The Definitive N900 Thread

vishalrao

vishalrao

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I think its high time for this type of thread for the N900 - hope it eventually gets stickied! I am blown away (mostly) by this device and platform!

I was handed a flyer touting the N900 while walking along London's Regent Street a couple of weeks back and thought we need a central thread for all things N900.

First, collecting some of the previous thread links here:

http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/nokias-linux-based-n900-now-official-144883.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/nokia-maemo-its-finally-official-144818.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/nokia-n900-when-is-it-releasing-146863.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/nokia-n900-maemo-5-reviewed-breathtakingly-147842.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/vid-nokia-n900-ui-3d-gaming-148706.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/n900-on-airtel-india-150530.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/the-maemo5-thread-150891.html
http://www.techenclave.com/mobile-phones/nokia-n900-review-by-gsmarena-152530.html

As you already know this is a Maemo 5 based device with Gtk/Hildon UI ... There is unofficial Qt 4.6 port coming... this is apt/dpkg debian ARM port based Linux OS.

Plenty of information available at maemo.nokia.com and conversations.nokia.com not to mention videos you can search for on youtube. Also developers can enjoy Maemo software | Nokia › Developers' corner so do try to spend time on these links...

Personally for me, this phone is the best bet out there. It just has a few rough edges/annoyances which I am hoping next year's device with Maemo6/Qt will resolve so I can go out and finally replace my 5 yr old Moto RAZR.

I hate Apple's locked-down platform although their device is the easiest and sexiest at the moment. Android is decent platform but I think lowly of Java especially on small mobile devices :)

I am a fan of Motorola (because they invented the cell phone) and all my 3 phones have been Motos so far. I am also going to try to check out the Moto Milestone (Android 2.0) but its currently in second place for me.

Just a few years/months ago I would shun Nokia for their gay-ish/annoying candybar formfactor phones and irritating model numbering schemes... and I was interested when they bought TrollTech (Qt developers) and announced they would replace Gtk/Hildon with Qt as the official supported platform on Maemo6.

I visited the Nokia store on Regent Street this weekend which is diagonally opposite the Apple store to check out the N900. News item that they are going to close the Nokia store due to less-than-expected sales etc.

First off, Nokia's store is much smaller than Apple's and they have so many devices crammed into that small space.

They have a separate section for N900 but its gimmicky with LCD TVs all around and just two phones to play with. That too one person was using one of the phones and the store employees were talking amongst themselves least interested in looking after the visitors. I didnt know there was a second phone until I spotted on under a TV which was connected presumably to demo TV-out or whatever.

So to cut this long story short... once I got my hands on the phone, my impressions:

* Phone is well built plastic.
* Not too bulky/heavy at all.
* Keyboard is small but you can get used to it. Online reviewers have complained about lack of dedicated number key row.
* There is also a stylus if you want to use that.
* Resistive screen is disappointing (you need to press firmly else miss some inputs) after being spoilt using my iPod Touch 2Gs capacitive one...
* Even though the screen is "HD" (WVGA) better than iPod, for some reason iPod UI/fonts/text/icons etc look WAY better/crisper.
* UI animations/scrolling etc are not as smooth as iPod (little jerky).
* Phone boots like a desktop almost :) Takes a while to get ready. And like a desktop when you see the screen it still takes a little more time before you can start clicking the icons/buttons.
* I opened terminal and did a "uname -a" - will post screenshots soon.
* You can run "sudo gainroot" to get full access - no "jailbreaking" nonsense necessary :)

NOTE: Only phone operation is in portrait mode, rest is in landscape only (browsing etc) - but I believe they will patch it in a software update after some time... no portrait mode browsing is a big fault. Maemo6/Qt will fix it for sure.

So, if you are a tech enthusiast, software developer (like me) this could be your phone. The main reason I will avoid is resistive screen and the software/UI not being 100% smooth yet. If you have already played with resistive screens and dont mind it then there is hardly anything else left to complain about :)

This is certainly the most exciting super phone so far out there... I am just pissed off they seem to charge double what a netbook costs... I hope to get this kind of device for under 30k rather than the 40k range they usually start off with...

Adding some pics...











 
Congratulations!! Getting this phone must be like being in a dream! :)

vishalrao said:
Plenty of information available at maemo.nokia.com and conversations.nokia.com not to mention videos you can search for on youtube. Also developers can enjoy Maemo software | Nokia › Developers' corner so do try to spend time on these links...
Click to expand...

Also check out maemo.org - maemo.org: Home of the Maemo community for in depth discussions on Maemo, related devices, and the future of Maemo. It is a great forum to get an insight into what the experts say and what the consumers want from Maemo.

vishalrao said:
As you already know this is a Maemo 5 based device with Gtk/Hildon UI ... There is unofficial Qt 4.6 port coming... this is apt/dpkg debian ARM port based Linux OS.

Personally for me, this phone is the best bet out there. It just has a few rough edges/annoyances which I am hoping next year's device with Maemo6/Qt will resolve so I can go out and finally replace my 5 yr old Moto RAZR.

Just a few years/months ago I would shun Nokia for their gay-ish/annoying candybar formfactor phones and irritating model numbering schemes... and I was interested when they bought TrollTech (Qt developers) and announced they would replace Gtk/Hildon with Qt as the official supported platform on Maemo6.

NOTE: Only phone operation is in portrait mode, rest is in landscape only (browsing etc) - but I believe they will patch it in a software update after some time... no portrait mode browsing is a big fault. Maemo6/Qt will fix it for sure.
Click to expand...

Lots of updates are expected for the N900, and soon. Portrait mode is going to be fixed, and will be uniform throughout the device. Exciting times ahead! :) Especially with Nokia saying that Maemo5 and N900 are Step 4 of 5 in their grand scheme.

vishalrao said:
I am a fan of Motorola (because they invented the cell phone) and all my 3 phones have been Motos so far. I am also going to try to check out the Moto Milestone (Android 2.0) but its currently in second place for me.

So to cut this long story short... once I got my hands on the phone, my impressions:

* Phone is well built plastic.
* Not too bulky/heavy at all.
* Keyboard is small but you can get used to it. Online reviewers have complained about lack of dedicated number key row.
* There is also a stylus if you want to use that.
* Resistive screen is disappointing (you need to press firmly else miss some inputs) after being spoilt using my iPod Touch 2Gs capacitive one...
* Even though the screen is "HD" (WVGA) better than iPod, for some reason iPod UI/fonts/text/icons etc look WAY better/crisper.
* UI animations/scrolling etc are not as smooth as iPod (little jerky).
* Phone boots like a desktop almost :) Takes a while to get ready. And like a desktop when you see the screen it still takes a little more time before you can start clicking the icons/buttons.
* I opened terminal and did a "uname -a" - will post screenshots soon.
* You can run "sudo gainroot" to get full access - no "jailbreaking" nonsense necessary :)

So, if you are a tech enthusiast, software developer (like me) this could be your phone. The main reason I will avoid is resistive screen and the software/UI not being 100% smooth yet. If you have already played with resistive screens and dont mind it then there is hardly anything else left to complain about :)
Click to expand...

This is certainly the most exciting super phone so far out there... I am just pissed off they seem to charge double what a netbook costs... I hope to get this kind of device for under 30k rather than the 40k range they usually start off with...
[/QUOTE]

Since the Moto Droid is the closest competitor to the N900, lets compare and dissect some of those drawback you mentioned -

* Moto Droid is an all metal and minimal plastic body phone. With copper linings and finish not to forget. ;) Just gives a slightly better look.
* It is a LARGE phone. In fact both of them. Where the Droid is slimmer but longer, the N900 is thicker. All in all, handling these phones will more or less be a similar experience.
* Smaller Keyboard on N900 clearly beats the slimmer yet totally flat keyboard on the Droid. The N900 keyboard has a better feedback, while the Droid keyboard lacks any tactile feedback due to its flat keys and weird design. Not to mention those two extra blank keys on the Droid. What was Motorola thinking?? The virtual keyboard is way better on the Droid due to capacitive touchscreen.
* The screen. This is so important these days! :) While the iPods and iPhones did lead the way in the beginning, it is now time for larger and sharper screens. Both the Droid and N900 show that. Some fonts and text may look better on the iPod, but the pictures will look way better on either device. Also the Droid screen is larger and features 16M colors, and it has already been widely appreciated.
* As for booting time, and jerky animations/UI, this is the limitation of Linux IMO. Even on my laptop, with a distro as refined as Ubuntu, I face issues with the UI and fast scrolling. Hardware compatibility is increasing day by day, but is it expanding at a sufficient rate? That makes me wonder, what about Android? Eclair is hot news right now, and I hope it improves and gets refined over time.

Comparing it with Apple iPod and iPhone is slightly off track, as Apple has had 3 years and 3 generations of those devices to perfect and market. Nokia is only entering the fray with Maemo. Apple devices do give you the eye-candy, but are horribly limited in functionality, as you rightly mentioned. This will be eliminated, though not completely, by Maemo which will hand over the controls to the end user.

But how much control is handed over remains to be seen.

Lastly, what if you are not a tech enthusiast? What if you are not a software developer? What if you don't even know "sudo", forget the terminal? Is this phone for such a user?
Like me for example. I certainly love Ubuntu because it gives me the freedom of choosing what I want to do on my computer, and I can run simple commands like apt and dpkg, in no way am I even a serious user, let alone being an advanced user. You tell me about "sudo gainroot" and "uname -a" and I don't know what that means.
Where my interest lies in the N900 is that it gives me all the connectivity options that I want. It gives me mobile connectivity as well as WLAN, along with seamless integration of telephony with the most popular VOIP client (Skype) and the most popular IM clent (GoogleTalk). On top of that, it is a decent media player and a mobile computer. With time I'll need VPN and SSH services, and maybe some computation functions and then this device will add another feather in its cap.
All said and done, this really is a great device. May I be so bold as to say that this might just be the beginning of the future of mobile computer devices.
 
Excellent. What is step 5 of Nokia's plan? Maemo6/qt?

Are you sure the milestone has capacitive screen? Then I simply must get a live demo before I leave London somehow...
 
So far step 5 seems to be Maemo6/QT. Also Nokia have publicly announced that they will be releasing only one Linux based phone in 2010.

And yes, I am sure the Milestone/Droid has a capacitive screen. The virtual keyboard is a breeze according to the reviews.

Tell me more when you get your hands on the Milestone. In the meantime, please elaborate on your N900 experience. :)
 
vishalrao said:
Excellent. What is step 5 of Nokia's plan? Maemo6/qt?

Are you sure the milestone has capacitive screen? Then I simply must get a live demo before I leave London somehow...
Click to expand...

Yes, the Milestone is capacitive. One issue - I have a friend at Nokia India, and due to our stupidly restrictive VOIP rules, the N900 will not be launched officially here till February.
 
Note that I did not buy the N900, just went to play with the demo device in the retail showroom :) Cost may be around Rs 40k INR (I guess)

I'm not sure what to elaborate on my brief experience with N900. Anything specific you want me to check out? I will go back this Sunday to play with it some more (plus try to locate a Milestone somewhere/somehow) I can try to capture video of me using it, but they have this annoying small chamber with dim lighting in there...
 
Vishalji

I just want you to tell us more about some of the basic functions of this phone. How would a common man, albeit a man with 35k to spare, feel about this phone?

Tell us about the handling, the feel in your hands, the screen etc. How easily is the screen scratched? What about the phone plastic? Does it seem durable enough? What about the camera. I know I could go and read the umpteen reviews over the net, but I want a hands on opinion from a person who we can talk to directly.

And when you get the MIlestone to play with, do a kind of comparison between these two devices.
 
TechHead said:
Yes, the Milestone is capacitive. One issue - I have a friend at Nokia India, and due to our stupidly restrictive VOIP rules, the N900 will not be launched officially here till February.
Click to expand...

But there are so many devices in India which support VOIP.

Or am I missing out something? And whats going to change in February?

Also is it the same reason for not launching the E52 & E55 ?
 
If you havent seen them already, three nice and long and in-depth videos of the N900... I have yet to see part 2 and 3. In part 1 around the 30 min mark near the end the guy says he exchanged his loaner N900 with his neighbour kid's iPhone and the kid tried to use the touch interface and said "it doesn't work" :D They mention that you should use the edges of your finger and your finger nails to get good touch response which I will try next time (along with just cleaning the screen and resetting the device) because for some reason all the people in the N900 videos seem to get smooth touch actions...

[youtube]XfTUEDUjKLo[/youtube]
[youtube]WVnxjpwWA-A[/youtube]
[youtube]q4LE_QNhEXA[/youtube]
 
Alright. I just spent the better part of the day watching, and mostly waiting for the videos to load. :p

Very nice in-depth coverage of the device there, so if anyone has not seen or read stuff about the N900, you should definitely watch these videos.

Since I have been following the N900 for the past 3 months, I knew more or less everything they talked about. In fact I know more by now, as these videos were recorded around October or early November I think. Since then N900 has already moved on quite a bit. :)

What I liked best about these videos is the final discussion right at the end of the third video. The final 20 minutes. In that they have actually talked about how a common man, a person without knowledge of Linux and Terminal will judge this smartphone. Mr. JKK even says that Linux being all "Open" is not so open actually, where the common user will have to learn all kinds of commands and stuff, and how he finds Windows Mobile to be more "open" when it is the most closed!

He is not too far from the reality. He says so in as many words that N900 will appeal to all the Linux geeks, who would love to go dev on it, but not so much to the common user.

Finally, whoever gets this device will see, and I am quoting the two presenters here, that it is a good convergence device.

PS: I hope the Motorola Droid/Milestone also does well. That will increase the competition and bring out better products for us.
 
BTW saw your other post that you are going to be in the US soon, so do post an opinion of the Droid's screen UI/responsiveness compared to the iPhone... I doubt I will get to try it in the next week or two...
 
phoenix844884 said:
Vishalji

I just want you to tell us more about some of the basic functions of this phone. How would a common man, albeit a man with 35k to spare, feel about this phone?
Click to expand...
Common man, not a least nit technically inclined would be better off not getting this mobile computer. And i say mobile computer because thats what this is.
The phone is an app on the machine, to ring a contact number is a 3-4 step process at most times.
Of course the common man would not appreciate having to hold the machine in landscape mode for everything else :).
phoenix844884 said:
Tell us about the handling, the feel in your hands, the screen etc. How easily is the screen scratched? What about the phone plastic? Does it seem durable enough? What about the camera. I know I could go and read the umpteen reviews over the net, but I want a hands on opinion from a person who we can talk to directly.
Click to expand...
By feel the machine is downright amazing. The screen is clear bright and looks absolutely *beautiful* playing video.
Build quality is good and there are no odd creaks or gaps.
Camera is what i would expect from a 5MP lens, but i have a camera for any real occasions so this wasnt a real high priority for me.
phoenix844884 said:
And when you get the MIlestone to play with, do a kind of comparison between these two devices.
Click to expand...
Milestone or Driod as its known in the US, i would say felt pretty *chindi* (if i may say so). It felt odd with the absolutely flat keypad. The screen is large and pretty responsive, which was expected considering it is capacitive.

Overall i would give my n900 a 8/10.

There are a few known and annoying issues with the firmware specially the bluetooth and wifi and they are in the process of being sorted out. They are expected to release a better firmware sometime this year end, featuring browser portrait mode, so i am hoping that they bundle in a lot of the fixes as well.
 
prediff said:
Common man, not a least nit technically inclined would be better off not getting this mobile computer. And i say mobile computer because thats what this is.
The phone is an app on the machine, to ring a contact number is a 3-4 step process at most times.
Of course the common man would not appreciate having to hold the machine in landscape mode for everything else :).

By feel the machine is downright amazing. The screen is clear bright and looks absolutely *beautiful* playing video.
Build quality is good and there are no odd creaks or gaps.
Camera is what i would expect from a 5MP lens, but i have a camera for any real occasions so this wasnt a real high priority for me.

Milestone or Driod as its known in the US, i would say felt pretty *chindi* (if i may say so). It felt odd with the absolutely flat keypad. The screen is large and pretty responsive, which was expected considering it is capacitive.

Overall i would give my n900 a 8/10.

There are a few known and annoying issues with the firmware specially the bluetooth and wifi and they are in the process of being sorted out. They are expected to release a better firmware sometime this year end, featuring browser portrait mode, so i am hoping that they bundle in a lot of the fixes as well.
Click to expand...

Wow!! I guess congratulations are in order for such a great purchase.

That alone warrants a separate show off thread!! Where did you get it, and how much for? In fact, what plans are you using with it? Tell me more!
 
Lol. Thank you very much :)

I would say that its a purchase i have not regretted.
Got it from the Nokia USA online store after i got a chance to get a feel of the piece at the Nokia Flagship store in NYC.
The experience just confirmed that this piece would be mine shortly.. :D
It was a toss between that and the n97 mini, but when i compared the two of them in the store.. the mini never stood a chance.
Am still using it on AT&T for now.. will be going out to get a T-mobile sim shortly so that i can experience the 3g goodness... but on Wifi it is downright killer piece. Gmail and Skype confiigured on it so i harly ever head out to the laptop for mail check.
Only sad point is that tmobile has a pretty horrible coverage in my office, so its either missing my business calls with this or use 3g.. guess which i pick :D. Well i guess it time to make use of my backup phone.
 
Bah, went back to the Nokia store and this time there was a queue of people ranging from old grandparents to toddlers barely out of their cribs wanting to play with the device! Not sure how many of these would actually go out and buy this device...

The salesguy kept asking "so, are you going to buy one today, sir" every few seconds and didn't leave me to play with it in peace and quiet...

I was planning to setup my IM/email accounts in the device and actually send/receive stuff but no time to do that.

One good thing I noticed was the screen touch response was actually quite nice this time, last time either the device or my hands might have been dirty/sweaty/whatever - but still not 100% as responsive as a capacitive screen would be.

I guess I would rate this phone at 85% with my iPod Touch 2G at 90% - all it needs to reach over 90% and make me buy one is a capacitive display and the latest maemo6 with QT and hopefully WAY smoother UI motions/animations... so fingers crossed for Nokia releasing a good follow-up device by the end of 2010...

This phone probably wont do too well in sales im guessing due to many bits n pieces remaining unfinished - its almost like a technology preview device aimed at enthusiasts - perhaps people who just want a phone that can also browse will go for other devices...
 
True.. This piece is not for the mainstream, more for people who are willing to experiment. It covers most of the functionality which anyone would use, but there are many bits and pieces still remaining.

End of the day anyone looking for a fairly consumer oriented maemo device would need to wait for H2 of 2010.

Anyone looks for a fairly powerful tablet device to occasionally make phone calls with would enjoy the n900.
 
prediff said:
Anyone looks for a fairly powerful tablet device to occasionally make phone calls with would enjoy the n900.
Click to expand...

Thats me. I am fighting the temptation to go out and buy one right now... I keep reminding myself about a few of the main shortcomings (for me) - capacitive display / maemo6/qt and smoother UI/portrait mode etc... otherwise everything else is excellent.

Now, if Nokia were to simply announce official port/support of maemo6/qt (smooth portrait/landscape operation) to this same device (or its easy to load it on yourself without complications) then I might even ignore the touch part and end up buying it - even before actual release of m6/qt itself :D

(I hardly make phone calls so this will mainly be a pocket web/media tablet cum QT-programming play-toy for me)...
 
vishalrao said:
Thats me. I am fighting the temptation to go out and buy one right now... I keep reminding myself about a few of the main shortcomings (for me) - capacitive display / maemo6/qt and smoother UI/portrait mode etc... otherwise everything else is excellent.

Now, if Nokia were to simply announce official port/support of maemo6/qt (smooth portrait/landscape operation) to this same device (or its easy to load it on yourself without complications) then I might even ignore the touch part and end up buying it - even before actual release of m6/qt itself :D

(I hardly make phone calls so this will mainly be a pocket web/media tablet cum QT-programming play-toy for me)...
Click to expand...

:)
Well i am not a fan of the capacitive screen.. never know what touched what and when. so turns out this is the best from me.
Really wish/hope that they would come out and say that the maemo 6 would be ported to the n900 right now, but it makes marketing sense not to...
Its bloody brilliant phone though specially over 3/3.5G and i havent been able to keep my hands off it, since i got it running on tmobile.

will be setting it up maemo env for some dev work later on.. lets see what havoc i can wreck on this :D
 
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