Talk of a "Lumia" style tablet has been around since at least March 2012, but the rumor received a good dose of reality last week with reports of a possible reveal in September and hardware specs including a Snapdragon 800, 32 GB of internal storage, a 10.1 inch screen and more. Of course, the original rumors slated the tablet to arrive in February 2013, so anything is possible at this point.
In March 2012, Nokia's head of design, Marko Ahtisaari, said that the company was indeed working on a tablet, that Nokia was definitely eyeing the tablet space. The device was supposedly delayed due to Microsoft's own Surface tablets, and would sport a 10 inch screen and Qualcomm's S4 chip when it would finally be revealed during Mobile World Congress in February 2013.
After the initial report, additional hardware details began to roll in, including HDMI and USB support. The company was also reportedly focusing on the actual Lumia-like form factor and the tablet's cover, which would click into place and serve as a keyboard and a kickstand. This cover would also feature an additional battery and extra USB ports.
In February before MWC 2013, Nokia chief Stephen Elop threw a curve ball into the rumor mill by saying that the company was open to any platform for a tablet OS. "We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time," he said. Shortly after that, Nokia "mistakingly" revealed a Lumia-styled tablet sporting a Windows 8 interface.
MWC 2013 came and went with no Nokia tablet in sight. The next supposed reveal would be Nokia's May 14 Lumia event earlier this year. By then the rumored specs consisted of a 10.1-inch screen at 1366 x 768 resolution, a 1 GHz SoC and 1 GB of RAM. The device would measure 256.6 x 175 x 9.7 mm and weigh around 676 grams. Obviously, the rumored Windows RT tablet didn't make a showing at that event either.
The device reportedly appeared on a GFXBench benchmark as the RX-114 back in July, sporting the Snapdragon 800 chip but with a 1371 x 771 resolution, suggesting a similar resolution found on Microsoft's 10.6 inch Surface screen. Yet the RX-114 could merely be an upcoming large-screen phablet that will be revealed alongside the Nokia tablet.
So now we come to the latest addition in the Nokia tablet saga. So far the specs are rumored to include a 10.1 inch screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, 2 GB of RAM at the least (it could be 3 GB as previously speculated), the quad-core Snapdragon 800 chip (2.2 GHz or 2.3 GHz), 32 GB of storage, a micro SD card slot, a micro USB port, a micro HDMI output, a 6 MP camera on the back and a 2 MP camera on the front, and optional LTE connectivity. A photo showing the back panel of Nokia's tablet emerged just last week.
At the moment, Windows RT still seems to be the OS of choice, and now we possibly may have an actual name: Sirius. Nokia will supposedly reveal the new Lumia-styled Windows RT tablet during an event in New York on September 26 and 27. The company typically reserves the NYC location for major launches such as the Lumia 920 and the Lumia 1020. Smaller, non-U.S. launches usually take place in London.
Pricing for the new tablet is expected to match Apple's iPad.
