So the rumours have rang true. After much speculation and leaks, Nokia has bravely stepped into Android territory with its maiden Nokia X smartphone. To everyone’s surprise though, Nokia didn’t just fork out a single device but three – also the Nokia X+ and Nokia XL.
But isn’t Nokia a Microsoft company? And doesn’t Nokia run Windows Phone OS? Yes and Yes and apparently No.
No forking way!
Nokia’s three new devices unraveled at the 2014 Mobile World Congress (MWC) are pretty unique devices out of the bat. Firstly, while they breathe familiar Lumia and Asha DNA in terms of hardware and design, they run a forked version of Android – the open-sourced AOSP. Much like how Amazon did it with its Kindle OS.
The forked version has underpinnings and all the benefits of Android aside from running Google apps and will not feature a Google Play Store. Apps are available from the curated Nokia Store, third party stores like Yandex and also via manual .apk installs.
Apparently SwiftKey will be available for the new Nokia devices for free, and BBM is on the way to Windows Phone sometime in the summer.
Nokia X’s Android experience will look and feel nothing like Android as you know it. The UI is differentiated by a somewhat tiled Windows UI feel, also with a ported version of FastLane for Asha devices.
The hardware isn’t great, but wait. These are phones targeted at growth markets and budget-conscious.
Read next page for more spec details.
