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Nokia X3: Cheap, cute, for a musical commute

Joining Nokia's just-announced X6 is the X3. It shares a similar name, it's a phone and it comes from Finland. But that's about all it has in common with its more expensive brother

Nate Lanxon Special to CNET News

Joining Nokia's latest (and, please oh please, greatest) touchscreen music phone -- the X6 -- is the Nokia X3. It shares a similar name, it's a phone and it comes from Finland. But that's about all it has in common with its more expensive brother.

As a budget slider there's nothing ground-breaking here, but it hits a few nails on the head for a music phone: a proper 3.5mm headphone socket, built-in speakers, support for MP3, AAC, WMA and iTunes Plus music formats, stereo Bluetooth and Nokia's Comes With Music service.

Other features include a 3.2-megapixel camera, an FM radio, video recording, email and integrated photo uploading to Flickr.

What you're missing by taking this express train through budgetville is internal memory. For all intents and purposes, it has none. You'll need to get yourself a 16GB microSD card or smaller if you actually want to use the phone as an MP3 player. Also, there's no 3G, so it's a no-go if you intend to browse Web sites.

The X3 will be on sale in the UK before the end of the year, for around £100.