New Nokia is here! Nokia N1 Intel-powered Android 5.0 Lollipop tablet announced; priced at $249

Nokia announced yesterday that it will be launching a new product today. The black box the company teased yesterday, isn’t a digital player or a satellite box, it’s a tablet – the Nokia N1 Intel-powered, Android Lollipop-running 7.9-inch tablet priced at $249.

Inside the anodized aluminum metal body of the tablet lies one of the most impressive set of hardware. The tablet sports a 7.9-inch IPS display with 2048×1536 pixels screen resolution. Shielded by Gorilla Glass 3, the screen is full laminated with zero air-gap display. Inside the device sits a 64-bit capable 2.3GHz Intel Atom processor Z3580, and PowerVR G6430 graphics card, paired with 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage.

On the camera front, the device packs an 8-megapixel shooter at the back and a 5-megapixel snapper upfront. On the connectivity side, it supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, and comes with micro-USB 2.0 with a Type C reversible connector. There are two stereo speakers, a digital MIC, and a bunch of sensors.

The tablet runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop, with Android Z Launcher on top. This isn’t the first tablet by Nokia, as the company had launched Windows 8.1-powered Nokia Lumia 2520 last year. But this is the first hardware by Nokia, the part that the company didn’t sell to Microsoft in the multi-billion dollar deal which closed in April earlier this year.

Nokia still cannot use the Nokia branding for smartphones till 2016 but apparently they can make tablets and other devices with the Nokia branding. Last week, Nokia CEO Rajiv Suri had hinted that the company might be interested in licensing the Nokia brand for consumer devices. Nokia says it will bring the N1 tablet starting from China in Q1 2015 and it will tie-up with an OEM partner who will be responsible for not just manufacturing but also distribution and sales.

Nokia will license the brand name, the industrial design and the Nokia Z launcher software layer and IP to the OEM partner on a running-royalty basis.  ”The OEM partner is responsible for full business execution, from engineering and sales to customer care, including liabilities and warranty costs, inbound IP and software licensing and contractual agreements with 3rd parties,” Nokia said in the announcement press release.