Remember the Nokia Lumia 2520? We’d forgive you if you didn’t. It was announced late last year as Nokia’s competitor to the Surface. Before Nokia was acquired by Microsoft, mind you. It now has an Australian price and release date, and it’s pretty pricey to say the least.
In the US, it costs $US499. In Australia, you’ll be paying a whopping $840 for the device. Sure, some of that is probably a result of the Australia Tax, but the rest of the increase probably comes on behalf of Telstra, who want you to buy it for an extra $25 per month on the $35 Telstra Tablet Plan for 24 months. That plan includes 4GB of data charged at 85c per MB. You see, $840 matches up quite snugly with Telstra’s Mobile Repayment Option tiers, and it isn’t the first time Telstra has taken a cheap gadget and marked it up on plans. Take the $399 Nexus 5, for example, which Telstra marked up to $640 to make it fit the relevant plans.
Either way, that’s massively expensive for a device that was announced in October of last year. Having said that, it still works out to be a whole $9 cheaper than the equivalent 32GB iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular, and the 2520 is running Windows (albeit RT) with a larger screen.
It’s slightly worse value when you consider that the Surface 2 from Microsoft is $529 right now for the 32GB Wi-Fi version. Swings and roundabouts for your productivity tablets, really.
The Lumia 2520 claims to have the best outdoor readability of any tablet. At 650 nits, it currently has the highest peak brightness of any tablet on the market as well as the lowest reflectivity (rated at six per cent).
Other noteworthy specifications include a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, a 6.7-megapixel camera with a Zeiss lens (the first time ever on a tablet), 1080p video recording and an 8000mAh battery. Like the Surface 2, it also comes with the full Windows Office suite, including Outlook.
You can also buy a keyboard accessory for the device that will power the device, and give you an extra two USB ports. In another case of price gouging, the Nokia Power Keyboard will run you an extra $240, despite the fact that it only costs you $US149 in the States. Insane.
You can grab the Lumia 2520 in store from Telstra from 13 May, or you can buy it online from Nokia from 6 May (tomorrow).
Would you spend an extra $300 on the Lumia 2520?
Chris Jager also contributed to this article.