[Staffslug] Nokia N900 Review -- was: Re: Monday's Meeting (05-July-2010)

Adam, OK I think the best way to view the N900 (like the previous 770, N800, N810 and N810 WE models) is not as a phone but as a PDA (or "Internet Tablet" as Nokia puts it), only this time it has GSM/GPRS/WCDMA/HSDPA/whatever. As with any good PDA you use it for as much or as little as you want with no restrictions just like a PC but in your pocket. Personally I see Android, iOS (iPhone), Blackberry OS and Symbian all as Smartphone OS's... very restricted "App" launchers with a focus mainly on their usage as a cool phone. Meamo/Mer/Moblin/MeeGo or whatever the flip their calling it now, is a cut above that as a proper PDA again in my opinion. Nokia is keeping Symbian for this very reason as they consider Symbian to be for Smartphones, and MeeGo for the "Internet Tablets" a the higher end of the market. It won't ever be as slim as an iPhone with that slide out keyboard - but could probably be a little slimmer, however since it is smaller than the previous Internet Tablets, Nokia probably don't see the issue if there is one, the size and weight doesn't bother me anyway. I don't agree the keyboard is an "ancillary addition", I think it's kind of the whole point and a continuation of the N810(WE) model that people really loved. However it wouldn't surprise me if the next model Nokia release will be all android/iphone like and concentrate on fashion rather than usefulness, and no keyboard... but that's just a guess :S The N900 charges via micro USB, which I believe is a European directive thing to ensure all phones charge using the same cable from now on (to help cut back on how many chargers are thrown away). But they do give you a handy adapter to convert your old Nokia round plug on an older charger to micro USB (the smaller round type not the fatter type like old Nokia's had). The built in IR I've found is pretty pointless, there is a use I guess if you want to change the channel on your TV... but yeah - pretty much pointless other than that - but it doesn't detract anything at all. Haven't had any issues holding the device with the headphones plugged in like they mention, to be honest Nokia can't really win if they were to have put it on the left hand side as that would just annoy lefties then :) One odd thing is as you hold it portrait, the charger cable goes in the top... not the bottom. Which confused me once when I was on a phone interview for my current job as I spent an hour talking to the director in to the speaker part wondering why I couldn't hear him properly :S Yes I'm a dumb fuck, but I wasn't used to the charger cable coming out the top as I hold it to my ear. I don't mind that there is no silly rubbery covers for the sockets (there is only 2 anyway) as these often break off or get in the way of connecting stuff anyway. With a 500 quid phone you're going to be looking after it anyway so if bits build up on it then it's just not being taken care of :) The stylus isn't needed for 99% of stuff, but again would you want to be left short without one for anything that is fiddly to press on a web site? So yeah I say that's a good thing, especially when you can get a mouse cursor up on the web browser for playing things like Flash games, the stylus is very handy there. The speakers (both of them, stereo) is much better than the usual tinny sound you'd expect... obviously being so small it's no to die for, but it won't annoy you off if you have to listen to it for hours. The stand should have been central on the back I agree with them there. The stand is fine if you just want to put it down to keep an eye on new messages or watch a video... but it will wobble if you push buttons too hard, if the stand was in the middle it would have been OK. Even with the latest firmware about 90% of how you'll use the device will be in landscape mode, the phone, web browser a couple of other programs can do portrait mode however. But it should be noted that when there was a bug on the older firmware where you could trick the phone in to staying in portrait mode after closing the phone application, most applications worked fine like that. I'm hearing that better portrait mode is on the way in a later firmware, but to be honest you get used to landscape mode and it makes sense for a lot more things than portrait does (you don't see many portrait monitors after all). The 3D graphics are brilliant, the games are good, and it can play back pretty any video codec you like - put it on the TV too, even better. The screen is resistive not capacitive but it barely makes any difference what so ever and the next model will be capacitive and with multi-touch abilities (which the N900 doesn't have). Don't see a point in any mode physical keys than it has (on/off key, camera button and volume). Any more just uses up space better spent on the screen size. Getting to the phone is easier than navigating through the menu as you can either have the icon on your desktop, or there is an option for it on the drop down applet menu (comes up when you press the on/off button). Telepathy links pretty much links all VoIP and IM functionalities together, including Facebook (new for PR1.2 firmware), Skype, MSN, and SIP integration and anything else you can think of. And if heaven forbid Pidgin has something Telepathy hasn't got (which I don't think think is the case) then you just install Pidgin... lots of common desktop applications have been ported to the N900, including Firefox. You don't need to "break out the keyboard" as they say for finding stuff, there is an on screen keyboard too - you just have to enable it and it pops up whenever you press on a text input area. Moving contacts and other stuff from an old Nokia phone is easy as the two will directly talk to each other over Bluetooth for the transision without even needing the PC Suite. I've never used the PC Suite with my N900 at all, a) don't need it for anything as the phone is so unrestricted you can do all maintenance on it yourself - even over SSH to it and b) I have no machines with Windows to run it... stupid Nokia. The keyboard is ace, no missing symbols that you'd need on a daily basis... it's not flat so as you run your fingers over it you know where you are and can type quickly. On stuff like the Terminal and other applications you can quickly access other stranger symbols like tilde, pipe and backticks. I hear the Exchange functionality only works with Exchange 2003 or something, but to be honest who cares it's Microsoft. And in any case it isn't like it's standard IMAP, LDAP, etc anyway. Better off using something like DavMail Gateway to convert your Exchange server in to something standards compliant to connect to from stuff like the N900 and iPhone etc... Even get your calendars that way. There is no MMS out of the box, however download an application called fMMS and slap in some details and you're pretty much set. Had no issues with flash video playback either from YouTube or iPlayer on it, was watching BBC News 24 the night of the election via the BBC News web site over 3G the other month without a hitch whilst at a count. The in built MicroB browser is quick and comes with Flash already enabled, but if you don't like it for whatever reason you just grab another browser like Firefox, Opera, Midori, or even I think Chromium is out for it now. And there's an application for changing the default browser too. Copy and paste is throughout, if you want to select something on a webpage just get out the mouse cursor to select. Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V work in all the places you can't find an on screen Copy and Paste selection too. It's X, their GTK+ applications (mostly) so expect the usual :). Under the hood it's basically a modified Debian distribution compiled for ARM, with .deb package galore and APT repositories. Browsing through the "Application Manager" feels like your browsing through Synaptic on Ubuntu. The camera is a bit better than they describe as the camera firmware is open source so someone has wrote a better application canned BlessN900 to get more out of the Camera than the normal "Camera" application does with more options. 32GB of storage can be repartitioned if needed to give more space to packages and less to the USB accessible part if needed, will play Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora music and videos if you install the codecs. The in built FM Transmitter is good, there is an extra application too to boost the signal if you need it. Also it can tune in to FM radio stations if you download the Radio application. Battery life is better than heh says with the later firmware, and their standard Nokia batteries nothing fancy... exactly the same ones the 5800 uses so they're not expensive and you can always carry another around with you if you're worried. God this reviewer goes on and on, and so have I now :S Excuse any spelling/grammer issues as it's very late :) In short... it's leaps and bounds above any other offering for the common Linux geek and a complete no brainer of a choice. But the reviewer has reviewed this phone a bit too soon (lots of stuff is better since the new firmware has come out), was reviewing it like a smartphone which is wrong in my opinion and probably has no Linux background to see the true power of this device. Steven MORE PEPSI! WOOOOO! Gonna stay wired all night :) On 07/07/10 00:53, Adam Egan wrote: > Steven, > > http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/nokia-n900-655862/r... > > Is there anything in there you would disagree with? Or anything you would add? > > Adam > > On 7 July 2010 00:35, Steven Maddox<s.maddox(a)lantizia.me.uk> wrote: >> It woos itself :P >> >> Steven >> >> On 07/07/10 00:33, Adam Egan wrote: >>> Are you the Steven that wooed me with your N900? >>> >>> Adam