Nokia have sent out a press release launching the N900 and Maemo 5
Nokia N900 running Maemo5
It’s going to be available in October for 500 Euro. I guess my Omnia Pro order is going to get cancelled now! I’m adding videos and images to the database. You can find them through the N900 product page. I’m trying to get to Nokia World for some hands-on next week.
Maemo 5 injects speed and power into mobile computing
August 27, 2009The new Nokia N900: Computer-grade performance in a handset
Espoo, Finland Nokia today marked the next phase in the evolution of Maemo software with the new Nokia N900. Taking its cues from the world of desktop computing, the open source, Linux-based Maemo software delivers a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device.
The Nokia N900 has evolved from Nokia’s previous generation of Internet Tablets and broadens the choice for technology enthusiasts who appreciate the ability to multitask and browse the internet like they would on their desktop computer.
Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the Nokia N900 empowers users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the cellular features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard.
“With Linux software, Mozilla-based browser technology and now also with cellular connectivity, the Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience, inch says Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia. “The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways. inch
Designed for computer-grade performance in a compact size, Maemo complements Nokia’s other software platforms, such as Symbian, which powers Nokia’s smartphones.
“Just as Nokia continues to expand and diversify its device portfolio, so it is deploying multiple platforms to allow it to serve different purposes and address different markets. While we have seen continued growth in Symbian as a smartphone platform, Maemo enables Nokia to deliver new mobile computing experiences based on open-source technology that has strong ties with desktop platforms, inch says Jonathan Arber, Senior Research Analyst in Consumer Mobile at IDC.
More multitasking with Maemo
The Nokia N900 packs a powerful ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. The result is PC-like multitasking, allowing many applications to run simultaneously. Switching between applications is simple, as all running content is constantly available through the dashboard. The panoramic homescreen can be fully personalized with favorite shortcuts, widgets and applications.To make web browsing more enjoyable, the Nokia N900 features a high-resolution WVGA touch screen and fast internet connectivity with 10/2 HSPA and WLAN. Thanks to the browser powered by Mozilla technology, websites look the way they would on any computer. Online videos and interactive applications are vivid with full Adobe Flash(TM) 9.4 support. Maemo software updates happen automatically over the internet.
Messaging on the N900 is easy and convenient thanks to the full physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Setting up email happens with only a few touches and the Nokia Messaging service mobilizes up to 10 personal email accounts. Text message or IM exchanges with friends are shown in one view and all conversations are organized as separate windows.
The Nokia N900 has 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card. For photography, the Maemo software and the N900 come with a new tag cloud user interface that will help users get the most out of the 5MP camera and Carl Zeiss optics.
The Nokia N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 with an estimated retail price of EUR 500 excluding sales taxes and subsidies. The Nokia N900 will be displayed at Nokia World, Stuttgart, on September 2. More information on Maemo is available at http://maemo.nokia.com.
New article: Official: N900 available October for 500 Euro. http://cli.gs/tzPqa
I don’t know….. they are just enough alike to think you’ll get the same feel, but just different enough to make the user experience total different. It going to hard to not want both.
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=pdacomparer
I guess I will have to brush up on Linux.
nice but defnitely to expensive for that kind of mid. typically nokia.
Too expensive? It’s cheaper than an HTC Pro 2 with more power, better cam, far better browser. 500 for a powerful MIDPhone build to that quality with HSPA support is, in my opinion, quite the bargain!
question now is, will nokia attempt to tivolize maemo more on this, to make it more palatable for the carriers?
never mind, the screenshot here answers it all:
http://flors.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/software-freedom-lovers-here-comes-maemo-5/
if there will not be a phone-less product, this will surely be my next phone!
I find 500 euro, to be cheap.. I am looking for something new for my pocket, N900 and Xperia X2 looks good so far. I am mostly interrested in X” so far, cause of what looks to be better keyboard and windows mobil and OLED screen. (but the price will most likely be higher then 500 euro)
This really has me screwed up now. I was going to spend 450 on a high end phone (just canceled the order) and buy a 5″ MID to complement but there isn’t a 5″ MID with these features so do I 1) Go for a more powerful 5″ MID with less features (crappy webcam, less battery life) or take the slightly less powerful 3.5″ MID with better features!
Video capture on this is 800×480 too.
We’ll have to wait for hands-on with apps and to see how the dev community reacts. If the community mobilises, Maemo will be a very special platform.
most of the popular apps on the N810 have already been ported or is in the process of being ported.
I understand your pain Chippy!
I too really want a 5″ MID to complement my iPhone and I honestly can’t see the Nokia replacing my iPhone as my phone. But if it gives a good internet experience it is very very tempting.
I guess the only way to see if I can live with a 3.5″ MID is to give it a try….
(like I tried and failed with the Nokia 770, N800 and N810)
Just realised the screen is the same size as an iPhone. I was thinking the iPhone was 3.1″
They really have made it small.
I’m back to thinking it’s a bit too small….
4.1″ on the N800 is too small. 3.5 is going to be painful. At least for my eyes.
Oh Nokia, please can you release a bigger version. Even drop the 3G and double the battery size.
Get glasses, contact lenses or eye surgery. ;P
It’s bad that they’ve removed a hardware cursor keys as it is seen on the photo. I’ve missed if they have (or plan to add in future) an accelerometer? It could be rather useful for games. Touchscreen is not suitable for playing DOOM and games alike, as I do time after time on my N810. ;)
As for 4.1″, the majority of the PDA/Phones can’t boast even that. The exemplars having one, are to huge to be used for ordinary everyday voice communications.
Ah, and hands off the battery! :)
This is the best out-of-the-box smartphone out there, hands down.
It’s almost Tegra-like. And what about that Mozilla-based browser with flash 9.4? And the OpenGL ES 2.0 driven UI? All for 500 only? Brilliant. It also has a WVGA screen and a physical qwerty keypad… AND a 2nd camera… this is too good to be true.
But sadly, I’ll be waiting for a Tegra phone, simply because the 3rd party support for Tegra will be much, much, much bigger, now that the Zune HD also has Tegra…
And frankly, Tegra’s UI and widgets looked a lot smoother and more flashy… but still, the Nokia N900 is the best smartphone out there, beating the Touch Pro2 with a clear margin.
Tegra is ARM 11 based.. this is Cortex A8 based.. it’s like coparing average 90 HP car with 250 HP one, simply NO comparison.
fantastic news.
this is the first MID i have ever been seriously interested in buying.
Impressive device. Wow, 1GB Ram + Omap3.. If that thing will offer USB Host mode (and be it through an ugly hack) I will have to get it!
256 MB ram + 768 MB system storage
That’s 500 Euro before tax, so it’ll be at least £500 in the UK once you add VAT and being-British tax – way too expensive for what I’d use it for.
I still say 3.5-inch is too small for 800×480, I struggled with the 3-inch 800×480 on the Toshiba G900.
I really wanted an N900 to replace my N800, I still might get one in a year or so once the price comes down.
So, does this do voice too? The picture in this article doesn’t have the earpiece slot in the facia earlier pictures showed. If it doesn’t, I hope they make a version that doesn’t have the built-in cellular data but can tether via Bluetooth.
Alan.
Yep, it’s a fully fledged phone as well.
Could anybody improve my ignorance of Maemo, by informing me if the OS would be able to handle my SQL & visual basic infused word templates, as well as an access db?
It’s perfect for me. You’ll appriciate 3.5 on a smartphone, but want a UMPC to do anything heavey or any kind of extended browsing.
the specs on the GPS seem confusing, is it assisted GPS or does it have a standalone GPS receiver
Its a standalone GPS with assisted technology. That means it uses services like skyhook to determine a locality and passes that info to the GPS firmware to ‘prime’ the GPS location calculation hence speeding up the lock. At least that’s how I understand it!
thanks
but will the standalone GPS function if there is no or i dont have cell service
, i think the iPhone is totally assisted GPS
Well I have in my hand Touch Pro2 (got it for short test) and I just can’t decide if I want it or not.
It’s a nice device, big but not huge (at least for me), maybe just a bit heavy and it works quite good as a phone, as a MID however, I’m afraid that the screen is too small. Opera is really nice and all, but compared to my Advantage the 5″ VGA screen still feels more usable. I have to say that Pro2 is faster than Advantage.
Why I’m mentioning the Pro2 – simply because Nokia is going to be pretty similar in size so the experience is going to be similar – with different OS, better CPU and full internet of course but still… Basically my problem is that for me as a MID neither Nokia or Pro2 are good choices (Nokia will be better) – too small screen so I’ll probably want another device with bigger screen (Archos Android maybe?) and on the other hand as a phone this is a big device, so do I really get “added value” by having large and heavy phone compared to some smaller smartphones?
Also at least for me Nokia has few other possible issues – the battery looks rather small for such a powerful device, if it really has only 128MB of RAM this could be a problem and I’m not sure I want another OS.
I completely agree with pretty much all you say alese. I really want to want a N900, but the size is just wrong.
It’s actually quite amazing the difference the screen size makes on the Advantage despite it’s lower resolution.
I have an Archos 5g and it looks like their Android MID is going to take the same form factor. The Archos 5g (and the Archos 5 60GB version) are a perfect size. Large 5″ screen and not much else in terms of bezel and depth of the unit. It’s a very accomplised media player and has a version of Opera that works pretty well and copes with flash (to a certain extent).
It does make me excited about their Android product. My only worry is Archos are completely useless. Many people have failing units and the customer support is poor and the firmware despite many revisions is still prone to crashing. On top of that they make you pay for everything, many things you would think should be standard (Like the ability to charge from the mains, a USB port and TV out)
Saying that, I’ve had several Archos products now. Their quality when they work keeps tempting me back…
There are two items I want to confirm about N900.
1. Does it have FM Radio. I see it has FM Transmitter but there is no mention of FM Receiver at all. Or is it that you cannot exclude FM Receiver from FM Transmitter????? Well, I dont think so but I would appreciate confirmation about the availability of the FM Radio function.
2. What about Mobile TV functions. There is no mention anywhere about it having any DVB-H capabilities but I would be ok with it even if its capable of mobile tv vide a dongle.
Since this device appears to be multi-media focused FM radio would be a basic function. Mobile tv would be added functionality. Nokia N97 has both capabilities (DVB-H through a dongle) so surely N900 should be no exception.
If those 2 functions are omitted I would have to make do with N97 for now…. (that would be a shame considering all the other goodies promised in N900)
WTF are you on buddy?! It has FM radio RECEIVER, do you think it is capable of transmitting pirate radio?! XD
DVB-H is not widely adopted yet & adds bulk to the device.
Patrick. You’re wrong. It has an FM radio transmitter. The idea is that it’s a close-range transmitter for sending audio to a car radio on a given frequency.
DVB-H is just not taking off in Europe yet. No DVB-H.
I agree an FM radio would be good. I often find myself in positions where I simply want to hear the local radio station for news about weather, traffic, events. It’s a very low-power way to get audio too.
Chippy
Sorry then! Yes that is bit strange, still almost all radio stations (from smallest to national) are streaming their content live over internet but given that you have to pay for the data traffic vs free transmittion kinda sucks. My appologies again to Ed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it does have an FM Receiver. Both the N800 and N810 did, even though it wasn’t on the initial specs of the N800. They later released software to activate it.
Yeah. Data costs for streaming to a car (plus the dropouts associated with out-of-town driving) make it difficult. Hoping for FM receiver!
Marc, do you have a n810? I do, and there certainly is no FM receiver on mine. Sure there was on my n800, but not on the n810. The FM receiver is the only thing I really missed when I switched from my n800 to my n810.
Why do people in different forums claim there’s a FM receiver in the n810 when there simply isn’t one?
Thanks guys for your responses.
No hard feelings Patrick I know its very easy to confuse literal usage of the term fm transmitter with the technical terminology. And thanks Chippy for explaining. True the fm transmitter comes in handy when you use a different car that has no BT car stereo and you want to cut the wires. Its one of the reasons I want N97/N900.
On closer scrutiny I notice that N900 has not support for bluetooth Phone Book Access profile (PBAP). Thats sad coz it would be more convenient to use the phone fuctions with a Caller-id enabled BT headset (like Nokia BH-903) considering that at 180gms N900 is not exactly light.
Those small conveniences do inform my choice of any gadget thus N97 has more of what I absolutely need for now. Thus I am stuck with my HTC Shift and then add N97 not to mention 1 or 2 other dumbphones…. N900 could have easily been the device to rule all the other mobile devices!