Nokia N900 teardown reveals smartphone semantics
By Thomas Ricker 
posted December 4th 2009 8:01AM
posted December 4th 2009 8:01AM
posted December 4th 2009 8:01AM
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wow, a fido card...
I hope they know how to put it back together. Otherwise it would be such a waste of a beautiful phone...
Watch some of their earlier videos, they went pretty medieval on this baby. Disassembling is actually very gentle compared to their scratch and drop tests. Not for the fainthearted gadget lovers...
I think they are calling it mobile computer mainly because of its browser capabilities(fennec) which sets it clearly apart from other S60 v5 devices.
I don't know how many of you would agree to this - but I Like the Nokia's plan for the next maemo device ... '1 Maemo only device in 2010' thing. I'm sure that they will be launching a N920 without the QWERTY and in this years Nokia will surely try to perfect the Maemo 5 with bug fixes , New game in the production( not bounce) excepting within next month, also strengthening the OS, framework and enriching with many new features/UI improvemets which would then be the benchmark of future Maemo 6.
more http://bit.ly/N900-and-its-secret-killer-feature
Its nice to know Nokia allows me to choose what " I " without anyone's approval - being a regular at Maemo forum, I can see they are very quick in acknowledging to Bugs and Suggestion being posted everyday
@Satz Oh please, not without the QWERTY-keyboard! That would be a deal breaker.
@Satz Why would just copy paste my post without informing me even?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/nokia-promises-to-take-symbian-user-interface-to-a-new-level-i/2#comments
Someone talking about screws for 5 minutes... Great.
If only you lasted that long
Nice to know it has good amount of metal parts.. Nokia really cares about the durability which i learned from my 6630.
@Satz
also that explains why it weighs much.
The build quality on some of these newer Nokias is really a marvel.
@Thomas - call me a stickler, but this device is not "Maemo powered" - maybe Maemo presented or Maemo infused... well, you get the idea
@Ineed911 Nokia's CEO would disagree. At Capital Market Day he said the following when discussing a fundamental change in smartphones over the last 18 months:
"It's the software that defines the hardware configurations"
@Thomas Ricker
The Nokia N900 is powered by that BL-5J 1320 mAh battery they take out in the beginning. It is running Maemo.
don't try this at home kids
Is that you winekone?
I had heard that this thing was built like a tank, good to see that was not a rumor. Have not been impressed with the build of the gen 2 N series (n81,79 et all) and even the original n97 did not live up to nokia's solid standards imho but the n86 truely is a marvel and the n97mini feels really good and solid in the hand. Cant wait to try out the n900!
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@Satz: Its seems hard for the American bloggers to wrap their heads around the notion of mobile computing because they have just recently been introduced to things people in the rest of the world have been doing for a decade. Yes you can argue over the ui and ease of use but that did not stop millions of users from taking a pic and posting it to flikr/blog via shozu, send and receive e-mail, telephony and im messages, sync data via outlook etc etc! (I was doing this back in 2003-4 with my 7610). Why this is a mobile computer and not a smartphone is what anyone used to a real smartphone will tell you the moment you give it to them: Its not a very good phone. i.e its computing first and telephony second. (Like the iphones weakest part is telephony).
@Munk
strongest part is high quality fart sound ?
sry, couldn't resist :P
@Munk The grammar nazi in me wants to let you know that "et all [sic]" should be spelled "et al." or "et alii". To be more precise, since you were writing about inanimate objects, the properly used expression should have been "Et alia".
Thank you very much.
@Johanu You got me! :). Do tell however what "et alia" is? Never have I heard that used and some context would be helpful.
@Nokia N900: huh?
Was that a reference to the iphone?
I've owned both 2g & 3g and while I maintain that it is a very weak "phone" and not for most people unless they are wiling to sacrifice basic feature, you can not argue that it has very few competitors when it comes to handling multimedia - which of course has always been the ipod/itunes strength.
Why does he speak in a robotic voice? You know, a bit like microsoft sam
@MoonWalkerCTE I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he is a robot.
@ellocomotive That's the only way I could see someone taking apart something like this. Why else would you do it?
Approved by "Russian Mafia" to deter bullets, now we know why.
Finally, 'ARM Cortex-A8 CPU' revealed in the flesh. It's impressive to see the quality of materials Nokia infused on their N series. It ain't so bad at all.
Another Point of view about N900: http://bit.ly/nokia-900-full-specs-details-best-or-worst
@taylorlauder Is anyone else getting annoyed by this bad attempt at spam?
Seriously guys. You do not need to post the same link in every n900 story and if you do, why use a bit.ly !?
Has not made me click once thinking its spam/spyware/crap. Engadget does not stop you from using a proper link and the person clicking get an idea of what they are getting into before clicking!
The N900 is not their Flagship.. It is geared toward a niche techie crowd. The N97 is still the Flagship until maybe the Maemo 6 device..
I wish people would stop trying to call the N900 their flagship.. even though their marketing might mislead a little..
@(Unverified)
We understand you are sad about purchasing the N97.
If Nokia's marketing dept. doesn't decide what phone is their flagship device, and the tech community doesn't, who does?
@(Unverified) I agree. I have both the N97 and the N900. There is no getting around that the N97 is the better smartphone. Even with the sometimes klunky S60v5, it is probably one of the most powerful and flexible smartphones anywhere. The N900 in comparison is rather simplistic as a phone but everything else... well the fact that it is basically a (very powerful) full-blown Linux internet tablet with a phone application and a GSM radio bolted-on is quite apparent.
Guys!
I still see that most of the sites are accepting pre-orders, any update on the availability of N900 in US market?
@ajay71
It's available from Amazon, but it doesn't have the traditional NAM 3G flavor; it only runs on 900/1700/2100 for 3G. Good for T-Mobile, bad for AT&T.
@newtype
Thanks for the update. Looks like the Amazon raised the price for their in-stock N900 (US Version). I ordered one from Dell last week which was a Quad Band, which is currently selling for $549 after $50 mail-in-rebate, still much lower compared to amazon pricing of $769.95, but Dell shows a shipping date of Feb ' 2010. :(
What a stupid non-ergonomic screw driver.
@markntravis actually I thought the same thing... it doesn't seem to have a replaceable head that would justify this look (even so, there are better screwdrivers out there w/ replaceable head that look like normal screwdrivers).
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.