Nokia had quite a few announcements and new devices to show off at this year’s Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, held in the shadow of the Finnish company’s ongoing sale of its hardware division to Microsoft, which is expected to be completed early next year. The new devices certainly look attractive, and the application announcements were well received, but questions remain about where these new Nokia Lumia devices will fit within Microsoft’s device ecosystem.
The New Nokia Lumia Phablets
Ever since Nokia adopted Windows Phone for its major device releases, the company has consistently released some of the top devices using the platform, and that’s not about to change. As reported by the BBC, the company showed off two new “phablets,” devices that are sized between the smaller smartphone and the larger tablet.
First was the Nokia Lumia 1320, which is designed as the more budget-friendly phablet option. It features a 6-inch, 720p screen, dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, LTE speeds, and 5MP camera. The device is designed for the budget end of the market, retailing for $339 before subsidies. It will be released in Asia in early 2014 before coming west.
Nokia also announced its new flagship device, the Lumia 1520. This powerhouse builds on the Lumia 1020’s focus on photography with a 20MP PureView camera and 1080p full HD 6-inch screen. While size constraints meant a step down from the 1020’s 41MP camera, the company also announced the new Nokia Camera software, which offers a handful of impressive camera modes and robust camera controls. There’s even a Refocus app, which take advantage of the software’s ability to take multiple images to allow the user to shift the focus after the shot.
This phablet, which also features a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory, and LTE speeds, is truly a high-end device, with an nonsubsidized price of $749. It will be released in the US, as well as Europe and a few Asian markets, sometime this quarter.
A New Tablet and Much-Needed Apps
Nokia also took this opportunity to reveal the first Windows RT tablet made by a company other than Microsoft. The Lumia 2520 features a 10.1-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 800 processor, and even 4G LTE support, something even Microsoft’s new tablet lacks. The tablet also continues Nokia’s focus on photography with a 6.7MP rear-facing camera with Zeiss optics, which is fairly robust for a tablet.
Nokia also has some app announcements to make, signaling that major apps like Vine, Flipboard, and Instagram will be coming to the Windows Phone platform very soon. This is great news for any Windows enthusiast, as the platform has to ensure customers that they won’t be missing out on anything by choosing Windows.
Finally, the company also showed off a handful of new Asha devices, which run on a proprietary OS and are targeted at overseas emerging markets.
In the end, the devices shown off at this year’s Nokia World were impressive, to say the least. With something new for everyone, including existing Nokia and Windows Phone users, the company seems to be putting itself in a position of strength leading up to the eventual acquisition of its hardware business by Microsoft. It remains to be seen what will happen to some of these models, and the entire Lumia line, once these two big companies no longer need to, even tangentially, compete against each other. It also remains to be seen whether even phablets and tablets as impressive as these can do anything to move the market share needle in Window’s direction.
Do these new Nokia devices make you want to give Windows Phone a chance, or did Nokia doom itself in choosing today’s distant-third mobile OS option?
Image courtesy of Flickr
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