Nokia X2-01 (T-Mobile)

T-Mobile has been building out its lineup of prepaid cell phones lately. The new Nokia X2-01 ($79.99) is a good value thanks to its usable QWERTY keyboard and executive form factor, although its camera is a big disappointment. Still, as long as you're not expecting the X2-01 to be as powerful as a smartphone, you could find satisfaction here.

Design and Call Quality
The Nokia X2-01 is clad in dark gray plastic with a glossy black front bezel; for now, that's the only color choice. The X2-01 measures 4.7 by 2.4 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.8 ounces. It's not the slimmest device on the market, but it looks fine next to a BlackBerry Curve, and that's good company to be in for a prepaid phone. The 2.4-inch LCD offers 320-by-240-pixel resolution, and offers good brightness and sharpness for a low-end phone. Six function keys bracket a five-way control pad with a pronounced plastic ridge. Typing on the four-row QWERTY keyboard was a little stiff, but the slightly bubbled keys are roomy and well-arranged.

The X2-01 is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) device with no 3G or Wi-Fi. Voice quality was quite good overall. There was plenty of gain in the earpiece, and callers sounded clear and crisp when speaking. Transmissions through the microphone were also clear, and the X2-01 pulled in slightly better than usual T-Mobile signal. Calls also sounded clear through an Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, 4 stars) Bluetooth headset, although there was no voice dialing of any kind. The speakerphone sounded decent but didn't go loud enough to use outdoors. Battery life was excellent at 12 hours and 3 minutes of talk time.

User Interface and Apps
Prepaid phones aren't known for their Internet and multimedia features, but the X2-01 does have some. The X2-01's venerable Series 40 OS is well known and works well here. I ran into a little more trouble with default system settings than I did with other Series 40 devices; for example, predictive text was turned on for URLs in the Web browser (a bad idea), and playing video clips required some extra steps. But all in all, it's an easier OS to navigate than Symbian Series 60.

The X2-01 includes a home screen shortcut to Communities, which hooks into your Facebook and Twitter accounts. The app displays status updates, and lets you post your own updates or photos. Deeper down in the menu system, the X2-01 offers basic instant messaging for AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo, and Google Talk accounts. It also supports e-mail access for Web services, plus POP and IMAP hooks. The powerful WebKit browser displayed WAP pages with no problem, but the phone was just too slow for most real HTML pages. You get visual voicemail with the X2-01, but no GPS navigation.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
There's a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack on top, which makes this a viable portable music player. The side-mounted microSD card slot worked fine with my 32GB SanDisk card, but it shares a large, stiff port cover with the microUSB charger jack, which was clumsy to use. There's 48MB of free internal memory and a built-in FM radio, but no music download options.

MP3 and AAC music tracks sounded a little hazy and distant over Motorola S9-HD ($129, 3.5 stars) Bluetooth headphones, and a persistent, low-level buzz in the background soured the experience somewhat. Stick with the complementary wired earbuds, which lack bass but are okay otherwise. Video playback was mostly a no-go; a 320-by-240-pixel WMV file played smoothly but with tinny audio, while some MP4 and even 3GP files that usually pose no problem for cell phones refused to display a picture, although I did hear sound.

The X2-01's VGA camera is pathetic for a 2011 phone, budget or otherwise. Test photos were dark, excessively grainy, and just 640 by 480 pixels. Shutter and save speeds were quick, but that's to be expected with such low resolution. On the other hand, recorded 320-by-240-pixel videos were small but usable, averaging 25 frames per second even in low light. There's no shortcut button for the camera; you need to dive into the menu system to start it up.

Overall, the X2-01 will serve you well as long as you're not the photo-snapping type. If you're shopping prepaid on T-Mobile, we'd actually recommend going with refurbished phones, because you can score some excellent bargains, including the formerly contract-only Samsung Gravity T SGH-T669 ($99, 3 stars), the LG Sentio GS505 ($79, 2.5 stars), and the Nokia 5230 Nuron ($99, 3.5 stars). All three offer good-sized touch screens, better video players, and much better cameras than the X2-01. The Gravity T also includes a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, while the Nuron is an actual smartphone with free GPS navigation.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 12 hours 3 minutes

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