Hands-on review of the Nokia N900

Back in September last year, I was invited to the onedotzero event at the BFI London and was one of the first people to get their hands on the shiny new Nokia N900. During the event I was able to grab a quick hands on with N900 with my fellow bloggers, but sadly the time was limited and didn’t get to try out the new handset as much as I’d have liked. Thankfully the lovely people at WOMWorld/Nokia we kind enough to send out a trial handset that I could test properly. Read on to find out more…

Whats in the box

The Nokia N900 comes in a stylish square grey box with an embossed outline of the N900 handset, with Nokia Nseries and Nokia N900 written in silver writing.

I’ll come to the main item in the box in a minute, but for now here’s some of the other things that you’ll find in your N900 box:

A video out cable to connect your N900 to a TV/sound system, and a Micro USB > USB cable for connecting your N900 to your computer.

Now that Nokia have signed-up to use a standard phone charger with other phone manufacturers, they have been good enough to include an adapter that will convert your old Nokia charger cables to the new Micro USB format.

Also included is a Nokia Nseries cloth to clean those grubby little finger marks that you are going to leave over the phone.

A set of Nokia earbuds, and a power adapter are the remaining items that can be found inside your N900 package along with the usual manuals.

The front of the N900

So here it is, the Nokia N900. The handset sports a glossy 3.5 inch touch screen which dominates the font of the device. The handset is designed to be used primarily in landscape mode, as you can tell from the orientation of the Nokia logo and model number above the screen.

The earpiece can clearly be seen on the left of the screen, and on either side of the handset are the stereo speakers.

On the right hand-side of the device you will find the headphone jack, mic, lock switch and the infamous Nokia Stylus that they like to include on their touch devices.

The back of the N900

Flipping the glossy screen over for a minute, we take a look at the back of the N900. Here you will find the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens with dual LED Flash. Surrounding the camera is a kickstand which can be used for propping up the N900 to watch a movie.

The slide-out Keypad

As well as being a touchscreen device the N900 has a slide-out keypad containing a nice set of QWERTY keys. The slide mechanism gives a nice solid click as the device locks open.

Unlike the similar-looking Nokia N97 (which runs Symbian OS) – the QWERTY keyboard feels much more like a traditional laptop keyboard, but in miniature.

Keys are nicely spaced, and a joy to use.  There isn’t a navigational D-pad like on the Nokia N97, but instead arrow-keys like the Nokia N97 Mini. I did miss not having the D-pad, I guess thats a personal thing, but it’s removal of course keeps down the size of the device which is more important.

The Touchscreen

The screen is gorgeous, and has a bright 800 x 480 touchscreen display.

You are presented with a ‘desktop’ on your phone that allows you to put shortcuts and widgets to your favourite applications and sources of information for quick and easy access.

The top left of the screen is your main navigational method through the device. This can take some getting used to, as it’s not immediately obvious how you cycle through the various Applications/Desktop/running apps modes of the phone. The top of the phone also has a menu bar that can be tapped to pull down more options depending on what you are doing, again this isn’t that intuitive and can take a bit of time to get used to.  Once you do understand how this works, it does become second nature though.

One of my main concerns about the touchscreens used in the N900 was that it uses resistive instead of capacitive touchscreen technology. Basically the difference between the two is that you have to apply more pressure to the screen on a resistive screen (ie like you are pressing a key) where as a capacitive screen can pick up light taps (like the iPhone). On the Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 you have to firmly press the screen and slide to scroll.  Thankfully the resistive implementation of the Nokia N900 is pretty darn good, almost as good as the light touches you would apply to an iPhone.

Inside the N900

The Nokia N900 flys! This is one fast mobile, in-fact it can’t really be called a mobile, it truly is a pocket computer.

At the heart of the N900 is an ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 600 MHz. This provides the N900 with plenty of power that gives the user a desktop-like experience in the palm of their hand. Opening and switching applications is painless and quick, its really is a tiny powerhouse.

The N900 comes equipped with 32GB of internal storage which is plenty of room to store all your applications and documents.  This can be expanded should-you-really-need-to with the included MicroSD card slot, although this will only be up-to an extra 16GB.

The camera is a standard issue 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens, that we have come to know and love from previous Nokia handsets.  Great pictures as expected, and with the dual-LED it can help out in some lowlight situations.

Here here for the full list of N900 Technical Specifications.

Quick Questions Answered

I know that you cant really compare like-for-like on handsets that are made by different manufacturers for different audiences, but when people have a choice of choosing between 2 similar-in-spec devices they really want to know basic things like ‘is it fatter than my friends iPhone?’ So here I have tried to answer some of those questions:

• How heavy is the N900? – The N900 weighs 181g.
• Is the N900 fatter than an iPhone – Yes the N900 is fatter than an iPhone, for those familiar with the Nokia N95 its pretty comparable to that.
• Can the N900 run more that one application at a time? – Yes the N900 has full multitasking, unlike the iPhone.
• Are there lots of apps for the N900? – At the moment the platform is fairly new, but new apps are always being added to the Ovi Store.
• Will my existing Symbian apps work on the N900? – No, The Maemo Operating System is different than Symbian.
• How much is a Nokia N900? – The SIM free price of the N900 varies, but you can expect to pay around £460.

In you have a question about the N900, add it to the comments below, and I’ll get it answered for you.

Win a N900 or an all expenses trip to SXSW

Those cool guys at WOMWorld/Nokia have an awesome competition running, where you could be in with a chance of bagging yourself a brand new Nokia N900 mobilephone or even an all expenses trip to SXSW in the good ‘ole US of A.

If you have never heard of WOMWorld/Nokia, they are a ‘Word of Mouth’ company that allow bloggers and people interested in Nokia products to trial the latest Nokia products for review on blogs and forums all over the Internet. Each year they send out loads of devices all across the globe for trials.

All they want to know is the total number of trial devices WOMWorld/Nokia sent out last year (as opposed to the number of devices they have).

How to enter

There are 2 parts to the competition, firstly using Twitter, tweet your answer to @Womworldnokia with your guess before 9am tomorrow (Friday), UK time.

The first 100 people closet to the correct answer will then be able to takepart in the second part of competition called Which Nokia am I?

For more details on the competition head over to the WOMWorld/Nokia Competition page.

Goodluck!

Pre-order a Nokia N900 from play.com for £479.99

If  you are in the market for a hot new Nokia mobile, and had the Nokia N900 in mind, then why not pre-order yours from play.com for £479.99. The handset is network unlocked and contract free.

The handset is expected to be released on 19 October, and is already drumming up a huge amount of interest on the Internet.

I was recently able to have a hands-on play with the Nokia N900 in London and was very excited about what I saw. I don’t think there has been such excitement about a Nokia handset since the Nokia N95.

Pre-order your Nokia N900 from play.com now.

Q&A session with Jussi Mäkinen about the Nokia N900

Jay from My Nokia Blog recorded a video of the Q&A session with Jussi Mäkinen, the Product Manager for the N900, during the onedotzero event last weekend.

Filmed on a N97, the video shows the question and answer session set-up for us by WOM World / Nokia, where we were able to ask Jussi about the N900 and the Maemo platform.

For a transcript of the video head over to Jay’s article on My Nokia Blog.

Hack and Mod your Nokia N900 with Push N900

One of the onedotzero events at the BFI was titled Push N900, which is a hacking and modding project by Nokia.

The object of the event was to try and highlight how easy it is for developers to use the Maemo platform that drives the Nokia N900, to create more than just apps for the device.

The brief is simple: tell us how you would hack and mod the N900 & Maemo to connect the N900 to something you love.  An expert judging panel will be selecting winning submissions and the groups behind them will receive N900 devices, funding and support to develop their PUSH idea. And once they’re complete, we’ll share them with the rest of the world with a series of installations in Nokia Flagship Stores across the globe.

You can submit your Nokia Push N900 entry here.

The session ended with a company called Tinker.it demoing some of the mods that they have done with some very familair 80′s items. to include a Speak ‘n’ Spell and some ViewMaster 3D Glasses.

mypocketOS gets beamed onto the National Theatre London

During the onedotzero event at the BFI in London, we were given the opportunity to play with the Nokia ‘Identity’ installation which featured a Nokia N900, connected to 6 large projectors outside the building beaming text onto the National Theatre opposite.

Using the accelerometer of the N900 we were able to change the text beamed onto the building by tilting, shaking and rotating the device.  Check out mypocketOS.com in all it’s glory on the Royal National Theatre and see how the installation worked:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTgg1H84jFU

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.