News Nokia tablets due Q4 this year

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/06/22/nokia-tablets-due-q4-this-year/1

 

Another tablet and the same problems will likely be encountered by all "[insert apple product here]" beater devices. Until more specs are released I won't hold my breath.

 

"reports are that it has chosen an ARM Coretex CPU,"

Cortex CPU... fix it!

 

Coretex? What next, BiteTech?

The 100 ES is probably for testing - Nokia does do some design tests! That's mainly why Nokia's are so solid - they test and test the structural capability.

 

So is this just going to be a giant N900? Not that that would be a bad thing, Maemo and the N900 are great and assuming that MeeGo is at least as good it sounds good for a tablet.

It is a real OS optimised for a small device. You can install the GIMP on it if you really want!

 

I don't really see the point of stuff like that? I'd rather just have a netbook. The iPad... I can kind of see the point, because at least you can hold it flat in one hand and browse the web and stuff just using a finger, walking around your house pretending like you're an engineer on the USS Enterprise or something.

These little tablet things are neither one thing nor the other though. It's not something I'd want to wander around using, or lounging in my couch flipping through websites with my finger. So if I'm going to have to sit and hold it and use it properly, I'd rather just a full on netbook, or even a laptop. But that's just me.

 

Nokia choosing the ARM over an Intel core 2 duo CULV or a mobile core i3 or i5 simply tells me that their new pad/tablet/slate giant phone etc. is not a serious competitor to the Apple iPad or the ASUS EEE 121.

The iPad has a custom A4 cpu built on ARM tech but super sizes it and the ASUS EEE 121 has the Su7300 core 2 duo CULV that can run a full desktop OS. These two devices so far are the front runners for tablet/pad superiority.

My money is waiting for the ASUS 121 as it is pimpin.

 

Uhh, what? You seem confused. iPad also uses an ARM processor that's not even a custom A4 processor - it's the same platform as Samsung Hummingbird, as both use the Fast14 optimized Cortex A8 core hardened by Intrinsity prior acquisition by Apple. Nokia could be using TI's latest OMAP 4 platform, which is a dualcore Cortex A9 design, with a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU. The CPU could be clocked at either 1GHz, or 720MHz - the performance increase over the A4 platform would probably be nearly 4 times that of A8 even with 720MHz. (Cortex A8 has 2.0 DMIPS/MHz from 600mHz to 1GHz +, and A9 MPCore has 5 DMIPS/MHz per core. Clock for clock A9 MPC should be 2.5 times faster, and there's one more core for A9... At 1GHz, A8 has 2000 DMIPS, but A9 MPC at 720mHz would have 7200 DMIPS.)

Discounting possibilities, iPad uses an ARM processor. Nokia's tablet also uses an ARM processor. Is there anything WRONG with that? Or does Apple alone make it's ARM the BEST CPU EVAR?

iPad has a 9.7" screen. 9" is not that far off.

Mobile i3/i5 have yet to show sufficient battery life - Anand has recently done an article on the lowest level i3M processor, and the battery life was pitiful (vs CULV), even with a 48Wh battery.

Your comment simply tells me that you like to speculate without thinking. Or research.

 

Krayzie had me at custom A4 hahahhaha, good joke. You actually believed Apple designed the chip?

All ARM A8's are built the same, the purchaser chooses what i/o and the like they want with it. The only thing custom about the apple A4 is that they choose to leave out a whole lot and profited because of it.

 

Not really. ARM Cortex A8 processors used in TI OMAP series is 100% stock, but the CPU design in the Samsung Hummingbird platform, and in the Apple A4 is different as it has additional CPU design added on by Intrinsity using the Fast14 tech they (Intrinsity) developed. Hence it'd be wrong to say that all ARM A8's are built the same.

 

There we all go again, focusing on the technical specs rather than what the thing can do. Hasn't the iPad taught you guys anything?

There is nothing wrong with the hardware side of this Nokia tablet. I think this tablet looks promising, especially for people who like a physical keyboard. The crux is the OS. Nokia has screwed the pooch in the past by creating nice little Internet tablets without decent PDA apps so it could only be used as a web browser and email client. For the money that was just too restrictive. By leaving out a few simple apps they reduced the value and saleability of the device to zero.

Even Applle learned that lesson with the iPod Touch which initially shipped without PDA functions. Simply including a few apps that were already developed for the iPhone anyway turned it from a glorified MP3 player into a real multipurpose device.

Nokia is sensible enough this time around to go for the MeeGo OS. I think it looks promising. It is a yeartoo late and now has to go up against the iPad which pretty much is defining the tablet niche, let alone dominating it, but I think it could work. I feel good about this one because all the components are known to work. I have my doubts about the Asus offerings.

 

Well, Maemo 5 is certainly now useable as a multipurpose device - in fact, why in the world is the N810 used to depict the last attempt? The last attempt was the N900! (Side note : Coretex is still not fixed.)

MeeGo OS is jointly developed by merging Moblin and Maemo. AFAIK the MeeGo OS on the new N9 tablet (or so it's rumoured) will have a Harmattan UI on top, not MeeGo. Of course, it's all rumours, though.

(And about components working... Well, there's the N900, which didn't disappoint, but then there's the N97.)

 

The N900 shows great promise, I think nokia are on the right track for a tablet PC....

 

"As Intel's biggest mobile partner, is the snub by Nokia a significant impact on its future mobile-x86 sales?"

It is not a snub, as it was never anything more than speculation that Nokia would adopt Intel Atom CPU's for its mobile products.

Yes, an Arm Cortex A9 powered meego tablet would be very tempting.

 

[edit]
found this:
http://jedibeeftrix.wordpress.com/2...ance-device-nokia-and-the-meego-tablet-phone/
[/edit]

 

I'd like to make a quick note (because quite a lot of people are easily misled - there're threads popping up posting the render in the link above claiming it as the N9 in the maemo forums - the fools) that the render you see in the image above is NOT the N9. It's user made, and not something published by Nokia. Heck, it even states N1000 as the model number.

 

Thank you so very much for clarifying this for the others reading this post.

No Apple didn't design the chip but had it CUSTOM built for their specs and how they (Apple) needed it to perform according to there SOFTWARE irregardless the ARM chip is INFERIOR to the Intel core 2 Duo CULV @ 1.3ghz Su7000 or a core i3/i5 which can run a full fat Windows 7 OS without major mods like the ARM would require Microsoft to do.

 

Not really. ARM will never ever run Windows - people run windows because of the application base, which will not run on ARM processors even if windows runs. And I'd doubt that developers will be willing to port over their existing applications over to ARM architecture.

ARM being inferior or not to C2D/iX series is a matter of debate. ARM WILL last longer, do things COOLER. That's fact. C2D/iX's can do MORE, but that's about it. It's about tradeoffs, since C2D/iX's need coolers, a beefier battery to last.

On the OS portion, Apple fans will argue that the App Store provides sufficient applications. Nokia provides Qt framework, which is something similar to what Microsoft is doing with their development program (can't remember the name), as these 2 means that apps written for a platform can easily be ported over to another. This is why MeeGo was created - a full fledged Linux distro that runs on ARM, with programs that can be ported over. Maemo 5 can already run many ported Linux programs. MeeGo should take it further, with a larger developer base.

 

I'm always reluctant to get into discussion with people who need to use CAPS to emphasise their POINT. But rickysio is right: what makes a good mobile device CPU is a matter of perspective. I would emphasise low power requirements over everything else --if you have to recharge every 4 hours it is not a mobile device any more, just a portable device, and that is not the same thing.

The same thing applies to OS's. I view with suspicion any OS that needs seriously beefy hardware to do a few light office/internet tasks in a pretty GUI environment. In terms of economical use of resources, Linux leaves Windows standing every time. For a mobile device you definitely don't need a full-on Windows OS unless you plan to use your mobile device as a rendering or folding platform or to do some seriously l33t hacking. You just need something light that can do a set of specific tasks easily and quickly.

Don't kid yourself. You'll be using your Tablet with a Core 2 Duo CULV running Windows 7 to browse YouTube and Facebook just like everybody else.