Nokia X and Nokia X+ Android phones revealed

Nokia X - new Android phone from Nokia
Nokia X - new Android phone from Nokia

Nokia has revealed at MWC 2014 that it is no longer a pure Windows Phone handset manufacturer but an Android one too, with the launch of the Nokia X and the Nokia X+.

In a move that will surprise no one – there has been leak after leak about Nokia jumping into bed with Android – Nokia revealed the Nokia X on stage, with CEO Stephen Elop saying that: "The Nokia X is built on Android open source software. We have differentiated and added our own experience."

The Nokia X smartphone - formally codenamed Nokia Normandy - is using Android but a Windows flavoured version of the software. As we saw leaked pre-show, Nokia has added its own veritable style with the OS given a live tile flavour.

In fact the phones look a lot like Lumia, but with Android baked underneath. Both handsets are low cost so don't expect mind blowing specs on these devices - and this is maybe why no actual specs of any real worth were mentioned in the press conference.

X marks the spot

But we did some digging and some more digging and here's what we know about the Nokia X and Nokia X+.

The Nokia X will come with 4-inch IPS capacitive display - to give it its hip hop name, it's an IPS LCD WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) capacitive touch 4" display - 3MP camera, has dual SIM cards, expandable storage via a MicroSD card slot and has a 'fast lane user experience' according to Nokia.

As for processing power, all Nokia X phones run on a 1GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon dual core processor, have512MB RAM & 4GB eMMC, and an impressive 1500mAh battery.

The handsets also come preloaded with Skype and other Microsoft friendly fair, including Maps and MixRadio, Skype and OneDrive.

This is definitely a forked version of Android with Elop noting that the Nokia X takes people to Microsoft's cloud and not Google's crowd. Oh, and Nokia has its own store on the app as well, so let's just call it MicroDroid or AndSoft and be done with it.

Elop does say that Android devs can bring their apps to Nokia X - only takes a few extra hours dev work - and people can sideload applications using an SD card.

Alongside the Nokia X, the Nokia X+ was also announced as well as the Nokia XL - a five-inch smartphone.

With all X devices, you will get one month free calls to landlines and mobiles - this is an unlimited world subscription. You will also get 10GB of free cloud storage with OneDrive.

The Nokia X is out now for 89 Euros, the Nokia X+ is available in Q2 for 99 Euros and The Nokia Xl will be available for 109 Euros. Given that Nokia loves all colours, the devices will be available in: bright green, bright red, cyan, yellow, black and white.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.