Review of the Nokia N1

Once a giant in the mobile phone market, Nokia recently announced that they were stepped away from the smartphone game.  Even if they have no plans to release a new smartphone anytime soon, Nokia is still putting their years of experience to work in creating smart devices.

Nokia is putting their name and software out there – and making a play for their share of the tablet market – with the Nokia N1 tablet.  The N1 tablet is an Android-based device that is manufactured by Foxconn and which runs’s on Nokia’s Z Launcher.

We take a look at what exactly it is that Nokia has to offer the tablet market with this review of the Nokia N1 tablet.

Pro

• Design: The Nokia N1 tablet has an aluminium unibody with surface anodization. The back of the device is smooth and it features tapered edges for a rounded look that also helps make the device easy to grip and handle.  The Nokia N1 feels solid and comfortable in the hand.

        

• Size: The device measures around 200.7 x138.6×6.9,,
• Weight: Only weighs 318 grams
• Colors: This device has been made available in two metallic shades: Natural aluminium and Lava gray.
• Display: The Nokia N1 tablet uses a 7.9 –inch IPS LCD display which has a resolution of 2048×1526 giving it a pixel density of 324 ppi and aspect ratio of 4:3. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.  The IPS technology of the display allows it to offer good viewing angles.  The display’s color reproduction is accurate.
• Hardwear: The Nokia N1 tablet uses a 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 processor, clocked at 2.3 GHz. This is backed by a PowerVR G6430 GPU with 2 GB of RAM. This processing package results in extremely fast and smooth performance.
• Storage: The device has 32 GB of on-board storage available
• Connectivity: The Nokia N1 tablet offers its users the standard suite of connectivity options; this includes Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band and Bluetooth 4.0. In addition, the Nokia N1 also has a USB 2.0 C port.
• Battery: The device uses a 5,300 mAh unit which allows for very good battery life.
• Battery life: The battery life of the Nokia N1 tablet allows it to last for as long as 4 days with low to moderate usage.
• Software: The Nokia N1 tablet runs on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop and use’s Nokia’s Z Launcher. The Z Launcher is a minimalistic launcher which consists of two screens, one which shows the recently accessed applications, and the other which features an alphabetized menu of all installed applications.  Launcher has the ability to “learn” which of the apps you most commonly use during a certain time and automatically makes these available during that time period.  Another feature is Scribble, a built-in gesture control function.  To use Scribble, you trace a specific letter or word on the screen in order to open a specific app.

• • Sensors: Includes an a compass, gyroscope and an accelerometer

  Con

  • Display: At first glance, the display colors can seem dull due to the natural color profile chosen by Nokia.
  • Camera: The Nokia N1 features a 5 MP fixed focus front-facing camera and an 8 MP rear camera. The camera photo’s tend to be of poor quality and are weak in detail. The rear camera’s low light performance and dynamic range are also subpar.  Images taken with the front camera can be grainy and take on a yellowish tint.  The camera software is extremely stripped down with no real extra features.
  • Speaker: The speaker setup is dual mono so you don’t get as immersive an audio experience as you would with have with a stereo speaker. While it can get loud, after the volume moves beyond the 75 percent mark, the sound gets distorted.
  • No microSD so no option for expandable storage that way.
  • No Google apps or Google Play Services, though this could eventually be included in international release.
  • Currently only available for the Chinese market.

The N1 is currently priced at around $260 in China and Nokia is only making it available for that market for now.  If you really want to check it out, you can get it from Amazon for around $459.  However, as the device is set to be released internationally, we would recommend you wait for that.

The N1 tablet is a good offering in terms of space and battery life.  The Z Launcher and other software are also very good and the tablet can handle most everyday tasks such as gaming. The only real downside is the camera.

What do you think? Is the Nokia N1 a contender in the growing tablet market?

JR

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