Nokia has unveiled some of the new products that were in the works before the company announced the sale of its device business to Microsoft. For the first time, Nokia is launching a tablet: the Lumia 2520. The colorful Windows LTE tablet sports a 10.1-inch high-definition screen and runs Windows RT 8.1. It will retail for $499 before subsidies, and will be sold with a $149 keyboard option. Color choices are red and white or cyan and black, and although it support Wi-Fi there is no Wi-Fi-only model.
“The fact that all Lumia 2520 variants will be LTE-capable and there will be no Wi-Fi-only variant means Nokia aims to use operators as the primary channel for its tablets,” said Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless are both expected to carry the tablet in the United States. The Lumia 2520 supports FDD-LTE network bands 2 (1.9 GHz), 4 (1.7/2.1 GHz), 5 (850 MHz) and 17 (lower 700 MHz); and W-CDMA 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz.
Ironically, today is also the day that Microsoft’s new tablets are set to go on sale at retail stores around the world. The Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 have been available for pre-order for almost a month; the Surface 2 starts at $449 and the Surface Pro 2 starts at $899.
The Surface 2 and the Lumia 2520 are similar in size and weight, with the Surface 2 offering a slightly bigger screen (10.6-inches) and weighing a bit more. They are both Windows RT tablets powered by quad-core processors; Microsoft tapped Nvidia for its Tegra 4 chip, while Nokia used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800. The Lumia 2520 costs $50 more than the Surface 2, but offers many more connectivity options. Microsoft has discussed LTE connectivity, but has not launched an LTE tablet yet. For Microsoft, having two Windows RT tablets on the market is not a bad thing at all; the software company needs to increase sales of its mobile operating system and the more hardware that runs it the better.
Supersize smartphones
Nokia has also unveiled two six-inch smartphones: the Lumia 1320 and Lumia 1520.
The 1520 is the high-end model, starting at $749 before subsidies; the 1320 starts at $339.
The Lumia 1520 has Microsoft Office on board. It has a 1080p HD display, a 20-megapixel PureView camera and four built-in microphones. On the home screen, Nokia has added a third row of tiles for more content, making the phone’s home screen more like a PC desktop. Powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor, the 1520 will be available exclusively through AT&T Mobility in the United States and will support LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 7 (2.6 GHz) and 17.
The Lumia 1320 has a 720p display and like the 1520 it makes use of its six-inch screen by adding a third row of tiles. The 1320 has a five-megapixel camera, and Nokia says it will bring high-end camera technology to a new price point. The 1320 is expected to launch first in Asia, and not until next year.
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