Review of the Nokia N900 the first phone to run Maemo

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to London for the onedotzero event at the BFI, an exhibition showcasing ‘adventures in motion’. At the event were Nokia, who were showing off their brand new Maemo based smartphone called the N900.

During the event we were able to have a private discussion with Jussi Makinen, the N900 Product Manager, where he talked about the N900 and its evolution from the Maemo driven Nokia Tablets to a pocket computer with mobile phone functionality.

About the Nokia N900

The Nokia N900 is a brand new handset recently announced by Nokia prior to Nokia World at the beginning of September due for release sometime in October.

To the uninitiated the N900 looks like a re-packaging of the Nokia N97 – both have touch screens, 5 mega-pixel lenses, and slide out keyboards.  It’s under the hood where you find the real differences as the handset does not run the familiar Symbian operating system found in the majority of current Nokia handsets, but instead taking a leaf out of its Tablet line-up (the N770, N800 & N810) and opting for the Linux-based Maemo platform instead.

The Hardware

The Nokia N900 comes in black and features a 3.5in touch-sensitive widescreen display, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  The build quality feels very sturdy unlike many of the recent Nseries handsets that have appeared since the N95. The N900 is designed primarily for use in landscape mode, both by using the touch screen and keyboard, but as always Nokia like to include a stylus for those people really stuck in the early 90′s!

Held in landscape, the front of the N900 is button-less, with the large display dominating, and a small front-facing camera flush under the glass top left.  Buttons on top include the camera button, volume rocker, power button/options. The stylus, 3.5mm headphone jack and screen lock can be found on the right with The Micro USB Charger port on the left. Stereo speakers are also to be found on the top left & right sides of the handset which gave very loud and deep sound.

The Keyboard

On opening the device you are presented with a 3-row QWERTY keyboard.  The keys are good-sized and feel easy to use mainly because Nokia have dropped the D-pad found on the N97 freeing up more space for proper laptop style keys. Navigation of the keys felt great and I was able to reach all of the buttons quickly and type at speed without many errors, even on first use.

The keyboard slide mechanism felt solid and gave a firm click as it snapped into the open position.

The Camera

On the back of the N900 you will find the 5 mega-pixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash hidden behind a protective slide cover.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test picture quality, but as many Nseries handsets have had a 5 mega-pixel Carl Zeiss Lens since the N95, its pretty much a tried-and-tested feature that we already know gives good results, so I wouldn’t expect any less.

Surrounding the camera, is a small pop-out stand that will allow you to prop the handset up while watching a movie for example.

The Software

The Nokia N900 is the first mobile phone to feature the Maemo operating system which has previously only been found on Nokia’s N770, N800 & N810 Tablets.

The Linux-based OS brings a new, more modern UI to a Nokia handset, ditching the what seems very clunky Symbian S60 interface. Moving to a desktop feel, where you can swipe left and right to display widgets and shortcuts to your favourite apps (like Android) or tap a button to bring up the applications folder.

It’s easy to switch between running applications on the N900, the OS gives you a thumbnail view of whats currently running on the handset.  Click the X to close it, or tap elsewhere to open it. Easy.

Time using the OS was unfortunately limited, but I hope to get hold of a N900 again soon for a more detailed Maemo OS review.

One thing that I did note about my first experience in using the new OS, is that I have slight concerns that it may not be that intuitive or immediately obvious how you navigate around the phone and applications.  Even going into settings for each app by tapping the title bar in the app was not that obvious at first, but when you picked that up it was then consistent throughout the interface.

Compared to other mobiles

It’s always good to compare a new handset to some others that you are already familiar with, so here’s the N900 alongside the Apple iPhone, and Nokia E71 and E55.

And here is the Nokia N900 sat againist the Apple iPhone.  As you can see they are comparable in height and width.  The N900 is thicker than the iPhone due to it’s slide-out keyboard.

Workshop with Jussi Makinen the N900 Product Manager

During the time with Product Manager Jussi I asked him if this was Nokia’s response to the likes of the iPhone and Android phones, which appear to be leading the market, and leaving Nokia to play catch-up. He obviously denied that, but moments later a Maemo developer said refering to the N900 “finally something that can be said in the same breath as iPhone and Android phones”.

It may be that the N900 isn’t destined to be a mainstream iPhone competitor just yet, as Jussi said at the start of his talk “the N900 was aimed at early adopters and tech enthusiasts”.  He then later on referred to ‘testing the water with the handset to see the reaction to it’. He also hinted that this wasn’t Nokia’s primary flagship device, but that it would sit alongside the traditional Symbian-based smartphones such as the N97.

Nokia do have a tendency to release a product and see the results before fine-tuning and releasing a tided-up version – the N95/N95 8GB is a fine example of that.

Conclusion

I am very excited about the Nokia N900 – the first time I have felt like this in a long time about a Nokia device. It’s felt that for a while Nokia have rested on their run away success of the N95 and just kept re-regurgitating that handset in various re-stylised iterations!

The Maemo platform should bring some fresh focus to the what now seems like a dinosaur Symbian/S60 UI and bring Nokia back onto the running with which Apple and Android already have a head start.

The hardware is great, the software looks promising, and if Nokia can get developers to create apps for the new platform they are in with a good chance of making this a fantastic Nokia handset.

I think that now is the time that the Mobile OS wars are really going to get interesting!

Many Thanks go to Donna, Robbie and Adam from WOM World/Nokia for arranging the event and looking after us during our time in London.