Nokia N900 Review

Design and construction

A handset this size could've only done with pure minimalist styling and in fact we find the N900 quite likeable. The sleek plastic at the back and the glossy fro nt certainly combine nicely and the simplified design (a bit too conservative as it might be) is pretty much what we'd expect in a workhorse like the N900.

The Nokia E71 has certainly spoiled quite a lot of users by making a point that great business handsets don't necessarily have to be fat bricks. But we are talking a completely different class and form factor here.

The sleek glossy front does get messy with use - fingerprints and all - but the rest of the handset is completely immune to those. We are quite fond of the particular type of plastic Nokia used on the handset (and other recent Nseries devices too - N97, N97 mini, N86 8MP) and we are not too bitter about the N900 having no metal on its body.

Web Browsing

The Nokia N900 uses the Maemo web browser, which is built with technology from Mozilla, the foundation behind Firefox. You can find more information about it from Maemo or Nokia, but there are a few things that I would like to point out:

Flash support: The N900′s Maemo Browser is the first mobile browser that I have tried that has Flash 9.4 support. Yes, it means that you can go to Vimeo, Hulu or Youtube (for desktops) and it works… but… video playback in a window is significantly slower than on a desktop machine, so although Flash support is there, the actual experience isn’t (yet). There are good news: in full-screen mode, Youtube videos run fast enough to be enjoyable. At the moment, that’s not the case for Hulu or Vimeo unfortunately

Hover mode: Some websites (especially Flash sites) do require a mouse cursor to hover above a user interface item. That thwarts many mobile browsers, but not this one.

Web apps: Google Docs and Google Wave work too, although sometimes very slowly. It is fair to assume that most web services and websites will work without any issues, in fact I have not found one site that was not fully functional, but complex sites (heavy use of Flash or Ajax) will often be too slow to use on the N900. Overall, the web experience is excellent, and it’s great that most sites don’t even need zooming, if you have sharp eyes.

Mapping: This Nokia N900 is loaded with Ovi Maps 1.0, which is quite a step down from Ovi Maps 3.0 as you can imagine. I have not found a way to download maps and use maps in “offline mode” to avoid map downloads (one of the best features of Nokia Maps to save $$$ while traveling abroad). There’s no Google Maps apps on the N900 (yet) so “street view” is another feature that I sometime miss. Google Maps also has much better coverage for places like Tokyo, Japan. In a pinch that might be very handy. Ovi Maps 1.0 is “ok” to get by, but I can’t wait to see something more robust.

Display

·      3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display

·      800 × 480 pixel resolution

Web browsing

·      Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology

·      Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support

·      Full screen browsing

Camera

·      5 megapixel camera (2584 × 1938 pixels)

·      CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens

·      3 × digital zoom

·      Autofocus with assist light and two-stage capture key

·      Dual LED flash

·      Full-screen viewfinder

·      TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP

Music and audio playback

·      Maemo media player

·      Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a

·      Built-in FM transmitter

·      Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a

·      FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR

GPS

· Integrated GPS, Assisted-GPS, and Cell-based receivers

· Pre-loaded Ovi Maps application

· Automatic geotagging

Mass memory

· 32 GB internal storage

· Store up to 7000 MP3 songs or 40 hours of high-quality video

· Up to 16 GB of additional storage with an external microSD card

Size and weight

     Dimensions:

110.9 × 59.8 × 18 (19.55 at thickest part) mm

      Weight:

Approx 181g