After teasing fans for a couple days, the mystery has been unveiled. The Nokia name will return to hardware much sooner than many of us might have expected, however maybe not in the way we might have wanted.
The N1 is a 7.9″ tablet running Android, and featuring Nokia’s Z Launcher skin. The 4:3 aspect ratio display will have a resolution of 2048 x 1536 for the IPS LCD, which will be protected by Gorilla Glass. The slate is powered by a 64-bit Intel Atom Quad-Core, 2GB of RAM, and will have 32GB of storage. The rear camera is an 8MP shooter, and the FFC will have 5 million pixels to play with for selfies. The one piece Aluminum frame will feature bottom firing stereo speakers, and maybe one of the more interesting specs is the reversible USB 2 Type C connector.
If the design of this tablet, and some of those specs like the 4:3 screen and the reversible cable port sound familiar, they should. The N1 was not designed by any of the Nokia hardware teams we’ve encountered in the past. Most of those folks were transferred to Microsoft. Instead the Nokia name has been licensed by Foxconn, the Taiwanese ODM that runs the facilities in China responsible for mass producing the iPad.
The N1 is shaping up to at least be an interesting beast. Android 5.0 combined with the Nokia name and a few Nokia software tweaks, clad in hardware from a company with the inside scoop on how iPads are built. From the screenshots we’ve seen of the device, it doesn’t appear to have access to the Google Play store, so like previous Nokia+Android experiments, will standalone like the Kindle. Not exactly how I imagined the Nokia name might have returned.
The N1 will be released first in China early 2015, and is expected to retail for $249. Does Foxconn have the right take on an Android Tablet? Will Nokia’s name carry enough weight to move units? Share your thoughts in a comment, and you can see Nokia’s teaser below.