This is not a N900 review
After I signed up for a Nokia N900 demo from WOMWorld/Nokia, I decided I didn’t want another of those long full length gadget reviews on the device. But thanks to them, I have loads of links to point you to. You will find them at the end of this long post which is more of a debate on whether the N900 is actually what you need (or rather, what I need).
Let’s start from the beginning, and that’s when I started waiting for my device, checking the DHL transit status page every hour. This C&H strip pretty much sums up what I was going through.
And at last, after numerous calls to the DHL, I was given possession(temporarily) of the N900.
I switched on the device and it welcomes me with the familiar Nokia animation. After some initial settings, the device quickly loads the device’s 4 customizable homescreens. The animations are quick and interesting and the whole interface takes seconds to get used to. Once you get the hang of clicking around empty spaces to exit any screen, that is. Multitasking works like a dream and its perhaps even better than on computers. The keyboard is really finger friendly and after a few hours, it really makes me forget that I am on a handheld device. I never had any complaints with the N97′s keyboard so I guess I get used to keyboards fast. The touch screen despite being resistive, is responsive and works like a charm. The default Micro browser displays websites at desktop quality and I would go so far to say that it is probably the best browser on any mobile device. The Fennec build wasn’t too fast and I found it a bit buggy so I decided to stick to the default browser. The permanent landscape mode (with the exception of when it gets into the phone mode) takes a bit getting used to, but after the N97, that wasn’t one bit hard.
It’s so hard not to review a device when writing about a gadget. I guess I got carried away so you can ignore the boring review above. I should start of by clarifying that even though WOM stands for world of mobiles, the N900 is not a mobile phone. It is an internet tablet, with a mobile phone feature. This means that I wouldn’t really miss the SIM card inside the N900, but then I’d need it for mobile internet access anyway. The device has an inbuilt chat client which integrates all your IM contacts to your phonebook (Here we go again, I am try hard not to review the N900) So, getting back to what I was talking about. The N900 is really good at being a handheld computer which runs Linux, because that’s what it is. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t good at handling calls or messages. But I found that the symbian platform of course makes for a better phone any day. But I’m really confused on this, I think threaded messaging is the way sms has to go. And, the N900 does that wonderfully well. Call clarity and reception are at par with the Symbian cousin as well. I was really confused about the N900, because it was a technological marvel, but yet it wasn’t really there. It fell short of perfection somewhere on the way. Now if only it could do this.
One more reason where the N900 loses out, are applications. Symbian’s been around for long. And the iPhone’s got a good(and definitely better) app store. A device is only as powerful as the applications which exploit it. True, the N900 has the power of the command line and is quite a geek friendly phone. It does an awesome job of integrating the IM client into the phone and witter’s a good app for twitter, but that’s about it. Gravity is an application that really reveals how powerful the symbian platform really is. If every Symbian app were that good, then symbian would be the no.1 OS in the world. I really loved this battery application on the N900 which would display how I ran out of charge on my device. The N900 is built on the linux platform which provides it with truly extensive list of applications, and the application manager is truly a pleasure to work with. But there is something about the applications that I, as a symbian lover miss. The N900 never made me “want” to install applications on it, something which I would do everyday with the Symbian. If I could, I would install every application every made for Symbian on my mobile phones. So the problem must be my love for the aging platform and also that the Maemo felt very amateur when it came to apps. Maybe I’m so used to signing applications and going through all those messy screens of installation that I find N900 a bit too smooth for comfort.
The internet browser, the quick snappy animations and responsive screen must be reasons why I should’ve loved the N900. But then, the internet browser is completely useless in India where we still don’t have 3G. There I was forced to use it over wifi, with great results. Over EDGE, the N900 bores you to death making you wait for the true internet to be delivered. The snappy animations. awesome interface and responsive touch screen all are reasons why I love the N900 still. I’m glad I didn’t really make this post right away and procrastinated a lot. Because, now I can link to this post as to why I really still love the symbian platform.
But the main reason I gave up on the N900 was its bulk. I found that the N900 was almost as bulky as the N95, if not more. I found it really a bit too bulky for my pockets after the N97. Maybe its because I don’t really carry even a bag around with me.
Links to “real” N900 reviews:
Joshua Wong considers the N900 as his Netbook replacement. Now this is something I can relate to, considering the N900 is more of an internet tablet than a mobile phone.
One authoritative review on the N900 is from @shivaranjan
Another one has to be the iPhone vs. N900 battle at Techpinas
