Optus X Lite: Plans | Pricing | Specs

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Hearkening back to the simple, non-smartphone days of the early 2000s, the Optus X Lite eschews features like touchscreens and high-resolution cameras in favour of a basic menu interface and a physical keypad. This is a compelling proposition for folks exhausted by the complexities of modern smartphones as well as anyone looking for an affordable backup phone to keep for emergencies.

Design

• Compact candy-bar design and physical keypad channel the simplicity of early 21st-century mobile phones
• Built-in FM radio, calendar and other apps provide extra functionality on top of basic calling and texting

• Read more on the Optus X Lite's design

  If you can recall the Nokia phones of the early 21st century, you'll be immediately familiar with the Optus X Lite. Adopting the so-called "candy bar" design, the X Lite is relatively compact at just 124mm tall and 51mm wide. It won't weigh down your pocket, either, as it tips the scales at a meagre 88g.

  Being so small, the Optus X Lite makes do with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen that renders at a resolution of 320 x 240 – functional enough, though not necessarily ideal for looking at photos or watching videos. Below the screen is a classic physical keypad with buttons for placing calls, navigating menus and dialling phone numbers.

  While the Optus X Lite is geared primarily towards making and receiving calls and texts, it does pack a few extra features up its sleeves. There's a built-in FM radio, for instance, and you can listen to it either via the phone's speaker or by connecting a pair of wired headphones to the included 3.5mm audio jack. There's also support for Bluetooth 2.1, allowing you to sync up a pair of wireless headphones.

  If you prefer grooving out to your own music collection, the Optus X Lite supports that, too. Just bear in mind that it only comes with 128MB of storage out of the box, of which just 25MB is actually usable. Thankfully, you can expand this by purchasing a microSD card, though the X Lite will only accept cards of 32GB or less.

  While the custom operating system powering the Optus X Lite doesn't feature any sort of app store, the phone itself comes loaded with a few handy utilities beyond the standard contact list and SMS inbox. There's a video player with support for QVGA video files at 25fps, a calendar for recording important events, a calculator, a note-taking app and even a few built-in games. There's also a basic web browser in case you want to use the X Lite's 3G connection to browse the Internet. Given the small screen size and the browser's limited features, don't expect to be engaging in any heavy-duty web surfing, however.

Camera

• VGA camera is handy for recording information for later reference
• Low-resolution photos don't lend themselves well to sharing

• Read more on the Optus X Lite's camera

  Turn-of-the-century phones rarely had cameras in them at all, but the Optus X Lite makes a concession to modernity here by incorporating a basic VGA camera on its rear. VGA resolution equates to 640 x 480, a notable increase over the X Lite's native resolution but still a long way from the high-resolution cameras in modern smartphones. Nevertheless, it should prove adequate for taking snaps of a visual-note variety such as advertisements, interesting products and other information you don't want to forget. Family photos are probably a bit out of its league, though.

  The Optus X Lite can also capture video, albeit at a lower quality than static photos. Resolution maxes out at 352 x 288, and the framerate is locked to a chunky 15fps. Not great, but functional enough for very basic recording.

Performance

• Low-power hardware is sufficient for the basic tasks the Optus X Lite is designed for

• Read more on the Optus X Lite's performance

  Handsets like the Optus X Lite operate on a completely different scale of performance to your average smartphone. Since they don't need to power massive high-resolution screens or run complex apps and mobile games, they can get by with only the most basic hardware components.

  The Optus X Lite, for example, packs a humble 460MHz processor and just 64MB of RAM. In a smartphone, this would be wholly inadequate, but it's sufficient for the basic menu-based interface and simple capabilities of the Optus X Lite.

Battery

• Can deliver up to four hours of talk time or 160 hours on standby, according to Optus

• Read more on the Optus X Lite's battery

  The compact design of the Optus X Lite doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the battery, as is evidenced by its light 950mAh capacity. Small batteries don't matter so much on low-power handsets like the X Lite, though, and Optus claims that a single charge can deliver as much as four hours of talk time or up to 160 hours on standby. Those numbers aren't outstanding by any stretch, but they're still decent for a phone that's intended for infrequent use or as an emergency backup.

Pricing and availability

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Specifications

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