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Ah the Nokia N900.
I havent felt this way about a phone since I got my Nokia N95. Heck I havent felt this way about a phone since I got my first Symbian device, the Nokia 7650. New Possibilities, the Excitement, finding new things that you didnt know your device was capable of doing. Read on for our full review !
When Nokia’s previous Maemo devices were launched, I figured they were pretty great and all, but it bugged me that they didnt have a sim-card slot (and hence were just Internet Tablets), which pretty much rendered them useless to me, since I had my smartphone to do many of those things, and if it didnt have a SIM card slot, I wasnt Interested.
But then the Nokia N900 was announced, and it literally was an Internet Tablet, that could make phone calls. When I heard about it, the first thing I thought was “Holy Shizz I must check this thing out“.
The most impressive part of the Nokia N900 wasnt just that it ran Maemo 5 (an OS that I did not know anything about at that time). The hardware was pretty impressive too. The N900 boasts features such as :
Phew. So as you can see, the N900 is seriously packed. And that’s just a few features. You can read the full list of features on the Nokia N900 Product Page.
The N900 measures about 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm and weighs about 181 grams, so it is a tiny bit large compared to most devices today.
That being said, the N900 wasnt designed to be used one handed anyway (there’s still no proper portrait mode), so the size wasnt really a huge factor for me. Especially considering the amount of stuff this thing can do. We’re compared it to the Nokia N97 White Edition and Nokia N97 Mini and it’s not too bad.
Whether in slider-opened mode, or closed, you’ll still need two hands to use the N900 properly. You can try to use it one-handed but it’s quite awkward.
But yes, it probably will stand out in the pocket of your favorite pair of skinny jeans.
Build quality was pretty great. Lots of hard plastic used around though (but not the cheap kind), with a metal lining to the top slider. The N900′s back panel is matt black while the screen’s a bit glossy. Still, it feels expensive, which is a good thing.
Firmware:
It’s worth nothing, the N900 in this review, is on PR 1.1.1 (3.2010.02-8) firmware which was the latest at the time of this post. Features might be added or improved in later versions.
First Impressions :
We’d like to recommend reading our First Impressions of the Nokia N900, so that you know how or if our opinions changed from then to now.
On with the pictures !
Front View :-
Slider Closed :
The entire front of the N900 is mostly dedicated to it’s 3.5″ TFT resistive touchscreen. As you might have noticed, there’s no buttons here. The call keys and Menu key is all handled within the Maemo 5 OS.
The touchscreen on the N900 is probably the best resistive screen we’ve used so far. Not as sensitive as a capacitive screen but very close, I’d say.
You’ll also notice the “Nokia” branding on the top (or right side in portrait) along with the “N900″ tag to the right of it.
At the left side (or top side in portrait) is the Earpiece at the center, with the Ambient light sensor, Front facing VGA camera and Proximity sensor to either side of it.
The Ambient Light sensor (on the lower left side in the image above) dims or brightens the keyboard lights, etc to keep it legible. It also acts as a notification light in the N900, to alert you to new emails, text messages, missed calls, low battery, charging status, etc with different colors.
You can change the settings (in the settings menu shown in the image above) by default, although there’s an app that allows you to change what color corresponds to what alert, etc. We found the notification light to be pretty useful in letting us know the device was switched on (since the screen turns off when not in use), and alerting us to new messages and emails, so we wouldnt suggest turning it off. But hey if it bugs you, you have the option.
The proximity sensor shuts off the touch screen when you place the N900 near your ear during a call, so that your ear doesnt try to make any calls of its own.
The Earpiece volume is fine and we’ve had no problems with it at all. Same for Network reception.
The screen’s nice and bright and very legible in most scenarios. It suffers under direct sunlight, like most touchscreens, but it’s not too bad.
Slider Open :
The N900 slides out to reveal a full Qwerty keyboard. The top slider remains parallel to the lower slider and doesnt open up at an angle like the N97 variants do, which is disappointing because we really liked that form factor. Still, in that case the N900 might have been too top heavy, so it’s not all bad.
The keyboard on the N900 is pretty okay. Each individual key has good feedback, and is on it’s own button, but the arrangement is admittedly a bit more cramped compared to the N97 Mini keyboard, especially the top row.
And if that’s not good enough, there’s also an Onscreen Virtual Keyboard too.
Now we know what you’re thinking. “But the Spacebar is on the right side of the keyboard!“. Using the N900’s keyboard does take some getting used to. Especially if you’re used to another Qwerty device like the E71 or E75 before. But like we mentioned with the N97 and N97 Mini, you’ll get used to this in no time, and you might eventually even begin to like the arrangement.
More info about typing and text input on the N900, in the video below :
It’s also worth mentioning, that the N900 stays in landscape throughout most processes, regardless of whether the slider is open or not. In some cases (like the Dial screen), the N900 uses it’s built in accelerometer to properly orient the screen depending on how you’re holding the device (portrait or landscape).
But portrait mode is still not officially supported in the N900 yet.
The Back of the slider has “Designed in Finland” and “ARM Cortex-A8 | 32GB ” proudly etched on.
The slider’s nice and tough but it’s not really the snappiest one we’ve used. And unlike the E75, the N900 doesnt allow you to automatically open an application or play a tone when you open or close the Slider. Still there might be an app for that someday, so it’s not a biggy.
Back View :-
The Back of the Nokia N900 consists predominantly of a hard plastic matt black panel. The panel clicks into place very nicely, although admittedly whenever you might need to take it off, you’ll probably worry a bit about breaking it.
The N900 also has it’s 5 Megapixel Carl Zeiss Camera here with a Dual LED Flash and a sliding camera lens protector.
The camera on the N900 is one of the best we’ve used. Not just because of the hardware, but mostly because of the processing algorithms that the N900 seems to use.
The Carl Zeiss lens really helps, and 5 Megapixels will be more than enough for many people. The N900 also allows you to take pictures in ‘Widescreen‘ which is kinda cool.
The Dual LED Flash isnt too great (Not as good as the one on the N86) and we would have liked to see a Xenon Flash, as usual. But it’s not too bad.
The camera lens protector is smart, and starts the camera app automatically whenever you slide it open.
For more on this, do check out our Nokia N900 Camera Samples (Images and Video) post. You can also directly check out our Nokia N900 Camera Samples Flickr Album.
Underneath the Back Panel, the N900 has a slot for a MicroSD card.
Mind you, its not under the battery, so you wont need to switch your device off to use it, and with 32GB of memory onboard, you might not need more. But it’s there anyway, and its in an awkward location.
The BL-5J 1320 mAh battery doesnt seem enough for the N900. We wished it had a 1500 mAh battery atleast. With the present one you’ll get nearly a day of usage out of the N900, probably much less if you use it heavily. We were able to stretch it to about a day and a few hours with very light usage and no 3G. You’ll definitely have to charge this one every night or carry an extra battery or two.
There’s also a stylus hidden away in a corner at the back but you’ll honestly never need to use it.
Top View :-
The top of the N900 is basically the left side when you use it in landscape mode. It contains the sliding screen-lock switch, a 3.5mm Audio jack and one of the two stereo speakers. The 3.5mm jack also supports TV-out which is very cool.
Bottom View :-
The Bottom of the N900 is the right side when you use it in landscape mode. It contains the microUSB port (which is used to charge the device also) and the other of the two stereo speakers.
Left View :
The Left of the N900 is the Bottom side when you use it in landscape mode. No ports or switches here.
Right View :-
The Right of the N900 is the Top side when you use it in landscape mode. It has the IR port, Power button, Dedicated Camera key and Voume increase/decrease (doubles up as Zoom in/out) keys.
The Camera button has good feedback and we had no problems with it at all. Same for the volume keys.
The Retail Package :
The N900 ships with the basics that come with Nseries devices these days. It’s box is very similar to the ones used for the N97 Variants.
For more on this, including what you get with the retail package, do check out our Nokia N900 Unboxing Post.
The Maemo 5 OS, UI, Homescreen, Menu and Everything else about it :
The thing that excited me the most about the N900, was that it shipped with Maemo 5. I had never used a Maemo device before, so I was really interested in seeing what all the fuss was about.
And holy crap it sure did blow me away. Maemo 5 is slick. Everything’s integrated nicely, from your contacts app listing your IM (and Facebook and Twitter) contacts, to your Text message inbox (called “Coversations”) listing out your whole conversations with your phone contacts, along with your IM contacts and so forth.
Installing apps is a piece of cake (unless you want to manual install a file from your desktop, then it takes a bit of work). The homescreen consists of 4 customisable homescreens which is very cool.For a better look at the Homescreen(s), do take a look at our Homescreen on the Nokia N900 post.
Basically anything can be changed or improved with some sort of app out there, which is the real beauty of the Open source linux-based OS. This is why people have manged to get Windows, Android, OSX and Ubuntu Mobile running on the N900.
And multitasking is so slick, so fast, you’ll honestly never need to actually close a program if you’d want.
Yeah I was definitely a fan of Maemo. Admittedly it made me take another look at how I thought of Symbian.
Since Maemo 5 bought so many new things to the ZCJ table, we did a Introducing Maemo 5 (12 part series) that we’d recommend y’all take a look at. We’ve covered everything from Multitasking, How the OS looks and Feels, Automatic Software Updates and Notifications, to How awesome the Web Browser is, Installing Apps and the Ovi Store.
Worth reading, We swearz !
Memory :
We started the Memory section in our Reviews when the N97 came about. Because honestly that thing barely had any.
Totally different story on the N900.
256 Mb of Ram and 32 GB of Internal space means this thing is ready to handle almost anything you throw at it. That is, considering it also has an ARM Cortex A8 “superscalar” microprocessor core running at 600 MHz. Everythings fast, slick and smooth. Multitasking is a piece of cake. No lag, no slowdowns. I wasnt used to that.
It also helps that there’s a 3D graphics accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support to keep all the glitz and glamor running fine.
There’s also up to 1 GB of application memory (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory), so that’s plenty of legroom to install apps, and so on.
For a more detailed look at this, do check out our Multitasking on the Nokia N900 post.
Ovi Store and Installing Apps :
The N900 doesnt actually have an Ovi Store Client (yet). It’s all based on the web browser for now, but it seems to work fine.
Maemo also uses Maemo Select to download apps from it’s various app catalogs. For a more detailed look at this, do check out our Download and Installing Apps on the Nokia N900 post.
Internet Browsing :
By far, the best feature of the N900 (mostly thanks to Maemo 5) is it’s Mozilla-based Webkit browser.
This thing could handle almost any web site we threw at it. Flash and all. There is literally no struggle (like we’ve seen on Symbian browsers so far). So close to a desktop experience that you’ll find yourself doing a lot of things on the N900′s browser. No need for any mobile-version of sites.
The Browser is so good, that we did a whole Web Browsing on the Nokia N900 post. Also worth checking out is how Maemo 5 handles Internet connections in our Internet Connections on the Nokia N900 post.
Email :
Email is something the N900 does handle pretty well.
It’s not super stella but it gets the job done well enough. Better than any other device that I’ve personally tried atleast. There’s even Nokia Messaging available on the N900. There’s full HTML support too, which is definitely a good thing.
For a much more detailed look at this, do check out our Email on the Nokia N900 post.
Contacts and IM :
Like we mentioned earlier, Maemo 5 converges all your Contacts nicely into one contact list.
Contacts from your Phonebook, IM, Facebook and Twitter (provided you install that plug-in). Very nicely done. And you dont have to worry about Duplicate contacts because you can merge them.
There’s also very tight integration with IM contacts, so if you set your status to ‘online’ you’ll be able to see which of your contacts is online too, via a green dot that will appear next to their contact card.
For a more detailed look at this, do check out our Contacts on the Nokia N900 post.
Text Messaging and Conversations :
As we mentioned before, the N900 treats all incoming and outgoing Text Messages or IM as conversations and displays them in a threaded view.
This can be immensely helpful to start off a conversation with someone, knowing where you left off, etc. There’s also support for Emoticons (Smileys), cause y’know, thats awesome.
For more on this, do check out our Conversations on the Nokia N900 Post.
Calendar :
Maemo 5 has a very nice Calendar Application that seems to handle all the basics very well. There’s Month View, where you can see Days, Date and Week Number.
There’s also a whole bunch of options that you can get to, by tapping the drop down menu bar at the top. Jumping to a Date, going to Tasks or Notes, Creating a new Event, Viewing your Agenda, those sorts of things.
Under Settings, you can edit your Alarm Tone, Choose the First day of the week, etc.
You can also create new Notes or New Events there that can correspond to a date.
A note can be a standard bunch of text, but an Event can have a Title, Location, Date and Time.
You can also choose to repeat this event as a Daily task, and set an alarm reminder to go along with it.
The alarm can be set to remind you a couple minutes earlier if you’d want, which can be very useful for certain scenarios.
And lastly, you can enter in a description of the event.
So as you can see, the N900′s calendar has all the basics you’d want out of it.
Music, Images and Media :
Media is something the N900 can seriously handle well. With the 32 GB of onboard memory and the ability to add a microSD to that, you’ll always have plenty of space for your Music, Videos and Images all.
Media is divided into 3 Main Categories. Music, Video, Internet Radio along with a “Shuffle Songs” section.
Images look great on the large 3.5″ screen on the N900. You can Edit Images, slide from one to another, etc. Pretty basic stuff. For a better look, do check out our Images on the Nokia N900 post.
Music and Video is something the N900 handles easily. It can play DivX and Xvid videos straight out of the box, which is really saying something. It also supports a variety of Audio and Video formats other than that too. For a more detailed look at this, do check out our Media on the Nokia N900 Post.
GPS :
Ironically the N900 got a GPS lock, and stayed locked faster and better than any previous device we trialed.
We say ‘Ironically‘ because although this might be true, the N900′s version of Ovi Maps is very very basic when you compare it to the Symbian version. There’s no Turn-by-Turn Navigation either yet. Many things that have been present on the Symbian version for a while now, are nowhere to be found on the Maemo version of Ovi Maps.
There are a couple other GPS-related apps on the Maemo Select repository though.
For more on this, head over and check out our GPS and Ovi Maps on the N900 post.
Accelerometer and Sensors :
The N900 has a Proximity sensor which comes in useful when it shuts off the touchscreen while you’re on a Phone Call and placing it near your Ear.
There’s also an Accelerometer (aka Motion Sensor Thingy) onboard, which is used for some games (like Bounce, which comes with the N900), and in some apps which adapt the screen orientation according to how you’re holding the device. So far though, only the Dialing screen seems to make any use of it (default app-wise).
Profiles :
The N900 only has two main profiles : General and Silent.
For me, personally, this wasnt a big issue at all. But I know that there are a couple people out there that need more than two profiles.
Games :
Because of the built-in 3D graphics accelerator (with OpenGL ES 2.0 support), Games looks pretty snazzy on the N900.
From the pre-installed “Bounce” game, to 3rd Party games like “Angry Birds“. It all looks good on the N900, which means playing Games on it, is a very pleasant experience. Especially when you use that sweet Tv-Out option to send things to a larger screen.
Apart from the Above :
The N900 isnt without it’s share of minor bugs. But they are very very few.
The lack of portrait mode is something to note. This device just isnt for people who find themselves in a lot of situations where they have to use a phone one handed. With the N900 you have to use both hands, or struggle with one to do many functions. Portrait mode might come in a later firmware though, but it’s just a rumor for now.
From what I noticed, there’s no way to dial DTMF numbers with the N900. That means any number that starts with a * or ends with a #. However there is a work-around for this via a 3rd party app. Like we mentioned earlier, many things are either fixed or worked around using 3rd party apps. The Beauty of Open Source y’all !
Apart from that, physically the N900 is a bit large, we agree. The size might be a turn-off for many. But for the amount of features and power this thing has, it’s a worthy trade-off.
We still think the N900 is more of a Tablet with a phone function attached, than anything else. That’s why we even went on record to post 10 Reasons we thought the Nokia N900 was better than an Apple iPad.
Conclusion :
[rating:5]
We’re going to make this brief.
We loved the Nokia N900. Sure it’s battery life isnt great. Sure it’s kinda large.
But if the N900 was released in India, I’d have have gone out and bought one on Day One. I’d get an extra battery, and I’d slip it into my Baggy Jeans and be very happy about it.
I honestly hadnt been this excited about a device (after getting it), since my old N95 and 7650 days. The sheer power of the N900, coupled with the Open Source Maemo 5 OS & UI, the neat contact integration, and it’s freakkin awesome Web Browser, means this is the phone to have for any of my fellow Tech peeps out there. The 5 Megapixel Carl Zeiss camera is very decent, and although it didnt have a Xenon Flash, the Dual LED flash is pretty okay.
It’s not supposed to be an Imaging device anyway (Worth nothing, with our experience with it, it got much better results than the N97 variants). It’s just a Tablet Computer with a Mobile Phone attached. And that’s exactly what someone like me needs.
I still havent decided if the N900 is for the average joe though. I dont know how an ‘average’ person would like/think of the N900.
All I can say is, I sure loved it.
Highly recommended y’all !
Here’s a short video overview of our Final Verdict on the Nokia N900 :
Dont forget, if you’re interested we also have a Full Nokia N900 Review Album on Flickr, and a whole Nokia N900 Video Review Playlist on Youtube that you might want to check out.
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
Comments (14)
Is there a Google Maps for the N900?
Haha. No Google Maps yet unfortch, BUT since the browser is so freakkin good, you're able to use Google Maps on that instead. It doesnt move as you move (stays fixed to one point) but it's better than nothing I guess.