HELSINKI: Nokia unveiled a tablet computer the “N1” during an event in Helsinki. The N1 features a screen 7.9 inches on the diagonal, and an Intel quad-core processor.
At 6.9 mm thick, the tablet is thinner than Apple iPad mini 3, but thicker than the iPad Air 2. The expected price is $249, which is the same as the price of the older, original iPad, but below the $299 of last year’s iPad mini 2 and the $399 of this year’s iPad mini 3. The device is being built by Apple assembly partner Foxconn Technology.
The device certainly looks like the mini in many of its industrial design details, with elements of the new iPhone 6 Plus thrown in, such as the curved edges. As can be seen from the promotional material up top, the company’s marketing style emulates some of that seen in Apple materials.
The machine runs Google’s Android operating system software, but runs Nokia’s own “Z Launcher” user interface on top of that. The device is expected to be made available in Q1 of next year. The company’s head of products, Sebastian Nyström, remarked that “We are pleased to bring the Nokia brand back into consumers’ hands.”
Nokia is restricted from making phones until 2016, under an agreement with Microsoft, which this year completed the acquisition of Nokia’s former phone unit. Nokia’s head of technology, who claims the tablet will be “as good as Apple’s iPad mini but cost less,” and who says the N1 is “just the first consumers product” branded Nokia.
Nokia shares on the Helsinki exchange rose 1.9% to €6.33. Nokia ADRs in the U.S. are up 23 cents, or 3%, at $7.90, in pre-market trading.
