14 DAY TRIAL // Throughout its long history, Finnish phone maker Nokia only managed to launch a single tablet, called the Nokia 2520 (codenamed Sirius).
The device ran Windows RT out of the box and achieved moderate popularity among consumers, during a time when most tablets ran Windows 8.1. After the Microsoft acquisition, Nokia ended up releasing the N1 tablet, which offers Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, but it seems that back when it used to stand on its own, the company had been looking at a variety of other tablet projects.
According to notorious leakster @evleaks, Nokia was considering no less than 4 tablet endeavors, and he even names them for us. In a different, more merciful universe, we might have got to see Nokia release the Illusionist, Mercury, Pine and Vega/Atlas models.
Nokia's only tablet wasn't really a hit
We heard of the Illusionist tablet (Lumia 2020) made by Nokia last year, when the device made an appearance on the Indian import/export website Zauba.
The Lumia 2020 was rumored to boast a smaller form factor compared to the Lumia 2520, which featured a 10.1-inch display. The Illusionist was expected to don an 8.3-inch display, but no other specifications were revealed.
However, a few months after the tablet was spotted in the Zauba database, a report came in saying the smaller Nokia tablet had been cancelled by executives. Since then, we never heard of the Illusionist again.
Probably Nokia recognized the fact that it couldn’t fight the growing wall of tablet computers launched by the competition with Windows RT devices. So it abandoned the game altogether. The question remains, though, why the Finnish phone maker didn’t try to give Windows 8.1 a go.
It would have been really interesting to see the appearance of Illusionist, Mercury, Pine and Vega/Atlas, but sadly, @evleaks doesn’t provide us with any pictures of the axed prototypes.
Nokia Lumia 2520 revival
Nokia’s only Windows tablet, the Lumia 2520, saw the light of day in October 2013 and made its way to the market by December.
The slate featured a 10.1-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution and 218 ppi. The powerhouse of the device was a Snapdragon 800 processor fitted with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage (expandable up to 64GB of internal storage).
In some locations, Nokia also offered a free keyboard accessory with the purchase of the tablet.
Nokia only released a single tablet, the Lumia 2520 (Sirius)...but it killed off at least 4 more: Illusionist, Mercury, Pine, and Vega/Atlas
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) June 20, 2015
