Nokia x3 review

While smartphones are all the rage these days, there's still a market for the budget mobile phone. The Nokia X3 is exactly that, a slide-out music-phone that costs just S$278 (US$198). It may not have all the bells and whistles that many are used to these days, but the X3 still shines in some areas, especially when it comes to battery life.

Design
Though primarily black in color, the red stripes and silver keypad quickly tell you that the Nokia targeted at youths. It is really compact measuring 96 x 49.3 x 14.1mm when closed and weighs 103g. Overall, the design is not too striking and some may not like the overly angular shape.

The 2.2-inch screen has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, pretty standard for a budget phone. Quite a number of buttons are found on the front face, including softkeys and a directional pad below the display and music control buttons on the left of it. These music controls let you start/stop music and navigate between tracks. If you are listening to the radio, it lets you switch channels.

Sliding the screen up will reveal a flat keypad. This looks like a single sheet of metal separated by bits of rubber. Spacing between keys is sufficient, and though it isn't excellent, the keypad didn't give us any crippling problems when in use.

On the left is where you will find a microSD card slot. This supports up to 16GB cards which will let you store quite a bit of music. On the left is a volume rocker and camera shortcut.

On top of the X3 are three ports. These are the 3.5mm audio jack, a micro-USB connector and small 2mm charging connector. We look forward to the day when Nokia decides to integrate the charging port with the micro-USB on all its phones.
Features
This is a low-end device and the number of connectivity options reflects that. It supports quad-band GSM and Bluetooth, so there're none of your fancy HSDPA or GPS radios. This may not be such a bad thing if you are a basic user since it benefits battery life, as we shall see in the performance section later.

Based on the Nokia S40 interface, the X3 is easy to operate. Anyone who has used a Nokia phone will be able to get the hang of it in no time. There are also a few extras preinstalled, such as the Opera Mini browser which downloads Web pages in a compressed format so you won't have to wait all day just to look up something online using your GPRS connection.

Music is a main feature of this handset and the X3 gets the basics right. As mentioned earlier, the controls on the front face make playback easy. You can use your favorite headphones as the audio jack is standard. Even if you don't have a pair, the package provides one that has a built-in mic, too, for making phone calls.

The FM tuner feature is interesting in that it doesn't require you to plug in headphones to work. FM tuners generally use the headphone cable as an antenna, but in the case of the X3, this is built into the phone, just like the iNo Mobile CP09. Reception for the radio was fine for most popular stations. But when we tested out some stations that usually require a better antenna to get a good reception (in Singapore, for example, the BBC World Service), crackling was evident, especially when walking around in built-up urban areas.
Performance
Because we are so accustomed to smartphones requiring daily charging, it was refreshing to use a phone that just went on and on. We carried the X3 for almost four days without having to plug in a charger. This included phonecalls, occasional GPRS usage with the browser, and daily radio listening sessions during commutes.

Voice calls sounded good and we had no issues with the cellular reception throughout our review period. There is also a speakerphone option for instances when you need your hands to be free.