Talk about iPhone killers! I think what the world of tech has seen 2 days ago was something that’ll go down in history. Let’s start with some numbers; 7 million page loads on www.maemo.nokia.com in the first 6 hours; 12 million page loads up till the second day… The whole world was logging in to check out a new device. Maemo and Nokia N900 quickly became trending topics on Twitter, went up that list like a fat kid trailing an ice-cream truck. Personally, I think it’s this year’s best announcement so far. So far…
It’s been one hell of a week for Nokia. Entry-level touchscreen devices announced, special navigation edition devices surfaced, even a Booklet running on Windows was officially revealed! But nothing, nothing could come close to the effect that the announcement of the N900 had on the world.
The N900 is not new; internet tablets have been there for like 4 years now, and the N800/N810 had been doing not so bad during that period of time. Eldar’s preview made things more interesting but didn’t quite strike like it should. Perhaps because it was only interesting for people who followed Eldar and the ones who were hardcore Nokia/mobile fans. A normal guy surfing the web would not have stumbled upon that leaked preview.
And though the back-then rumored N900 clearly showed it was running Maemo 5, nobody made a big deal out of it, maybe because they hadn’t seen Maemo wearing its recent outfit. Once this video was up, things got serious. Twitter went like crazy, all of us were Retweeting and posting links, millions of people were logging in on the official website, feeds were all showing the same headlines, Nokia had resurrected Linux, stabbed the iPhone to death and pretty much every other handset pretending to be an iPhone-killer. Even this ad was too much fun and made me feel like Nokia was reborn.
Before we go into specs, I think we should consider the following; recent mobile phone manufacturers had been giving Nokia headaches. If you’ve read my previous post about the LG Cookie, you would know what I’m talking about. Samsung’s doing a great job with powerhouses, Sony Ericsson had announced a couple of cool-looking and feature-packed handsets, Apple is always doing great with *any* iPhone be it 3G, 2G, S or without any additional silly letters, and quite frankly Symbian has been less than “good” for touchscreen devices; the 5800XM needed 4 upgrades since November 2008 to become super-speedy, the N97 has already been updated twice and still struggles a bit with speed and minor bugs, while the upcoming models in Q4 don’t bring much to the UI except for kinetic scrolling. Something had to be done or else Nokia would have become too predictable. Looking at what HTC did to hide WinMo (using TouchFlo) and Samsung’s widgets on the screen, as well as LG’s flash UI, you’d want Nokia to do something to beat that. The widgets on the N97 were quite over-hyped, besides the weather and Facebook, I don’t think you’d be wanting to see much of the stocks or the terrible regional news. I’m not saying that’s not good, I’m only saying we ought to have more widgets and more freedom with the customization options on the homescreen.
Then Nokia comes out with something like the N900. And officially launches it. And makes us weep for hours. Tears of joy, that is. So let’s go over the specs, shall we?
The Screen:
• 3.5-inch touch-sensitive display that’s as big as the N97’s (and the departed iPhone)
• 800 × 480 pixel resolution (versus 640x360 px for the N97) – while the N97 had an nHD resolution which was optimal for viewing movies in their original 16:9 aspect ratio, the N900 has the optimal resolution for mobile Internet. If you need web pages to look good on your device, then you need the 800 x 480 pixel resolution.
The Battery
• A (BL-5J) 1320mAh battery powers the N900, something I would have loved to see differently. The much slimmer E52 holds a 1500mAh battery and so do the E71, E72 and the N97 to name a few. Why can’t this bulkier, much heavier device sport that kind of battery? As much as I’d like to believe Maemo doesn’t drain the battery quickly, being connected all day has got to suck out all the juice, thus forcing you to recharge every night. I can live with that, I just don’t understand why. Nokia, please answer my question!
The Memory
• 256 MB of RAM (praise Maemus – lord of Linux-based OSes) combined with 768 MB of virtual memory (hell yeah!) for a huge 1GB of application memory, and that my friends is one of the goodies a real OS brings. Finally, PC-like capabilities on a mobile device.
• 32GB of onboard storage is similar to the N97’s with the possibility to knock that up a notch with a microSD card (up to 16GB supported).
The Processor
• Again, praising whoever chose to go for this, the Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor will do the job, and some stuff aside too. This chip has many tricks up its sleeves, best of which is the integration of the ARM Cortex-A8 superscalar microprocessor core which will be the main reason behind the faster user interface, faster data access and boosting of productivity and entertainment applications on the N900, while maintaining power efficiencies.
The Camera
Nokia’s good ‘ol camera is here too. Not much to talk about, so here are some points:
• 5-megapixel camera CMOS sensor, with Carl Zeiss optics and Tessar lens.
• Autofocus with two-stage capture key much like any other AF camera on Nokia devices.
• Dual LED flash
• Video recording at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) @ 25fps (16:9 aspect ratio)
The Size and Weight
Not the smallest of Nokias in years, but after all this IS a “mobile computer”
• Dimensions: 110.9 × 59.8 × 18 mm (with 19.5mm round the camera area)
• Weight: 180g, and yes it’s a hefty one.
Connectivity Solutions
Again, nothing unusual for a Nokia flagship here; the N900 is fully packed:
• 3.5mm AV connector for headphones and TV-out cables (Nokia Video Connectivity Cable)
• Micro-USB connector for high-speed USB 2.0 transmission
• Bluetooth v2.1 including support for stereo headsets (A2DP)
• FM transmitter for listening to music through a nearby radio (usually up to 3m away)
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS to be coupled with the amazing Ovi Maps.
The Desktop
And this is the best bit of it all. You can use the background pictures that you desire, place widgets all over the desktop (no grid-locking, means you can move the widgets around the way you like) and those widgets consist of contact pictures, favorite bookmarks, applications, music player, calendar, weather, etc. You can have up to 4 different desktops, each of which you can customize with the aforementioned widgets. Swipe your finger across the screen and you get the desktop that follows. I can think of this for example: one desktop for contacts, one for shortcuts, one for music, bookmarks and fun widgets, and one for calendar, email and corporate stuff. Watch this video to get an idea about the customization.
The rest of the good stuff
There’s a full-QWERTY keyboard, but of course. GPRS and WLAN are there too. Stereo speakers are placed on each side of the device (that’s if you’re holding it in landscape mode). Email is supported in most of its major protocols: Mail for Exchange, IMAP, POP3, SMTP… you name it, it’s got it. The Internet browser is powered by Mozilla so expect Firefox-like features with you in your pocket at all times. There’s a photo editor which allows you to tag, crop, and enhance…photos. Both the music and video players support a plethora of formats, so there’s little you cannot play on this particular device. Add to that a bit of live blogging, chatting, emailing, multitasking, tabbed browsing, internet calling, a kickstand round the back, and some fun with touch-enabled games, and you’ve got yourself a new all-in-one gadget. My N97 is starting to play tricks on me as it can sense it WILL be replaced.
The Verdict: a blend of the N97’s build with a new robust OS, the N900 brings a new flavor to Nokia’s portfolio, one which will put Nokia back on the innovators map. It’s true that Nokia was and still is the market leader and the best phone manufacturer to date, but special devices like the iPhone, HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC Hero, and the Samsung JET or Omnia HD/II are showing crazy progress. With the introduction of the N900, and before even using it, I can say the following with a clear conscience: R.I.P iPhone, your reign is over. Not the 5800XM, nor the N97, not even the upcoming slim Nokia touchscreen devices have been or will be true iPhone-killers. The iPhone needed more than Symbian to get butchered, maybe it’s because I’m so used to Symbian and I’m starting to find it a bit boring, that I’m saying that. But truth is, Symbian’s still a tad slow to compete with the flashy UI on the iPhone. Something else was needed, something new… something like Maemo 5. Nokia was still going to dominate the market for a while before finding it hard to battle the upcoming improved generations of the iPhone et al, and before having to seriously consider improving Symbian and adding more eye-candy effect, but with this new injection to its humungous portfolio – the best announcement this year so far – I can only think of one thing getting more attention than the N900: the rumored Apple tablet. Being no direct competition to the N900 (unless it has a SIM card slot), the tablet will get its fair share of fame and glory, but Maemo 5 and the N900 will be cruising to the top in a limousine. This device might not be the average person’s favorite, but I’m more than convinced every tech enthusiast out there will buy one, even if for the sake of only testing it.
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