Nokia Unveils It Was 'Up to Something' And It Was The Company's First Android Tablet

Yesterday Nokia sparked everyone's interest when the company tweeted 'We're up to something', with a photo of a mysterious black box. Speculation quickly spread as to what the company might have up its sleeve for its first major product release since leaving the smartphone business.

Today we have our answer as Nokia has announced the N1, the first Nokia-branded Android tablet. The N1 offers the innovative, predictive Nokia Z Launcher interface, and a carefully crafted industrial design by Nokia with a focus on simplicity.

"We are pleased to bring the Nokia brand back into consumers' hands with the N1 Android tablet, and to help make sophisticated technologies simple," said Sebastian Nyström, Head of Products at Nokia Technologies, who announced the N1 at the Slush technology conference in Helsinki. "The N1 has a delightfully intuitive interface and an industrial design to match it. This is a great product for Nokia fans and everyone who has not found the right Android tablet yet."

The Nokia N1 features a 7.9" 2048×1536 (4:3) IPS LCD with Gorilla Glass 3 laminated display. A 2.4Ghz Intel Atom Z3580 processor, plus PowerVR G6430 GPU. On-board will be 2GB of system RAM and 32GB of internal non-expandable storage. It will also include an 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera.

For software the Nokia N1 will feature Nokia’s custom Android skin called Z Launcher that sits on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop. Said software is described as intuitive and super easy to use with adaptive learning, so it will adapt to you and what you’re doing to bring you “what you need, when you need it.”

The N1 is planned to be available for purchase in China in Q1 2015 for an estimated USD 249 before taxes, with the anticipation of expanding sales to other markets.