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Nokia's Back In the Tablet Business, With the Android Lollipop-Based N1
Esra Erimez writes It's been a little over a year since the announcement of Microsoft Corp.'s acquisition of Finnish tech veteran Nokia Oyj.'s Devices unit. A year later Chinese leaks site SINA Tech says Nokia is back and ready to compete against its former unit, suggesting it will launch in China on Jan. 7.
As one commenter on the Daily Tech story points out (as does this ExtremeTech article from last month), the not-yet-launched N1, with its "one piece aluminum body, 7.9", 2048*1536, [and] 3:4 aspect ratio" looks an awful lot like the iPad mini, but costs quite a bit less.
The base iPad Mini 2 lists at $299 and was as low as $229 during recent sales; the N1 is launching at $249.
That's probably why the author of the article talked about the base iPad Mini 3, not the iPad Mini 2.
The new Nokia N1 tablet, apparently. At just $250 with 32GB of storage — as opposed to the iPad Mini 3’s base price of $400 for the 16GB model — the Nokia N1 is definitely priced to sell.
And yes, from Apple's own comparison page, there doesn't seem to be any difference between the iPad Mini 2 and the iPad Mini 3. But to be fair to Nokia, its specs are superior to the iPad Mini 2 and 3.
And also, the Android tablets are the ones that initially embraced the 7 inch to 8 inch sizes, so one could say that Apple is the one that cloned those tablets from Asus, Samsung, HTC, and LG. But then again, a specs side-by-side comparison of Nokia's new tablet wouldn't look as good against the newer Android tablets made other manufacturers. Not to mention, the word "iPad" still has the most mind share, where it comes to people talking about tablets in general.
I have never seen someone replace his tablet because it is made in plastic instead of aluminium. People replace their phone/tablet beacause it is too slow/old or because the display is broken. Aluminium frames do not protect the display any better.