Nokia X, Nokia's Android smartphone, launched in India at Rs 8,599

New Delhi: Nokia announced the launch of its new family of Android-based smartphones - the Nokia X series of phones - in India on Monday. The first three phones in the family - the Nokia X, X+ and XL - run on the new Nokia X software platform, that is based on Google's Android. The Nokia X, which will be available in India starting March 10 is priced at Rs 8,599.

Nokia says the other two phones in the family, the Nokia X+ and the Nokia XL will be available in India in the next 60 days.

The Nokia X has a single capacitive button for navigation, unlike the three capacitive buttons on a Windows Phone smartphone.

Nokia says the other two phones in the Nokia X family, - the Nokia X+ and the Nokia XL - will be available in India in the next 60 days.

The phones under the Nokia X family are not pure Android phones; these phones instead run a forked variant of Android, similar to the way Amazon does for its Kindle Fire lineup. Nokia has taken the open-source elements of Android and has pulled in other elements of Asha and Windows Phone to offer users a different experience.

The downside here is that Nokia X users can't have access to the Google Play Store for apps. However, the phones will run Android apps, but Nokia will curate a list of such apps. A recommended source for the apps is the Nokia store, says the company. In other words, the new platform, Nokia X, is based on the Android Open Source project (AOSP).

Nokia ditches many of the Google services that come with Android, which Google lets phone makers customise at will. Instead, the new Nokia X phones will emphasise Microsoft services such as Bing search, Skype communications and OneDrive file storage. Their home screen sport larger, resizable tiles resembling those on Windows phone.

Nokia X, Nokia X+ and Nokia XL form a new family of Nokia's affordable smartphones. The Nokia X is the entry-level model in the family. The Nokia X+ offers more memory and storage. Finally, the Nokia XL packs a 5-inch screen, 5 megapixel rear-facing and 2 megapixel front-facing camera.

All three devices are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor and are dual-SIM phones. A range of third-party apps comes pre-installed, including BBM, Plants vs Zombies 2, Viber, Vine and Twitter.

Jussi Nevanlinna, Nokia's vice president for product marketing, said the Finnish company is positioning the Nokia X as a bridge to high-end Windows smartphones under the Lumia brand.