online applications on the Nokia X3 include Nokia’s Ovi Store application download shop (the first Series 40 phone to support it), and a Web Search function that enables you to tap in and search via Google or Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
A Flickr application is also included, which takes you to the Flickr mobile site, allowing users to view, upload and manage Flickr image accounts online – although this is woefully slow over EDGE connection.
You can upload images directly to Flickr accounts once you’ve taken shots too, or alternatively to Nokia’s Share on Ovi service; settings for both services come pre-loaded.
The camera used on the Nokia X3 is a run-of-the-mill 3.2MP snapper, lacking a flash and autofocus system.
It has the typical sort of functionality you’d expect from a mid-to-lower end Nokia Series 40 handset, with nothing remarkable about the fixtures and fittings – or performance.
Pressing the side camera button, the screen flips sideways into viewfinder mode within a couple of seconds.
Nokia has set it up so that a long press of the camera key takes you straight into video mode, while a short press fires up the camera – a neat touch we’re surprised more manufacturers haven’t cottoned onto.
However, this does mean you have to be aware of how long you’re tapping the button – something that’s tricky with its almost flush position on the side – or you can find yourself starting to video record when you meant to snap a picture.
Although this can initially be disconcerting, if you are in the wrong mode the D-pad can be used to toggle sideways between camera and video recorder functions (an icon in the corner display’s what mode it’s in).
The on-screen user interface is somewhat basic, if adequate. Settings and effects can be chosen by opening up the Options menu and toggling through it.
You can adjust white balance to cater for lighting environments, add a few colour effects, use a timer and tweak image quality, but it’s quite rudimentary by Nokia’s high cameraphone standards.
The fixed focus camera produces reasonable snaps that can be colourful and bright, but they do lack the crisp sharpness you can get from some autofocus cameraphones in the same class.
Also, in subdued overcast conditions, the camera can produce murky images with flat tones and so-so colour.
Overall, its shooting performance is OK for quick snaps, but modest and limited in detail and quality.
Under low light conditions indoors, the auto metering adjustments mean images can be soft, although they’re better if the camera is held steady.
Reasonable snapper: The Nokia X3’s 3.2-megapixel camera is an average lower range shooter, offering limited detail and a fixed focus lens. It can take reasonable snaps in good lighting environments, however, although don’t expect stunning clarity when printing out
Click and hope: The fixed focus camera means you can’t choose which particular part of the subject you want in focus – you just press and see what comes out
Brighter is better: The camera performs best in bright lighting conditions, rendering colours in vibrant tones. There is though a lack of subtle detail in the background sky in the way the blue colours and clouds are reproduced
Patchy effort: The camera does reasonably well at close-in shots, producing some detail in the foreground, although the blue sky and clouds in the background are patchily rendered
Soft and noisy: This shot at dusk is soft and detail is limited with plenty of picture noise apparent
Its video recording performance isn’t great. The low-grade camcorder option can record footage at maximum QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) resolution at 8 frames per second, so playback is stilted, or at lower QCIF (176 x 144 pixels) resolution at up to 15 frames per second.
That’s a low quality budget effort. Should you wish to, these clips can be uploaded too to online video hubs.
Of course, the most upfront feature of the X3 is its music mobile credentials. The music player controls on the outside mark out this territory, while a 2GB memory card supplied with the phone provides a decent amount of in-box storage for a budget music phone.
Nokia’s also boxed it with an above-average set of in-ear earphones and it has a standard 3.5mm headphone socket on top for music fans who want to upgrade their ear-ware.
The media player software inside, though, is low-key and functional rather than novel.
The X3 uses a standard Series 40 media player, so it has a familiar mid-tier phone look and feel: a list of regular media player categories (all songs, playlists, artists, albums, genres and videos) and a player interface that doesn’t break new ground.
The D-pad can operate the controls in normal phone fashion, and there’s a draggable elapsed time section to help navigation, plus album cover art (if available).
The music player controls on the side of the display aren’t needed unless the music player’s working in the background; if so, they’re handy, but don’t exactly redefine the mobile music experience.
Some settings can be tweaked, with equaliser presets you can assign as you’re playing. In addition to shuffle mode and the like, you can also choose to have lighting effects on the D-pad to go with the music – snazzy if you’re putting on a disco for mice.
The supplied in-ear earphones put on a fine show. They fit snugly, with extra plastic buds in-box to get a close fit, reducing outside noise interference.
They can deliver a surprisingly heavy-duty music performance, with plenty of bass presence coming through loud and clear, and good definition on high and mid frequencies.
It’s not subtle, but it’s impressive for a budget music mobile.
The media player automatically slots any new tunes loaded up or slipped in via a memory card. MicroSD cards up to 16GB will work in the phone’s side-mounted memory card slot.
Tunes can be downloaded over the air, or copied over from a PC using the supplied Nokia Music software and USB data cable.
Nokia’s PC Suite’s Music Manager software can also be used to transfer tracks, and the phone can be synchronised with Windows Media Player on a PC.
Tracks can also be dragged and dropped in mass storage mode, or sent via Bluetooth to the phone – so to sum up, there’s a variety of ways to bung your favourite tunes on to the Nokia X3.
Some mobile network operators will also be offering the Nokia X3 as one of Nokia’s Comes with Music range, which enables unlimited downloads, although UK availability of this service on the X3 is still to be confirmed at the time of writing.
In addition to the music player, more free music and entertainment is available via the phone’s FM radio.
Unusually for a mobile phone, you don’t need to plug in headphones as an antenna to listen to tracks – you can simply switch it on and listen to it through the phone’s loudspeaker.
The loudspeaker, which can of course also be used with the music player, is loud and clear and not too tinny. It does lack on the bass front, as usual with mobile speakers, but is better than most with its punchy delivery.
The radio interface is a doddle to set up and use, with automatic tuning taking care of station finding, and sound quality is pretty good if you plug in the earphones.
With a relatively small 2.2-inch display, the Nokia X3 isn’t set up to be your ideal video-playing device. However, it’s OK to watch clips in full screen mode.
The media player supports video playback and streaming in a number of file formats including H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 and WMV9.
Without stacks of potentially battery-sapping high-end 3G functionality, we found that the Nokia X3 delivered a handsome battery performance under regular conditions.
The X3 arrives with a standard 860mAh Li-ion battery pack that Nokia reckons can deliver (under optimum network conditions) up to 7.5 hours of talktime or up to 380 hours of standby time.
We managed to go a steady 3-4 days between charges with normal phone usage, though naturally if we used the music player heavily, this figure dropped accordingly.
Of course, the music player functionality is the key selling point of this phone, so users are likely to hit play often; Nokia estimates that using the music player alone (with the phone switched to flight mode), users can get up to 26 hours of music player power – which seemed to hold up pretty well in our tests.
A routine set of Nokia Series 40 organiser tools and applications are ready for action on the X3. These functional tools, which are standard fare, include alarm clocks, calendar, to-do lists, notes, calculator, stopwatch and timer apps.
A couple of convertor apps and a world clock function are also slotted into the phone’s application folder.
Nokia X3: Connectivity
The Nokia X3 is a quad band handset, capable of running on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks. Without 3G or Wi-Fi the X3’s data connectivity relies on lower speed EDGE or GPRS, which limits its online prowess.
USB 2.0 connectivity is supported, via a microUSB port on top of the phone and a supplied data cable.
The X3 has Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity too, with stereo audio profiles (A2DP and AVRCP) enabling streaming to wireless headphones, speakers and other suitably enabled Bluetooth gadgets.
Also included in-box is a Nokia Music software CD. This PC software (there’s no Mac support) enables users to manage and synchronise music between the phone PC and other devices.
Nokia X3: Other
Although the X3 isn’t kitted out with internal GPS gadgetry, Nokia does include its Maps software onboard the phone.
It can be used with a separate optional Bluetooth GPS receiver module, although we’d guess anyone that keen for satellite location finding is likely to choose a phone with GPS inside in the first place.
Although it doesn’t use GPS – or the cellsite-based location approximation system of Google Maps – users can do searches for addresses, locations, businesses and services, get routing information and maps over the air.
Without GPS, the setup can feel a bit clunky as some menu options aren’t available, as the Nokia X3 firmware appears to have been ported from a more generic version of the OS.
Mapping downloads can take a while too if you’re in marginal coverage, and generally in its GPS-less truncated state, and without fast map updates, it’s a far from compelling proposition.
Among its other features, the X3 also has support for over the air software updates, with 10 games included too.
The Nokia X3 is decently equipped as a budget music mobile without having that ‘must-have’ X-factor.
The music player software is standard issue Nokia, so functional rather than flashy, but it puts an impressive audio show for a low-cost phone, with enough in-box to make it an attractive slim-line slider package.
Elsewhere, the X3 has a low-key set of features – there’s no 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS or smartphone gadgetry, and it has a limited camera – but if music is the focus, the X3 does the job fine.
The mediocre call performance on our review sample was a concern, however.
What we liked
The music player puts in a punchy audio performance, with decent sound quality through the better-than-average in-ear bud earphones supplied.
The 3.5mm headphone socket offers easy upgrading too, while the 2GB MicroSD gives decent tune room out of the box at this price.
Being able to use the FM radio without having headphones attached is also welcome.
The X3’s design is slim and quite attractive, and the Series 40 interface is typically straightforward-to-use Nokia stuff.
We liked the additional Opera browser to enhance its online performance. The email client is easy to set up too. We were also pleased with the phone’s sturdy battery performance.
What we disliked
The call performance was surprisingly lacklustre. The lack of 3G connectivity limits data speeds when using online applications, although the Opera Mini app pre-loaded does offer a speedier alternative to the Nokia software.
The camera put in a mediocre performance – image quality is limited and video recording is distinctly low-grade. Without GPS technology inside, the Maps software is limited too.
Verdict
The Nokia X3 is a tidy budget music mobile that concentrates on the audio performance and music player features.
Slim on other higher-end features and lacking 3G, it doesn’t demand centre stage, though some will nab it based on its tune playing highlights alone.
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