Nokia RX-51 tablet captured in the wild
Not long at all after that mysterious Nokia RX-51 passed through the FCC comes shots from Indonesian message board Kaskus of the tablet-like device in the wild. The blurred box shot and the label behind the battery clearly say RX-51 prototype, and the design is unmistakably similar to the rumored press photo for the Maemo 5-powered Rover from back in May. We can't help but notice the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens and, more importantly, SIM card slot and an ear piece, which would be perfect for placing calls on, say, T-Mobile's network. Few more shots after the break, and hit up the read link for the gallery of photos.
[Via Mobile Bulgaria; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

[Via Mobile Bulgaria; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]



























@ lockstocked: By not playing baby music in all of your company's advertisements, of course.
The must have device of the year for me....
This thing has basically the same specs as the Always Innovating Touch Book netbook/tablet.
Maemo is a much more conventional Linux distro compared to Android and WebOS. It runs a X server and can run regular linux desktop apps. It can probably run Firefox 3.5 for example, or maybe even OpenOffice.org. The major limiting factor of course being that it only has 256 MB of RAM.
Qt is also a good move for Maemo. The old GTK+ apps will still run, but Qt has much better cross platform support. It means that a developer can write for Qt and have her/his app run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X on the desktop, and on Symbian S60, Windows Mobile and Maemo in the mobile space. Nokia purchased Qt to act as a sort of bridge for developers moving from S60 to Maemo.
As much as I love Nokia, the S60 UI is dated, and after seeing plenty of video reviews for the 5800 and N97, definitely not touch optimize. The capacitive touch screen only makes it worse. Can't wait for the flurry of Android 2.0 phones.
I meant resistive... LOL
It has a different nokia os called maemo. It is very different from the s60 OS. Maemo is a variant of linux.
@rajuvamsi007: Thanks for pointing that out. I was looking at the Maemo UI videos, and still feels it's not touch optimized. It's still stylus oriented, with small check boxes, tiny scrolling bars, tiny icons, etc.
The videos u saw are 2.5 year old OS which came along with the previous internet tablets. The newer OS called Maemo 5 has been in development for the last 2 years and it is compltely finger compatible. There are no videos yet of Maemo 5 OS yet.
Pika2000: i know the feeling. They have no concept of making a device finger friendly. A predominantly finger friendly OS with thrown in little checkboxes and tiny elements is par for the Nokia course.
The last released version of Maemo changed it's touchscreen input depending of if you were using a finger or stylus...
Dude, there are videos of Maemo 5 beta and alpha SDK on youtube, that will give some idea of maemo 5 OS.
It looks good to me.
How is an E-71 "high end"? A two year old BB Curve will do anything the E71 does, usually easier. And just to disclaim, yes, I have an E71 which I got because I like Symbian and it was cheap. I'll be returning this phone immediately. It was obviously targeted at small girls and spider monkeys judging by the unusably-small buttons/keyboard. The internet speed is slower than my old EDGE E62..and I have 5 bars of rock-solid 3G at home (my friends iPhone blazes here). What a total letdown.
People who have never used a 5800 or N97 shouldn't be commenting about how the "almighty" capacitive screen on the Iphone is sooo much easier to use then the one on the previously mentioned devices. A good resistive touch screen works just as well for most coordinated users with some practice. I can definitely type much faster with me 5800XM's keyboard (with no stupid autocorrect) then I can with my Iphone 3g. While I probably can't finger paint, or play stupid phone games as well, uh... who cares.
Capacitive is fun and more accurate for media devices and prosumer phones like the I-phone. The problem is, Nokia for the most part designs their phone with world perspective in mind and for business.. I can do everything on the phone I need to with my fingers, other then things that are designed to be used with some kind of input device. Often times, there are things I need to do on my phone that require input more precision then one can generate with a finger (Nokia Graphic calc for example) try writing a complex equation using your finger. Or when I travel to cold areas and am using gloves ect.... While capacitive does offer pretty sweet response, I found after a couple of days of getting used to it, my 5800 XM is just as functional, and I have the added benefit that resistive allows multiple input.
Also, while S60 isn't as pretty as the other OSs, so many businesses have applications they paid to develop on the S60 framework, Nokia has been urged time and time again by their prime demo to stay the course. Obviously for the same reasons almost all enterprise businesses are still running Windows XP, despite it's age, it's what their platform and infrastructure works on, so thats what they do. Nokia S60 is spartan, but functional, and the useful applications available for the phone (that doesn't require any unlocking btw) are numerous. It's not a which phone is better, each phone platform has their strong markets and weak markets. The needs of the techno yuppie and the teenie bopper mean shit on the global scale. Businesses that buy phones by the pallet for distribution are where Nokia's bread is buttered, and while their market share has been falling somewhat due to a new crop of competition, there is a reason they are and have been for some time the world leader in market share.
I always kind of laugh at people who assume because a company doesn't bother with an app store their platform has no apps. Use google, hell it's the reason why WinMo and S60 users haven't needed one forever, because the platform has been around for years and their are apps everywhere.
I'm not here to defend the 5800, or knock the Iphone, I own both, but I know that s60 phones come from a totally different pedigree. The 5800 XM probably couldn't stand in the same room as the Iphone for a non tech person as a media device/personal cellphone, but on the same token, the Iphone has absolutely no ground to stand on when being compared to the 5800 as a tool for global business. One is a dynamite media/communication device, the other is a work horse with years of infrastructure and a variety of hardware implementations to back it up.
Although, I sure do love my FM tuner, my Joikuspot tethering, my TV out, and my battery that lasts like 4 days (never turning off 3.5G like I did on my Iphone). Maybe it's not as pretty, but when I'm shuffling through airport after airport trying to get work done, I'll tell you which phone I pick up out of my briefcase, and it's not the Iphone.
I completely agree with tampacobra.
For any given piece of hardware, I will pay roughly twice as much to change the preinstalled operating system from a Microsoft product to an OS X or Linux based platform.
At Least It Better Looking Than The So Called "Mini" N97, And Has A Better(Faster?) Processor As Well... Hope It's Cheaper Too!!
It will never be cheaper. Its larger and a better spec than the N97 and has a new os. This is going to be £800 at least.
Someone in Indonesia sold this very merchandise for around USD880, and that was about a month ago. Expect (much) lower prices in North America.
A OVER Z AGAIN?
So so so happy to see this. Definately my next phone upon uk launch. A beauty.
So, a E72 at the beggining of the next month, or a Rover at the end of the year?
Decisions, decisions.
The rover as far as i know would be announced on september 2nd at the nokia event and released on october 10th the maemo summit.
I would go for the rover..... it is the most complete phone to date.
Yeah, I know about the possible announcement at the Nokia Workd in Sep, but... it guarantees a release in October? I was expecting this beast for Dec.
Maemo is truely the best OS I have ever used. Winmo, symbian, touch wiz, etc just don't work like maemo. The OS just needs a bit of work and it will truely be the best. I have been waiting for this thing for aboot 6 months now and I cannot wait to see how well it works
Can not wait to get this, been waiting since Dec 08 for this to replace my HTC TouchCruise. Having Phone+3G and Maemo touch screen functionality all in one device will be phenominal.
Going to install my old N800 in my BMWs console. Maemo OS2008 running Wayfinder is better than any TomTom/GPS out there, you get traffic and speed trap alerts. Nokia should look at adapting this slightly to a in-car platform. Great for watching movies, listing to tunes and Skype while travelling through Europe.
Oh and I highly recommend buying a Bluetooth OBD2 and installing Carman.
http://openbossa.indt.org/carman/using_carman.html
This isnt a Maemo 5 device. This device will revive the MID line to a N97 standard. Expect the first Maemo 5 devices QT4 2010.
Wishful thinking though