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Nokia N9 to ship in Sweden on September 23rd, saith awkwardly translated release
As much as we love Google Translate, we're pretty sure the Nokia N9 won't be packing a side of gorilla flavored desert when it ships later this year -- but that Swedish release date? Sure, we'll take a salty look. According to an official press release from European carrier 3 Group, Nokia's flagship handset should be landing in Sweden on September 23, 2011. The PR goes on to tout the N9's buttonless interface, trio of home screens, and (when properly translated) Gorilla Glass AMOLED screen. Hit the source link to see the PR, in all it's auto-translated glory, for yourself.
Editorial: Dear Nokia, you cannot be serious!
At first blush, the Nokia N9 is everything I'd ever wanted from the company: a smartphone with a competitive spec sheet, exquisite industrial design, and a touch-centric UI that looks to push things forward with the introduction of its own idiosyncratic ideas. Slick in terms of both responsiveness and appearance, the Harmattan interface is Nokia's thunderous riposte to all those (myself included) that challenged the company to get with the touchscreen OS program and cast off the shackles of its Symbian legacy. The only traces of Symbian in the MeeGo 1.2-equipped N9 can be found in the iconography, which maintains the rounded look of its forebear, and support for Qt -- in all other respects, this is a whole new software proposition (distinct even from its Maemo 5 roots), which has so far elicited a range of emotions in me, including delight, desire, and... despair. You must be wondering why, aside from alliterative convenience, I'd be feeling downcast having enjoyed my brief time with the N9 so much. To learn the answer, read on.
Nokia claims N9 is 'the fastest image-capturing phone' yet
We've already established that the N9 is a delight of a phone, both inside and out, but our hands-on time with Nokia's new flagship gave us only a brief look at its camera performance. Now the company is graciously filling that gap in our knowledge with some further disclosure about its new 8 megapixel imager, including the lofty claim that the N9 is the fastest phone yet when it comes to capturing an image -- ousting the likes of the iPhone 4, the Galaxy S II, and even the Canon S95, perhaps the best pocket camera around at the moment. Measuring the time taken from activating the camera app to the completion of the first shot, the N9 clocks in at 2.6 seconds, whereas Apple's latest does it in 3 seconds and Samsung's takes a split second more. Aside from its speed, the N9 has Carl Zeiss optics, a wide F2.2 max aperture, dual-LED flash, continuous autofocus, and a 720/30p video mode to boast about, but the benefits of those items will need to be experienced first hand. So Nokia, when are you shipping this thing?
Nokia N9 first hands-on! (update: video)
The N9 has arrived. Functional units of Nokia's long-awaited MeeGo smartphone have finally landed into our eager hands and we've got a gallery of images to provide you with below. What we can say from our first experience is that we're in the presence of a fantastically designed device with a gorgeous AMOLED screen and some highly responsive performance. Hold tight as we're updating our fuller impressions after the break, where you'll soon be treated to our first hands-on video with the Nokia N9. Update: Hands-on video plus a live demonstration of the N9's ability to pair Bluetooth devices over NFC (very impressive!) can now be found after the break. %Gallery-126795%%Gallery-126785%
Nokia N9 gets teaser video, Rick Springfield soundtrack (update: it's running MeeGo)
Sure, we've known of the Nokia N9's existence for some time now, a fact made all the more real by the handset's recent FCC appearance, but is a phone really real until its gets its first dramatic ad spot? Pocketnow managed to score a teaser for the upcoming QWERTY slider -- not the first time we've seen this thing on video, as those who can remember as far back as 2010 will recall. Interestingly, the UI seems to be consistent with the Anna release of Symbian rather than something totally unique to MeeGo -- though elements like the status bar and multitasking appear different from what we've seen of that version of Symbian. Also, if you don't blink, you'll see the 12MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens and the chiclet keyboard. As for the live version of "Jessie's Girl," that's anyone's guess. Update: General consensus is that the N9 is running Meego. We also noticed after watching the video a couple times that the camera is autofocus instead of EDoF (see enhanced video frame after the break), which is excellent news! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nokia N9 hits the FCC, packs more bands than a rubber tree
Last we heard, the Nokia N9 rode Stephen Elop's burning platform into the sunset, never to be seen again. Today, there's a FCC filing that begs to differ. Wireless Goodness spotted that RM-680 in the always-helpful government database, where it claims support for six cellular frequencies as well as Bluetooth and 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFi -- enough to appear on most any GSM carrier, to say nothing of AT&T and T-Mobile. Will the MeeGo-packing QWERTY-sliding hardware that Eldar Murtazin called "near perfect" appear in the US or Canada one day? We don't think it's terribly likely, but if it comes with a dash of Windows Phone 7 on board, we can't promise not to jump for joy. See the full list of bands after the break.
Keepin' it real fake: Nokia N9 doesn't wait for mature MeeGo to launch in China
As with the N8, so with the N9. Nokia's first MeeGo device is widely expected to be dubbed the N9 and sport a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but its elongated time to market has given Chinese KIRF artists the chance to beat Finland with their own device. Parsing together leaked pictures and perhaps some insider info we're not privy to, some crafty folks have put together the above 14mm-thin slider, outfitting it with a 3-inch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio, microSD card slot, dual SIM capabilities, and an almost entirely metallic construction. The OS is some sort of Symbian lookalike, while the price is an eminently affordable 700 yuan ($106). You'll just need to find the right market stall in Shenzhen to get yours.
Nokia's QWERTY-slidin' N9 shows up in the wilds of China (update: running MeeGo!)
Remember this scandalous little leak from back in June? It looks to have been validated today, as imagery of Nokia's MeeGo (or is it Symbian^4?)-powered N9 QWERTY slider has emerged over in China. As usual with these things, we can't be certain that this device is in fact part of Nokia's roadmap and not just another creative hardware emulation, but it sure seems to have our old buddy Eldar Murtazin convinced. Seeing it with clear N9 branding, we can now say that the previously unknown Nokia slider was more likely the N8-01, a keyboard-equipped version of the (still) upcoming N8. The source of this N9 leak reports that it's not in its final retail shape, as it doesn't match up to "the latest drawings," but is apparently planned for a release in the 48th week (i.e. beginning of December) of this year. The prototype, built in Finland, is said to have an entirely metallic construction (more aluminum would be our guess), with only the keyboard buttons, USB cover, and a few decorative parts being plastic. See more of it, including a thorough teardown, in the gallery below. Update: A friendly mole of ours ran this handset's serial number through an internal Nokia system and has confirmed it as a Nokia prototype. He was also able to uncover an RM-680 product type classification (further distancing this from the RM-626 slider) and a 0595571 product code. Add those to the "Prototype Build B2" and "Property of Nokia" labeling inside the phone's battery compartment, and you've got yourself a very strong candidate for the real deal here. Update 2: A closer look at the display reveals that this is running something that bears a heavy resemblance to the MeeGo screens we've seen so far -- and if you run the product code through Google, you see some Maemo 6-related bug tracking results, which of course has since become MeeGo. Good stuff, eh? Thanks, Sockatume! %Gallery-99863%
Mystery Nokia slider shows off proto-Symbian^3 one last time, commits cellular suicide (video)
We never did quite get the name of Nokia's prototype slider -- it certainly isn't the C7, and it's apparently not the N9 -- but regardless of what you call our dearly departed, its journey is over. In what will no doubt be a fairly familiar tale to readers everywhere, TechnoBuffalo saw the phone remotely wiped right before their eyes, and Negri Electronics (our original source) says they've got private investigators breathing down their necks for the device. Stalwart to the bitter end, RM-626 gave one last performance before it dropped. See the 4-inch handset play an embedded YouTube video after the break if you must, but be sure to stop at the 5:45 mark. For true phone lovers, the rest is too painful to watch. [Thanks, Larry N.]
Nokia (N9 / N8-01?) prototype sized up against iPhone 4 and EVO 4G on video
Setting aside the naming confusion, this Nokia prototype procured by Negri Electronics just keeps attracting our attention. Though we saw plenty of it in an earlier video, this latest rendezvous between Finnish hardware and camera lens includes a few familiar suspects to offer us the best size comparison we've had so far. Squaring up against a 3.5-inch iPhone 4, the QWERTY slider from Nokia seems barely any larger from the front though quite a bit thicker from the side -- an expansion justified by its inclusion of a physical keyboard. It does a lot better when compared to the EVO 4G and the departing iPhone 3GS, looking only marginally chunkier than those keyboard-less devices. Don't take our word for it though -- skip past the break and see for yourself. P.S. -- The UI on this device looks to us a lot more like Symbian^3 than the S60 the narrator believes it's running, leading us to think that this is most likely a keyboard-equipped variant of the N8. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nokia N9 (or something) in the wild: 8 megapixel camera, American 3G?
We told you, didn't we? Whether you want to call this the N98, the N900's successor, or the N8 plus QWERTY, what you're looking at above is potentially the visage of Nokia's next smartphone. It's being dubbed the N9 by the folks at Negri Electronics, who also inform us it has an 8 megapixel imager on the back, 850 / 1900 3G bands (good for AT&T, Rogers, Telus, and Bell), and "ridiculous screen clarity." This sort of throws us for a loop, since we're looking at some straight Symbian action up there, whereas Nokia has told us directly that there'll be no more Symbian on the N Series after the N8. A clue to what might be going on is provided by the "C0" label at the upper left corner of this device, suggesting that it could be a future C Series member. All we know is that the thing seems pretty real and it's headed to a full video review in the next few days. Yay! [Thanks, Jason]
