Nokia N900 Review

“The Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience” Words from Anssi Vanjoki, the Executive Vide President, Markets, at Nokia. And we would have to agree. What we are finding with the latest handsets released from the leading mobile phone manufacturers is a continued blurring of the lines between phones and computers, and as that continues devices like the Nokia N900 are set to become more commonplace. This combination of communication technology and simple telephony is nothing new to Nokia; it is something they have been promoting since the early days of Nseries handsets, preferring to refer to these devices as Multimedia Computers rather than Mobile Phones.

Whilst the term hasn’t caught on with the general public, you can see why Nokia use it. Whilst a phone is a phone, these days a phone is more, it is a small PC, allowing you to install applications, play games, read email, surf the web, listen to music, watch TV or video, edit images, and so on. And never has a handset more merited the term of pocket computer until now.

The Nokia N900 is a new breed of smartphone. It is worth pointing out that the phone is aimed by Nokia at a market segment that is not covered specifically by either the Eseries or Nseries range of handsets currently available. Unlike those products, the N900 does not run on the Symbian operating system, instead it uses Maemo, an open source operating system created by Nokia based on the Linux OS. If you are a fan of S60 devices, you don’t need to worry, despite this new device running on a new platform, Nokia say they have no plans to abandon the Symbian set up.

The power packed N900 looks to offer computer grade performance in a compact size, and by and large that is exactly what it does. The technical specification includes an ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz processor with 256MB of RAM (and 768MB of virtual memory) which gives the N900 the muscle to deliver a super fast, fluid user experience. Measuring 111 x 60 x 18mm, and weighing 181g, the N900 is a little on the hefty side, but still retains a compact feel. The phone has a full, resistive TFT touchscreen, measuring 3.5 inches across, and supporting up to 16 million colours, with a pixel resolution of 800 x 480. With a built in accelerometer the display auto rotates as and when the need arises; for example sliding out the full three row QWERTY keyboard automatically throws the display into landscape view. There is a built in proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touchscreen when in call, for example, so that it is not possible for the touchscreen to be activated as the screen rests against your cheek.

There are numerous homescreens available on the N900, which you can select through by swiping your finger across the screen. Transition from screen to screen is very smooth and fluid, and rivals the iPhone for usability in this sense, in one of the few areas where a comparison with an iPhone is actually valid. As well as swiping your way from homescreen to homescreen, you can select to view all current homescreens by selecting the dashboard option; this shows a thumbnail view of all homescreens, from which you can select the screen of your choice just by pressing on it.

Web browsing on the N900 works really well, web pages are presented on the display just as they would be on the screen of a home PC. The browser on the N900 is based on Mozilla open source browser technology, which is the basis of the highly rated Firefox PC browser. Once a website has been loaded, you can press on the screen and ‘drag’ the screen up and down for easy navigation. To zoom in on a particular area of a web page, you can either double tap the screen, or alternatively draw a circle on the screen with your finger, drawing clockwise to zoom in and anti clockwise to zoom out. Whilst a simple double tap is just as effective and probably easier to do, the swirling motion of a finger spinning over the display looks much cooler! Web browsing on the N900 is ably catered for, with the phone supporting all the best in communication options for high speed web browsing. Full HSPA support is available, with the N900 supporting up to 10Mbps download and 2Mbps upload. WiFi is included, along with support for DLNA, which allows you to smoothly and easily integrate the device to your home WLAN setup. GPRS, EDGE and HSCSD are also onboard, to keep you covered should you find yourself outside of 3G network coverage. Other connection options on the device include a MicroUSB port for connecting to a PC, and we find the N900 with Bluetooth 2.1 on board, with A2DP support.

The N900 is fully equipped to cater for all your media needs. A full media player is available, with native support for MP2, AAC, WMA, WAV and eAAC+ music files, as well as WMV, Real Video, MP4 and XviD video files. A high quality Nseries spec camera is included, with autofocus and sporting a Carl Zeiss lens. The camera has a Dual LED flash, which Nokia have been using a lot recently. It gives the closest performance to a real Xenon flash, but also doubles up as a video recording light, to help when recording video in low level light conditions. With a built in GPS receiver, images captured on the handset can be easily tagged with location information and quickly uploaded to the web. As well as GPS, the N900 has aGPS onboard, and there is full support for the latest version of Ovi Maps. There is even a built in digital compass, to help you locate the direction you are travelling in when using Ovi Maps. The camera is capable of recording video at 25fps in WVGA format (840 x 480) and there is also a second front facing camera included for those rare moments when a video call may be required. Full TV Out support is here, so you can view captured images and video on a TV screen with the TV Out cable. The AV port used for TV connection also doubles up as a 3.5mm port for listening to music with your own personal headphones.

As if that wasn’t enough, there is also a stereo FM radio included, for those moments when you want to listen to live radio, perhaps to listen on the latest chart run down, or catch up on the sports news with your local FM radio station. There is an FM transmitter onboard, which allows you to stream music from the device to a nearby radio, just choose a free frequency on the radio, and tune the N900 in.

Messaging on the N900 is well implemented, with support for threaded SMS, MMS, and Email with Push email support, as well as instant messaging. There is a copious amount of storage memory available, with an internal capacity of 32GB which can be expanded further with the addition of a MicroSD memory card, up to 16GB in size.

There is so much on the N900, by specification alone it is a daunting prospect, and sees Nokia laying down the gauntlet to its rivals. The mobile industry is evolving, and Nokia seem to be ready to lay down the challenge to other manufacturers to see if they can step up to the plate and compete. As we watch the battle for supremacy run its course, we the consumers should be happy to enjoy the ride, as there are some very smart products heading our way. Let the battle commence! Expected release date Q4 2009.

What is the Maemo operating system like? check out the video below

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