Nokia X review: Under cover

Under cover

GSMArena team, 10 April 2014.

Synthetic benchmarks and performance

The Nokia X is powered by a dual-core 1.0GHz Cortex-A5 processor coupled with 512MB of RAM, which should be barely enough to run a standard Android Jelly Bean version. Luckily Nokia has done some great work optimizing platform its proprietary launcher, so the final result is decently smooth with very little visible lag.

The GPU in charge of graphics is Adreno 203. It is probably the slowest GPU currently in mass production, but it should be enough to handle less demanding games running on WVGA resolution. Unfortunately GFXBenchmark, 3DMark and Epic Citadel are still incompatible with Nokia X, so you'll have to rely on the all-in-one test scores.

There aren't many benchmarks available in the Nokia Store, but we managed to sideload a few, so we are able to provide you with comparable scores.

The single-core performance, as usual, we measure with the BenchmarkPi test. The 1.0 GHz Cortex-A5 processor quite expectedly hit the bottom of our charts, twice slower than its Cortex-A9 siblings and 50% behind the Cortex-A7 cores.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
    305
  • Alcatel One Touch Hero
    308
  • Huawei Ascend Mate
    347
  • Huawei Ascend P6
    348
  • LG Optimus G
    353
  • Sony Xperia C
    374
  • Motorola Moto G
    392
  • Sony Xperia M
    400
  • LG Nexus 4
    431
  • Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
    466
  • Nokia X
    676

GeekBench 3 tests the multi-core performance and Nokia X occupied the last spot in our all-time chart. However its performance wasn't too bad considering that all other tested devices are way more expensive than it.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

  • LG Optimus G
    1465
  • Alcatel One Touch Hero
    1321
  • Huawei Ascend P6
    1315
  • LG Nexus 4
    1288
  • Motorola Moto G
    1120
  • Sony Xperia C
    1079
  • Oppo R819
    1047
  • HTC One mini
    887
  • Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
    647
  • Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
    564
  • Nokia X
    421

The all-in-one tests AnTuTu and Quadrant gauge the overall hardware performance, including graphics and RAM bandwidth. Nokia X, being the only Cortex-A5 device we've put through the newest versions of the apps once again finished last on both tests, but again the gap was a bit lower than we expected.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

  • Motorola Moto G
    17214
  • LG Optimus G
    16943
  • Huawei Ascend Mate
    15714
  • Alcatel One Touch Hero
    15667
  • Oppo Find 5
    15167
  • Sony Xperia C
    13948
  • Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
    13109
  • Sony Xperia M
    9902
  • Nokia X
    7514

Quadrant

Higher is better

  • LG Nexus 5
    8844
  • Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
    8588
  • Motorola Moto G
    8508
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
    7153
  • HTC One mini
    6048
  • Sony Xperia V
    5816
  • HTC Desire 600 dual sim
    5053
  • Samsung Galaxy Express
    4998
  • Sony Xperia C
    4941
  • Sony Xperia L
    4279
  • Sony Xperia M
    4147
  • Samsung Galaxy Core
    3240
  • Nokia X
    2880

Finally, we ran SunSpider and BrowserMark web benchmarks on the default Nokia X browser. The Nokia X punched way above its weight here, beating some quite expensive devices in both SunSpider and BrowserMark.

SunSpider

Lower is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
    972
  • LG Optimus G Pro
    1011
  • Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
    1063
  • HTC One
    1124
  • Alcatel One Touch Hero
    1181
  • LG Optimus G
    1251
  • Motorola Moto G
    1308
  • Sony Xperia Z
    1336
  • Oppo R819
    1423
  • HTC Butterfly
    1433
  • Alcatel One Touch Hero
    1646
  • Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
    1680
  • Huawei Ascend Mate
    1741
  • Sony Xperia M
    1867
  • Nokia X
    2363
  • Huawei Ascend P6
    3858

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

  • Motorola Moto G
    2562
  • Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
    2432
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
    2314
  • Alcatel One Touch Hero
    2096
  • Sony Xperia Z
    2093
  • LG Optimus G
    2048
  • Sony Xperia C
    1984
  • Sony Xperia L
    1809
  • Nokia X
    1729
  • Sony Xperia M
    1642
  • Samsung Galaxy S III
    1247
  • Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
    1100
  • Huawei Ascend P6
    974
  • Samsung Galaxy S III mini
    714

The Nokia X did come out last on most of the tests we ran, but given its modest price that was to be expected. If anything the smartphone does better than expected given its standing in the pecking order. And as we told you the phone handles its platform very well and that's what matters in the end. Yes, some hiccups or bottlenecks may occur if you put huge pressure on the Nokia X but overall - the UI experience and performance is solid.

Reader comments

  • choti bala
  • 21 Sep 2016
  • gNS

Haram khor home screen PR Wallpaper kyn ni lagta chotibala

  • gigifionnah
  • 14 Apr 2016
  • N7D

My nokia x shut dowm and its not onning anymore just charging only...how do i update it and it off already..pliiiiz help

  • asante
  • 03 Mar 2016
  • NwL

I want to know how i can get back my applications on the internal memory card after mistakenly formatted both SD cards. Please am in endear need of help right now. thank you.