If you're the type of person who dismisses Android tablets out of hand, HMD Global is hoping to change your mind, using the same approach that it's taken with Nokia phones.
The company unveiled a new Android tablet today (Oct. 6) called the Nokia T20, the first entry in HMD Global's new T Series line of tablets. If the T20 is any indication, HMD Global is looking to make its mark on the tablet world with a sharp display and a long-lasting battery.
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The Nokia T20 goes on sale Nov. 17 in the U.S., where only a Ocean Blue version of the tablet will be made available. That model, featuring 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage costs $249 — $80 less than the 9th Gen iPad that went on sale last month and $150 less than the just-unveiled Surface Go 3 from Microsoft.
You'll get a 10.4-inch display with the Nokia T20, but the real story here is the tablet's 2K resolution. HMD Global touts the sharp display as perfect for everything from watching videos to taking part in video calls.
Price: $249
Screen size: 10.4 inches (2000 x 1200)
CPU: T610
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB
Rear/Front cameras: 8MP/5MP
Battery size: 8,200 mAh
Size: 9.7 x 6.2 x 0.3 inches
An 8,200 mAh battery keeps things charged up, with HMD Global promising all-day battery life from its tablet. Specifically, a company rep told us that the Nokia T20 can last 15 hours of web surfing. The tablet should hold out for 7 hours of continuous calls or 10 hours of video playback.
Those would be impressive numbers if they pan out in our testing. For context, the iPad 10.2 (2021) lasted 1 minute shy of 12 hours when we had it surf the web continuously over Wi-Fi. That's considered very respectable for a tablet, and it beats Apple's rated time of 10 hours by some margin. Then again, the latest iPad also promises the power efficiency and performance oomph of Apple's A13 Bionic processor. The Nokia T20 looks to run on a Unisoc Tiger T610, so we wouldn't expect Apple's tablet to be sweating too much from its new rival.
Other Nokia T20 specs of note include an 8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera. That latter spec feels a little underwhelming, especially given that HMD Global touts video calling as one of the tasks the Nokia T20 is equipped to handle. Apple has a 12MP camera on the front of its new iPad, and that's augmented by a Center Stage feature that keeps the shot focused on you.
But the Nokia T20 really seems to be trying to serve some very different users bases. On the one hand, HMD Global touts the tablet's support for HMD Enable Pro, an enterprise mobility management tool, and the fact that the T20 meets Google's enterprise requirement for Android Recommended devices. On the other, the tablet also comes with Google Kids Space, a dedicated kids mode. That's a tablet aimed at two very different extremes.
Nokia T20 users can expect two years of OS upgrades — the device ships with Android 11 so Android 12 will be the first of those supported upgrades — as well as three years of monthly security updates.
Whether all this enough to get people to rethink their opinion of Android tablets — let alone challenge Apple's tablets — remains to be seen, but we'll give the Nokia T20 a going-over when the tablet arrives next month.
