Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

No, you do not.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Hmm, am I missing something or did nobody talk about the front facing camera yet? Or is that no longer in / results of bad speculative reporting?

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Thanks for the links. The preview on http://my-symbian.com/other/preview_n900.php is very nice :)

From Kehaan.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

I love the the first preview , it's very detailed . i have been holding this question all along , why all preview and hands on did not ever touch base on battery life issues .

At the end of preview , it says " What hasn't been tested " is power consumption / battery life . He did not even tell any feeling about power consumption and battery life . I recalled a video demo , a Nokia sales guy mentioned " our target is one day full usage " when people asked about battery life .

I have strong doubt on N900 has big issues on battery life for this super mobile computer with a tiny battery . I really do not expect a pain at back like Iphone on battery issues .

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

The 2nd reviewer didn't even mention about the camera or video recording. He compared the iPhone brower to N900 and say N900 is 1-3 seconds slower but never mentioned the fact that maybe it's faster on the iPhone because it doesn't render flash contents?? He sounds like a iPhone fan-boy from the get-go.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

@ My-Symbian.com

Thank you for this nice preview. I was really looking forward to see a sample of the actual recorded video. The Youtube videos look very good and it seem this can actually replace a separate camcorder for all but most demanding users. For casual home/vacation movie purposes this seem perfectly adequate.

Would it be possible to upload uncompressed sample movies somewhere for more critical analysis? Especially I'd look for the color saturation and noise performance at little bit darker environments, such as the second movie clip.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Now THAT is how a (p)review is done! Hats off to Michal.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Indeed, I didn't. But that's, as I wrote, because it's *REALLY* hard to judge such things based on an early proto. As others wrote, battery life is usually THE LAST thing to optimize, after eveything else had been done. I used many protos in the past, and some of them were emptying their batteries in just one hour, whereas final models were then providing 5 or 6 hours of active use, i.e. an improvement of 600% or so.

OK, it's not a secret and I can disclose that with the current early proto and old software I get something like 3 hrs of use (and about an hour or maybe 1,5 hr more with the GSM radio turned off) but it really does not mean ANYTHING and it may look completely different on final hardware and with optimized software... The most power hungry part seems to be the GSM radio as there's a huge difference of standby times (i.e. when the device is not in use) between when the phone is turned on or off. When it's on, the N900 cries for a charger after 7-8 hours while when it's off it lasts almost two days.... But it surely does not result from the GSM radio being that power hungry but from the software controlling it not being fully optimized yet.

Please, be patient, it's just several weeks left for the device to start shipping. Why now worry about hypothetical poor standby/work times if it's not going to be the case on final units...?

And even if the standby turns out to be lower than our expectations, I actually wouldn't worry THAT much about it. At least the N900 has a REMOVABLE battery (and quite a popular one used in lots of newer Nokia phones) so we can always have a spare one, unlike the iPhone. And at least they do not explode like iPhones and iPods, either ;-)

I decided to include YouTube uploaded videos in the review because I compared them and it turned out that the resulting YouTube video actually differs only very subtly from the original. You really wouldn't see much difference. But if I find some web space, there's no problem with uploading the originals.

And like with the battery life, I'd expect the video recording to undergo some considerable changes before the device starts shipping. On the tested unit the only video mode was "Automatic" without any White balance settings, without possibility to turn the Flash on, etc., which I believe ISN'T how they intend to have it on final units. I decided to post the videos because I found them good enough for an early proto (not worse than quality offered by commercial builds of other phone models), especially when it comes to detailness and noise levels. But IMHO it's too early to judge things like colours based on them.

I didn't write about it simply because so far I haven't found a way to use it :-) But my unit is an EARLY one (and I had no time to send it for flashing a newer firmware) so maybe things changed since then.

Hi Reggie, yeah, it's been ages since we last met. Unfortunately, I had to reject last two or three invitations to Mobius due to family related problems, but hopefully John is patient enough to invite me once again next time ;-) It would be really great to meet you again!

Yes, now I am using the 50D and desperately trying to resist the temptation of the upcoming 7D :-)

Ugggh, right. It was meant to be "Nokia phone". Corrected, thanks!

Regarding the storage memory, I have just received a couple of comments on this from people 'in the know' explaining that it is being worked on and how the additional storage provided by /opt will be handled. So it's great that it's actually a HISTORY now. It was one of my biggest concerns. Not that it couldn't be solved anyway, but less advanced users might be in trouble... But it has been confirmed to me that is not an issue anymore so let's just forget about it. I will update my preview in a minute.

Best regards,
Michal Jerz
My-Symbian.com

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Awesome review from My-Symbian.com. Big up! I am eagerly awaiting the full review, as I am a bit worried about the battery-life.

I have a question somewhat related to a paragraph in the preview:

I was wondering if someone knew if there were any ways (perhaps from third parties) to create images of your phone? Similar to Norton Ghost for computers? The thing is I am kind of a linux n00b, and have on occasion been known to break my linux-box, and forced to reinstall. Incremental backups would therefore be a good solution in case I suddenly do something stupid (which, let's face it, is inevitable:p).

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Michal,

Will you do a comparison of the browsers' speed of iPhone 3GS and N900? For example, load up same websites at the same time and see which one load faster! Nokia hailed N900 browser as the fastest or best...so i was curious how or why the other reviewer' say otherwise.

Also you say regarding the video recording that there are certain pre-sets for white balance settings and do you mean that by selecting one of this preset that you can eliminate the sudden change of lighting or coloring as seen in the 1st video? Do you think the video quality is the same as N97?

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Being a full-on linux distro...there are a myriad of ways to back it up. I suppose you could probably even install Amanda and have it back up to S3 (if someone has ported it, that is) LOL...though there are less complicated ways such as rsync, tar, and dd that can be brought to bear.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Some of you are asking for benchmarks and things of that sort.. stop, the software ain't final, therefore the data won't be valid.

And if you still want that data, even after plainly listening to that fact, then you've got more issues at heart than just wanting a new device. :rolleyes:

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

There are screenshots in the review showing the pluginmanager of the browser that strongly reminds me of my desktop firefox. is it possible to install 'normal' firefox addons (or at least with some minor tweaks)?
I would love to see Adblock+ on the device!

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Sure, if I can only borrow the iPhone from somewhere. But as some reviewers pointed out, the iPhone browser may APPEAR to be faster in some cases because of simply ignoring a lot of content that the N900 browser processes and renders, like e.g. Javascript, Flash etc. It simply has much less to do to show a webpage. Another difference is the resolution of the display, 2.5 times higher on the N900, hence fitting 2.5 times more content at once, i.e. once again more data to process/render.

And even if the resulting difference is like one second or maybe two, in exchange for over twice more content fitting on the screen and Flash/Javascript etc. fully working, who would worry about it? I don't :-)

I didn't do any comparative tests, but Nokia saying that the browser is the fastest actually may be true, if we measure it with relation to the amount of data/content it processes and not just how much seconds it takes to show a page. If a site with lots of Flash shows up in the N900 browser e.g. five seconds later than on the iPhone but WITH the Flash content as opposed to the iPhone showing it without Flash, then it's not OK to just say that the iPhone did it faster... And the same goes for the screen resolution. If the N900 shows a page several seconds later than the iPhone but you can see 250% more of it at once (i.e. full width and 30% more vertically) then just comparing the loading times isn't correct. It's all very RELATIVE.

YES, setting the AWB to one of the pre-sets can eliminate the "flickering". With the AWB active and the lighting/colours changing like in the 1st clip, it is normal (even on camcorders) to have such a sudden changes as the AWB kicks in and tries to adjust itself to the changed conditions.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Haven't read whole review yet. I liked the author told something about his background and related experience in the preface of the preview.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

If Maemo5 isn't to different than Maemo4 then we already have a working mechanism. Just plug your tablet/phone into a computer (instructions for both Linux and Windows have been provided here before). For Linux you'll be using partimage. For Windows, I think Acronis does the job (make sure it supports ext2) file systems. Though I don't know what FS the phone will be using.

Plug it in, for Linux you just type in the command "sudo partimage" and follow the instructions. The end result will be a compressed image of it on your computer!

I've been doing that for a while so if something on my n800 screws up, a simple restore to that last known good image (I do backups once every 3 months since I don't install software as often anymore due to the slowed pace of new software coming out for the n800) takes less then an hour.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

The 256 MB NAND where all applications reside uses UBIFS, succesor of JFFS2. The 32 GB eMMC uses VFAT. IIRC MicroSD cards are by default formatted as VFAT. Although one could format both with whatever the kernel supports. E.g. Ext2 or Ext3. One could make a backup with something like dd or rsync. Or an image, like you do. Something like Time Machine for Linux could also be nice, allowing one to make snapshots.

[EDIT]Time Drive.. pff Time Walk. Drive Time. All too confusing. Time Drive is inspired by something called Fly Back, and cross platform if you consider Cygwin.[/EDIT]

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Well, VFAT, Ext3 and swap.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of what good analysis is about. Once again, hats off and keep up the good work.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Yeah, I'm very curious about the front-facing (user-facing) camera too... in particular its focal length and low-light sensitivity. This is in relation to the feaibility of using it for image processing of an analog compass to substitute for the lack of an onboard digital compass, for AR apps. This would require a short focal length as well as the ability to run both cameras at once (normal camera to get the world image, user-facing camera to process compass image and get compass orientation).

The reason I'm seriously considering this is because the powered USB host is starting to look questionable, and making a powered external digital compass with separate battery could end up being too large to be useful.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

I do not get this idea at all. How are you going to use a compass, which has to be parallel to the camera AND parallel to the earth to work? Users would want to be able to hold the camera up and pan it, at which point the compass stops working due to gravity. If you get past this though, you could just use a lens over the compass to distort it into something legible to the assumed long focal length of the facing camera.

Personally, I do not need any ARG software to make comments about the ground or my shoes and pants. :D

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Let's think a bit out of the box... First, the compass does not need to be parallel to the Earth. If it's a ball compass, it can rotate freely and you 'just' have to recognize the orientation of the ball. But, even if you decide to go with a classic pin compass, say, because of size considerations, it still doesn't mean you have to be parallel to the camera - just that you need a small mirror or prism on the camera. Massive effort for questionable results ? Absolutely, but not impossible :)

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

The swap is NOT on its own dedicated NAND. It is a partition on the internal 32GB. Sorry.

Yes, it's there. There will be community-developed support for it very soon.


Seriously. As Quim and others have been telling us over and over, don't worry about it. It probably shouldn't be in your review, because your discussion of the topic makes readers worry about something that they shouldn't be worried about.

If you look at the wiki, mailing lists, talk threads etc, you'll see that the /opt thing is very new, and it will take some time to get that all sorted out. I know that most community developers are planning to put their stuff there, and I'm sure all of the apps in the repositories will get the maemo-optify treatment, too.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

But it is a limitation, and however adroitly it is dealt with, it is still there. It shouldn't be brushed under the rug just because "we shouldn't worry about it". As you said "most" developers are planning and dealing with, not all. Someone will create/port an app that isn't properly optified, and someone will find the right combination of apps that eat up.that 65MB and causes all sorts of bad things to happen. At least if people are aware of it they can keep an eye on their free space after installing apps and possibly avoid unexpected problems and/or notify the developer of a potential issue.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

The MySymbian review is far too lenient ! Nokia may well have written it. I will take this review with a pinch of salt however thorough it seems. It appears Nokia has dropped the ball here - lousy keyboard with no Dpad, fragile screen which appears a fingerprint magnet, lack of basic features eg MMS, limited potrait mode etc.

I think I'll stick to my brilliant N810 and trusted Symbian phone for now.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

do you have a device to even make these judgements on ?

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

How did they tweak the 5 seconds interval write for the journaling part of ext3 ? :)

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

As I mentioned over in the My-Symbian forums, this is going to be dealt with at the infrastructure level with the Extras QA process. Really, seriously, it's not something users need to worry about. :)

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Can you provide some background on this issue?

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

I highly recommend boxwave's anti-glare screen protector. I've had the same one on my n800 for around 2 years now and never had to replace it; the screen is much more visible, and to me it also enhances the texture of the screen.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Keyboard looks alright, not perfect and a PITA the missing | but still... I personally do not think any D-Pad is worthwhile unless its a joypad style one anyway. The ones with a button in the middle are just not usable for gaming IMO.

The "fragile screen that is a fingerprint magnet" comment is totally out of line too. Unless you actually own a device and have broken the screen, how can you make such a bold claim?

When I saw photos of the iPod touch I thought it was a fingerprint magnet. When I tried it out in the store I thought it was a fragile screen. But in actual use you can't see the fingerprints except when holding against the light or flash photography, which 99% of the photos of the N900 are. I have also had a few "oh crap" moment where I dropped something accidentally on the screen or knocked it against something in my pocket, but it doesn't even have a mark on it. So you really cannot tell except in real-world use how good a screen is with regards to these things.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Sure, how ext3 work for it's journaling is by writing a log of its filesystem transaction to disk every 5 seconds so to be able to recover if the power is cut, there is a crash or whatever...

ext2 doesn't have such feature but then need a full fsck scan in case of a crash which might be painful for a portable device... On the other hand writing every 5 seconds on flash media isn't the best of ideas considering that's over 6M writes a year if the cell is always on (and it will).

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Curious about this too...

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Ah, I see your point. Will the journaling cause noticeable flash wear? Well, anecdotal evidence from N8x0 owners booting from their flash cards leads me to believe that no, it wont.

For the most part, modern flash memory seems perfectly capable of standing up to the rigors of usage for more than its usable life span.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

I knew someone would say that :-) Running my site for 10 years now, each time I wrote a generally positive review of something, I was always accused by someone of being sponsored or bribed by Nokia, or a hidden employee of Sony Ericsson, or - in the best case - a person that praises Symbian phones in order to attract more people to getting one and then buying software via my site :-) And vice versa: when I criticized something, I was accused of being bribed by the competitors :-) So I got used to it :-)

I've just counted the PROs and CONs listed in the summary of the preview and it's a 16:14 ratio, so I think the preview is acceptably well balanced. But if you think that Nokia would list almost as many drawbacks as advantages if they wrote the preview themselves, then be my guest :-)

While I wrote that the screen seems to be more fragile than touchscreens of other devices I've used, I definitely do not think that it is a "fingerprint magnet". At least not more than any other touchscreen device.

The keyboard definitely isn't lousy. It's smaller but actually better when it comes to tactile feedback and operation than most of other devices I compared it to.

And "lack of basic features like MMS", well... it's actually JUST the MMS (and maybe also Voice dialling), other than that I can't think of any "basic feature" or even an advanced one that's missing. On the contrary, the device offers A LOT of features most of other phones do not have. How fantastically well VoIP/Skype is integrated or how the multitasking works on this machine are the best examples.

Finally, the portrait mode isn't "limited". It is actually FULLY supported, just not used by built-in applications, simply because virtually all of them are much more usable in landscape, maybe except for the PDF reader that would be quite useful in portrait for reading ebooks. But the portrait mode can be used without any problems by any third party application if only a developer finds it useful and suitable for what his app is going to do, so you should not worry about scarcity of 3rd party software taking advantage of it...

Just to make some things clear...

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

ok maybe I went over the top there. I will try the N900 for myself before passing further judgement.I just think the N810 is near perfect so Nokia should have just speeded it up and added a GSM chip.

Very good review though. Thanks and keep up the good work.

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Hi

I have two questions for those who use the device:

- Is there "smart dial" when dialing a number in portrait mode? You use the "T9" keypad to tap the first letters of the name (the 3 letters under each number, but you tap only once), and the phone proposes you the corresponding contacts. I found this really useful on my HTC, because you don't need to open "contacts" anymore. it misses a lot on the iphone too.
It seems to be present in landscape mode, but in portrait?

- About the week view of the calendar, can you adjust the "scale" of the hours, so that for example you can see from 8am to 6pm without scrolling?

Thanks for your answers!

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

one correction: N900 and iphone 3gs don't have same gpu.
N900 has SGX530
Iphone 3gs has SGX535
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerVR

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

cheers, didn't know that.

a shame, the more commonality between the platforms the better, as far as hoping for lots of cross platform game ports.

other than having twice the fill-rate, any other notable differences between the two GPU's?

Re: Two extensive previews of N900 prototype
 

Nope, is not.