Nokia XL Dual SIM review: Start to Finnish

Display

The Nokia XL features a 5" IPS LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800) and a low pixel density of 187ppi. At the price point, we wouldn't have complained about the resolution too much until recently, but the Moto G and its 720p display (over twice as many pixels as WVGA) changed that.

Nokia XL has a 5" WVGA screen • it's noticeably bigger than the 4" screen of the Nokia XL

What we miss more is perks like Nokia ClearBlack, which is a polarizing filter that diminishes reflections and greatly improves screen legibility in sunlight.

There seems to be no scratch-proof glass of any kind, certainly not the popular Gorilla Glass.

Anyway, the large screen lends itself to comfortably browsing desktop pages, which don't require zooming in too closely. The low pixel density otherwise becomes apparent, with small text almost illegible and medium-sized text looking soft. Thin fonts don't work well, bold or italic text looks off.

Viewing angles are surprisingly good for a display in this price bracket, however contrast and colors are not great.

Brightness is good, we found that setting it at about 50% is usually good enough, but even at full blast it's not enough to overcome the reflectivity of the screen. The Nokia XL has one of the most reflective screens we've seen, earning it a place at the bottom.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3.549
• Alcatel Idol X+
  3.527
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Nokia Lumia 925
  3.402
• Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  3.127
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  3.118
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2.950
• HTC One S
  2.901
• BlackBerry Q10
  2.856
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• BlackBerry Z30
  2.790
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Sony Xperia ZR
  2.672
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• HTC One Max
  2.537
• Nokia Lumia 720
  2.512
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  2.262
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• HTC One mini
  2.003
• LG G2
  1.976
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1.865
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Meizu MX3
  1.754
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• BlackBerry Q5
  1.682
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• LG Optimus GJ
  1.666
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  1.622
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1.578
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  1.563
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
  1.393
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1.321
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• Nokia Asha 501
  1.270
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Nokia XL
  1.204
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

Battery life

The Nokia XL doesn't have a tack sharp screen or a blazing fast chipset, but the upside of that should be good battery life. With a 2,000mAh battery we were a bit skeptical, yet the XL proved us wrong with a 62 hour endurance rating. Note that we tested the dual-SIM version of the phone with two SIM cards in it.

Talk time was pretty good nearly 11 hours, although the HTC Desire 600 dual sim did an hour more with a smaller battery. It's the web browsing that was particularly impressive though, 12 hours is about as good as we've seen (another dual-SIM HTC, the 5" Desire 700, did even better).

It's the video playback time that let the phone down with 6 and half hours. The video player has limited capabilities as we'll see later.

Anyway, for a dual-SIM device the Nokia XL showed excellent standby performance. This allowed it to top both the Desire 600 and 700 in terms of endurance rating.

For a more detailed breakdown of the Nokia XL battery performance check out our blogpost.