Did you know - The first Nokia Android phone was released way back in 2014 - Android

In early 2014, Nokia was on the cusp of its merger with Microsoft. Under the leadership of then-CEO Stephen Elop, the company had flip-flopped between a multitude of strategies in a last-ditch attempt to retain its market share.

One of those strategies was the decision to launch a series of budget phones running a forked version of Android. Yes, the Nokia X and Nokia XL that launched way back in 2014 were technically the first Nokia Android phones — three years before HMD Global’s Nokia reboot.

The Nokia X series spawned five different phones and variants. At launch, Nokia introduced the Nokia X and X Plus. The only difference between them was that the Plus variant had an additional 256MB of RAM for a total of 768MB. Alongside, the company introduced the Nokia XL that brought along a larger display, the upgraded 768MB of RAM as well as a bigger battery.

See also: The best Nokia phones

Later in the year, Microsoft launched the Nokia X2 with a faster Snapdragon 200 chipset paired with 1GB of RAM. This phone switched out the single capacitive key and added a home button in addition to the back key. Meanwhile, China got an upgraded version of the original Nokia XL that now packed 4G capabilities, a faster chipset, and a total of 1GB of RAM.

The series launched at a time when Nokia had finally stopped making high-end Symbian hardware and the company’s lineup included an assortment of Windows Phone, and Series 40 devices as well as feature phones. Let’s take a closer look at the two Android curios.

Bringing a knife to a gunfight

When Stephen Elop took over the reins at Nokia in 2010, he oversaw a transition away from Symbian to Windows Phone to be able to compete in the high-end segment. While that transition failed spectacularly for its own reasons, Nokia also floundered in the extremely important entry-level segment.

The Finnish company’s entry-level hope was pinned on the Asha series of feature phones run on an outdated Series 40 operating system. In an ironic twist of fate, the name of the series came from the Hindi word for hope.

Nokia's entry-level Series 40 lineup simply couldn't compete against Android options.

Nokia’s Asha lineup was competing against full-blown Android smartphones and there was no way a Series 40 based phone was going to cut the mustard.

Enter the Nokia X and XL. Nokia’s entry-level phones copied styling from the fabulous Lumia series of Windows Phone devices and mixed it up with the affordability of the Asha series.

The original pair cost a somewhat pricey Rs. 8,399 (~$120) and Rs. 11,489 (~$150) in India. Not exactly cheap for phones that were closer to high-end feature phones than an actual smartphone.

To add consistency across the portfolio, Nokia even pulled in some of the best parts of the Windows Phone UI to make the Nokia X lineup truly unique. Sounds like a winning combination, right? Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Nokia X: A short-lived experiment

The Nokia X series debuted with a whole new interface paradigm that tried to bring the minimalism and ease of use offered up by Windows Phone to an affordable price point.

The hardware stood out for its unique design and made use of bold colors. It sported a minimalistic industrial design that was both a pleasure to hold and was surprisingly sturdy. Sure, there have been polycarbonate phones since, but few have been able to match up to the excellent hand-feel of the high-quality plastics used by Nokia. It truly was a gamechanger.

Too many hardware concessions were made to hit the price point.

This being a budget phone, concessions were made to hit the price point. At a time when a decent 8MP camera was standard, the smaller Nokia X shipped with an abysmal 3MP camera without autofocus. Meanwhile, the larger Nokia XL used a not-so-great 5MP sensor.

The 4- and 5-inch displays were nothing special to look at, and Nokia added support for an Always On Display mode, which was nice to have.

On the performance side, the less said the better. The Snapdragon S4 Play chipsets weren’t a powerhouse to begin with, but the 512MB and 768MB of RAM on the Nokia X and Nokia XL further added insult to injury. Competing devices like the Samsung Galaxy Core sported a faster chipset and more RAM at a similar price point.

Suffice it to say that performance was not the strong suite here and the phones stuttered along even in regular operation.

A forward-looking user experience