Tag: tablets

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Nokia Finally Officially Unveils the Lumia 1520 For Real, Lumia 2520 Windows RT 8.1 Tablet Unveiled at $499

lumia 2520 22I’m a little exhausted by Lumia 1520 leaks and rumor posts. Thankfully Nokia has made this thing real, so now we can talk about it again.

Soon-to-be-Microsoft-Employee (CEO perhaps?) Stephen Elop took the stage at Nokia World this morning in Abu Dhabi to show off Nokia’s new wares. The worst kept secret in tech made it’s appearance, and we all finally got to confirm what the rumors and leaks have been feeding us for a couple months now. Nokia is making a phablet, and the Lumia 1520 looks like it’ll be a formidable piece of gear.

lumia 1520 02The 1520 will sport a 1080p six inch display, the highest resolution screen ever put into a Nokia or a Windows Phone. The Qualcomm 800 is unsurprisingly confirmed as well, boosting Windows Phone into more current quad-core processors. Along with the GDR3 software update (now called Nokia Black), the screen size has allowed Nokia to add a third column of Live Tiles to the home screen. lumia 1520 03It’ll have 32GB of storage on board and will be the first premier Lumia to finally include a MicroSD card slot for expanded storage (up to 64GB). Nothing like walking around with almost 100GB of flash storage in your pocket to make you feel powerful. The purchase of a 1520 will also include an additional 7GB of Skydrive storage free.

lumia 1520 04The Lumia 1520 sports a new 20MP Pureview camera, something of a halfway point between the Lumia 9xx series and the monster 41MP Lumia 1020. It’ll sport optical image stabilization and oversampling software tech, which means we’ll probably get some of the zoom and crop capability from the 1020, and photos downsampled to 5MP for uploading online should look pretty good. Also of note, the camera app is getting a refresh. Dubbed ‘Nokia Camera’, most of the features from the separate Nokia Pro Camera, Smart Camera, and Video camera apps are getting rolled into one interface. I would expect the horsepower of the Qualcomm 800 to improve on the auto-focus and white balance speed of the sometimes pokey dual-core in the Lumia 1020.

lumia 1520 05

Continue reading “Nokia Finally Officially Unveils the Lumia 1520 For Real, Lumia 2520 Windows RT 8.1 Tablet Unveiled at $499”

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AT&T Locks Exclusive on Nokia Lumia 1520, Will Sell Lumia 2520 Tablet too!

lumia 1520 04AT&T and Nokia have been pretty tight since the first Lumia 900 hit the USA. It seems whenever Nokia drops cutting edge hardware, it’s likely that AT&T will have first crack at it.

It’s now been officially announced that Nokia’s newest handset, the Lumia 1520 phablet, is destined to be on Big Blue’s LTE network. This will also give AT&T the most robust collection of Phablets on the market with the Lumia standing along side the Galaxy Note 3, the LG Optimus G Pro, and the HTC One Max.

It was also announced that AT&T will be carrying the Lumia 2520 Windows 8.1 RT tablet, which will be one of the more affordable tablets to include LTE when it’s released later this year.

No pricing or availability as of yet, but at least now you know so you can plan for your holiday phone and tablet shopping.

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(via AT&T)

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Apple Announces iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini – Refreshes MacBooks and Mac Pro

Just a banner day for tech! First, Microsoft starts selling the new Surface 2 and Surface Pro today, then Nokia announces the Lumia 1520 phablet and 2520 tablet, now Apple is getting into the act with refreshes to their tablets and computing lineups.

iPadAir-iPadMini_34B2B_lock-blue_home-nebula-PRINTThe iPad is getting a significant face lift. Now dubbed the iPad Air, it’s thinner, narrower, and lighter than previous iPads. I’m happy to see more rounded corners than the iPad Mini. Measuring just one pound, it’s a significant achievement keeping weight that low without sacrificing battery life. It’ll also go a long ways for folks who might have issues holding onto a heavy 10″ slab. The same pretty Retina Display is up front, but it’s backed up by faster and more powerful internals. iPad Air will retail for $499 for a 16GB WiF model and $629 for an LTE model.

Oddly enough, the iPad 2 will be sticking around as a low cost 10″ option at $299. In this market it’s getting REALLY long in the tooth… Continue reading “Apple Announces iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini – Refreshes MacBooks and Mac Pro”

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Quick Review: 2nd Generation Kindle Paperwhite – Amazon Improves on the Best eReader

kindle paperwhite second generation ereader review somegadgetguy (3)This is the second generation of Kindle Paperwhite. The first gen was largely heralded as being the best digital ink eReader you could buy. Not much needed to be changed or altered for the 2nd gen Paperwhite, but Amazon still found some areas to tweak and improve.

Paperwhite stands as an excellent execution of an eReader. If you’re looking at a gadget to primarily read books on, a digital ink display is critical. For years now they’ve near perfectly replicated the printed page. Digital ink is static, and doesn’t refresh 60 times a second like LCD displays do. Once the page refreshes it stays in place until you turn to the next page. This also radically reduces battery drain, as electricity is only used when turning pages.

kindle paperwhite second generation ereader review somegadgetguy (5)In terms of design, Paperwhite is simplicity at it’s finest. There are no distractions. It’s built for one purpose: reading. We’ve even given up on the illusion that eReaders also have to be MP3 players. Nope. Reading is more than enough to justify the gadget’s existence. There’s a power button and MicroUSB port on the bottom. That’s it. You should only care about the screen and what’s on that screen. No buttons or switches or rockers. End of story.

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Lenovo Announces Most Affordable Windows 8.1 Tablet – 8″ Miix 2 starting at $299

Lenovo-Miix-2-Windows-8.1-8-inch-tabletIt’s official. Windows Netbook-y machines are dead. Long live Tablets and Hybrids!

It looks like people are starting to get Windows 8, and no company has showcased the benefits of Microsoft’s newest operating system than Lenovo. Even during the worst of the PC sales slump, Lenovo was floating almost zero loss in sales. Any change as drastic as this you would expect consumers to react negatively (just ask Apple about their painful transition to OSX), but Lenovo floated steady. Buoyed by a line up of flex-y and twisty computers which wonderfully showed off Windows 8’s strengths.

Now with Windows 8.1 on the horizon, Microsoft’s strategy is incredibly clear. They aren’t trying to walk into the traditional Tablet market. They aren’t trying to “save” the PC market. They’re trying to redefine both and combine those markets. Why have a slate for fun little apps and a laptop for work when you could have both?

Lenovo’s playing into this round with one of the most affordable tablets to hit Microsoft’s ecosystem. The Miix 2 is an 8″ slate powered by an Intel “Baytrail” quad-core Atom processor and 2GB of RAM. Miix2 will feature front and rear cameras, and like previous 8″ Windows tablets it includes the Home & Student edition of Office. Prices start at $299 for a 32GB model, and there are also some great accessories announced alongside. Users can pick up an optional keyboard cover and stylus to further improve their productivity.

So there you have it folks. High-end netbook guts in an almost pocket-able mini slate which runs a proper version of Windows and arrives at a price point which competes against consumer Android mini tablets. It even undercuts the iPad Mini by $50 while offering up twice as much storage. It’s a pretty solid play by Lenovo, and it should be available later this month.

Full specs and PR after the jump.

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LG launching G Pad 8.3 tablet in South Korea on Oct 14, expanding to 30 more countries by years end

lg g pad 8_3 tablet android south koreaSmaller tablets are hot right now. LG is making a move on the smaller than 10″ tablet segment with the new G Pad 8.3. Teased before this year’s IFA, the G Pad is continuing in the footsteps of the G2 launch. LG is looking to shake up their design language, and they’re turning to their users to help influence the future of LG products.

The G Pad 8.3 will be one of the slimmest and lightest small tablets to enter this arena. Noting that ten inch screens are often left at home, LG is banking on a more portable design. The specs are mid-high end for this segment as well. An 8.3″ 1080p display will be powered by a Qualcomm 600 series quad-core and 2GB of RAM. 16GB of storage on board can be upgraded via MicroSD cards. Ultra-slim bezels should help one-handed operation, and a decently sized battery should afford all day run time.

All in all a nice little competitor to the current popular iPad Minis and Kindle Fires. G Pad 8.3 drops on October 13 in South Korea for 550,000 won (about $514 US dollars), and LG will push it out to 30 more countries by end of year. After spending a couple months with the Optimus G Pro, LG is starting to find their feet with larger screens.

(via LG Electronics)

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Amazon heats up the Tablet Market with Kindle Fire HDX

Kindle Fire HDX Family (Photo: Business Wire)Tablets are hot right now. Google just ramped up the 7″ market with the New Nexus 7, offering up one of the most powerful small form factor slates at a market disrupting price. The only game in town right now for that kind of price competition is Amazon, and they’re not sitting idly by.

Dropping the bomb quietly tonight, Amazon took the wraps off their refreshed Kindle Fires. The new HDX line of 7″ and 8.9″ tablets now feature higher resolution screens and faster processors. Featuring a completely redesigned chassis built out of magnesium and a molded glass-nylon alloy, the new tablets have shed a significant amount of weight. The new 8.9″ Kindle weighs in at only 13.2 ounces.

On board now are Qualcomm 800 series CPUs, basically the peak of mobile processing at the moment, and backed up by 2GB of RAM. Storage options now include 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. The 7″ tablet is sporting a 1080p screen while the 8.9″ moves up to a 2560×1600 resolution display. To my knowledge, that’s the smallest screen yet to feature that high a resolution, handily topping the iPad’s Retina screen for pixel density.

feature-accessory._V355642688_Amazon is claiming 12 hours of run time, and there are 4G LTE versions for AT&T and Verizon. Pricing is super competitive. The 7″ Fire HDX starts at $229 and the 8.9″ starts at $379. The older Kindle Fire will remain as a low cost option starting at $139 for the 7″ and $269 for the 8.9″.

Also on tap is a new “Origami” case which looks pretty spiffy.

Pretty exciting stuff for the Kindle ecosystem.

Full press release (and a few more pics) after the jump, or you could just head directly to Amazon and push the button on a pre-order.

Continue reading “Amazon heats up the Tablet Market with Kindle Fire HDX”

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