After selling its Devices and Services division to Microsoft earlier this year, Nokia has gotten back into the consumer electronics game with the launch today of the N1 Android tablet.

Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies (Nokia's industrial research division) described the N1 as being as good as the iPad mini but cheaper. The design is clearly inspired by Apple's device, as is the copycat 7.9-inch, 2048x1536 screen, but the internals are quite different: the N1 uses a quad core 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 processor at 2.3GHz. This is paired with 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. There are two cameras, an 8MP rear-racing one and a 5MP front-facing one. Connectivity comes from 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi. It will also be ever so slightly lighter than the iPad mini, coming in at 318 grams to the iPad's 331, though the N1's battery is much smaller, at 18.5Wh compared to 23.8.

The N1 will also be one of the first devices to use the new reversible USB Type C connector.

The Android 5.0 tablet will run Nokia's Z Launcher, which lets users search for apps from their home screen by writing the first few letters of the app on a blank spot on the screen. This will perform a search instantly. Over time, the launcher should learn which apps you use a lot and create shortcut icons to them.

The device will launch in China first, in time for Chinese New Year (February 19, 2015). It will then be launched in Russia and some European markets.

In the Microsoft deal, Nokia sold its manufacturing capability, so this time the Finnish company isn't building the tablet itself. Instead, it's partnering with Foxconn. Foxconn builds hardware for many companies, including Apple's iPhone, but this Nokia deal looks a little different.

Nokia is licensing its brand to Foxconn, and Nokia is responsible for the industrial design and Z Launcher, but everything else is Foxconn's responsibility, from engineering to sales and customer care. The N1 tablet will be built and sold by Foxconn—just using Nokia's name. Foxconn will pay a royalty for the privilege of using the brand.

With this tablet, the company is going to be entering the burgeoning cut-throat market of iPad clones. Nokia says that work on the N1 started the Monday after the Microsoft deal closed. The choice of Android was dictated by the desire to use Z Launcher. It's a competitive field, and whether the Nokia name and apparent focus on design and quality will be enough to give the company an edge is perhaps the biggest question about the whole enterprise. Foxconn will have its work cut out if it's really producing an iPad mini-level device without an iPad mini price tag.

Nokia says that it won't license its brand to just anyone, with Haidamus saying that the "bar to pass that licensing right is very high." Microsoft still has some rights to the Nokia brand, too; although it can no longer produce Nokia-branded smartphones, Microsoft can continue to build dumbphones using the Nokia name.

Tablets aren't going to be the only devices to carry the Nokia brand. As part of its agreement with Microsoft, Nokia is barred from producing smartphones until 2016. But then? Haidamus says that the company is "looking at going into the cell phone licensing business post-Microsoft rights." If the N1 tablet is successful, a smartphone seems an inevitability, and 2016 isn't that far off.

This marks a big change in business for Nokia and a not insubstantial one for Foxconn, too. Nokia is treating its brand in much the same way as it might treat any other piece of intellectual property: as a thing to be licensed to others. Nokia may be responsible for the physical appearance of the N1, but everything else is up to others.

Listing image by Nokia