Nokia N900 quick hands-on
By Chris Ziegler 
posted November 16th 2009 9:00AM
posted November 16th 2009 9:00AM
- Processor, processor, processor. Oh, and did we mention the processor? The N900's Cortex A8-based core yields significant improvements in day-to-day usability over the N810's ARM11 unit.
- Though it's still quite raw and feature-incomplete, Maemo 5 is by far the most user-friendly version of the platform to date, if for no other reason than the fact that it's very pretty. Screen transitions are smooth and look great, the home screen is as attractive and versatile as any widget-based home screen on the market today, and the Expose-style task switcher is a welcome addition.
- The N900 may very well offer the best browsing experience of any smartphone on the market today (yes, including the iPhone). What little ground it gives up in user friendliness is more than countered by the fact that you have the closest thing you can get to a desktop-class browser in a device of this size and form factor; it's straight-up Mozilla, after all, and everything renders faithfully. Flash doesn't blaze, but at least the Cortex A8 makes it usable.
- The hardware's a mixed bag. It doesn't feel cheap, per se -- but considering that this will become Nokia's highest-end smartphone, it doesn't necessarily feel the part, either. On the bright side, it's narrow enough to rest comfortably in the hand while using it as a phone, and it's not annoyingly thick -- don't get us wrong, it's a beefy phone, but not to the point of causing a problem in your pocket.
- The keyboard is mediocre. The N900 doesn't seem to slide open as much as it could, which means that it's got a uniquely narrow three-row QWERTY keyboard; fortunately, Nokia did a great job of shaping the keys to give them about as much feel as possible. The spacebar and directional keys are strangely located, which might necessitate a learning curve for some users.
- As we mentioned before, this is a pretty raw phone. Basic features like MMS and portrait mode aren't supported; MMS won't be a big deal for many users, but being forced to use the N900's non-phone functions in landscape is a pretty big deal.
- The N900 may have a "good" resistive touchscreen, but it's still a resistive touchscreen, which means it's not going to be as finger-friendly as it could be -- we were repeatedly disappointed by how much pressure was required to actuate scrolling gestures in menus, for example. Thing is, the N900 is a device where we can see many (if not most) users still preferring to have access to a stylus from time to time for precision input, and that being said, this is probably about as good of a resistive display as Nokia is capable of manufacturing.
To put it shortly: Nokia is most likely to be a realist with US market; no matter what they would do with the device to tweak it for US market (primarily to get accepted by operators, secondarily the consumers), it's going to be comparably niche market for this device, when you compare it with the global market conditions. Maybe the wind changes for the following model - but for now, it's just realism not to expect too much from US.
Smartphones or not, Nokia as well as almost all other phone companies can live without twisted and depressing US market, but there are specific manufacturers that are deadly dependent on it. I would be much more concerned of Nokia maintaining good market share and profit portfolio in rest of the markets, and for Apple, keeping US market receptive enough to maintain their sales, especially since their entry to China has been disappointing to say the least. You have to remember that there are operators like China Telecom that have about twice the amount of customers of whole US market...
Apple is at real risk when exclusivity agreements with operators disappear, unless they're able to woo them in those again with new devices, which doesn't actually seem like a bright prospect. Building on continuous lower-segment profits of a global scale Nokia is much less in short-term risk.
capacitive isn't always that great either... G1. i've had to take multiple swipes at that. anybody review that so poorly? just wish they had taken someone of their staff who was just a little excited to do this review.
@(Unverified)
depends on device, I hate capacitive on iphone, but on my droid its nice
Since when was having 'too many functionality holes' a negative?
@ engadget
It's not a phone, it's an internet tablet - browsing device, therefore the horizontal orientation is meant to be and not a flaw.
@Chris (the author)...dude from 6:00 to 6:20 I though you were trying to masturbate with the phone....be a real man....use some pressure!
The N97 is enough for corporate level. This is not an outstanding multimedia device, so it's not enough against the HTC Bravo, iPhone 3Gs and other high-end multimedia device. It's already average. Next year, this gap is growing.
This device needs more time to open engadget.com than my droid