Microsoft has revealed its first phone after completing its takeover of Nokia’s handset division – and the €99 device is powered by Android rather than Windows. Microsoft said the Nokia X2 offered it a way to hook users into its cloud-based services, several of which come pre-installed as apps. Microsoft completed its takeover of Nokia’s […]
Microsoft has revealed its first phone after completing its takeover of Nokia’s handset division – and the €99 device is powered by Android rather than Windows.
Microsoft said the Nokia X2 offered it a way to hook users into its cloud-based services, several of which come pre-installed as apps.
Microsoft completed its takeover of Nokia’s handset division on 25 April at a cost of €5.4bn euros (£4.4bn).
The X2 is the follow-up to the original X, launched in February before Nokia sold its mobile business.
The original model became the best-selling mobile in Pakistan and the third best-selling handset in India – according to market-research company GfK – as well as achieving strong sales in Russia, Kenya and Nigeria.
The new device features a slightly bigger 4.3in (11cm) screen, 1GB of RAM – double the amount of memory previously included and will cost 99 euro ($135; £80) when released in July.
Microsoft’s video chat app Skype, its Outlook email service and its OneDrive internet storage apps all come pre-loaded.
The firm is also promoting some of its other apps – including Bing Search, the Yammer business-focused social network and the OneNote idea jotting service – as optional free downloads for the device.
Windows Phone now boasts over 250,000 apps including Instagram and Vine, which were high-profile absentees until November.
But several banking apps, games, video on-demand software, and apps used to control wearable fitness trackers available on Android are not available for Nokia X2 users.
The Nokia X2 can run the bigger library of Android apps, but unless users root the device they can only browse available software via the Nokia Store – which excludes some programs – rather than the more fully-stocked Google Play.
