The answer may surprise you

Many people have said that Nokia is well past its prime. Indeed, the past few years have not been kind to the once mobile leader, which in a few months will see the completion of the merger of its mobile division to Microsoft. But even though the manufacturer has lost most of its former glory, people still are secretly rooting for them because at the end of the day, Nokia makes great phones.

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It comes as no surprise then, that people are excited over Nokia’s new X line of smartphones. The Nokia X line (which includes the X, X+ and the XL) use the Android OS with a slight twist: Nokia’s stripped everything Google-related from their phones, replacing Google services with either Nokia or Microsoft analogues.

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Even though this goes against what most people want in an Android device, many are still optimistic about the Nokia X line. It’s difficult to understand at firs: the Nokia X line doesn’t really deliver anything new when it comes to hardware or services. They’re pretty weak smartphones for their projected price points, and there’s certainly better phones on paper compared to them.

But no one, bar Apple, can make smartphones like Nokia can. And that’s probably the reason why people are drawn to the company’s X line of phones, because even though these smartphones are destined for the lower-end of the market, they still look pretty bad-ass. No one can make a unibody smartphone like the Finnish company can. There’s just something different about owning a Nokia smartphone compared to all the others, a certain kind of magic that only the company can deliver.

And let’s face it – while Nokia has certainly seen better days, no one can deny that the company still has a large fan base, from previous to current owners. People who have seen firsthand just how tough a Nokia built phone is, and that tends to make a lasting impression. This commitment to quality hasn’t gone away with their shift to smartphones from making feature phones. Making long lasting, solidly built devices is in the company’s DNA, no matter what that device is.

It’s understandable then why people professed optimism over the X line, especially when it was revealed that you could sideload other non-Nokia approved apps into them, as well as restore Google’s services into it. Judging from videos posted by Nokia, it also looks like the X line of devices will have easy to use apps and services, which closely resembles Windows Phone 8. That’s not a coincidence, obviously – Nokia has said that the X line is a gateway device of sorts into the more expensive Lumia line. The plan is to “connect the next billion” (Nokia’s fancy marketing speak for people who don’t use smartphones yet) using the X line, with the hope of getting them hooked on Nokia’s UI and Microsoft’s services.

Will the X line turn the brand’s fate around? Doubtful. But we’re excited to see what will happen.