Nokia X3 deals & review

The world’s number one mobile phone maker Nokia is beefing up its line of X-series phones. After the X6, the Nokia X3 is another Comes With Music feature phone in the slider form factor with the new sharp cornered designs Nokia is starting to follow from its competitors.

Nokia preempted Sony Ericsson from expanding its Xperia line and has jumped from X2 to X10 because of this. This time, the X3’s less endowed features qualify it as a budget feature phone.

Entry Level Features

Against the X6, the X3 gets watered down with no 3G. Measuring a compact 96 x 48.3 x 14.1mm when closed and weighing a light 103g, the X3 is a quad band GSM on 2G with only class 32 GPRS/EDGE at 296/178.8 Kbps data speeds. There’s no WiFi so internet downloading will have to settle with a data plan on a slower GPRS/EDGE speeds.

You get the usual high speed local data connectivity options for going wired on microUSB 2.0 or wireless with Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. Don’t expect GPS for a budget handset.

Its display feature is likewise mediocre with a mere 2.2-inch TFT LCD QVGA display with 256k color support. Imaging comes from a conventional 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera that’s already par-for-the course in many entry level budget handsets. Even its QCIF video recording at a low 15fps is in entry level territory.

Multimedia gets better with a stereo FM radio with RDS and a built-in antenna so you won’t need to tether to a wired earphone to act as an antenna as you can not listen to the radio from its stereo speaker phones.

You also get the Nokia media players for video files in the MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV codecs and audio files in the MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA file formats. There are dedicated music playback keys on the body as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired regular headphones apart form its wireless stereo listening option over Bluetooth A2DP.

You get microSD memory expansion slot for up to 16 GB with a 2GB microSD card bundled in the retail sales package. This should expand the minimal 40 MB phone memory on the Nokia X3 which also gets a phonebook capacity for up to 2,000 entries. 

You get up to 7.5 hours of talk time and up to 20 hours of standby time on a standard li-ion batter rated at 860 mAh (BL-4CT). It also provides up to 26 hours of uninterrupted music listening on a single charge.