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SINGAPORe : These days, the operating system (OS) that runs on your smartphone shares as much spotlight, if not more, than the device itself. That's an indication of how smartphones are becoming more like software platforms, rather than just communication devices.
For this review, the spotlight is on Maemo, a Linux-based OS developed by Nokia that was initially made for its Internet tablet devices. Now, Maemo has been shoehorned into Nokia's N900 smartphone.
From a hardware standpoint, the N900 can stand its ground with its 600MHz mobile processor (plus a graphics chip for added oomph), 32GB of storage and a microSD slot to expand it to 48GB.
The 5-megapixel camera churns out decent pictures with its built-in flash and Carl Zeiss lens. Pictures tend to be a little underexposed though, when the flash is not in use.
The 3.5-inch touchscreen display is one of the most responsive resistive screens we've used - which means you can use it either with your fingers or the included stylus.
Despite this, operating the phone feels clunky. The screen doesn't support multitouch gestures, so using GPS and Ovi Maps takes some getting used to. Thankfully, Nokia has included a circular gesture that you can make with one finger to zoom in on maps.
The N900 includes a slide-out keyboard, but all the keys have been squeezed into three rows. We kept pressing the wrong keys because of the cramped layout.
The Maemo OS allows you to customise your home screens on the M900 extensively. Feel free to add widgets, contacts and bookmarks to the four main panels, which can be swapped around.
There is plenty of eye candy onscreen as you operate the N900, especially when you multitask between applications, activating the effects and screen transitions. Menus and applications blur and fade away as you switch focus from one to the other. Tapping on the onscreen dashboard button arranges open windows and applications in a series of thumbnails, making multitasking a breeze.
The Ovi Store lets you install more applications easily. The phone can even download updates for the Maemo OS over the air (which simply means you don't need to hook it up to a computer - but make sure you have a generous data plan).
Maemo isn't very intuitive, though. Despite all the hardware keys available, we found it hard to head back to the main "home" screen. There's also another quirk that we find disconcerting: Apart from the phone and photo applications, you operate the phone in a landscape orientation. And it doesn't matter whether you even use the slide-out keyboard, you still have to use it in horizontal mode. This makes one-handed operation challenging when you're on the move.
Skype support on the N900 is hard to beat. You can switch between normal calls and VoIP calls seamlessly.
Then, there's the desktop browser, which lets you view websites in a manner you're used to on your desktop computer. Websites are rendered faithfully, thanks to the browser's Firefox underpinnings and a full version of Adobe's Flash plugin. YouTube videos loaded without much slowdown or difficulty.
Programmers and developers will be chuffed to know that this Linux-based phone has a Terminal application so they can tinker around with it. In fact, the way the OS is designed, it seems more accessible as a pocket computer for geeks that doubles as a phone. There have been reports on the web, for instance, where a geek installed the Mac OS on an N900 with a software hack.
The N900 seems like an early step for Nokia in terms of where it's headed with the Maemo OS. The average consumer might be somewhat frustrated at how the phone operates and departs from the usual smartphone. However, it might appeal to geeks and computer coders with the extensive ways in which they can tinker with the phone's software and OS.
The Nokia N900 is expected to be on shelves by the end of the month. Local pricing isn't available yet but the US pricing for this device is US$649 (S$907).
- TODAY/il
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