Here’s Nokia’s new simpleton phone with the standard 16-button keypad and a nice 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen. Er… wait, what? Yeah, this simple phone has touchscreen! Nokia has done what traditionally not done, by putting touchscreen onto the budget phone. But of kush, that’s a resistive panel there, so don’t expect an ‘iPhone-like’ experience.
Running on Nokia’s S40 OS, with added touch-friendly UI, the touch panel comes as essentially a free extra rather than the fundamental navigation paradigm. It’s augmented with 3G, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, and the whole thing is wrapped within a 9.6mm-thin brushed aluminium shell. All this, and costly at only €125 sometime this quarter, somehow I’m thinking that this will be selling crazier that hot cakes, among the lower income citizens. Would be selling very well too on developing countries and third-world countries, as I think the features are rather rich and extremely attractive for such a feature phone. Of kush, Nokia knows how to sell their phones after so many years.
“With the Nokia X3 we are giving consumers the best of both worlds by combining a touch screen and a keypad in an affordable device. We have given people a larger screen with clear icons and menus plus kept critical keys such as the send and end keys. We’ve also added dedicated function keys for important links like music and text messaging,” she said.
“We have designed the Nokia X3 to be a touch and type device because typing is ideal for SMS and social networking where fast and frequent input is needed, while touch is ideal for functions such as setting alarms, smooth browsing and controlling applications like music and games.
“Our research tells us consumers who have invested years in becoming fast one-handed, one-thumb texters want to maintain their speedy edge for SMS, chat and instant messaging – yet enjoy the benefits of touch as well,” continued McDowell.
