Nokia Rises From The Grave With A Souped-Up iPad Mini

Just 6 months ago, Nokia sold off its Devices and Services Division, effectively killing the company as a hardware brand. Many people (including this site) mourned the death of what was once one of the largest and most popular mobile phone companies in the world. However it now seems that we all spoke too soon. While what remained of Nokia looked to be moving into software and business solutions, it was developing in secret a whole new piece of hardware…

Unveiled for the first time today, this piece of hardware takes the form of a complete new tablet, heralding the company’s resurrection as a consumer electronics brand. The N1 itself is a 7.9 inch Android tablet which rather closely follows the design trends of several other tablets on the market.

It features a 2048 x 1536 pixel 7.9 inch screen which sits inside a thin anodized aluminium housing. If you think this sounds alot like the iPad Mini, you would be 100% correct. Aside from the lack of an Apple logo and a round home button, you could easily be mistaken for thinking that you were looking at an iPad Mini. As well as having the same resolution and form factor as the Apple iPad Mini, the Nokia N1 also features similar colour options like “Lava Grey” and “Natural Aluminum”.

Image: © 2014 Nokia

This being said, the N1 does have things that sets it apart and may make it an (even better) purchase. The main change here is the device thinness. At 6.9mm the tablet is noticeably thinner even than the new iPad Mini 3. Additionally, the device runs the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, Android L. This is complemented with Nokia’s proprietary ‘Z-launcher’ software, which allows a user to rapidly load the apps they want without having to swipe through endless windows.  

While this device shows the Nokia will still exist as a hardware brand, the way it is being used is quite interesting. Rather than building the device themselves, Nokia has contracted the product out to Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, in effect leasing them their Nokia brand name in a similar way to what Google has been doing with its Nexus line. Knowing this, we can expect to see more ‘Nokia’ devices in the future, but maybe just not as we know them...