Last week, Nokia announced its “first” Windows tablet, the Lumia 2520.
(Not many would’ve even given that aspect attention.) This means that
while the Lumia 2520 is the company’s first tablet in years, it is far
from being the first one.
If you’re a Nokia fan, you already know about following devices that
were marketed by Nokia as “Internet tablets”; these lost products
started coming to market during 2005 with the 770. The last one (N900)
came in 2009.
What’s more interesting is that all of them came with a resistive
touchscreen, two years before Apple popularised the technology in
portable devices.
Nokia 770 (2005)
Nokia’s first Internet tablet ran on Maemo, the Linux-based OS and
had a 4.1 inch resistive touchscreen which got input from a stylus.
Apart from that, it had a 252Mhz processor, 64 MB RAM and 128 MB
expandable memory.
The resultant was a slow device which got scathing reviews. Long forgotten.
Nokia N800 (2007)
The next attempt came just days after the original iPhone came.
Despite this, the N800 is probably the most neglected Nokia product from
the top-end N-series.
Having a 4.1 inch resistive touchscreen again, this time it came with
an underclocked 330 Mhz processor, 128 MB RAM, 64 MB expandable storage
and upgraded Meamo OS. At least the thing worked this time, getting 3.5
stars out of 5 from Cnet.
Nokia N810 (2007)
The N810 was the last Nokia product which got marketed as an Internet
tablet and this time, it came with several big changes. Nokia N810
featured a more pocketable design plus a slide-out backlit keyboard.
The 4.1 inch resistive touchscreen display was still there, but it
had 2 GB expandable memory, newer Maemo OS and a VGA camera this time.
It was powered by a 400 Mhz processor on top of a 128 MB RAM. This
product too got forgotten, however.
Nokia N900 (2009)
The N900 wasn’t an internet tablet only, it was a phone and it ran on
the same Maemo OS. In my opinion, that telephone functionality is the
reason why the N900 is a reasonably popular device because you see, a
Nokia product without a SIM card slot isn’t quite Nokia enough.
Therefore, even the Lumia 2520 and the Nokia Booklet 3G come with with
SIM card functionality.
The touchscreen was smaller at 3.5 inches and it borrowed the same
bizarre keyboard from the N97 but the N900 came with a Cortex A8
processor, 256 MB RAM, 32 GB storage and a 5 megapixel front camera. At
the time of its release, it was among the most powerful phones on the
market.
But its greatest legacy was its ability to run almost everything you
threw at it. From Android to Windows Mobile, everything you throw at it
runs. Hell, there are even tutorials of full-fledged Windows running on
the device. This amazing capability will keep the N900 alive for a long
time to come.
These all internet tablets are obsolete and discontinued now and the
future lies in Lumia 2520 and Windows. Pretty much all of these “lost”
devices were failures and it will be worth watching whether the 2520
will change that.