We’ve just received the Nokia N900, courtesy of WOM World/Nokia and let me tell you, we’re pretty excited about it! We’re not only excited because availability is pretty limited, yet we were lucky enough to score a sample thanks to WOM World/Nokia, but we’re also excited about the experience with the N900 so far. I’ve always believed that the first hour with a device pretty much tells the story of what is to be expected in the long run. Some might say that this is too short, but till this day, this rule still holds true for me. This first impression is based on the findings during the first hour and than the past 24 hours with the device. Using the Nokia N97 as the benchmark, I will try to compare these two devices as much as possible to give you and idea of what the N900 is all about.
The N900 feels much thicker than the N97 and at first sight it looks much bigger, but it’s not. In fact it’s even shorter, certainly much heavier and a bit wider. This width also gives it extra screen real estate when compared to the N97, but also helps in giving it a secure feeling when holding it in your hand. However, for tiny hands it might be another story. Chances are those with small hands will find it a bit of stretch when just holding the N900. Looking at it from the side, it looks a lot thicker than the N97, but in fact it all comes down to a difference of a couple of millimeters. The secret to the N97’s much thinner looking side profile, is greatly due to the use of a two-color scheme. For example the same effect was used on a device such as the N95.
In terms of design’s the N900 is a man’s phone, utilitarian and simple. It’s the Smartphone equivalent of a hotrod with black instead of chrome rims. Design wise it can be best described as an ultra wide Black Nokia N80 with a QWERTY keyboard slapped at the bottom. I can also see its N810 roots in the design. Its most stand-out characteristic is the lack of any design features: no Chrome Rims, no metal buttons, no decorations, nada. Even the “Nokia Nseries” logo on the battery cover is barely visible. The only piece of chrome found on the N900 is actually a small, rim hidden at the back, around the camera. That’s it. It’s almost as if the Nokia designers didn’t want to distract you with design,keeping all your attention to that oh-so-wonderful Maemo OS, like an artist using an all-black canvas and black paper, drawing your attention to the landscape painted in the middle. Speaking of canvas, when the screen is turned off, it becomes virtually invisible, behind the single piece of glass (or plastic?). Even with the screen turned off, you could still tell where the screen ends and where the edges begin on the N97. On the N900 is basically invisible when turned off, making the entire device one unidentifiable small black box. I simply love the design of the N900, although I don’t think it’s a design that will be a hit with women. When it comes to design, women will prefer the N97 and N97 mini.
Even the sliding mechanism follows this “simple” philosophy. The N97’s assisted sliding action, that opens the screen at an angle with its loud “click”, is almost an event on it’s own. The N900 goes the opposite direction with a simple upward movement. The sliding mechanism isn’t assisted, requiring you to push the screen al the way up, where you are greeted by a more discrete clicking sound. The N900’s approach isn’t as sophisticated as the N97, but I think I prefer the N900’s approach. The N97’s sliding mechanism is cool, but I did notice that opening momentum can sometimes knock the N97 out of your hand. The N900’s slider is simple and solid, now wobbles.
And than there’s the kickstand. I really wanted to like it, but it simply doesn’t work well in a tablet design. The N900 is one of those rare devices where there isn’t much to complain about and the kickstand is pretty much the only thing I didn’t like. Tablets like the N810 and N800 worked amazingly well with a full-width metal stand and the same should have been done with the N900. If you put it on a hard flat surface, the stands works pretty well, except for when you touch the right part of the screen (near the edge). Because the stand is located on the left, there isn’t much support on the right, pressing an icon on the right part of the screen will slightly push the device backwards. It’s not enough to make the N900 topple over and fall backwards, but it’s enough to be annoying. On top of that, a small kick-stand simply doesn’t give the same level of confidence as a full-width metal stand like the one found on the N810. Put it on a soft or uneven surface and it all goes downhill. The N97 can be put on just about any surface, the same can not be said about the N900. A plus for the kick-stand however is that the lens cover and camera module never touch a surface, collecting dust in the process.
Maemo 5 brings a much a needed breath of fresh air to Nokia’s smartphones. It uses a much darker UI (compared to Symbian) with plenty of eye-candy. The UI is simply beautiful with elegant transition, light, motion-blur and depth-of-field effects, with some pretty bright colors scattered all over the place, like for example the soft Red End Call key. It manages to find just the right amount of balance between the dark and color buttons and can be best described as futuristic Gotham City. With so many effects you’d expect it to be one big slide show, but surprisingly it’s not. The N900 runs Eseries fast, if not a bit faster. Even more amazing is that it can keep its lightning fast reactions with all this eye-candy turned on and several apps running in the background, including several browser windows with flash heavy content. Those Symbian days where the lack of RAM caused apps to close on their own are now officially over. I couldn’t be any happier.
The UI seems to be genuinely made from the ground up for touch, without ever pushing you into tight uncomfortable spaces. Here simplicity reign supreme. There’s been a lot of complaints on how changing a simple setting requires many button presses when using the Symbian OS. With Maemo all options can be found in “Settings” or a drop down menu available to most apps. It’s that simple. If that wasn’t enough the UI designers still managed to use those familiar icons found in all Nokias making it all look very familiar. It all felt familiar enough to without ever needing the manual. The browser is crazy fast and powerful. Its support for web standards is second to none and brings a a level confidence that you’ll be able to open just about any page out there, is only known in the desktop world . This is easily the best mobile browser on the market. The only problem I see with such a powerful browser is the possibility that many will try to create web apps instead of going the dedicated app route. Speaking of apps, the current state of available apps is pretty limited. The basics like radio, podcasting, Twitter and IM are there, but currently there isn’t much more than that. As developers get their hands on this thing, I expect them to catch up fairly quickly. With such powerful hardware and software, there is a lot of room of creativity and crazy multi-tasking.
I’m simply amazed at how beautiful it all looks bringing Maemo 5 to Apple’s level of eye-candy, ease-of-use and elegance, but in a more dynamic and powerful package.
Now back to the hardware. One small but important detail is the new notification light. It’s finally clearly visible and a lot more informative, able to show three different colors: blue, green and orange. The N97’s notification light on the other hand was barely visible.
I can keep going on and on about the N900, but I will leave some of the details for the final review. I won’t judge things for the limited amount of available apps, OVI store or the lack of portrait view as these are coming down the pipe. I absolutely love the N900 and it’s one of those rare devices where there’s little to complain and a lot to love. That one complaint is the kick-stand. Some will like and think it does the job just fine, but if you’re like me you’ll think that it doesn’t do the N900 justice.
Leave your comments below and I will try to answer your question with the N900 coverage coming this week.
