Nokia N900 launch soon
The much anticipated Nokia N900 will be officially launched towards the end of October or the beginning of November 2009.
There have been photos and videos of the N900 on the Internet for the last couple of months, driving a lot of mobile phone fanatics into a frenzy. It would not be inappropriate to call the N900 the new Jesus phone. While we are not all that sure about the resistive screen of the Nokia N900, in pretty much everything else, this is a phone that can beat the iPhone hollow.
Nokia N900 Maemo phone photo
Gadget freaks in India to are hoping for a quick launch of the N900 in India. The last few months have seen a bunch of latest smart phones appearing in the Indian market from Blackberry, HTC and Samsung. The Nokia N97 appeared in the Indian market recently, but just like abroad, the reception was pretty lukewarm. Hopefully, the launch of the N900 would see fortunes changing for the Finland based mobile phone company, which has been having a hard time competing in the smart phone market.
In Europe, the Nokia N900 is expected to be priced at €500. When it comes to India, we can guess that the price would be around Rs. 35,000. That definitely is on the high side, but compares well to other smart phones from blackberry, iPhone or HTC. If you are in US or Europe, you can now buy the N900 on pre-order online
Photo: Nokia N900 Maemo phone
The Nokia N900 will feature a new operating system called Maemo which is built on Linux. Maemo is a software platform developed by Nokia for mobile phones and Internet tablets. It is particularly suitable for touch screen mobile phones and any device which uses a touch screen interface.
The hardware that runs the Nokia N900 is pretty powerful too. The ARM processor is 600 MHZ and the phone has 1 GB of application memory. There is a substantial 32 GB storage which would make most of us happy. The storage can be expanded up to 48 GB using a microSD card. It is believed that Nokia has tested the N900 with the latest 32 GB microSD cards – whether that means that the Nokia N900 can actually have a total of 32 GB on-board plus 32 GB microSD card storage, we are not sure about. But it definitely is a possibility.
Photo: Nokia N900 features a 3.5" WVGA touch screen
Connectivity options for the Nokia N900 are as follows:
- 3.5G and WLAN connectivity
- Quadband GSM with GPRS and EDGE
- Data transfers over a cellular network 10/2Mbps
- Data transfers over Wi-Fi 54Mbps
Considering that the Maemo operating system is actually Linux, you can call the Nokia N900 P mobile computer. Smart phones, generally, so far have been unable to play flash videos such as the ones on Youtube properly- this problem ends ones and for all with the Nokia N900. The phone also offers full screen browsing.
Maemo OS on the Nokia N900
Other features two are no less noteworthy. For example, The N900 features a 5 megapixel camera phone with a high quality Carl Zeiss lens, a dual LED flash, and 800×400 resolution video recording.
There are good things and bad things about the touch screen, though. For one, for a phone which claims to be almost a computer, the screen is just not big enough at just 3.5 inches even though it is WVGA. Seriously, the N900 deserves a screen at least 4 inches diagonal. Resolution is good, though, at 800 by 400 pixels. Then again, the screen is resistive, not capacitative. Generally, resistive screens are not as good as capacitative screens when using a touch screen interface. A lot of this, of course, depends on how Nokia implements the interface on the hardware-so we will have to wait and see.
Games for the Nokia N900
None that we know of, but capable gaming abilities are built into the N900 with its PowerVR SGX and a built-in accelerometer. At the initial reveal of the N900, the company demonstrated some of these abilities – more games should definitely be available when the phone is available in the shops.
N900 music and video playback and file formats
DiVX, WMV and MP3 files will play on the N900, plus a bunch of others. There is a TV-out for viewing the videos in 800×400 resolution. Video recorded by the camera is saved in that same resolution. Charging the phone is through micro USB, a welcome improvement.
On the other hand, it also features a slide out keyboard which will make typing out long messages or using the Internet a lot easier. Touchscreen typing, even on the iPhone, has never been as fast and intuitive as a tactile keyboard, and the Nokia N900 offers both.
The battery is a removable and replaceable. The phone also comes with assisted GPS and Nokia Ovi maps are pre-installed, but it is unlikely that maps for India would come pre-loaded unless Nokia wants to make us very happy indeed.
One important factor in the success of a smartphone platform is the number of apps available to it. While in theory, porting a Linux app to Maemo is not a difficult job, consider the competition. There are several successful smartphone operating systems already – the Windows Mobile OS, iPhone OS, Google Android, Blackberry OS and Palm’s Web OS. While Nokia already has a bunch of apps readymade in its Ovi store, how many of them would easily run on the Maemo remains to be seen.
Nokia is also rumoured to be working on an N900 minus the tactile keyboard – the N920. This phone according to reports would run the next version of the Maemo operating system, Maemo 6.
While Nokia has not always bothered to launch its internet tablets in India, the N900 has a better chance for making it here as it is a full-fledged phone as well as an internet appliance. India is one of the markets where Nokia still rules (even though that is only due to high sales of its feature-phones). The company is yet to find its feet in the smartphone market worldwide, and we do not think it would ignore a large market like India when it is to launch a product which it believes might be a game-changer in the smartphone market.
When any more info is available on the Nokia N900 and its launch date and price for India, we will surely be the first to let you know. Keep reading us!