Once a great artist said,“Good Artist make, Great Artist steal!” – It seems this quote was the source of inspiration for Nokia behind the launch of Android rip off of iPad Mini – The Nokia N1.
Yesterday, after teasing a Black Box on Twitter, the once a mobile phone giant, Nokia has unveiled its first tablet after selling its devices and services units to Microsoft Corp.
Nokia N1, as the company names it – resembles to the Apple iPad Mini with no home screen button. At this point we can safely say companies have understood what premium look is and how it matters to the product’s sales. There have been lots of companies trying to match Apple for its build. Previously it was Xiaomi to emulate iPad and now it’s Nokia.
N1 sports a single piece of anodised aluminum design, which doesn’t need to be mentioned. The rear as well as the bottom is almost identical to iPad Mini. The speaker grill surrounding the USB port makes it look like an iPad. The USB port on N1 is the first implementation of the reversible type-C USB connector.
Nokia N1 is a 7.9-inch tablet with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The display is fully laminated, unlike the iPad. It weighs 318g and is just 6.9mm thin, which is superior to what Apple is offering.
The powerhouse includes, 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera.
The tablet comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. Nokia isn’t interfacing it with any skins and, instead, is keeping it raw with stock Android.
The company is also creating a launcher named “Z Launcher”, which lets your write letters on the screen. The launcher is compiled with pieces of code that give you a list of apps and contacts that changes based on where you are and what you are doing.
The manufacturing contract of N1 is given to Foxconn, the same company which manufactures Apple’s entire range of devices.
The global pricing is not yet revealed, but Nokia is aiming to launch it in China for $249 (without taxes) at the time of Chinese New Year (February 19th). It will be launched in Russia and selected European countries after February for similar pricing. By announcing N1, Nokia has made a great comeback. Lets hope it’s successful to resurrect its valuable brand on future devices.