Review of the Nokia 2520 Tablet

[DaShesano]

My review of the Nokia 2520 is going to be a peculiar one. The tablet is discontinued as of me writing this, but you can still buy one used off of something like craigslist. Now to get on with the review.

 

The tablet itself is a rather thin looking device, on its left side, you have a 3.5mm audio jack and the proprietary charging port, and on the right side, is a micro HDMI, and a mini USB 3.0 input. The tablet is rather light, with a 2.10 ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and an Adreno GPU. The processor is very capable for the unit, and does not heat it up very much. I didn't see any noticeable thermal throttling and the unit under heavy load was comfortable to hold in my hand.

 

The unit has a 1920x1080 11 inch display, which is no problem for the Adreno GPU inside the unit. I didn't see any noticeable backlight bleed, and the screen has slightly better contrast in comparison with my iPad air. The screen has a nice amount of backlight on it, but the glossy screen was a downside when using it in a bright room, or outside.

 

The I/O on the unit is virtually nonexistent, only consisting of a 3.5mm audio out, a micro HDMI and a micro USB 3.0 in for some reason. The saving grace for the I/O is the detachable keyboard. The keyboard is pretty good, connecting to the connectors on the bottom of the tablet. The keyboard is membrane, with a slightly condensed typing feel. The keyboard also contains two extra USB ports, as well as an extra battery.

 

The ease of use of the tablet was also rather solid. It has cameras on the front and back, which can be accessed through the camera application, and it is running Windows 8.1 RT, I would usually mark a device down for using windows RT, but the inclusion of applications like Office preinstalled, and the fact that it uses up very little of my limited, 16 gigabytes of storage, makes me one happy camper.

 

The cellular on the tablet is another great positive. I bought my tablet from Verizon wireless, and I put an LTE data plan on it, which worked flawlessly, something I cannot say for my Lenovo X1, which has spotty connection quality on its cellular radio. The tablet also has the capability to create a wireless hotspot, which is useful when I'm on the go. The WiFI on the tablet is also very nice, mine was able to connect to my 802.11n access point, but not my ac one for some reason, a given on most new devices.

 

The tablet for me is a very nice device. It was well rounded, it is relatively cheap, it had a good mix of I/O and battery life (with my keyboard) and it had a good range of connectivity on it as well.

 

Thanks for reading through this ordeal of a post. Do any of you guys have a 2520, if so, did you like it? Reply in comments.

I'm going to be a total Linus and tease my next comparison, it’s the Galaxy Note 4 vs iPhone 6 Plus

Should I post a review/comparison every week? 

 

[Guest]

Oh is that not the Windows RT Tablet that Nokia made?

[X1XNobleX1X]

Pictures please.. 

[connorpiper]

Oh is that not the Windows RT Tablet that Nokia made?

 

It is their only tablet, and it runs RT. 

I have one.

 

Best RT tablet I have used (It is the Verizon one as well). And I had the Nokia Power Keyboard, which felt nice, but was shit other than that.

I would suggest it for Windows RT. But then I would suggest Android over RT. Even for work, RT is a pain the ass. 

[Nowak]

It is their only tablet, and it runs RT. 

They also have an Android tablet now, the Nokia N1, although it's not sold in the US.

 

I've looked at this tablet before, but opted not to get it. With Windows RT having basically no future I don't think I will.