14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, the fine gents at Nokia started building up some hype for an upcoming product using a mysterious ad that stated “We’re up to something.” A few days later it was revealed that they were up to something alright!
It doesn’t take a trained eye to spot the copycats in the tech industry. Especially when the inspiration comes from Apple’s unmistakable designs. But Nokia, this time around, has gone too far.
A shameful ripoff from top to bottom, starting with the marketing
Starting with the marketing materials themselves, Nokia has shamelessly ripped off Apple. The first move was the “black box” poster they released, which clearly mimicked Apple’s teasers. Admittedly, everybody does it these days, so you can't really say who's copying who. But every Apple fan knows who started the trend.
Then, the product was announced and was assigned its very own web site that people could use to learn about the tablet. The site is slow to respond to clicks, which is what happens when you try to copy something using different tools. Overall, the promotional materials could easily pass for an Apple campaign, but one developed by drunk staff.
A few examples of how Nokia copied Apple’s own ads: a looming tablet emerging from the shadows as the site loads up; the witty tag lines for every key feature, such as “the app you want before you want it” and “every detail matters;” the huge renders showing key portions of the device posted against a white background; the minimalistic site controls (gallery buttons, etc.), and a lot more.
An iPad mini powered by Android
Had we not known better, the N1 could have easily passed for an iPad mini hacked to run Lollipop. Almost every design element on there is a blatant iPad ripoff, from the shape and the placement of the volume and power buttons to the USB port and the speaker grills. The entire form factor is all but identical.
Nokia says the tablet is based on a “one-piece design,” which is another way of describing a “unibody” enclosure, and the display panel is based on IPS (in plane switching) technology with LED backlight, the same thing Apple uses. Its resolution and pixel density are identical to that of the iPad mini. In fact, Nokia appears to be using the exact same 7.9-inch display that Apple dubs “Retina.”
The tablet further uses the same 8 MP rear-facing camera with autofocus, and Nokia says it’s available in Natural Aluminum and Lava Gray, which is an embarrassingly evident answer to Apple’s “Space Gray” designation.
Job half done
Nokia says the battery on this thing is an 18.5 Wh (5300 mAh) rechargeable lithium polymer cell, but stops short of actually touting the autonomy. Who cares about the type of battery it’s got? Customers want to know how long the N1 will last between charges. Having announced it without doing the proper battery tests is highly unprofessional.
The device is admittedly thinner than Apple’s, and it’s also cheaper. It’s got 2GB of RAM and has an Intel 64-bit quad-core processor. That may sound like an advantage, but it might not make much of a difference. Apple’s densely-packed A8 processor is optimized to require less RAM, CPU, and GPU power to run apps and the OS itself. But this is hardly the topic here. The N1 also comes with Lollipop installed, out of the box.
Bottom line is that Nokia has crossed into a territory that even Samsung would be ashamed to find itself in. That doesn’t mean the N1 is a bad tablet. If anything, it could actually be the best choice for those who don’t feel that the iPad mini 3 deserves its $399 price tag. And it doesn’t, considering the poor upgrades announced by Apple this year. But the fact of the matter remains that the folks at Nokia are not throwing straight dice. If anyone has lost the right to slam Apple for lack of innovation, it’s these guys.
