Nokia Lumia 2520 Review

Just a few years ago, the Finnish company seemed left in the dust, forgotten amid all buzz generated by the likes of Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Sony. You never heard about Nokia having a must-have phone; you heard about the iPad, the Galaxy S and the Surface.

But here we are in 2014 and Nokia has risen from the dust. Last year's Lumia 1020 was my favorite smartphone of 2013 (yes, just slightly ahead of the Galaxy Note 3), and now, it's ventured into the tablet space with the Nokia Lumia 2520.

Nokia's first entry into the tablet space isn't quite the next big tablet thing and it's going to have trouble competing with Windows' line of Surface machines. You'll wish it ran a full versionof Windows instead of Windows RT, too. Despite these flaws, it does deliver a solid experience, highlighted by a tremendously bright, potent 1,920x1,080 display and some solid software offerings.

The overall design is solid and eye-catching, especially in its bold, candy-red color. At 1.35 pounds, the Lumia 2520 won't rival the iPad Air, but that's hardly worth a true complaint. A slim frame still makes the 10.5-inch-wide device easy to hold in one hand, and the volume rocker and power button are easily located on the top right-hand corner if you hold the device in portrait mode.

Sharply angled corners, however, detract from the smooth look just a bit, a strange move in a tablet world filled with rounded, smooth edges. Additionally, there's no USB port, and past a headphone jack and a charging jack, there are no additions. A thick black bezel surrounds the screen, almost somewhat to the device's detriment. That's a lot of space wasted on frame instead of the beautifully bright screen.

That screen is one of Nokia's strengths. Among non-Apple devices, Nokia and Sony have made the greatest strides in recent years, creating tremendously bright, rich displays, and this is one of Nokia's finest efforts. It's markedly brighter than just about every device on the market, something that shows through in movies such as "Fast & Furious 6." Browsing photos is also a pleasure.

A solid Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip, backed by 2 GB of RAM powers everything, and it produces a snappy experience. Apps such as Xbox Music and Nokia Music, and games such asWordament open up swiftly and easily. The speed of the overall experience makes the 2520 ideal for casual Web browsing and gaming. A full version of Microsoft Office is included as well, so if you pick up the additional keyboard accessory — and there are plenty floating around out there — you can easily get work done on the Lumia 2520, too.

Some of this efficiency, however, is shaped by the fact that the 2520 is running Windows RT instead of a full version of Windows 8. Instantly, that crushes the Lumia 2520 as a gaming machine. Instead of getting to use the beautiful display to run touch-capable games such as Civilization V and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, you're relegated to simple experiences such as Wordament.

Worse still, Windows' Xbox Games portal remains lackluster when compared to the likes of Google Play and Apple's Apps Store. On a full-version Windows Surface 2, you can weigh — and often run — games from EA's Origin store and Steam to compensate. On a Windows RT device like the Lumia 2520, you're stuck with the paucity of offerings in the Xbox Games portal.

Nokia valiantly tries to compensate with a few of its own software offerings. A solid camera app and a decent video-editing app lead the way, although the highlight is Nokia MixRadio. It's not Pandora or Beats Music or Apple's iTunes Radio, but it's a quietly well-crafted music-playing experience that collects and easily categorizes hits from today and yesteryear. Its finest move is allowing you to store offline mixes, letting you listen to your collection even when you're far from a steady network.

It all adds up to a solid first tablet entry from a company on the rise. The price ($399 on contract, $499 free of that) will steer plenty away, especially when the iPad Air offers a much more robust software lineup for just about that same price ($499 starting). And it would be hard to recommend the 2520 ahead of the Air or the Surface.

But make no mistake: Nokia is on the right track. Think of this first tablet as a learning experience for the company, and expect bigger and better things in the future.