“Our
companies have enjoyed a long history together, and this represents a huge step
forward for both of the companies. We have worked closely with the Microsoft
Devices Group on this project, to make sure the users of Nokia X affordable smartphones
can have the best web browsing experience right out of the box”
Opera Chief Executive
Lars Boilesen commenting on Microsoft's decision to include Opera as the
Default Browser on Nokia X smartphone
Remember
the Nokia X range of smartphones?
You’ll
be forgiven if you don’t as Nokia markets it solely in India. However, I’d done
an article on the smartphone when it had launched on Tuesday February 25th
2014 as described in detail in my blog article
entitled “US$120
Nokia X along with US$135 Nokia X+ and US$150 Nokia XL coming by Second Quarter
of 2014 - Nokia's Trio of smartphones Perfect Windows Phone Trojan Horse for
Developing World”.
It’s
an oddball in the Microsoft Family as it’s a smartphone line running a forked
version of Android made to look like Windows Phone OS as described in “MICROSOFT
CONTINUES ITS ANDROID EXPERIMENT WITH THE NOKIA X2 SMARTPHONE”, published
June 24, 2014 By Andy Boxall, DigitalTrends.
Now
it’s gonna get another splash of diversity; it’s gonna use the Norwegian Browser
Opera as announced in “Opera
Browser finds new niche: Nokia's Android powered X family”, published June
24, 2014 10:44 AM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET
News and “Opera
will be the default Browser on the Nokia X phones”, published June 24th
2014, GSMArena.
The
news was officially announced on Opera's Blog as Opera News in an article
entitled “Opera
becomes the new default Browser on Nokia X”. This coincides with
Microsoft-Nokia Tag team rolling out yet another member of this oddball team,
the US$135 Nokia
X2 smartphone.
This
was also officially announced on the Microsoft Blog as stated in “Surprise!
Microsoft Makes Opera As The Default Browser For Nokia X Family”, published
Jun 24, 2014, Microsoft News and on
Nokia’s Blog as stated in “NOKIA
X2: THE NEXT-GENERATION X”, published TUE, JUN 24 PUBLISHED BY ADAM FRASER, Conversations Nokia.
The
Nokia X family now reads as thus:
1.
Nokia X
2.
Nokia X+
3.
Nokia XL
4.
Nokia X2
The
Prices are even more interesting. Too bad this is mostly an Indian and Asian
Market phone, as at these prices, it’d do very well in Jamaica. Its main crime
is that it’s a Dual-SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) smartphone, which is
a no-no for Telecom Providers in the western hemisphere who want their subscribers
locked in to one Network. If you want this, you have to order it direct from
India yourself as this’ll never be on Telecom Provider Digicel or Telecom Provider LIME’s Networks here in Jamaica.
Opera Browser for Nokia
X Series – No Country for Google Chrome as Opera is Riding West
Good
to note at this point that SwiftKey, as described in my blog article entitled
“SwiftKey
now free for Android Users – How Apple users might soon be getting SwiftKey
Free” is already baked into all smartphones that are a part of the Nokia X
line, including the new Nokia X2. The
specs for the Nokia X2 as shown below:
1.
Operating System: Android OS, v4.3
(Jelly Bean)
2.
Processor: Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
3.
Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8210 Snapdragon 200
4.
Screen: 4.3 inches, 480 x 800 pixels
(~217 ppi pixel density) IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
5.
Dimensions: 121.7 x 68.3 x 11.1 mm, 87.4
cc (4.79 x 2.69 x 0.44 in)
6.
Weight: 150 g (5.29 oz)
7.
RAM: 1 GB RAM
8.
External Storage: 32 GB microSD
9.
Internal Storage: 4 GB
10.
Rear Camera: 5 MP, 2592 х 1944 pixels,
autofocus, LED flash
11.
SIM: Dual SIM
12.
Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 -
SIM 1 & SIM 2
13.
Cellular Internet: HSDPA 900 / 2100,
EDGE, GPRS
14.
Wireless Internet: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n,
Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, HS
15.
Battery: Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery (BV-5S)
a. Up
to 552 h
b. Up
to 10 h (2G) / Up to 13 h (3G)
c. Up
to 86 h
16.
Features:
a.
Accelerometer, proximity
b.
SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push
Email, IM
c.
HTML
d.
Stereo FM radio with RDS
e.
A-GPS support, GLONASS, Beidou
f.
Java MIDP emulator
g.
Glossy green, orange black, yellow,
white, matt dark grey
h.
7GB free OneDrive storage
i.
SNS integration
j.
MP3/WAV/eAAC+/Flac player
k.
MP4/H.264/H.263 player
l.
Photo editor
m.
Voice memo/dial
n.
Predictive text input
o.
Stereo FM radio with RDS
The
colours are also very stylish for this Dual-SIM deal
1.
Glossy Green
2.
Orange Black
3.
Yellow
4.
White
5.
Matte Dark Grey
Nokia
is clearly trying to avoid using Google Chrome’s Browser, as it would mean Ad
Revenue coming from their phones going into Google’s pocket. This would defeat
the process of using Google Android as cannon fodder in their fight to grow
interest in their Windows Phone OS, especially as it’s styled to look like
Windows Phone OS.
After
all, it you can beat them, you use them to attract users, especially in the
Developing World, for which these Nokia X Line of smartphones are being tailor
made. Most likely to, the default Search Engine Providers will be Microsoft’s
Bing Search Engine, making sure that in terms of Search, Nokia’s got you
covered.
Opera Browser Growing
Strong – Discovery with Opera Turbo is a Speed Dial Away
So
what are the standout features of the Opera Browser? Since the death of
Blackberry, Opera has been migrating to Google Android and Apple iOS as a
Browsers alternative to Google Android Browser, Google Chrome for Mobile and
Safari Browser on Apple iOS devices.
They’ve
been seeing a gentle uptick in usage since September of 2013 according to
StatCounter as chronicled in my Geezam blog
article entitled “Opera
Mini Browser continues to be Growing Strong as smartphone Growth marches
forward”.
Possible
because for a Browser, it’s got some pretty stellar Features, most of which
they’ve copied from other Web-based services. There is the Discovery Feature,
which is very similar to StumbleUpon in that it curates hundreds of websites
around the world and presents it as a creme
de la creme Breadbasket of what's good online. This list is sortable by
country and topic and it's something I would love over Google, as it means
faster searching and guaranteed quality content.
Then
there's Opera Turbo, a service that's a lot like the Amazon Silk Browser. It
uses Opera's Servers to handle search queries and then compress the Data so
that it loads much faster on Opera's Browser. Thanks to this compression
routine, it reduces the amount of Data a smartphone has to process and renders WebPages
much faster.
Finally
there's Speed Dial, possibly the only thing that the Norwegians didn't copy
from somewhere else. This is basically a faster Bookmarking scheme that makes
it easier for your thumbs to find bookmarked website entries by organizing them
in structured folders. Thus, finding them again for uses while browsing on the
go is that much easier, especially when you throw in Opera Turbo for faster
Browsing of the Website you've been introduced to by Discovery.
Discovery
with Opera Turbo is a Speed Dial Away on the Nokia X series of smartphones!
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