Rumor: Nokia’s next event will be September 26-27th; Windows tablet in bound?

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Windows Phone Central has learned that Nokia is not planning on slowing down anytime soon with a new company event supposedly set for 60 days from now. It’s not a 100% clear either if this is a public press event or something else. Scheduled for September 26-27th in New York City, details remain scarce as to exactly what would be shown to the public, though if we had to speculate it would be a Nokia tablet.

Nokia traditionally has only reserved the New York City location for major US launches, including the recent Lumia 920 and Lumia 1020. Smaller launches that are non-US focused usually take place in London or more rarely, industry conferences like CES.

Supposed screenshot of Nokia event in NYC

We’ve been told that Nokia’s strategy going forward is to have a “major release every quarter”. For example, the Lumia 925 was announced in May, the Lumia 1020 was announced in July and now something else in September. In between, smaller announcements may take place, like the Lumia 625 or carrier-specific devices. We would also put the Nokia ‘phablet’ on schedule for an end of the year release, possibly November alongside Windows Phone 8 GDR3, which will bring 1080P display support. Working prototypes of that device have only just begun being tested, we’re told.

Nokia Windows 8 Tablet incoming?

Nokia prototype tablet

Leaked: early Nokia tablet prototype

As to what the device could be, assuming the above information is accurate, we’re thinking this will finally be the big reveal for Nokia’s tablet. We’ve heard now from multiple sources that Nokia does have a tablet in testing with various carriers. Interestingly, Windows 8.1 is due to RTM to manufacturers sometime in August and it will presumably go on sale later in September alongside new devices. If we had to conjecture, it would seem to us that Nokia would want to tie their tablet into the Microsoft Windows 8.1 launch cycle for optimal media coverage.

Yesterday, on the site GFXBench, the Nokia RX-114 tablet was supposedly caught being benchmarked. The device purportedly runs Windows 8 with a Qualcomm Adreno 330 CPU and somewhat odd 1371 x 771 display size. No other information was given and it has not been verified as accurate.

One source who has been reliable for us in the past recently told us the following description for the Nokia tablet:

“…smallish, something like 11 inches, using Windows of course. I have very little detailed information, but the design was very much in the same style as their Lumia phones with bright colors and rounded corners. The model they showed me was bright red.”

Details have been surprisingly scarce about a Nokia tablet, though we did see an earlier prototype a few weeks ago suggesting that the company is indeed experimenting with the platform. What is not clear is if the project continued going forward and what the current status is, though we have heard that AT&T is testing one and they would be the US launch partner. 

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

110 Comments
  • We'll see how this goes. Seeing as how Microsoft spent more money advertising the RT than actually profit will see if this will be successful. P.S. I love my RT.
  • The resolution seems weird on this thing, though. 1371 x 771? That's a very odd resolution to pick.
  • it appears they added 5x3 pixels. (wouldnt that mean just 15 pixels?)
  • No, when you do multiplication it doesn't work that way. You can't multiply the difference to get the product. So where the difference is 5x3, and does have a product of 15, in reality, you must do 1371x771 which has a product of 1,057,047 total pixels, minus the 5x3 would be a resolution of 1366x768 which has a total of 1,049,088. Now minus the later from the former and you have a difference of 7,959 pixels... Not 15.
  • huh.
  • I think you are right...but you lost me LOL
  • could that be a snapped view ?
  • Exactly what I was thinking.
  • It was the dimensions of a cropped image. This is the actual article.
    http://www.nokiapoweruser.com/2013/07/31/updated-rx-108-may-be-the-nokias-win8-tablet-rx-114-indeed-looks-like-the-winrt-8-1-tablet/
  • It's probably the boarder around the content being displayed as part of the benchmark, if I had to venture a guess.
  • Let me guess, 32 GB onboard and no expansion options? sigh
  • It's a tablet, not a phone. If they build a tablet, I will guarantee you that it will have a usb and sdcard slot.
  • 11 inches at that resolution? I hope not.
  • Nokia reportedly has had numerous prototypes in the works. Also, don't conflate rumors or information we present e.g. the GFXBench and our insider source. They may not be one and the same, or one (or both) could be inaccurate. 
  • ummm 11 inches at 1080p is awesome. 1371 x 771 is the effective resolution of 140% scaling od 1920x180.
  • "conflate" I will try to work that word into a conversation today.
  • No "rum 'o meter" for that part of the article, Daniel?
  • Daniel, might it also just be sporting that resolution at the software level because it doesn't have R3 onboard, but will/could sport a 1080 later with software, allowing them to merely beta test the device thus far? At the hardware level it could very well support 1080 as is, but software is confining it to that max resolution. I think people are lost on modern devices always being maxed, so when we read a spec like that, people assume that's the hardware, but its not. Look at old CRT monitors which had crazy high resolution (with decent video card support), but most people ran it at 800x600 or 1024x768, even though it could scale double that amount.
  • September = Nokia World
  • Could be Nokia world, although Nokia has tamed down that event significantly, including having it only for non-public attendees, like last year.
  • Oh, right. Well, it still looks like it's gonna be a closed event again judging by the screenshot you got. I could be wrong though.
  • was Nokia World in NYC last year?
  • Why they need two days? Is it Nokia world?
  • That's not a resolution in my opinion, but screen dimensions (Width & Height)
  • Sounds about right in mm. 13.7cm x 7.7cm. So it'll be 15.7cm diagonally or 6.2". This is more in phablet range than tablet...
  • Someone isn't up with metric. No way are the dimensions 1,371 mm x 700 something mm. It's not 1.371 meters...that would be like a home projector or a really big TV.
  • Ehmm... 13.7cm x 7.7cm is indeed 137mm x 77mm!
  • With that dimesnions spec, it should be a 14" tablet.
  • 14"? By the Pythagorean theorem, that would be the square root of 13.7^2 + 7.7^2, which is 15.7cm, or about 6.2". That does sound like a reasonable phablet size. But does anyone know, do they typcially talk sizes in .1mm units with no decimal points/commas?
  • Haha that'll teach me to do maths right before bed :P It's rather sad as metric is all I know! Haha
  • Those numbers came from a benchmarking site. The benchmarking sites record the specs and the results. How could the benchmarking software possibly know the physical dimensions? It's the resolution that the device was providing.
  • probably in a new 8.1 snapped view.
  • Hopefully its the Phablet with a 41MP Pureview Camera and Qualcomm 800 CPU for Verizon. They need a Hero device that is better than the 928 whose specs stand up to the competition, but if it doesn't have a MicroSD slot I'll be shaking my fist!
  • Will you shake your fist with money in it? :)
  • Hey GoodThings, did you get the $150 store credit from the online MS Store?
  • I was an early adopter of Windows 8 RT with the Microsoft Surface RT, and it served me well for quite a number of months. Even when my laptop blew up, I was able to get things done using the RT.
     
    However, this month it got to the stage where I had to go Pro, and got a Surface Pro.
     
    I really hope Nokia release both an RT and Pro version.
  • I'm skeptical about the tablet announcement. I think this will be a version of 1020, more like 102X, with lower sensor camera to showcase other consumers which are not exactly for the big camera bump... but we'll see. I can't wait.
  • But there is absolutely zero evidence for such a device, yet we've had numerous sources tell us a tablet is real.
  • We have had codenames and Nokia trusties posting about Nokia tablet since 2007.
    There was 3 tablet prototypes for MeeGo alone, RX-51, RX71 and unknown N9 designed proto almost ready for production, but scrapped my Elop. 
    I see there being no more indication for a tablet than a inevitable Nokia phablet with GDR3. 
  • Sad if that's the case. I'm just waiting for the right Nokia device so I could pursue my transfer to WP8. Probably going to wait until GDR3 devices get launched / released.
  • You realize that without the camera hump, you're at a 920-size sensor, right? You need a hump for the phone to not just be a 920 variant.
  • So, the 920?
  • If its a tablet, then I could not imagine them leaving out a micro SD slot.
  • What standout feature will make it better than the surface pro I wonder; not much else design-wise that hasn't already been done with Windows tablets/hybrids at this point, yet, I'm interested to see this device
  • Perhaps it will have the Nokia apps with its own segment of the Store the way the Dell tablets have their own?
  • Perhaps they'll surprise everyone, and actually make a tablet instead of a hybrid. For hybrids, they should be using x86 instead ARM anyways. I just don't see tablets selling very well above $300, so not sure if Nokia should even bother.
  • I initially thought windows RT was a bad idea. The more I look at it, the more I think its a great idea. Only thing though is they need to change the name somehow so as to not confuse consumers with windows 8, like Windows Pad or something.
  • They better take heed from Microsoft's $900 million loss, low consumer interest and OEM's jumping ship, if its an RT device its doomed. x86 Atom (hopefully Bay Trail) or Haswell gets them into the enterprise as well so they can push for a one-two with their Lumia devices.
  • I have no issue with RT as schools and universities that use ipads & chrome devices get less functionality but more apps than RT. I think it should be marketed to the right segment. Pro should be heavily pushed to enterprise & RT to consumers & students however, not withheld from consumers & students who fall into the power user category (you know who you are!). This is the problem I.have with HP, they won't sell the envy x2 to me for my company and offered me the hp twist....which is a horrid ten year old design, so I purchased several xps 13's from dell
  • If it runs Windows RT, no thanks. If I'm buying into this ecosystem I want something more functional than Android. The Iconia W3 is more appealing to me if thus happens to be RT.
  • Quadcore phone or Tablet???
  • RT is a failure. In a world with powerful battery sipping Atom chips chasing ARM is suicide. If the surface had been the Asus Vivotab Smart it would have been a winner. Please don't let Nokia go RT. Better an 8 inch running windows phone.
  •  
    Want I would like
    10" or 11" 1080p with a video chip that can do video without sucking the battery life
    8 to 10hrs of battery while in use
    Accessory port on the rear for 3rd parties to make add ons or extended battery + stand
     
    Surface Pro rocking Haswell
    16Gb RAM
    128mb SSD
    GPS, Optional 4G, 5mpix front camera for Skype and detachable keyboard
    SD and Micro SD slot as well as USB
    I am dreaming, but since I do a lot photography, a calibrated SRGB or ARGB screen would rock so I can use it for photo editing and stylus right on screen
     
    Will never ever happen, but that would be great
  • I agree, if it's not a Pro and if it doesn't have at least 7 or 8  hours of battery life then they can keep it, I don't want it.  Also, in order for these tablets to move into the large corporate enterprise as replacements for laptops then they must also have significantly larger hard drives. This is something that has already been discussed at my company (...a "very" large well known company).
  • Why??? I'm an IT manager and I stopped purchasing computers with large hard drives years ago because all items besides the base application installs are store on network shares. Furthermore, now all of my users have SkyDrive accounts for sharing/editing file between one another, eliminating the need to store offline files on the hard drive like in days of old.
  • Are you in a small to medium shop? I frequently inquire to those in charge of such things at my company and the answer that I've received most is "the hard drives aren't big enough yet". Keep in mind that tablets with as much as 128gb have really only arrived recently (in corporate cycle terms), even with that I was told the same thing. We do all of the above except that we make heavy use of SharePoint not Skydrive, but when you are in the IT shop of company with nearly 300,000 employees, processes as much data as the government, has one of the most widespread and complex networking systems in the nation, seemingly makes use of every application known to man and is mired in a bevy of rules, regulations, audit requirements, extremely stringent security standards and a bevy of bureaucratic red tape...doing anything at the server level is like a snail dragging a turtle through molasses. SLOWWWWW! People here keep a "lot" of data on their hard drive simply to be able to access it in a timely manner if for no other reason. 64gb tablets would have been chewed up and spit out like cheap candy. 128gb would be able to serve some areas/divisions but the folks here won't feel safe until it goes larger. There are lots of variable at play, depending on the company that you're at.
  • Then your network infrastructure is the problem, not the hard drives. I'm at a similarly large company and everything's network based, except for the several GB engineering models that I keep on my HD (15K SAS,) more because of the fits they give my network drive allocation (which I haven't really tested in a few years, seems to have been improved to something more dynamic than it used to be) than for speed.
    For tablets though, I'd imagine employees that would be getting them wouldn't necessarily be on the network all that often. If you're always in a company building, you might as well have a laptop, for the most part. At which point the hard drive becomes a bigger issue.
  • You're in a much larger shop than I am, but I also had a SharePoint server which was under utilized and wasn't worth the expense if it want going to be used properly. Also everyone within our organization aren't they types of employees that are mobile so many members of management utilize SkyDrive or whatever it will soon be changed to. But even the item on SharePoint