Exclusive: Everything There Is To Know About Nokia's Next Tablet

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Move over, Nokia N97. Your bigger, badder, unannounced brother is on the way – and one of our sources at Nokia has just clued us in on all of the details, from worldwide launch targets to hardware specs.

While it should be noted that our source on this scoop is new to our tipster family, we’re very confident in the details they’ve provided. All materials they’ve shared seem positively legit, having a number of indicators we’ve come to look for in Nokia documents (though, for the sake of not opening our inbox to a landslide of real looking fakes, we can’t say what these are.) Included in these materials were a number of renders and product shots; unfortunately, we’ve got reason to believe that these images have tough-to-detect security watermarks. For the sake of our source, we can only release the above recreation of one of the product renders – apologies for our artistic shortcomings.

Nokia’s next tablet device is designed in the same vein as their N810, albeit significantly more polished. Though it doesn’t appear to have an official name as of yet, it’s referred to internally as “N900”, “Rover”, or “Maemo Flagship”. We’ll be referring to this device as the N900 for the rest of this post, though it’s quite possible that this name will change.

The N900 is very similar to the Nokia N97 aesthetically, having a 3.5″ touchscreen above a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and many of the same design features. However, the screen of the N900 is significantly higher resolution (800×480 as opposed to 360×640) and, unlike that of the N97, does not tilt up. Additionally, the N900 does not appear to feature the navi-keys found on the slide-out layer of the N97. And, of course, it runs Maemo rather than S60.

Now, on to the meat.

Hardware Specs:

  • Update: A few comments inquired about GPS. Our source has since verified that the N900 does indeed have GPS, along with an accelerometer.
  • Dimensions: 59.7mmx111mmx18.2mm
  • Weight: 180g
  • 3.5″ 800×480 (WVGA) touchscreen
  • OMAP3430 500/600 Mhz processor (Fun Trivia: Same CPU as the Palm Pre)
  • Bands: GSM Quad-Band 850, 900, 1800, 1900. WCDMA 900, 1700/2100, 2100
  • 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, autofocus, and sliding cover
  • Though the renders we’ve seen show two lens-like circles near the screen, we’ve got no word on what’s behind them. However, we feel safe in assuming that its a proximity sensor and a front-facing camera.
  • 1GB total virtual runtime memory (256MB physical RAM, 768MB virtual memory)
  • Wi-Fi, HSPA
  • 32GB internal storage, expandable up to 48GB via external memory
  • Keyboard variants: English, Scandinavian, French, German, South European, Italian, Russia
  • In the box: Connectivity cable, headset, charger, battery (1320 mAh), Video-out cable, microUSB adaptor, cleaning cloth

Some of the mentioned software features:

  • In all of the renders we’ve seen, it appears to be running Maemo 5.
  • Multitasking: “Run all of your favorite applications simultaneously”
  • Live Dashboard allows all open tasks and unread messages to be displayed in one view
  • Browser: Firefox 3 with support for Flash 9.4
  • Built-in automatic update software
  • Contacts has some sort of status sharing built in, allowing you to share your status, location, and mood. Support for Contacts on Ovi and Google Talk.
  • All SMS and IMs accessible from one view
  • Cellular voice or VOIP both supported
  • Captures video at 800×480 in AVC/H.264
  • Image tagging and geo-tagging support
  • Nokia intends to have at least a dozen add-on apps available at launch, including a game called “Bounce”, a Jaiku/Twitter app called “Mauku”, and a few widgets.

If you’re not drooling yet, you should probably get your salivary glands checked. If you are, you’re probably getting curious about availability. Don’t worry, we’ve got details on that, too.

This documents all specifically and repeatedly mention “TMO” launch targets. We’ve never seen this stand for anything besides T-Mobile in this context, and everything still makes perfect sense after swapping out every instance of “TMO” for “T-Mobile”. As such, we assume that is what they mean.

Target launch dates, as of the beginning of this year:

  • T-Mobile International: July 2009
  • T-Mobile USA: August/September 2009
  • Middle East, Asia, South-East Asian Pacific: July 2009
  • Europe: October 2009

Though these were the dates set forth in the document, our source does indicate that they’ve heard a number of rumblings that the device would see delays.

There’s not much more to uncover about this guy (beyond the price and the final name, be it that they don’t go with N900), but we’ll fill in any blanks as the information comes in.

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[Huge thanks to Helsingissa for coming through with this info!]