Nokia Getting "Sirius" About Windows RT Tablet

[exfileme]

Sirius may be the name of Nokia's upcoming windows RT tablet.

Nokia Getting "Sirius" About Windows RT Tablet : Read more

 

[darkavenger123]

Err...only now they launch an RT tablet when RT is already dead??? Good Luck.

 

[lpedraja2002]

I swear its like Nokia's wish is to go down under. NEWS FLASH NOKIA... WINDOWS RT SUCKS! I'd rather they would have put that Quad-core on their new Lumia 1020 which desperately needed more processing power due to that insane high resolution camera, every review I've read it says it takes up to 6 seconds to capture an image, that is simply unacceptable. Some companies lack real common sense these days.

 

[Mark Dickinson]

Perhaps. Or Perhaps you lack the vision they do. and the foresight. That's not to say that the market isn't greatly agreeing with you since the start to now.

 

[portentous]

A good camera from Nokia would be a good feature to have as the Surface RT's camera is not very good. (Then again neither has any tablet)
I have the RT since launch and haven't used the iPad and Nexus since. I don't know if anyone out there have the same experience (I believe those posted negative comments have actually owned/used RT?) As I commented before, yes, you almost need PhD to use the bloody thing and MS needs to make it more user-friendly (then again, where is the fun?)

 

[stevejnb]

You know, the whole RT is dead thing strikes me as knee-jerk "I hate Windows" reaction. Remember back oh, two years ago? Back when Android was the runner up in the mobile OS world, with a tiny fraction of the apps, and some advantages but also a lot of disadvantages, compared to iOS? Well, back then, I don't recall this "Oh, Android is dead" and "Android sucks" blah blah blah. A lot of people saw the potential in the OS and put up with a lesser lineup of apps at the time. Go figure, not even a year down the road, it had fleshed out a lot, and was a viable competitor. Now? RT... It's, what, about a year old? The number of apps has gone up *dramatically* and, I don't know if many of you have actually checked the app store in the past month or so, but the number of apps has grown substantially. The thing is, the argument a year ago was "it has no apps" and the argument is still the same - just not nearly as true as it was then. This "dead" OS is growing, it has some very solid hardware attached to it that is starting to get affordable. Are many of you who think it's dead/garbage stuck about 12 months in the past?

Back when Android was the clear #2 and , it was popular for a few reasons. Despite the vastly inferior app selection, I believe the top two of those reasons were 1) it was much less controlled than iOS, and 2) it was not the big evil Apple that everyone loved to hate. If we look at RT right out the gate, it had the virtue of having vastly superior multitasking compared to the competition and came with full MS Office - not small things, both of which are still true. So why, when Android was given this free pass, does everyone have it out for RT so much?

I'm honestly curious - what's the difference here? Why was Android not so bad two years ago, but RT is the devil now? And how many of you who keep on harping on the "it has no apps" thing have actually checked the Windows store since the release of RT? And don't get me wrong - RT tablets WERE overpriced, they DID have a sad app selection. I'm not sure either one is true any more.

 

[portentous]

You know, the whole RT is dead thing strikes me as knee-jerk "I hate Windows" reaction. Remember back oh, two years ago? Back when Android was the runner up in the mobile OS world, with a tiny fraction of the apps, and some advantages but also a lot of disadvantages, compared to iOS? Well, back then, I don't recall this "Oh, Android is dead" and "Android sucks" blah blah blah. A lot of people saw the potential in the OS and put up with a lesser lineup of apps at the time. Go figure, not even a year down the road, it had fleshed out a lot, and was a viable competitor. Now? RT... It's, what, about a year old? The number of apps has gone up *dramatically* and, I don't know if many of you have actually checked the app store in the past month or so, but the number of apps has grown substantially. The thing is, the argument a year ago was "it has no apps" and the argument is still the same - just not nearly as true as it was then. This "dead" OS is growing, it has some very solid hardware attached to it that is starting to get affordable. Are many of you who think it's dead/garbage stuck about 12 months in the past?

Back when Android was the clear #2 and , it was popular for a few reasons. Despite the vastly inferior app selection, I believe the top two of those reasons were 1) it was much less controlled than iOS, and 2) it was not the big evil Apple that everyone loved to hate. If we look at RT right out the gate, it had the virtue of having vastly superior multitasking compared to the competition and came with full MS Office - not small things, both of which are still true. So why, when Android was given this free pass, does everyone have it out for RT so much?

I'm honestly curious - what's the difference here? Why was Android not so bad two years ago, but RT is the devil now? And how many of you who keep on harping on the "it has no apps" thing have actually checked the Windows store since the release of RT? And don't get me wrong - RT tablets WERE overpriced, they DID have a sad app selection. I'm not sure either one is true any more.

Great post. Finally someone with much better insight.
If more manufacturers bring out RT tablets (much like the Android), the price will definitely come down, people will have more choice. Everyone (I) will be happy.

 

[Kamen_BG]

You know, the whole RT is dead thing strikes me as knee-jerk "I hate Windows" reaction. Remember back oh, two years ago? Back when Android was the runner up in the mobile OS world, with a tiny fraction of the apps, and some advantages but also a lot of disadvantages, compared to iOS? Well, back then, I don't recall this "Oh, Android is dead" and "Android sucks" blah blah blah. A lot of people saw the potential in the OS and put up with a lesser lineup of apps at the time. Go figure, not even a year down the road, it had fleshed out a lot, and was a viable competitor. Now? RT... It's, what, about a year old? The number of apps has gone up *dramatically* and, I don't know if many of you have actually checked the app store in the past month or so, but the number of apps has grown substantially. The thing is, the argument a year ago was "it has no apps" and the argument is still the same - just not nearly as true as it was then. This "dead" OS is growing, it has some very solid hardware attached to it that is starting to get affordable. Are many of you who think it's dead/garbage stuck about 12 months in the past?

Back when Android was the clear #2 and , it was popular for a few reasons. Despite the vastly inferior app selection, I believe the top two of those reasons were 1) it was much less controlled than iOS, and 2) it was not the big evil Apple that everyone loved to hate. If we look at RT right out the gate, it had the virtue of having vastly superior multitasking compared to the competition and came with full MS Office - not small things, both of which are still true. So why, when Android was given this free pass, does everyone have it out for RT so much?

I'm honestly curious - what's the difference here? Why was Android not so bad two years ago, but RT is the devil now? And how many of you who keep on harping on the "it has no apps" thing have actually checked the Windows store since the release of RT? And don't get me wrong - RT tablets WERE overpriced, they DID have a sad app selection. I'm not sure either one is true any more.

Android was different. It's an open operating system. It came out at a time when Symbian was struggling and iOS was king, but also very hated.
The world needed a new OS.
Right now, if you're in need of a tablet for entertainment purposes, go with Android.
If you want proper multitasking and productivity, go with Windows.
Windows RT just doesn't fit.

 

[ojas]

RT can work, imo, at the right price.

You get Office, you can connect to an external display, have a file system, and a full USB port...potentially useful in a lot of situations.

A well made tablet at Nexus 7 prices could be good.

 

[damianrobertjones]

" yes, you almost need PhD to use the bloody thing " - I'm stunned. if a 56 year old couple can use an Ativ S and Surface RT then you might need Windows 8 RT for dummies

 

[apache_lives]

Windows RT is a great os / platform with 1000x more potential then the others

the fact that you can actually manage files and use it for actual office work makes it a clear winner over the other closed platforms

Try copying a simple file to a Apple iOS based device, or Android device and actually finding WHERE the file went let alone how to open it

give it time it will own the rest, and ill refer back to this article when it (or its sucessors) dominate the market and laugh at the haters

 

[teh_chem]

Windows RT's only real issues were with Microsoft's horrible mis-handling of RT and Pro tablets and Windows 8 marketing. Surface RT is a fine platform for tablets; the only real issue is the same as what Android tablets ran up against with back when the iPad was the only real tablet; app and program infrastructure vs. where you had invested in. But for the general user, apps for Surface RT address pretty much most usage habits, and delivers about the same user experience as any other platform. The Snapdragon 800 will be a much-noticed (and needed) improvement over the Tegra3 used in most Surface RT's.

I hope Nokia can do with the Surface RT what Microsoft failed miserably with.

 

[machvelocy]

32 GB of internal storage

deal breaker for me... seems nokia didn't realize how much space the RT use just for the OS.
and my 2 cent, if someone would like to resurrect RT, nokia might be able to. nokia have plenty of loyal user just like apple, although an order of magnitude smaller. heck even their low end s40 devices which is stale in comparison in usability against other low end android, is in fact very popular among entry level market. most people who bought it almost always says "because its nokia".

 

[shotgunz]

Try copying a simple file to a Apple iOS based device, or Android device and actually finding WHERE the file went let alone how to open it

How ever will I play music files on my galaxy nexus?!
(my computer --> phone --> internal storage --> music folder, use music player app on phone that scans music folder --> play song!)

 

[silverblue]

"the original rumors slated the tablet"

I see what you did there.

 

[stevejnb]

Android was different. It's an open operating system. It came out at a time when Symbian was struggling and iOS was king, but also very hated.
The world needed a new OS.
Right now, if you're in need of a tablet for entertainment purposes, go with Android.
If you want proper multitasking and productivity, go with Windows.
Windows RT just doesn't fit.

The "Android was different" thing is both true and a cop out. They're all different. Simply put, the base package of the RT is *far* better than either iOS or Android for many peoples' working habits whether they know it or not - full office, the ability to keep multiple documents open at the same time. After two years of using an Android tablet for class work, the Surface I picked up recently is *leaps and bounds* better for work than my Le Pan II ever was. It's not just the hardware that makes it better though, the OS is a big part of it. Simply put, if you perform functions that require Office - which let's face it, millions upon millions of people do - RT is a better option for you than Android or iOS.

So, question for you... What if you want a tablet for entertainment purposes and you want the productivity of proper Office and multitasking? For a student who wants to take notes in class, work on papers between class, and fire up Netflix sometimes, maybe plug a tablet into a TV, wants to read a book for class on it, etc, isn't this device a pretty darned good choice? And yes, I realize you can get a laptop for $350, but that laptop is going to be a lot bigger and heavier than a Surface/other RT tablet, and you're on your own for getting Office, and you won't get the advantage of a tablet form factor. Trust me, being able to read .epub and .pdf files in a comfortable manner is a big deal for students, and can actually save you hundreds of dollars in book costs - and laptops are not particularly good for that. Tablets are. Proper Office is a big deal for students too - speaking as an ex-student who was fed up with years of using OfficeSuite Pro, Docs2Go, and other half-arsed office knockoff apps. Where do you go if you want these types of functionality? Android and iOS are second rate picks for this whole package. RT tablets - well, quite a bit better.

I'm not suggesting that RT is going to take the world by storm. What I'm suggesting is that RT tablets that aren't pricing themselves out of the market (Surface, I'm looking at you - $500 was a joke) might be the best tablet choice for a lot of people, whether they know it or not. The app store is actually respectable now, even if it's a clear third place for app content - but was it that long ago that Android was the clear second, and we still treated It as a worthwhile platform based on other factors. With that Windows app store growing and pricing being much more reasonable, is it really accurate to refer to RT as a dead platform these days?

 

[wshwe]

Microsoft never supported RT and Win 8 to the maximum degree. Office 2013 should have been able to completely run in Metro. Access should have been ported to ARM and Win 8 Metro. Access is still the PC application of choice for quick and dirty databases. If MS couldn't port Access they should have rewritten it. They should have decided to do whatever it takes to get Access running on RT and Win 8 Metro. The company I work for uses Access for straightforward, but important functions.

 

[teh_chem]

The "Android was different" thing is both true and a cop out. They're all different. Simply put, the base package of the RT is *far* better than either iOS or Android for many peoples' working habits whether they know it or not - full office, the ability to keep multiple documents open at the same time. After two years of using an Android tablet for class work, the Surface I picked up recently is *leaps and bounds* better for work than my Le Pan II ever was. It's not just the hardware that makes it better though, the OS is a big part of it. Simply put, if you perform functions that require Office - which let's face it, millions upon millions of people do - RT is a better option for you than Android or iOS.

So, question for you... What if you want a tablet for entertainment purposes and you want the productivity of proper Office and multitasking? For a student who wants to take notes in class, work on papers between class, and fire up Netflix sometimes, maybe plug a tablet into a TV, wants to read a book for class on it, etc, isn't this device a pretty darned good choice? And yes, I realize you can get a laptop for $350, but that laptop is going to be a lot bigger and heavier than a Surface/other RT tablet, and you're on your own for getting Office, and you won't get the advantage of a tablet form factor. Trust me, being able to read .epub and .pdf files in a comfortable manner is a big deal for students, and can actually save you hundreds of dollars in book costs - and laptops are not particularly good for that. Tablets are. Proper Office is a big deal for students too - speaking as an ex-student who was fed up with years of using OfficeSuite Pro, Docs2Go, and other half-arsed office knockoff apps. Where do you go if you want these types of functionality? Android and iOS are second rate picks for this whole package. RT tablets - well, quite a bit better.

I'm not suggesting that RT is going to take the world by storm. What I'm suggesting is that RT tablets that aren't pricing themselves out of the market (Surface, I'm looking at you - $500 was a joke) might be the best tablet choice for a lot of people, whether they know it or not. The app store is actually respectable now, even if it's a clear third place for app content - but was it that long ago that Android was the clear second, and we still treated It as a worthwhile platform based on other factors. With that Windows app store growing and pricing being much more reasonable, is it really accurate to refer to RT as a dead platform these days?

I agree with your sentiments. Except for the fact that office on Surface RT (ARM) is very, very laggy, and not the full version of MS Office. You pretty much get the same things that google doc's offers. Note--I'm not saying that Android is a better productivity device. But if you require true productivity, RT is as incompetent as Android is vs. a surface pro tablet.

If google doc's was available (on nexus devices) for offline creation and editing, it would be just as good as RT's office. The problem is currently (and for the foreseeable future), Google Drive will be an online-only service (which isn't much of a surprise).

I share your experience with OfficeSuite Pro--on every android device I used it on, it was horribly glitchy and crashed all the time to the point where it was impractical to use. RT's advantage (assuming the lag when creating and editing office documents doesn't impede the user) is in its mainly unified hardware platform. People constantly criticized MS for "blocking" all these OEMs from making Windows RT tablets. I think the main reason is that they tried to learn from Android's "diverse" hardware platform and the issues it creates, and wanted a better user experience. It just so happened to blow up in their faces because of poor marketing (and a little bit too expensive pricing schemes).

I hope "rev 2" of RT fares better because more options to the consumer are always better.

 

[Kamen_BG]

Android was different. It's an open operating system. It came out at a time when Symbian was struggling and iOS was king, but also very hated.
The world needed a new OS.
Right now, if you're in need of a tablet for entertainment purposes, go with Android.
If you want proper multitasking and productivity, go with Windows.
Windows RT just doesn't fit.

The "Android was different" thing is both true and a cop out. They're all different. Simply put, the base package of the RT is *far* better than either iOS or Android for many peoples' working habits whether they know it or not - full office, the ability to keep multiple documents open at the same time. After two years of using an Android tablet for class work, the Surface I picked up recently is *leaps and bounds* better for work than my Le Pan II ever was. It's not just the hardware that makes it better though, the OS is a big part of it. Simply put, if you perform functions that require Office - which let's face it, millions upon millions of people do - RT is a better option for you than Android or iOS.

So, question for you... What if you want a tablet for entertainment purposes and you want the productivity of proper Office and multitasking? For a student who wants to take notes in class, work on papers between class, and fire up Netflix sometimes, maybe plug a tablet into a TV, wants to read a book for class on it, etc, isn't this device a pretty darned good choice? And yes, I realize you can get a laptop for $350, but that laptop is going to be a lot bigger and heavier than a Surface/other RT tablet, and you're on your own for getting Office, and you won't get the advantage of a tablet form factor. Trust me, being able to read .epub and .pdf files in a comfortable manner is a big deal for students, and can actually save you hundreds of dollars in book costs - and laptops are not particularly good for that. Tablets are. Proper Office is a big deal for students too - speaking as an ex-student who was fed up with years of using OfficeSuite Pro, Docs2Go, and other half-arsed office knockoff apps. Where do you go if you want these types of functionality? Android and iOS are second rate picks for this whole package. RT tablets - well, quite a bit better.

I'm not suggesting that RT is going to take the world by storm. What I'm suggesting is that RT tablets that aren't pricing themselves out of the market (Surface, I'm looking at you - $500 was a joke) might be the best tablet choice for a lot of people, whether they know it or not. The app store is actually respectable now, even if it's a clear third place for app content - but was it that long ago that Android was the clear second, and we still treated It as a worthwhile platform based on other factors. With that Windows app store growing and pricing being much more reasonable, is it really accurate to refer to RT as a dead platform these days?

A Windows 8 Tablet will always be better for productivity than a Windows RT one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314091
And it's not more expensive too.
There are also more apps available.

 

[stevejnb]

Kamen, keep in mind, I have an Acer Iconia W700 tablet and love the damned thing - I know what Windows 8 tablets are capable of and I actually recommend it above the Surface Pro for anyone capable of uninstalling and reinstalling the network adapter driver. I recently bought a Surface RT and the Iconia W3 was one of the ones I was looking at as an alternative "junker" machine for on the go.

First off, on basic premise, I agree - Windows 8 is notably superior to Windows RT for productivity. That being said, if Office is your main engine for productivity, less so - I'm still trying to figure out where the lag is in the RT's office that Chem is talking about, outside of a 5'ish second delay on initial startup. Second... The W3 is junk. In just about every single way, barring operating system, the Surface RT is a better machine. Reading through Amazon reviews of the W3 it was loaded with one star reviews complaining about one element of the experience or another. I'm all for Windows 8 tablets coming in at a decent price point - but the W3 just seems like an attempt to get Windows 8 onto a tablet at the expense of everything else. The Surface RT, despite costing $50 more and only having RT, was my preference. After a while I asked myself, "What's the point of full Windows 8 on a machine not powerful enough to do anything but run metro apps when I'm sacrificing a *lot* of intangibles and build quality for that full OS?"

I'm looking forward to the Windows 8 tablet price point coming down to sub $400 and actually being good, and sub $300 and actually being decent. What I'm expecting though is, once 8 is priced that low and performing decently, we'll start to see sub $200 RT tablets performing well and it'll still be a good option for certain peoples' needs.

 

[teh_chem]

A Windows 8 Tablet will always be better for productivity than a Windows RT one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314091
And it's not more expensive too.
There are also more apps available.

To be fair, that's a thick, fugly option and didn't do very well for Acer (they quickly started working on a replacement model). Was riddled with bluetooth issues and slow disk performance.

 

[stevejnb]

Chem, didn't really respond to your post.

First off, Google Docs - have they moved past the crappy-in-browser editor that they had when I was actually trying it about two years ago, or are they still the same half-arsed apps? Part of why I prefer Office is because it's a discrete program. The last time I used Google Docs - which was admittedly two years ago - it was about as robust as the Skydrive web apps, which are mediocre at best. Unless they've made *dramatic* improvements - which I admit is possible - I can't agree with the statement of "If google doc's was available (on nexus devices) for offline creation and editing, it would be just as good as RT's office."

Second, not the full version of Office in RT? Really? As far as I knew, it wasn't the full version insofar as you don't get everything you'd get in an Enterprise edition of Office, but again as far as I could tell, it was almost identical to the full Windows 8 version of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Just looking around for a minute, I thought this review captured my thoughts on it quite well:

http://winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-home-student-2013-rt-preview-144542

Offline functionality is a big thing though. There is no Skydrive desktop app for Windows RT at the moment, and until Windows RT 8.1 (I am using the preview) it does not mimic this functionality. I refused to buy an RT until this functionality was mimicked because offline access was a big deal for me and a tablet is precisely the type of device where offline access makes sense.

In all seriousness though, when are you experiencing lag with Office RT? For the past two weeks I've continued work on a 15,000 word paper I'm working on, oftentimes keeping several book length .doc files open at the same time, and I've been using excel to log all my work hours and I've noticed little to no slowdown past the initial delay on opening the programs.