OG Review: Nokia N900

For Nokia, it really is a case of it being the best of times, and the worst of times. Think about it – one the one hand, it has the sheer installed base of its phones, more so in a country like India, and on the other, the company is looking a pale shadow of its former self in the smartphone market by persisting with the Series 60 5^th Edition Platform on its range of smartphones. And as many have realized with the N97, merely slapping on touch capabilities on a not-made-for-touch platform doesn’t cut it in the age of Android and the iPhone. In a market where being heard is almost as important as marketshare, Nokia’s feeble attempts were lost in the din of the ‘fan-droids’ and the Apple fanboys.

So does the N900, Nokia’s first device on its newly refreshed Linux-based Maemo 5 platform, arrest the slide? It certainly does help that Maemo 5 is many generations younger than its Symbian sibling, but is it ready for the mainstream? More importantly, is it the way forward for Nokia? We intend to find out!

Design and Hardware

Man, this thing is bulky! If you’ve been playing around with the current crop of smartphones, these are the first thoughts you are sure to have abut the N900. It’s all of 100.9 x 59.8 x 18mm, and weighs a staggering 181g – no shirt pocket material this! That’s if you view this baby as a smartphone. Nokia is pitching this as a dedicated Internet device on steroids, one that has phone capabilities as well. If you look at it that way, it’s practically petite, and the added bulk inspires confidence. It feels nice in the hand, and the slide-out keyboard, which contributes to the bulk, has a pleasing sturdy feel to it. The overall effect is very practical if a tad industrial – the N900 wasn’t built to win any design awards!

Having said that, the keyboard doesn’t open all the way, which means keys are smaller and the extra row of number keys is missing. Instead, you access numbers via the special function key. Combined with the reduced key size, typing on the N900 isn’t as pleasurable as say the N97. Nokia’s also dropped the Call, Menu and End buttons to allow the 3.5-inch screen to dominate the front of the device, but the old regulars – camera, volume, standby lock – still manage to find their place around the device, as do the headphone socket and microUSB slot. The memory and SIM slots are accessed by tearing … yes, tearing the back cover off the device, a mechanism that does not make me comfortable in the least.

But the focus is meant clearly to be on the screen, and the N900’s 3.5-inch resistive touch screen runs at a very usable 800 by 480 pixel resolution. The screen’s pixel density of 270pixels per inch is very nearly like the new iPhone’s ‘retina display’, and while it’s not the brightest we’ve seen, it shows off the Maemo platform in a positive light, plus it’s pretty usable out in the sun. I’m sure cell phone aficionados would have discerned the obvious weakness of the screen already – yep, it’s a resistive display. We’ve seen capacitive displays on the competition for years now, so a Rs. 30000 MRP device still packaging a resistive screen – no can do! The sensitivity that is so crucial to the touch experience is missing, and to add insult to injury, Nokia’s bundled a stylus for more precise use. Granted, it does help, but if you compare the touch experience to the latest breed of smartphones, you’ll end up appreciating your god-given stylus all that much more!

Software

Now despite having been around on Nokia’s niche internet tablet range for a few years now, Maemo (more specifically its latest iteration Maemo 5) is the real reason why we’re excited about the N900. Maemo 5’s user interface elements are infinitely more finger-friendly than the Series 60 5^th Edition UI, and it all starts with the home screens. The N900 home screens in particular almost have Android levels of usability, and you can drop widgets (mini apps like weather etc), bookmarks, contacts, and applications anywhere you want on the four panels that loop around as you swipe. The Maemo 5 OS is a breeze to use, helped tremendously by the ARM Cortex A8 600MHz coupled with the Power VR graphics. Applications zoom and fade as you open, close, and minimize them, and the phone is fun to use without the lag one would associate with such bells-and-whistles.

Personally, I loved how the N900/Maemo handled multitasking. Tap the icon in the upper left and you get a miniaturized card view of all your open applications in one place, and each card shows you live views of what’s happening in the app, and lets you pick the app you want to use. Tap the upper-left icon once more and you get taken back to the main applications screen. It reacts quickly, even when there are multiple applications running in the background. It’s one of, if not the best multitasking mobile device, far superior to many Android phones that I’ve seen so far. I loved the way Nokia’s made use of the increased screen estate on the device, and the new rebuilt-from-scratch notifications system – new SMS, emails, missed calls – is brilliantly executed. Sure, so it is a tad inspired by the Android and Palm’s webOS notification system, but it works well and that’s what counts!

Internet

As a made-for-the-Internet device, the N900 does not disappoint, and the Internet browsing experience is one of the best we’ve seen on a mobile device so far. Plus, there is the minor detail of flash support, which helps the N900s case too. Websites open in their full desktop glory, and Nokia’s taken a different approach to zoom, by which you can double tap to smart fit the text on the screen to the display and perform a slightly funny finger-twirl action on the screen to zoom in. It’s at such times one wishes for a capacitive screen… but it is not to be. On an aside, the Firefox browser is available for the Maemo platform, so you get the option to use that as well.

Miscellaneous

The N900 crosses of the checkboxes for all the other stuff – the 5-megapixel camera is decent in terms of image quality, and the built-in photo editor is good for the occasional edit. The media player is a simple affair, with the options to listen to music, watch videos, or use Internet radio, and the sound quality over the speakers is adequate. Calling on this device is almost an afterthought, and making a call isn’t just a matter of pressing a button and bringing up the dial-pad, you first have go the main menu and start the ‘Phone’ application! In the box contents include a TV-out cable (allowing you to push the display onto a bigger screen), in-ear headphones and and some power converters. Battery life with the 1320 mAh battery is very average, lasting less than a day with fairly heavy use.

Conclusion

Nokia’s marketing this phone for geeks, which may be one part due to the phone’s extreme customizability and the other because it is still a little rough around the edges. If anything, this is a reference design for what the future may hold for the Nokia smartphone platform, and as sneak peak, Maemo shows promise. The next iteration MeeGo, one that is in collaboration with Intel, will work on the N900 if you’re the adventurous sort, but it will not be supported by Nokia, so tread with caution.

If you’re looking at a pocket internet device – a pocket mein rocket, if you will – that you can play around with and customize to your heart’s content, the N900 may be for you. The India launch is terribly delayed, and at this price point, it disappoints. If you were another regular guy or gal looking for your favorite mobile brand to deliver a fitting reply to Apple and Google, this isn’t the one.

Price: Rs. 30,639/-