Nokia N1 tablet release date, specs, rumors: Taiwan launch marks start of international rollout beyond China

(REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino)

Nokia's Android-powered N1 tablet, which had been announced in November last year and launched in China via Foxconn in January this year, will finally become available in other countries soon. The Nokia N1 is the first mobile product launched by the Finnish mobile maker after Microsoft formally acquired Nokia's phone business almost a year ago. However, one of its divisions, Nokia Technologies, which licenses the company's huge portfolio of more than 10,000 patents, was not included in the sale.

As part of its deal related to Microsoft's purchase of Nokia Devices and Services, the Redmond giant holds the right to use the Nokia brand name for a period of time and continue producing Nokia smartphones through 2015. This means that Nokia cannot compete in the smartphone market with a branded device until 2016. But that has not stopped Nokia Technologies from designing new products and licensing them to other companies. The division had released an Android tablet named Nokia N1, which is manufactured by Foxconn and has been licensed to another manufacturer for marketing under the Nokia brand name in China.

The Nokia N1 sports a 7.9-inch (2048x1536 pixel) IPS LED-backlit display protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The tablet is powered by a 64-bit 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 processor (4 cores, 4 threads), paired with a PowerVR G6430 GPU and 2GB of LPDDR3 (800MHz) RAM. The Nokia N1 comes with 32GB of inbuilt storage (non-expandable), an 8-megapixel rear autofocus camera and a 5-megapixel fixed focus camera. The Nokia N1 packs a 5300mAh battery and runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with the Nokia Z Launcher interface slapped on top. The tablet provides various connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/n/ac with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.0, Micro-USB with reversible Type-C connector, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

After being sold exclusively in China for the last couple of months, the Nokia N1 was finally launched in Taiwan on Tuesday. This has raised hopes of the tablet making a debut in other regions of the world. The Nokia N1 tablet will be available at a price of TWD 8,190 (roughly $268) in Taiwan when it starts selling in May via Shunfa 3C.

 

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