Nokia N900 First Impressions are Surprising, Both Good and Bad
Clearly it pays to be a Silicon Valley big wig. That’s the only reason I can think of that Om got a Nokia N900 review unit before we did. Well, that and there were so few units to go around — yeah, I’ll go with that. ;) So what did Om think after spending a few days with a loaner N900?
“I was conflicted about the N900. I don’t want to give Nokia a hard time on it: they have made tremendous progress and with the N900 they are on the right track. This phone gets a 6/10 from me: mostly because of the progress they have made on the software front. If you have never used an iPhone, this is a pretty good device. In fact, a lot of folks in many parts of the world are going to find this device much more useful than say the N97.”
Bear in mind that Om hasn’t been all that impressed with Nokia hardware or software of late. Maybe that’s why he broke down his impressions into a section for each aspect. There are obvious comparisons with the iPhone, but probably the most interesting observation is against Android. Om thinks that the Maemo UI is marginally better than what Android offers, which surprised me. Other positives are solid battery life, a stunning camera and optics, overall speed and a great Mozilla browser. Not so hot are the cramped keyboard, resistive touchscreen and a lack of uniqueness as compared to other current devices.
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Perhaps you would like to update your article with the fair points made in the comments…
Did you read all the comments under the original post by Om? He is trying to hold every detail of the N900 against the in his eyes Uber Iphone…
I have seen the whole discussion on Iphone versus other smartphones held like the whole discussion there has always been between Apple and Microsoft…. Useless because both have their own user group and fans… So if you ask a Iphone fanboy (Om) on his opinion on N900 you get what you ask for!
N900 has a new operating system. All the models handed out are not final versions. It is a tablet phone and not like any other phone yet in the market. Judge on the hardware and software without Iphone this and windows phone that… Look at it as a new product on the market with its own group of users!
Some will like the open source, for some it will be too difficult… Maybe they should buy an Iphone ;o)
I did read all of the comments. I found many of them quite funny actually — clearly many folks don’t know that Om divorced his iPhone earlier this year. ;)
N900 doesn’t have a new OS (why does it matter anyway.) It has an old ass OS/UI that Nokia is going ditch for Qt for the next hardware release. Nokia has said so as much before they release the N900.
All the good things I have heard from N900 are about the browser. That’s a combination of the new CPU and the mobile firefox browser. I don’t see why should Nokia get credit for it.
I was under the impression that Qt runs on top of Maemo. It would be used to develop application and user interfaces for Maemo.
Maemo 5 is a new OS (OS 2008 was the old one). Qt is a development toolkit. Nokia is ditching GTK for Qt as the development toolkit for the Hildon GUI.
To clear things up, Maemo 5 IS a new version of Nokia’s Internet Tablet OS with added phone capabilities. It has a completely new UI, which will be converted and updated using Qt instead of GTK, or Gnome, as the Linux world lovingly refers to it.
The OS will still be Linux, but the window handling and UI elements will convert from GTK to Qt, as will the official third party application framework, which will also be Qt. GTK will still work, but Qt will be Nokia’s official app toolkit.
The browser is Mozilla based, and can run Firefox 3.0 add-ons. Nokia should get credit for creating a phone OS capable of running such high quality software. Not full credit, though, since Maemo is just a custom finger friendly Linux distro with some additional PIM software added in. But if Nokia shouldn’t get credit, who should??
I’m so bored of people complaining about resistive touchscreens, like capacitive is the amazing new special sauce. They’re different technologies, for different applications. If you want to wipe your fingers around a screen pressing big buttons then a capacitive screen is really rather a good idea – but I’d like to see you use a stylus on that screen to draw out a diagram (or note-take in, say, chinese).
I rather like resistive touchscreens, because I like to navigate with my fingernail (less grubby fingerprints and better precision) so hardware like the iPhone infuriates me. But I’m not complaining – the iPhone was never designed for me. The N900 was, and I can’t wait for it.
Nokia is using a capacitive touchscreen in their X6 handset, which is more in the same market sector as the iPhone.
I think it makes a big difference if you see the N900 as a replacement for the Symbian handhelds or simply as an evolution from the N770 – N810. If the latter then the N900 is a highly portable desktop/internet tablet first – with a phone thrown in for extra communications. I don’t recall anyone comparing the N810 with an iPhone.
Sure Nokia could be about to replace all their Symbian handsets with Maemo but I don’t see any proof of that. I would buy an N900 as an Internet Tablet that had a phone built-in. It could be great for a research project we are considering in South Africa for instance – especially if we can get it to run AIR. But I wouldn’t use it to replace my iPhone!
Nokia isn’t replacing Symbian at all. In fact, Symbian will continue to be a focus of Nokia for the mass market, with Maemo staying in the premium device market. Symbian^4 will also have Qt as its main app toolkit and UI engine.
So the developers and geeks that will favor the N900/Maemo ecosystem will make apps for their devices, and those apps will trickle down to the Symbian ecosystem with relative ease since they’ll both employ the same app toolkit.
There will still be high end Symbian sets as well as low to midgrade options. Maemo needs higher hardware requirements, so will probably remain only in premium and niche device markets.
And I’d love to see Adobe Air and Tweetdeck on the N900.
Adobe Air/Tweetdeck – I’d also love this on the N900. Given A Air and Tweetdeck operate happily on Ubuntu (also based on Debian), you would think they would happly port to Maemo.
Some of the walkthrough vids of the N900 available on YouTube suggest the resistive touchscreen is adequately responsive for fingertip use.
Maemo is due to be upgraded to Maemo 6 in short order (a year or so?) – please let the N900 be upgradable so it isn’t orphaned
Adobe Air is not supported on arm cpus, so unless adobe release it for arm devices, no air on the N900
tweetdeck is the only iphone app i miss on my n900. the iphone version of the app is not flash based so it should be possible to develop a version for maemo.
we don’t need iPhone apps ported to the N900. It runs Linux, and I’d prefer Adobe Air do a Maemo port for ARM with an optimized UI for touch. I don’t like the iPhone version. I want to see all my columns at once, not one at a time.
The N900 implements full Linux unlike Android which is crippled linux that can’t run most standard applications. This is mainly due to the hurry google were in to get something to market,and the fact that google do not embrace the full implications of open source and so keep control! Android is sort of Linux and sort of open! Its not what it claims to be. If you run Ubuntu on your laptop or whatever distro, the N900 is for you. I am not sure its ready for general public consumption at this stage but geeks are just in love with it. The IPhone is for another market where people prefer to have decisions made for them, do what they are told is best for them and don’t want to run root terminal shells and don’t care how their phone works. Nokia still insists on using PC Suite windows bloatware if you want to down load maps, and the GPS OVI maps application delivered is seriously poor (OVI maps Version1). I got this phone to replace a Linux netbook with phone, camera, gps etc attached. For GPS I bought a Garmin Nuvi for when I need one. As things evolve updates are available just like on Ubuntu so your N900 will evolve as new features become available. In conclusion the N900 is for enthusiasts who like to look under the bonnet.
man, this guy is connected to the same knucklehead Om!
they both share thier little iphones…like little “precious”
Hello all,
If you are interested in buying the N900, I am tracking its release date on my site http://dustme.com/n900_tracker.
MT
I think its more good then a Nokia N97 and yes definitely Nokia has to work more to compete iphone.
I think your England is more good than your opinion
My first impressions: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/nokia-n900-first-impressions/