Nokia unveils tablet, 6-inch phones; Instagram, Vine apps coming
Hoping to get a jump on its rivals, Nokia announced early Tuesday that it will be rolling out a tablet running the Windows operating system and two smartphones with whopping 6-inch screens.
The Finnish phone maker also said that popular apps Instagram and Vine will be arriving on the Windows Phone operating system.
Nokia introduced the Lumia 2520, a 10.1-inch tablet running Windows RT 8.1 software, just hours ahead of Microsoft’s Surface 2 tablets going on sale in stores and Apple’s press event in which new iPad tablets are expected to be announced.
The Nokia tablet features a 1080p HD screen and a 6.7-megapixel rear camera and uses a 2.2-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. The new tablet will be 4G LTE-compatible and come in red, white, cyan and black options.
Nokia said the Lumia 2520 will release before the end of the year and cost $499. The Lumia 2520 is significant as this is Nokia’s first tablet running Microsoft’s software. So far though, Windows RT -- a light version of the Windows operating system -- has failed to catch on.
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Nokia also introduced the Lumia 1520, a 6-inch 1080p HD screen smartphone with a 20-megapixel camera. The company has focused on rolling out phones with ultra-high megapixel cameras that can take pictures from a distance without degrading their resolution.
The device also runs on a 2.2-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and comes in yellow, white, black and red.
The Lumia 1520 is Nokia’s largest Lumia phone yet, and it appears to signal the company is making a strong push into Asian markets, where smartphones with screens larger than 5 inches have proven to be popular.
Nokia said the Lumia 1520 will be available in the U.S. later this year and will cost $749 before taxes and carrier subsidies.
The company also announced another 6-inch smartphone, the Lumia 1320, that will cost less than the Lumia 1520. However, Nokia did not announce any plans to release the Lumia 1320 in the U.S.
Existing Windows Phone users will also be happy to learn that both Instagram and Vine will be coming to the Windows Phone operating system in the next few weeks.
Instagram and Vine are two of the most popular camera apps available for Apple iOS and Android devices, but until now, they have been some of the top apps missing from Windows Phone.
That’s put customers interested in buying Nokia phones in a tough spot. Although Nokia offers some of the best smartphones cameras, such as the 41-megapixel camera on the Lumia 1020, they lack many of the top camera apps.
With Instagram and Vine heading to Windows Phone soon, one of the biggest issues with Nokia Lumia devices appears to have been fixed.
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