Nokia N900 Linux mobile phone launched
The first Linux phone from Nokia is feature-heavy, with Adobe Flash support, 32 GB memory and powerful multimedia.
Nokia N900 Linux phone photo
Nokia N900, the first Linux phone from Nokia has been announced. Though the Nokia Linux phone has been coming for a while, this is the first time the company has acknowledged the latest phone from Nokia. The official announcement will be at the upcoming Nokia World event in September. The Nokia N900 Linux phone is expected to hit the market in October, at a price of $712 in the US, before taxes and carrier subsidies.
The Nokia N900 uses Maemo 5, an open source Linux operating system. This may appear strange, since Nokia-owned Symbian is the world’s largest mobile phone operating system, which has a bigger market share then Google Android, BlackBerry and Apple iPhone OS put together. Clearly, Nokia recognises the need to create products for the emerging open-source operating system technology. Nokia has earlier too produced tablet PCs with Linux, but they did not have cellular connectivity, which did not go down well with the market.
Nokia N900 picture
This is the first time Nokia is launching a device with wireless connectivity sporting the Linux operating system. Engadget calls the Nokia N900 the best-looking device in the Nokia tablet PC range. You can now buy the N900 on pre-order online
The Nokia N 900 Linux phone weighs 181 grams, and had dimensions of 110.9 × 59.8 × 18 mm. It is a high-end handset, and can be called more a tablet PC. It has a touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Nokia N900 Linux phone has 800X480 pixel resolution display on a 3.5 inch touchscreen.
Nokia N900 camera and video
The phone has a 5 megapixel camera, with video capabilities. The camera has 3X digital zoom and saves pictures in JPEG format. There is a dual LED flash, with CMOS sensor and auto focus. The lens is Tessar with Carl Zeiss optics. Pictures can be clicked in landscape or portarit mode, with the entire front screen acting as a viewfinder. Pictures can be edited with the photo-editing software on board, and can be transferred to a computer with a data cable. There are several shooting modes: Automatic, portrait, video, macro, landscape and action.
The Nokia N900 Linux smartphone has smart video capabilities too. The camera shoots videos in widescreen format, (16:9) and saves the files in MP4 format with MPEG-4 codec. Video recording on the Nokia N900 Linux phone can be done at at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) and up to 25 frames per second. Video format which can be played back on the Nokia N900 Linux phone include WMV, 3GP, AVI, Aac, eAAC, WMA and M4A.
Photo: Nokia N900 Linux phone
Nokia N900 Memory, processor
The Nokia N900 Linux phone is a heavy-duty phone, and huge storage memory attends to that. The latest Nokia comes with 32 GB memory, which can be expanded up to 48GB with a memory card. This much memory space is enough to carry 7000 songs or 40 hours of high-quality video, says Nokia. The processor which powers this beast is a Cortex A8-600 MHz, with Open GL ES 2 support for graphics acceleration. One GB of space is set apart as application memory, with 256 MB as RAM and 768 MB as virtual memory.
Nokia N900 network and connectivity
The Nokia N 900 works with WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, and is outfitted with assisted GPS (A-GPS). The phone works in GSM/GPRS/EDGE cellular networks, as well as in WCDMA. The integrated GPS receiver works with the preloaded Nokia Ovi Maps. Pictures shot on the N 900 camera can be automatically geotagged with the GPS on board.
Nokia N 900 Linux phone multimedia, music and pictures
The Nokia N900 is a a full-fledged multimedia phone. It can play formats like wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, and .m4a. There is a built-in FM radio for music, news and entertainment. The N 900 has a digital stereo microphone and has a Maemo media player.
Nokia N900: Call features
The latest Nokia N 900 Linux phone comes with integrated hands-free stereo speakers. In case you want to have a better music experience, Nokia sells you additional speakers as accessories. The N900 has all regular features like Call waiting, call hold, call divert
Call timer, Logging of dialed, received and missed calls etc. Speed dialing via contact widget, Vibrating alerts, are also standard. There side volume keys on the Nokia N900 for convenient raising or decreasing of volume, and mute/unmute features. Contacts can be linked to images, and you can make conference calls with up to three participants. Internet calling with Skype is also part of the the Nokia N900.
Nokia N900 browser and internet
The Nokia N900 comes with a Maemo powered Mozila browser. If our guess is right, this will be the first time Mozilla’s Fennec browser comes to a real mobile phone. The N900 browser, says Nokia, can display webpages “as is”, with no loss of content or multimedia. The N900 browser will also be to play Adobe Flash 9.4 files, which will be boon for those who use their mobile phones as virtual multimedia devices.
Email and messaging on Nokia N900
The Nokia N900 supports up to 10 email accounts. It also has support for SMTP, IMAP, POP3 and Mail for Exchange. Messages can be grouped with emails as conversations on the Nokia N900 Linux phone.
The Nokia N900 Linux phones takes the battle right into iPhone territory. The touchscreen is great and the Linux Maemo 5 interface is a delight. However, the price is high, and it may be even costlier in India due to import duties, unless Nokia decided to manufacture the product at its factory in Tamil Nadu. Again, in India, carriers do not subsidise cellphones, and the entire cost is borne by the buyer himself. So, the phone could be much cheaper abroad when compared to the prices in India as and when it is launched.
There has been widespread speculation for sometime that Nokia may give up Symbian altogether and start building Linux phones. However, Nokia officials scotched such speculation at the announcement of the Nokia N900.
Though Nokia announced the new Linux phone today, its official launch will be at the Nokia World annual event on September 2 and 3. Nokia’s president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and executive vice-president Anssi Vanjoki will appear at the Nokia World event.