Nokia World 2009: Nokia N900 hands-on

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By Mike Browne on September 2,

2009 at 00:00,

The Nokia N900 is a 3.5-inch touchscreen device that packs in 32GB of memory and even a 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera. However, what stands out about the Nokia N900 is that it's a tablet device running the Maemo 5 operating system. We've managed to spend a little hands-on time with the Nokia N900 this morning down on the Nokia World 2009 show floor. Join us after the jump for our Nokia N900 hands-on photo gallery...

The Nokia N900 tablet packs in everything we love about the latest smartphone devices, we get a full QWERTY keyboard, plenty of memory and HSPA connectivity all wrapped around a 3.5-inch touchscreen.

The Nokia N90o will go on sale with the Maemo 5 Linux-based operating system later this year and will have an estimated price of around 500 Euros (£450 inc. VAT).

We got some time to play with the Nokia N900 down on the show floor at Nokia World 2009 and we can safely say this is one of the best looking and most striking interfaces we've ever seen. It's a dream to use and the web browsing experience is super-fast.

Check out our Nokia N900 Hands-on image gallery:

Tags: 32GB 5-Megapixel camera Carl Zeiss hands-on Linux Maemo 5 Nokia Nokia N900 NW09 touchscreen

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chrisN97winner

Hiya Mike, this looks amazing. how is it in size compared to N97? also is there a stylus built in to the handset? any news of an official release?? might be my next phone i thnk……..
Mikey Bee

We’re waiting to get some side-on-side photos of it in action next to the N97. No release date other than Q4 at this stage – still, I reckon you may have to save up for this one
chrisN97winner

ha ha no chance of winning one please…???? ive jus found some more pics an there is a stylus built in. im really looking forward to using a nokia that doesnt run symbian. ive only ever used winmo b4 an didnt like it so hopefully this will be a welcome change… roll on december i think
Bob

I loved it but I am ‘sheepishly’ copy pasting the CONS … not to spoil the party though but just so we know some downers on N900. If Nokia can advise on these it’ll be great. Nevertheless its a game changer and a legit iphone killer if one needs to put bets on the table !!

What’s not: (maybe just on the tested prototype?)
• no handwriting recognition
• storage memory for installable applications limited to ridiculous 256 MB, all the remaining gigabytes available for documents and data files only
• lack of d-pad (it’s an Nseries device, so some people would like to play games on it!)
• the keyboard is nice, but could be even better (to attract Communicator users)
• the display seems to be easily scratchable; screen protector or carrying case are recommended to protect it
• lens cover does not scratch the lens (like on the N97) but it does scratch the part of the casing it slides over
• since the memory card is hot swappable, why there’s no access to it from the outside?
• some sort of hardware “Home” button quickly switching to the Desktop would be really useful
• no audio equalizer
• Nokia, PLEASE, add voice dialing!
• no Java support, even just Java MIDP
• very limited support for Profiles, only “General” and “Silent”, no possibility to create own profiles, no timed Profiles, etc.
• the touch display “de-calibrating” from time to time on the tested unit, probably due to early, pre-release firmware.
• no MMS support.