More details emerge on Nokia's Sirius tablet, including exact dimensions and $499 price point

The recently leaked details of Nokia's upcoming "Sirius" Windows RT tablet, has been generating a lot of buzz on what exactly will be under the hood. The tablet was first revealed ten days ago in leaked photos from Digi-wo.

WinSuperSite's Paul Thurrott says that he can confirm that the Nokia will indeed be releasing the 10.1-inch tablet and has offered up some specifics about it, including some specs, pricing and accessories.

According to Thurrott, the Nokia tablet, codename "Sirius", will be powered by a quad-core Qualcomm 8974 (ARM) chipset. The 10.1-screen is a 1920 x 1080 IPS screen that will be geared for "outdoor readability," a quality that many tablets have difficulty boasting and is reminiscent of Nokia's Lumia smartphones. While he cannot confirm the 2-megapixel front-facing camera, Thurrott says that the rear 6.7 megapixel one, in true Nokia fashion, will feature Zeiss optics.

All of this, along with a 10-hour battery and optional 4G capability, will be neatly wrapped in a Lumia-esque body that measures .35 inches thick and weighs in at just 1.3 pounds. While the red chassis in the leaked image is the only one that can be confirmed, it's not crazy to think that the "Sirius" could be offered in other colors.

Nokia Patent: keyboard accessory for tablets

One accessory that is confirmed is a keyboard cover that also adds additional battery life. That accessory may reflect a patent that Nokia filed back in 2011 and that was reported on back in April (seen above). Nokia also looks to bring "unique companion experiences" to users via exclusive Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 apps. Their Nokia Music app, though available for all Windows 8 devices, is clearly just the tip of the iceberg.

We first speculated that Nokia would release custom and exclusive apps for their tablet line back in January and now it looks to be the case.

So what will this newcomer to the tablet world cost you? Well, Nokia wants to take the "Sirius" toe-to-toe with the iPad and will therefore price it accordingly, starting at $499. That price seems a bit high for an RT tablet though and it could face similar obstacles as the now cheaper Surface RT, which is running for $349. However, with a 1080P display, high quality camera and unique Nokia design, it could raise awareness of the RT brand.

The last remaining detail is what Nokia will call this tablet. While 'Sirius' is its codename, we have heard 'Harmonia' as a potential moniker for the general Nokia tablet lineup, akin to 'Lumia' for Windows Phone.

We expect the "Sirius" to be revealed under a different moniker at an event on September 26-27 in New York City that Windows Phone Central was the first to learn about. You can bet that we'll be there to give you the skinny on all that Nokia has to show.

Source: WinSuperSite

280 Comments

I better see the official Sirius XM app hit W8/WP store now. Haha!
Ya know, I had to do a double take... I was ready to cancel one of my radios.
I'd like to buy an RT tablet. I find it more suitable for tablet experience. But there is only one thing that would make me consider buying this piece of art and it is the internal storage. No less than 64 GB!
What's wrong with a MicroSD card? I have a 64GB card in my Surface RT.

But, personally, I won't buy any ARM based RT tablets. The battery life is no better than most Atom based tablets and the performance is way worse. And there is no way to run legacy PC apps. When Intel Haswell based ultra book chipset floods the market, RT tablet will be yesterday's news.
I also have a 64gb MicroSD card in my Surface RT, but the big problem is how Windows 8 uses that storage. You have to manually move stuff to it which isn't very convenient on a tablet. I hope in 8.1 they add some automatic storage scaling for RT devices if you add an SD card, similar to how WP8 does it.

As for ARM vs Atom, i am not sold on Atom. I have been dosappointed with the performance and battery life of it. I really think ARM is a better choice for a tablet and RT, not Pro.
PRICE, PRICE, PRICE. $499 is to expensive. To have any chance staring price must be $350. Hope Nokia smells the coffee and realize this simple fact. Of course MS should help.
The LTE support makes the difference. The 32GB iPad LTE at AT&T is priced at $729.99. So the Nokia RT is in fact $230 cheaper than the iPad LTE if it is indeed priced at $499. Nokia is a phone company, so I don't expect them to sell tablets without 4G/LTE capability.
The average user doesn't care for LTE; they will see the Nokia priced the same as the iPad and go with the status quo.
I agree. Most of the users don't use the one with LTE. It will be a challenge to market the comparison even with LTE ipad. Not sure why Nokia is going MSFT route.
I hope, they have some surprise price announcement than is what feared here.
Agree that most user won't care for LTE since LTE still quite new and not all carrier support it so the connection price might be to expensive for average users. Well ... Maybe Nokia has a plan to release wifi only version that priced lower? Let just wait and not jump to any conclusion before it even officially announced :)
The announcement says optional 4G/LTE support - probably somewhere on the order of $100-150 add on.
$499 would be fine if it had an ecosystem on the level of android or iOS. That's what hurts it.
It all depends what you do. If you use tablet mainly for productivity, WRT/W8 are definitely superior. It supports File Manager, multitasks, MS Office, all standard peripherals, and legacy softwares(not all for WRT). If you use tablet mainly for entertainment and casual works, Android and IOS will do.
And what are the majority of people buying tablets using them for, consumption or productivity? Answer is consumption and that is why all the productivity features of RT arent attracting buyers in any significant numbers. Windows 8 devices at least have the attraction of being fully managable in the enterprise but with RT you get either a watered down productivity device or a poor consumption device. Any way you look at it RT is the wrong choice for a Nokia tablet.
I don't call it 'poor consumption device' necessarily. RT should do reasonably well in the education sector, specifically the college students. MS Surface RT has been well accepted for two reasons - full version of Office suite and the Type Cover which can be used in the class room. RT will serve people well if they don't need to run some more powerful legacy softwares. The 1st generation Surface RT is slow in performance, the battery life and the display quality are less than desired. Nokia RT has corrected all the shortcomings. It may come out with a standard version and a LTE version. We'll find out on 9/26. Also I heard that Nokia is also working on a W8 version which will be released a few months later. That shoud do better.
Both iOS and Android have tons of stuff like music and picture creation, that I feel are a lot better than what I have seen of Windows counterparts. The ecosystem is growing rapidly, and with the cross-platform tools available we should see a more uniform playing field next year, but it is not there yet on light content creation or consumption.
Agreed, this is my biggest sticking point
If they aren't watching the news about the sale of Microsoft Surface RT dropping their price to $350 and are still having problems selling them they better.
Though Nokia brand is stronger than MSFT. I won't be surprise if Nokia does manage to sell more than MSFT, if they aim for it. Though it seems to me that they will try to push this more to business customers. I think they will be producing this in very limited quantity unless their pricing strategy is different than the rumors here.
Here is something close to Harmonia called Harmonium. It is a musical instrument. iPad = chopstick, remember. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=harmonium&qs=HS&form=QBIR&pq=&sc=8-0&sp=2&sk=HS1&adlt=strict
$499? Yet it has a 1080p screen. Hmmmm!
queue the price trolls
Price Troll? I said the 1080p would have me thinking twice about the price. I'd say it should be priced near an Android tablet since it's RT and that's where it should be priced but the 1080p screen justifies it for me. Don't get butt hurt. ;)
$500 is an overkill even with a 1080p sceen. Since some cheaper Android and Kindle tablets have 1080p as well and are a lot cheaper.
so right now ur basing the price on its screen but what can the samsung tab or kindle can do that this RT cant do and in Vice versa, think about it.
I'm guessing Nokia would rather make profit from a few rather than a very small profit or a loss from many. Like the Lumia 920, I would expect Nokia to make only very few of these tablets, and then increase production if and when demand increases. If there is higher demand, maybe they can bring down the price.
"queue" kind of works, as in "line them up so they can take turns" but "cue" means "signal to begin."
Fascinating :)
that's why I said queue....as you can see from the comments the line runs out the door.
Exactly why Mr Balmer needs to go. He couldn't get a clue if it fell in his lap. Amazon gets it and that's why their Kindle Tablets are on fire (& why I own one).
The services provided by Amazon pays for the kindle fire. Otherwise its sold at a loss. Can I ask, what do you use your kindle fire for?
Why doesn't Microsoft use its services to pay for the hardware? I'd love to buy a low-cost RT, Pro, and Xbox one if I paid for a year or two for Office 360 or Xbox music.
They were running a subscription type deal for 360, $99 with two years of $15 a month for XBL (and financing). Most speculation was that it was a pilot for a potential pricing model on One. Could see a similar transition in tablet space once Ballmer's out. But likely just on Surface tablets.
I don't think its possible because the computer itself is built by different OEMs. Every OEM must earn some profit somehow from the services to offset the lower prices.
Does that apply to a Surface tablet? As stated above, Microsoft did offer the Xbox 360 at subsidized pricing. Nokia could do the same by lowering the price with a 1yr subscription to Nokia Music.
Yes but how about Asus or Sony or any other OEM? What do they have to offer in order to lower the price of their products.
I don't know about Asus since they seems decided to not build another RTs. But for Sony, if I recall, doesn't they have Sony Entertainment? Or do they are different companies? If they have it, they can join the music subscription bandwagon, eg using Sony Music service. Or even Movies if they also have it. Remember that Sony is one of the best at display and sound engine area with their Bravia Engine and Walkman technologies.
I use mine to buy & read books, buy and read Comics (Comixology), watch Amazon Prime, Hulu+, control TV via TiVo & Watch Comcast Xfinity on demand all via my 8.9in Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE (AT&T). Price $399. Amazon s doing this without any official Google Apps. What's Microsoft reason?
Yes there are some missing entertainment apps but that's not much of problem as there are alot of them. RT/Pro though are for more than just entertainment. As more official app start to appear, hopefully they do, you have the best of both worlds in one gadget.
Why do they keep screwing up the price?!? The main goal should be to get those tablets out in the real world first. Drop the price for the table but offer accessories or features at a little higher price. If you keep pricing things the same as other products that people are aware of already, guess what? They are going to buy the other product. Like some friends of mine say, if im going to spend that much, might as well buy an iPad/Galaxy.
Sooo even if/when its released with superior hardware, software and design you are going to buy an inferior product that is similarly priced? Way to support innovation.
Unfortunately it is true. The vast majority of users aren't enthusiasts (knowledgeable) and go with what is popular rather than what is best technically.
It doesn't matter. Newcomer doesn't conquer a market with high end models. This applies pretty much to all markets. Look how Hyundai did in automobile market. Similarly, WP didn't get much traction until 520/521. For average consumer, spec doesn't mean much. The only way to steer them away from popular brand names is low price. There is no other alternative.
Memory will be a huge issue for me. I've already had enough with the 32gb limits of 99% of the WP's. Give us a 128 option, or go home.
Considering this is not a Windows Phone, I imagine they will offer the base version with 32 GB (double that of the base iPad) and expandable storage. With WIndows 8.1, expandable storage will be much easier to incorporate with the file system.
The previous leak has already stated it has microSD-card support.
This one I'll be watching for. At the very least, the updates and exclusive apps will be expansive. I expect they will be anyway.
Hardware has me excited.
Thats what she said!
Lol
Yeah, but that name "Harmonia" sounds horrific.. I hope that doesn't come into fruition.. They should just use the Lumia name, like Samsung uses its galaxy/Ativ name.
Hummer
How about Lumia❕
Or Lumioso?
Oh, how about Lumia❔
Nokia Lumia TabPadSlab....for some reason you gotta spell it out for the consumer.
Oh, of course. But, the main point being that they use Lumia.. Actually, Lumia Tab sounds just right..
Nokia Lumia Harmonia. Rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?
Indeed, I'm one of them. RT, if it exists, shouldn't have a desktop at all. Office and a better file explorer need to be made more 'Modern'. Otherwise 8 is plenty lightweight in its own right.
EDIT, comment I replied to was deleted...but basically I'm a bit of an RT 'hater'.
RT has a bad name, even with MS fanboys like myself. Time to just let RT rip. OT why would your average Joe shoppers buy this over a surface RT that cost $150 less?? FAIL
Dunno, why doesn't Xbox run rt exactly so they could at least share stores and purchases? Why is RT, RT and not 8 RT?
Modern Office is in progress.
Yes, I'm very disappointed in RT as well. At times, I even like my iPad more with IOS 7. And I love Microsoft!
I love my rt and no RT shouldn't ditch the desktop. I wish people would actually use the damn thing for a week before saying stupid sh*t like "it should have no desktop". Use it for a week and THEN try and say that .
ive been using mine since day one of release and i say it should have no desktop.
I'll bet it will have the nicest, well made design and build quality and be second to none. As good as it gets for tablets. But at that price, its just gonna flop and Nokia will bleed money again. As much as I love Nokia, an RT tablet at that price is just gonna be a loser. W8 pro at that price would have been a serious winner.
Going head to head with iPad is dumb and it's going to not sell. Why would they even try this price point again when it didn't work for the Surface and MS had to take a $900 million write down. Stupid Nokia.
It didn't work for MS because of horrible marketing and nowhere to buy it or try it. And on top of all of that, terrible resolution and slow performance. Nokia can change all of that.
You think that Nokia is going to spend as much money on advertising as Microsoft did? Nokia can barely get their phones into stores without being exclusive to a carrier and you expect Nokia, who has never done a tablet before to do better? I'm sorry but this is going to bomb hard at that price point and how much is the keyboard going to cost? I bet it's going to be over $100 for sure. Price and Windows RT will make it fail. Now if they swap it with Windows Pro then I think it would fare better.
if Nokia spends more than $2000 it will be more than Microsoft effectively spent. Microsoft advertising up till 2 months ago when they started the head to head iPad advertising was absolutely worthless.
It doesn't matter if you think that the early ads were worthless they still had to spend the money to do it. How is Nokia going to adverstise this tablet when Microsoft can barely do it themselves and knowing Nokia it's probably going to be carrier exclusive.
Not with this strategy. Nokia has to undercut the iPad by at least $50, if not more. People know the iPad, have accessories for the iPad, have iPhones that are essentially small iPads... What is there about this Nokia RT tablet that will really drive people to move away from what they know so well, especially when it's priced the same?

If you undercut the iPad on the price, even by as little as $50, that will be enough for a good number of people to try out the Nokia and Win8 tablets. I think it's too much to ask for them to compete head to head at the same price point.
I don't think the marketing failed it. The lock of a cheap version did. They should've had the Standard Surface and also a 7-8" version that would directly compete with say a Kindle Fire HD and priced to match. That would've penetrated the market and then made people interested int he 10.1 version.
The iPad that has 32GB and cellular/LTE costs $729. NOT going head to head at all.
Excellent point, at 499, cellular connectivity and same storage, this is a contender if they get the app issue for RT fixed.
This. Everyone is so eager to look for flaws in everything. Disengage your hate for a second and engage your brains... Read the specs, realize you've been an ass, and then move on to hating in the fact that there's no cheaper variant without LTE (that we know about yet). Although they may be focusing on that market with the phablet (which would be a shame IMO).
While it's not going head to head on price, it would be interesting to see how well the iPad with LTE is selling. Verizon is expensive...I just don't see Nokia moving a lot of these devices (with LTE at any price point).
Harmonia. Sounds like a feminine hygiene product.
Sorta like iPad...
Makes sense. Ipads and RTs are for women and children.
Windows RT? Blech. No thanks.
Yep, hopefully the failure of this and the Surface 2 will be the final nails in the coffin for Windows RT.
Windows RT isn't going anywhere. But of course you aren't able to understand that.
Why? Have you even used the bloody thing? No? Then shut up
RT is RT is RT. The capabilities of RT, which I have used for your information, are not governed by the hardware(barring the CPU architecture), but rather the crippling ARM infrastructure.
i really hope that too! You can put a fresh Atom bay trail generation in a similar case for about the same price and x86 compatibility. Well, RT have totally no reason to exists
Sirius.... Sounds Serious Cool stuff ;)
$500 is an instant fail. I wish Nokia could brainwash people like Apple, but that's simply not the case. And you'd think they'd learn something from the Surface RT. This should be $349-399. Oh, well...
iPad 32GB with LTE: $729.
I didn't ask a question...
Your posting needed questions to be asked badly and answered.
Well, post them up if you have any.
I was interested until I saw it was Windows 8 RT. While Win8 RT may not be bad I am interested in a Win8 Pro tablets. Of course it will most likely have crap for memory and storage.
wont apologize for this but Microsoft and Nokia are smoking something. RT tablets should NEVER pass $400. how is it that Acer put out a full blown Win8 8 inch for $370 without a prob? For those that keep saying RT is a flop, failure, blah blah blah do ipads run all the same programs as macs? do android tabs run the same programs as PC or Ubuntu? didn't think so, in other words they all run apps apps apps which is what Rt runs plus Office so shut up
Acer produced a Windows 8 tablet for $370 by using piss-poor components and build quality. The W3 is universally despised.
Seems to be working great.for my lady. A few ppl(older) at work bought it sooooo wheres the universally despised?
Its a shit tablet. Try it yourself for a bit and you will see. Or, I dunno try GOOGLING it?
I want this in pro❕
For you? Prozac
LMAO! He got you, Rodneyej.
NIST will be having my ball sacks in his mizouth later today.. And he knows it❕❕❕
Lol❕❕
NIST.. You give a new meaning to the term ""two in the pink, one in the stink"""
Rodneyej can you reply to yourself a couple more times?
Yes,, on the next article I will.,, just for you..
Hopefully this will be the Lumia 925 of the Nokia tablets and there's a 620/625 analogue on the way too. Use the allure of the high end model to drive sales of the cheaper versions like they have with Windows Phone.
I like that idea, a 520 like tablet would take on the legions of horrible Android tablets and win.
If Nokia is that stupid to go toe to toe with the iPad @ $499.00 it will be DOA. Again, MS and Nokia need to learn.
Plus it will have to go up against the Surface 2 RT and if MS keeps the price the same as the current one then that's $150 difference. I just have to say that they're pretty crazy if they do launch at that $499 price.
The iPad that has 32GB and cellular/LTE costs $729.
That may be the case but the Apple 32G has more useable space. Therefore, the public will not pay that price. An LTE version will sell for $399 and the non-LTE should go for $299.00.
With all due respect, the public has no clue even what "usable space" means. :D
exactly. they'll buy an ipad because their friends and neighbours have one. which is a damn shame cause surface tablets are way better imo ;)
I will not disgree with this. However, MS and Nokia is still the underdog. That's why price is a major concern.
I agree. They have GOT to nail the price.
Except we are the public... and we do have the clue. Some of us have solved the murder already. So now what?
Yes, that's quite correct. The 32GB Nokia Sirius with LTE priced at $499 will compete with the 32GB iPad with Cellular/LTE priced at $729.
128gb is too much storage for Microsoft. You'll be able to download more apps and game, which will support more developers. Now, Microsoft would not want that would they?
Please stop talking. Go troll somewhere else.
Any reason enough to get this instead of iPad, Android tablets or Surface RT?
Thinner, lighter, Nokia quality, Nokia apps, included keyboard with battery-extension, supposedly genuinely decent cameras for a tablet. And WinRT comes with Office, which is incredibly useful for businesses and students. It's also a lot cheaper than a comparable 32GB iPad, and has apps specifically made for tablets, rather than the phone apps for iOS and Android tablets. I'm sure there are more reasons.
Price is another reason. The 32GB iPad with LTE is priced at $729 while the 32GB Sirius with LTE will be priced at $499.
If you are at all familiar with what Nokia has done with Windows Phone, you wouldn't get anything else.
I'd buy for 299€, 499$ is way too much for RT
Then you won't be buying one.
Definetly on my list of things to buy this holiday season!!! Can't wait.
As with most Nokia devices I expect the hardware will be top notch. That price is at least £200 too expensive though. Don't get me wrong, it's a good price for what is in the hardware, but trying to compete with the iPad with your first ever tablet is just never going to work. That's without mentioning that it's running Windows RT, which again is a perfectly fine OS, but when you can already buy the Surface RT for £270 or the full Windows 8 Iconia W3 for £250... why is anyone going to buy this?

To me this feel like a massive misstep for Nokia. I've been able to understand their thinking with each of the Lumia devices they've put out but I don't understand who this tablet is for. What is the market? Who is the target audience?

If it was priced competitively with the RT and the W3 I could see some people maybe picking it up, but I'd still have to choose the W3, even if the processor isn't quite as good. I just don't see the logic in buying a device that cannot do everything, when you can get a much cheaper one that does.
£200 too expensive? What?
For a start, comparing the Nokia tablet to a Surface and a W3 is unfair. The Iconia W3 is awful. It's outclassed completely by practically every other RT or 8 device. It's the smallest - that's partly why it's cheapest. It's mainly cheap because of the cheap components in it. The Surface also contains fairly outdated hardware, so of course it'll be cheaper than Nokia's offering. It's also about to be replaced so MS are trying to clear them out.
As for the iPad, it starts at ~ £399 here... if that's the price Nokia can match - with a device containing a brand new CPU, LTE, 32GB of storage which is expandable and a 1080p screen - they're not looking too bad, especially given the iPad at that price is WiFi only, 16GB of storage and is non-expandable. If that price also includes that keyboard (which I hope), even better.
Until I actually hear the announcement from Nokia I'm not buying any of it.
+1. We'll see what all this is about come Sept. 26-27th. I just can't believe the price point until Nokia announces it themselves because $499 is that bad of a decision.
WIth no marketing heft and meager distribution this won't sell.
So far it looks like Verizon will have it. I'd be surprised if ATT didn't also. And they'll likely be in MS stores. Best Buy? Perhaps. Nokia stores across the globe? Yep.
Shame for the price really considering its RT. I think I'll have a few quid and go for the Surface RT.
Man, that is really thin. I don't know that I need one, but the wife's Asus transformer prime is about to give up the ghost. What a POS that was!
Isn't that an Android tablet?
Yeah, and an old one at that.
Seems most people (on this blog) are not happy with the price and have passed a death sentence already. Could you wait for it to hit the shelves already?

The same thing was said about the price of the Lumia 1020 and most tech blogs and readers of such blogs deemed it a failure. Recent stats showed that it's doing just fine.
PS: Though the comments and opinions of blog readers like us matter, it would be nice to know that we constitute less than 1 percent of the target market. So every one take a chill pill and calm down.
People said the same thing whent the Surface RT was released, "wait for it to hit the shelves before judging" and we all how that went. Nokia is new to tablets and them asking for the same price point as an iPAD is dumb not to mention the Windows Marketplace is garbage at the moment. I don't think they're going to convince a lot of people to buy this thing at that price.
It has microSD and will include keyboard, so that should help justify cost as well as allow storage increase very easily
Again. People vote with their wallets! $500 is too high a price point for an RT tablet no matter how great the build quality and specs are. If you truly want to come close to 'competing' with the juggernaut that is the iPad you MUST undercut them significantly by at least $100. Its the only strategy that can give RT any chance of getting a toehold in the tablet market space.
$729-$499 = $$230. $230 > $100. :)
You do realize that they are actually undercutting the Ipad by more than 100 dollar if they launch at this price? The cheapest Ipad 4 with included 3G and not Wifi is costing 629$....
No he doesn't. Cheapskates who like whinging and making stupid points that are based on information they just made up in their heads don't actually RESEARCH what they are talking about.
If they did their research, they will realize that the 32GB Nokia Sirius priced at $499 will be going against the 32GB iPad with LTE that costs $729.
Again tablet with RT Windows?
NOOOOOOoooooooooooooo