Nokia has expanded its Lumia lineup by introducing a pair of new devices: a larger 6-inch smartphone and an entirely new product for the company, a Windows tablet. Both were revealed today at the Finnish company's Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi. Nokia also made several app announcements for its devices and the Windows Phone platform, the major one involving Instagram - the official word from Nokia is that the photo-sharing app will arrive on Windows-powered mobile devices in 'the coming weeks.'
The most intriguing Lumia is the company's first Windows RT tablet, the Lumia 2520. With a 10.1-inch 1080p HD display, it looks like a giant Lumia phone, and even comes in the same bright colors: red, white, cyan and black. Instead of Windows Phone, however, it runs Windows 8.1 RT, the latest update to Microsoft's tablet and PC OS. Internally, it sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip and a 8000mAh battery.
Unlike Microsoft's new Surface 2, Nokia's Lumia 2520 comes with 4G LTE support - a bonus for those who want to purchase data plans for using the slate outside of Wi-Fi range. And despite it being a tablet, Nokia has outfitted the 2520 with an above-average, 6.7-megapixel, rear-facing camera with Zeiss optics. The front-facing camera, which will likely get more use with video chatting, is a standard 2-megapixel wide-angle camera.
As with other Windows RT devices, Nokia's tablet gets the entire Microsoft Office RT suite with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and now Outlook. You also get some Nokia exclusives, like Nokia Music and the Nokia HERE maps. The company is also offering its own Nokia Power Keyboard, a wraparound cover that functions as a keyboard and trackpad, and will give the tablet five extra hours of battery life.
In addition to the tablet, Nokia is also releasing a 6-inch smartphone, dubbed the Lumia 1520. Unlike the Lumia 1020, the 1520 comes with a slightly smaller 20-megapixel PureView camera. It's likely that size played a big factor in deciding to reduce the camera optics, which on the 4.5-inch Lumia 1020 is already a pretty hefty addition. All of the camera software, however, remains the same. It also has wireless charging, a mainstay in Lumia devices, and comes with a 3400mAh battery. Like the Lumia 2520, the 1520 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor.
Both the Lumia 2520 and Lumia 1520 will be available this fall for $499 and $749 (unsubsidized), respectively.
Nokia's new products are landing at a somewhat strange time, considering Microsoft recently announced its plans to purchase the company for $7 billion. The Lumia 2520 in particular directly competes with the Surface 2, which launches this week. But as Microsoft OEMs (including Nokia) have said in the past, the more devices the better. Sales, however, on both Windows Phones and Windows 8 tablets have been sluggish. Nokia has only sold 7.4 million Lumia devices in Q2 this year. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal suggests that Nokia sold 'at least 8 million' Lumias in Q3, which is at least a upward movement from previous quarters.
Along with hardware announcements, Nokia touted some new and upcoming Windows Phone apps. The platform's app ecosystem has been disappointing and has struggled since launch, so it's expected to see Nokia highlighting some new major app wins. The new apps include Flipboard, Vine and WhatsApp. The company also made a point to say that Instagram will be arriving in 'the coming weeks.' The debut of these big-name apps signal a breakthrough, albeit a somewhat anticlimactic one, for the Windows Phone operating system.
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