Nokia N900, could it be you?
I love my Nokia N95, I’ve had it over 2 years and it’s pretty much always been good to me. In return I’ve done my best to take good care of it. I’ve bought it two new screens and two new cases in it’s life (ok, I’m not the most careful owner).
However good things come to an end and now I’m back in the UK and using the internet over the phone I really need a full keyboard and a bigger screen.
Most of my friends fell for the iPhone and swear by it, but there are somethings that make it a no go for me:
- No multitasking 3rd party apps (seriously, what the hell?)
- Lame bluetooth support
- Apple control over the apps you can use
- No physical keyboard
Now the most obvious upgrade path for me was a Nokia N97 and until a month or so ago that was what I was going to buy. Then I started to read more and more about the Nokia N900.
Firstly the hardware looks great, ok it’s not the smallest phone in the world but I’m going to be using it as an internet device way more than I’ll be holding it to my ear. The software is the interesting part. Rather than using Symbian S60 like Nokia’s other smartphones it uses Maemo. Maemo is a linux distribution for mobile devices that’s been in development for a while but is now starting to mature. Videos of it in action on the N900 are really quite impressive and it seems to handle multitasking very well indeed.
The main problem is the apps. There is a fairly large library of apps from previous version of Maemo, some which were originally desktop linux apps that have been modified for the mobile device. The trouble is I’m quite attached to a number of the Symbian apps that I’ve been running on my N95 for the last two years. Some are written by Nokia so may get ported across, others like Shozu are less likely. It makes it a tough decision, but the fact that the Maemo OS is very open really is swinging it at the moment. Having a fully accessible linux device in the palm of my hand is very attractive to the geek in me.
I hope to get my hands on a N900 as soon as possible, even cheating my way into an N900 meetup in London soon. I just hope that it lives up to everything I’ve read and seen so far.
Tags: n900, nokia, phone
1,084 views | 5 Comments
I’m just in the middle of the same decision between the N97 or the N900. I’ve always had nokia phones from 3210, 3310, 3330, 5100, 6600, N80 then the best the N95, which I unfortunately lost and have had an iPhone I got given ever since.
The N97 seems the natural upgrade to the N95, but I like the idea of the openness of the N900 the same as you!
So far I’ve only had two Nokias.
The 7110 (matrix cool) and the N95, between them I owned four Sony Ericssons which managed to continuously disappoint until the W880 which was the first that I didn’t hate after a few months of owning it.
I’m looking forward to trying out an N900 and was pleased to see that Fring made it’s way onto the Maemo Select website so at least that’s one app I wont lose if I move from Symbian.
I’ve pretty much only ever owned nokia’s and I do love them. I still have My N95 8Gig, pro the best phone I have ever owed. I’m not also using the N97, which is a great phone, but as I’m sure you’ve all read has it’s issues. (I’m hoping V2 fixes most of the problems)
With regards to the N900, well I’m blown away so far, and I really hope that it holds up to the hype. Oh and Alex, you shouldn’t need things like Fring on the N900. Gmail, Skype, IM, Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, MSN all of that is going to be built directly into the contacts manager.
I spoke to Nokia’s Marketing manager for Maemo, and asked him about this. He said I should wait, but I won’t be disappointed, it’s going to be a very clever way of handling contacts. (all in one)
can msn or yahoo messenger be used on nokia n900
The Nokia N97 is one of the best phones that i have ever owned. It is classy but feature packed. :