Nokia N900 review
The Nokia N900 is a big, bold step into the unknown for the Finnish phone giant. It’s the first smart tablet from the company to rock its new operating system, Maemo 5, unlike most regular N Series’ Symbian S60. Did Nokia land on firm ground, or has it plummeted into an abyss? Read on and find out in our full Nokia N900 review…
Although Nokia is pitching the Nokia N900 as an internet tablet – it feels like a direct sequel to the Nokia N97, not least because of the hardware under the bonnet. It’s got the same whopping, expandable 32GB of storage, premium connectivity bobbins (HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS) and ace multimedia handling, with loads of video format support and a fantastic five megapixel camera. Call quality is excellent, and that battery will easily see you through from sun-up to bedtime, even if you give the Nokia N900 an app pounding.
But the Nokia N900 improves on the N97’s build in crucial ways. At 800×480, the Nokia N900’s screen is sharper, the Marmite divisive hinge has gone, and the keyboard is a major win. Although it’s still got the silly three-line spacing, the keys on the Nokia N900 are raised and rubberised like the Nokia E72’s, so you’ll dance all over them, unlike the N97’s low-profile island pad.
Maemo 5 on the Nokia N900 is something of a revelation too. We could hear the creaks in Symbian S60 on the Nokia N97, and see the cracks in the black boxes when you tilted the phone from portrait to landscape mode. Although Symbian followers will fit right in with Maemo 5, with that instantly recognisable Nokia font, it’s a much more powerful, well-integrated beast.
It handles multitasking like a juggler, with a clever window mode that shows all your programs and web page tabs in one smart view, and we love how instant messaging clients are handled from a status bar on the homescreen. Slapping widgets down on the multiple profile pages is a piece of cake, and you can receive RSS and Facebook updates at a glance.
The browser on the Nokia N900 is rock-solid too, loading full pages desktop style, and even letting you playback YouTube videos embedded on pages – a coup for a mobile, even it it’s a bit choppy. Our only real gripe with it is the swirling gesture for zooming, as it’s all too easy to just sling yourself around the screen and make yourself seasick instead.
But, and it’s a big but, Nokia’s still forcing the cheaper resistive touchscreen technology into the Nokia N900. You won’t want to pull the stylus out all the time, but trying to navigate around with your fingers is sometimes maddening. Occasionally it seems like pot luck whether a window will open or not, while sliding through pictures takes some huge swipes. It’s just not acceptable on a flagship smartphone any more – let’s have an iPhone-matching capacitive panel in there please…
The Nokia N900 is still very much first-gen tech. The screen’s not quite up to scratch, and the app support doesn’t match S60. But it’s a very promising start, and one that bests the original Nokia N97 for beefy powerhouse smartphone skills in the process. Nokia loyalists won’t be disappointed.
Check out our hands-on picture gallery of the Nokia N900 here.
Verdict
This is what the Nokia N97 should have been
Love
Maemo is a joyous change from Symbian S60
Hate
The unresponsive screen marrs the experience
The spec
Screen: 800×480, 3.5-inches
Connectivity, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth, TV-out
Camera: 5MP
Storage: 32GB, expandable to 48GB with microSD
Size/weight: 110.9×59.8×18mm/181g
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
Excelente teléfono. Esperemos que tenga buena aceptación y que el precio sea justo en estos tiempos de crisis.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:17 am
The N900 is a great device but I’m concerned by the repeated delays in shipping. Nokia has only ever explained one delay, that they were tweaking the UI in response to reviewers feedback. But this device was originally announced for Early October, but since then there have been at least four release dates that have come and gone. It is still not available in the UK although it’s on sale at Nokia stores in Chicago and New York.
Nokia must get the N900 into stores quickly! Christmas is coming and the early adopters who would buy this are more likely to be focused on their holiday shopping soon. After Christmas, you are going to see new phones released (such as Motorola Droid, Sony X10, etc) that will be able to compete on specs and price.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Repeated delays? It had only 1 delay as far as i know. First Nokia told me that it would be end Oct. And then 1 delay to (mid) november and yes it is available now. I havent received mine yet but a friend of mine already has his in his hands. (and i ordered a few days earlier so dont know what did go wrong here)
Also i hear from various other places like NY that it is really shipping to customers.
The thing that is weird that some say that the screen is not responsive and others say that it is very responsive. And i played with a pre production unit in the Flagship store in NY and also there the screen was very responsive and snappy to use use.
Only the Browser could be a bit better on the feedback level (is the link clicked and so on) and typing in textfields didnt go as smooth as i wanted. But other applications where perfectly fine
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm
hi,seems strange that most other reviews seem to think that the screen is one of the n900 best bits and remember for some the use of a stylus is a must have.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Hi there – we discussed this at length before the review went up and decided that, for a handset of its calibre, the screen should have been better. I think in light of its excellent feature set, we expected a bit more
November 24th, 2009 at 11:59 am
The resistive screen is there for a reason.. accuracy.
When you have a pc.. not a phone.. in your pocket using an 800 x 480 screen & you want to tick a tiny box.. use a fingernail or stylus to hit it.. a capacitive screen would need to zoom in first as it’s designed for the finger pad, not the nail, yes it’s “more responsive” but also demands huge buttons, and loads of zooming in-out.
All the complainers about the screen being non-capacitive are just people who don’t know how to use a resistive screen.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Really good point Steve. It might be that capacitive isn’t the answer, but our reviewer also had issues with navigation as well as simple selection, which we’d expect to be better whichever mode used…
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:08 am
i agree with steve with resistive we can use stylus for many cool apps like mobile paint handwriting recognition and also resistive screen of n900 is unresponsive its cool