My First Impression with Nokia N900

First off I would like to thank my GF; Kate Navasero for lending me her trial unit of the N900. She asked me to do a much more in-depth review of the unit as she says I’m much more techie than she is. Honestly, I have been eyeing on this fone for quite awhile, and let’s just say I’m really happy to give the fone a spin. So how does Nokia’s first Maemo fone stack up? Read on.

Considering that Nokia is promoting this fone as a mobile device that’s as capable as a PC, I will be breaking down my experience with the fone, with a specific feature in mind. As of now I plan on breaking down my experience into the following categories (which will be one post per category):

• Maemo OS
• Multimedia Capabilities
• Camera & Video
• Internet & Connectivity
• Messaging & E-mail
• Apps & Ovi Store Features
• Contacts Feature & Communication
• Custom Themes & Personalization

Since this is my first impressions with the unit, I’ll just briefly tackle some of the features of the fone.

The Nokia N900 is Nokia’s first Maemo powered fone. They didn’t use their tried and tested Symbian OS, and went instead with a completely different OS. As such, the fone has a completely different feel to it. It doesn’t feel and work like a typical Nokia fone at all, and if you’re like me who is used to their old Nokia Symbian OS (my fone is a Nokia 5130 XpressMusic) there’s definitely going to be some learning curve involved.

The build of the unit itself is quite sturdy and durable, although it comes at a much more heavier body. The slider also feels solid and very compact, although I’m pretty worried that overtime it may become loose due to wear and tear.

The QWERTY keypad, although it does look small, is very comfortable to type on. I’ve only had a few mistakes using it but ive been typing at a much faster speed compared to my old 5130 XpressMusic fone.

One of the much touted feature of the Nokia N900 is the internet browser that’s apparently powered by Mozilla, and I’m pleased to say that in my brief initial test with it, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s quick and very capable of rendering full HTML sites, although there are some quirks when it comes to flash-enabled websites, but its as close as it can get to a standard setup PC.

Aside from the very capable web-browser, the N900 also has a robust multimedia player, which is also as powerful as its PC counterpart. Not only can it play music files, it can also play standard DivX files with no conversion needed at all. This is very nice and convenient specially for people who love watching movies on the go.

However, all these features come at a price. The battery life on the N900 is definitely short, and would roughly last atleast a day. The battery life is definitely better than most netbooks or laptops out there, but not really great as a mobile fone.

All in all I’m loving N900, although I do have some rants about it, but that’s to be discussed on my next post which will give a full detailed review on each feature of the fone.