Product Listing

Nokia XL is a dead on arrival experiment

By PY Ho - 3 Aug 2014
Launch SRP: S$239

Nokia X Platform UI 1.0

Nokia X Platform UI 1.0

Nokia XL runs on Nokia X Platform UI 1.0, which is a fork of Android 4.1.2. Care must be taken in distinguishing between Nokia’s form of Android, and the various Android variants that are commonly reviewed by our team. Nokia’s form of Android is based on Android open-source platform (AOSP) code, without going through the compatibility tests instituted by Google; Nokia built their own services upon the open-source code, particularly Microsoft services, and then pushed it out to the market.

Essentially, Nokia X Platform UI 1.0 is a heavily altered Android, with every Google service ripped out and replaced with Microsoft and Nokia's offerings. The consequences of such a strategic decision may not be immediately be visible to the layman, but there are marked differences between Nokia’s Android, and the conventional Android OS variants deployed on major devices. One is that there is no Google Play Store in the Nokia X Platform. Instead, it is replaced by Nokia X Store, Nokia’s own curated app store. The other differences are as follows:

  • No linking of Google services in any form or share options
  • No Google Maps
  • No Google Now
  • No Google Push Notification service

In lieu of these aspects, Nokia has complemented the platform with their own version of the services, which will be covered in this section.

For the rest of the article, "conventional Android phones" shall refer to the Android systems typically found in most other Android phones, particularly those that actually has Google Play Store.

 

Home Screen

Windows Phone UI on budget

For those who are accustomed to using an Android based device, the Nokia X Platform UI 1.0's home screen will look very unfamiliar. In fact, the home screen is very similar to that of the Windows Phone UI interface. It is vertical-scroll home screen, populated by what looks like tiles from the Windows Phone UI. One can move and resize the tiles, the same way as you would on a true Windows Phone device. There is no fixed dock at the bottom of the screen; all icons, including the Phone launcher, are places on the main home screen, similar to that of the Windows Phone 8 user interface.

The one minor difference is that the Nokia X Platform UI 1.0 will allow you to add Android widgets on the home screen, just like any other Android phone. However, one cannot resize any widget, even if the widget is declared resizable in the first place.

So in short, it looks like Windows Phone, but it doesn't run Windows Phone apps and it allows you to run Android apps, but only those from the Nokia X Store. It's a very bizarre permutation that will take time to get accustomed to as it doesn't follow either the full Android route, or that of the Windows Phone path. But wait, there's more to be aware of...

 

App Drawer, or the lack thereof

Another major difference that Android users, or even Windows Phone users may encounter is the total absence of an App Drawer; all app launchers are located on the home screen. Swiping left and right does not bring the full list of apps.

Such design brings about inconvenience, especially when the user has installed a lot of apps. While an iOS-like paginated horizontal scroll will work fine, to scroll through a non-paginated vertical-scrolling interface to find one installed app would be tedious.

To remedy this somewhat, there is a Search bar at the top of the home screen to find the desired app (that is if you recall what you were looking for). The search bard can be revealed by slightly dragging up the home screen when it is at the top level. Even so, the given circumstances of where and how you can evoke search before typing to search what your require takes significant effort, and thus, the whole user experience feels displaced.

 

Fastlane

Nokia’s Fastlane is an interface which displays the user’s most recently accessed apps and notifications in reverse chronological order. As such, the Fastlane partly complements the lack of an app drawer by allowing the user to quickly launch apps that are commonly accessed. You can get to Fastlane by swiping the main home screen left or right.

 

The one Back button, and menu as a drawer

On phones running on conventional Android systems, they would almost always implement visible and clear buttons (be it soft or hard keys) corresponding to at least two conventional system keys: the Home and the Back button. On the Nokia Platform UI however, there is only one button: the Back button.

While by Android convention, one exits an Android app by repeatedly pressing the Back button until one returns to the home screen, it presents an interesting situation when one is using the Browser. In a Browser app, pressing the back button returns the user to the previous page; it only exits the app when there are no other previous pages in the browsing history. Imagine then if the user has navigated through tens of web sites, and suddenly decides to make a call. On a conventional Android system, the user will just need to tap the Home button to return to the home screen, and then tap on the Call or Dialer app. What about in the Nokia UI? Does the user need to press the back buttons tens of times before he can go back to the home screen?

It took quite some time for us to find out, but there indeed exists a Home system key on the Nokia Platform UI 1.0. This is activated by long-pressing the Back key.

While this sounds easy and long pressing a key to activate secondary functions isn't exactly new, it's not at all intuitive on this platform. That's because long pressing takes a whole one second to register our intended action; this breaks user experience as the Home key is the most used in any mobile device. As a qualification to this statement, its recently announced successor, the Nokia X2, will indeed have a home button, as a correction to the broken user experience.

Unlike conventional Android phones, there is no way to activate the task switcher, as there is none. While it's complemented by Fastlane, it's just a 'shortcut' to previously opened apps or tasks and it does not stop processes.

While most Android apps have been updated to implement menus as soft buttons in the app, there still exists legacy apps whereby the menu is activated traditionally by a menu key. For modern conventional Android systems without a menu key, such apps will have the Menu Overflow button displayed in the system bar. However, for Nokia X Platform UI 1.0, the menu is rendered as a closed drawer at the bottom of the screen, which can be activated by dragging out the drawer. It’s not very obvious initially and may take some time getting used to.

 

Nokia Here Maps

To make up for the lack of Google Maps, Nokia has incorporated Here maps, their own mapping solution. One advantage that Here Maps have over Google Maps is the easy ability to download maps for offline usage.

A field test was done to determine its usefulness under offline usage. Here are the parameters set:

  • SIM card removed
  • Wi-Fi turned off

Amazingly, it is able to triangulate rather accurately. Our test locations were locked on in about 10 seconds, despite not having any other signal to assist in geolocation.

Do take note that this offline mode works only when the "Internet Connection" option in Settings is turned off. Yet, to get directions, one must remember to turn on this setting again, even if one is connected to a 3G or a Wi-Fi network by then.

Oddly however, the Here Maps fails at times when it is connected over Wi-Fi. One of the field tests was conducted in Science Park I. Yet, the phone was located to be near Pioneer MRT, even with the Internet Connection option was turned off. Such mismatch of location was only resolved by turning off the Wi-Fi connection.

With regards to mapping capability, Here Maps still has quite some way to catch up to Google Maps or even Apple Maps, at least in the context of usage in Singapore. Various new landmarks that are easily located in Google Maps, such as SUTD, NUS, NTU, cannot be located using Here Maps. Having said that, we noticed some landmarks that are still under construction are already showing up on Here Maps, without any indication that they do not yet exist, examples being the future Downtown line stations. This will thoroughly confuse users, especially tourists to Singapore who may think that the Downtown line is ready for use.

 

Nokia X Store

In place of Google Play Store, the Nokia X Platform UI comes with Nokia X Store. This is the default gateway to getting apps on Nokia XL. Unfortunately, the offerings in Nokia X Store are mediocre, compared to Google Play, Apple App Store, Windows Phone Marketplace, Blackberry App World, or even the Nokia Ovi Store.

"Install Whatsapp", "Quick Whatsapp", "Whatsapp Say". These are not legit Whatsapp, yet they top the Apps chart in Nokia X, with suspiciously positive reviews.

First, the quality of the apps are suspect. While Nokia has claimed that they will have more stringent checking of apps in the Nokia X Store, the facts say otherwise. A quick browse on the Top Apps section revealed many "spoofware" - apps that masquerade other legitimate apps, but offer little or no functionalities. Some examples are the existence of "Google Search", "Google Translate", and many various apps containing the word "WhatsApp", but are actually spoof apps created by unknown companies, and offer unrelated or no functionality. For instance, the "Install WhatAap"” app turns out to be no more than just showing words.

Yet, these apps are suspiciously getting high ratings, despite the fact that they are spoof apps. Legit users would’ve downranked such spoof apps, and even reported it to Nokia. The fact that such apps still remain, and in such overwhelming numbers that they top the Nokia X Store, contradicts Nokia’s claims of stringent checks on apps submitted. Worse still, they flood the app store. Such a phenomenon is bad for the end user, for he or she can be misled into thinking that these spoof apps, being top-rated, are legit.

In spite of that, there exist common legit apps in the Nokia X Store, such as Facebook and Twitter. They work just like how they operate on conventional Android systems. However, due to the extra effort needed to port an existing app for use in the Nokia UI Platform, these apps lag behind their respective counterparts in conventional Android systems.

If all else fails, Nokia X Store will assist in directing the user to other stores. Compatibility with Nokia XL not guaranteed.

Interestingly, the Nokia X Store also contains apps that lead to other third-party app stores, such as SlideMe. Whenever the user needs an app that is not available in the Nokia X Store, he or she will be redirected to these third-party stores. Do note that these stores offer apps that may not be compatible with the Nokia UI Platform, and may also be outdated.

 

Sideloading

The other way of getting existing Android apps is through sideloading, i.e. copying over the APK installer file into Nokia XL, and running the installer. Does it work? We tested extracting the APK, and installing some apps that are commonly used in Singapore and are not available in the Nokia X Store. Apps that are made by Google are excluded from the test, for obvious reasons.

  • WhatsApp: Installs, but throws error message
  • SG Buses: Does not install
  • POSB App: Does not install
  • UOB App: Does not install
  • OCBC App: Does not install
  • GrabTaxi: Installs and runs. Actual booking not tested.

WhatsApp is able to install on Nokia XL. However, it is not sanctioned by WhatsApp.

As such, despite Nokia X having an Android core, many existing Android apps will not be able to install or run on it. This can be attributed to the fact that many legit apps incorporate some Google services - especially push notification - and thus will not work on Nokia XL out of the box.

While there are workarounds to overcome the lack of essential apps, those methods are nonetheless unofficial, are unsupported by official sources, and therefore may break intermittently.

 

Software Update Status

Many had hoped that since Nokia has been acquired by Microsoft, surely Microsoft/Nokia will work hard to deliver timely updates to their devices, given that Microsoft had previously snubbed Android for fragmentation and slow updates. The recent unveiling of Nokia X2 comes along with the debut of Nokia X Platform UI 2.0, which is based on Android 4.3. Unfortunately, Nokia has publicly announced that the current Nokia X series phones will not receive an OS-level upgrade to Platform UI 2.0.

As such, Nokia XL is stuck with Platform UI 1.0, i.e. Android 4.1, just less than 4 months after its first release overseas, and barely a month after its debut in Singapore.

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3.0
  • Design 6
  • Features 4
  • User-Friendliness 5
  • Performance 3
  • Value 1
The Good
Dual SIM phone
The Bad
Bulky and thick
Mediocre screen even for a budget phone
Outdated hardware and software
Sluggish and unintuitive user interface
App offerings mediocre; many illegitimate
Video playback struggles; 480p recording
Offers no value
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