First Impression: Nokia Android phone

I was surprised when I first heard Nokia was planning an Android-based smartphone. The company has left its mark with its Windows-based phones, though it has also been criticised for missing the Android bus, since a lot of people have found Google's operating system more user-friendly.

The wait for Nokia's Android phone was worthwhile. The X, the first in the family to hit the market, has a single capacitive button for navigation, unlike the three on a Windows phone. The models in the X series run on a forked variant of Android, much like Amazon's Kindle Fire e-book readers. The Finnish mobile maker has mixed elements of Android with the features of its own Asha operating system and Windows Phone.

The four-inch display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels (233 pixels an inch) offers decent clarity. A major problem with the X is there is no access to Google Play Store for apps. Nokia has also ditched many other Android services for Microsoft's, such as the Bing search engine, Skype communications and OneDrive file storage. The interface has large, resizable tiles resembling those of the Windows OS. Third-party apps on the X include instant messaging apps such as BlackBerry's BBM and Viber and games such as Plants vs Zombies 2.