N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

...as a computer or a netbook.

I had been posting my experiences in the owners thread (my first impressions here, starting from this page forwards: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34678&page=21 - go there for detailed notes) but since several threads from disgruntled users started popping up, I guess I need to post my experiences in a separate thread as well - to balance things out. As my experience clearly differs from those.

First, let me tell you that I am an Apple fanboy. Been a long time, always will be one, I guess. I have skipped the iPhone (other than testing), though, due to carrier restrictions, but I have an iPhoneOS running iPod touch as my main music machine (running some other apps too) as well as a bunch of other Apple machinery. I love their design, I love their sense of style and simplicity. I love Steve. They truly make remarkable machines. I write this on a new MacBook Pro.

Nokia, I think, makes good phone hardware, and for a while made the best smartphones out there (and in the 90s I think the best GSM phones overall), but that was past and now is now. N97, which was my previous phone, was OK in many ways - but mostly because Series 60 was so familiar to me and I needed a QWERTY hardware keyboard (a pretty good phone for S60 fan who needs both touch and QWERTY hardware), clearly it was outdated in the software side of things.

Enter N900 and Maemo 5.

First off, let me tell you that by no means does the N900 suck. I love it to bits. But one also should calibrate their expectations. Unlike some say, this is not Nokia's flagship phone. The N97 still carries that title. N900 is still a developer edition and was never meant to catch this much fire, I guess it surprised Nokia too that it did. Maemo is still at least that one release short of the consumer edition. And while I love the N900, I wouldn't recommend it for casual users. It is not for them. Maemo is not for them yet.

Did Nokia drop the ball with the development of S60? Yes they did. They had a great button-based operating system there, but times moved on and Nokia was slow to follow. Therefore Nokia is also somewhate late with Maemo, but at least the big giant is now finally moving in the right direction. This, I think, is the greatest contribution of N900 - alongside it being a one heck of a mobile computer. It is finally moving Nokia in the right direction and it is easy to see that. And we all get to tag along.

Second, about perspective. If you want an iPod/iPhone killer smartphone? Don't buy this one. If you wan't an iPhone killer mobile computer, netbook or whatnot all rolled into one and you embrace the potential of open source and freedom to do as you please on your phone, I don't think there is anything quite like the N900 out there. Not even the Google offerings are as open as this. And the iPhone is simply no match for the N900 when looking at it as a mobile computer or an open netbook.

So, two things: expectations and perspetive.

Let me tackle perspective first and use that age-old iPhone comparison.

- N900 kills the iPhone with screen resolution, the latter is useless
- N900 kills the iPhone with ability to multitask (no more Skype shutting down for something else)
- N900 kills the iPhone with freedom to install whatever you want
- N900 kills the iPhone with hardware keyboard and precision-pointing stylus
- N900 kills the iPhone with all-showing, all-doing browser with Flash
- N900 kills the iPhone with freedom to replace built-in functionality with third-party software

These are things that matter on a mobile computer and iPhone simply can not answer.

Then, the expectations.

Clearly there are a lot of people here who bought the N900 to replace a smartphone, even the iPhone. Actually, I replaced my iPod touch when I noticed how smoothly the N900 works with music too. But just because one can do this, doesn't mean this is something the N900 is fully capable or ready for. I wouldn't recommend it to a non-tech-head friend, in fact, I recommended against it just yesterday. Nokia is releasing this for the developers and tech-heads, the next round of Maemo was meant for the regular consumer. I know this is unlike, say how Apple does things, but this is quite normal from an open-source/community perspective. N900 is there to activate the community and to help mature the platform, not yet the end-result.

What, I personally think - just my opinion, one should expect from the N900:

- Open platform to install whatever, experiment, develop, watch Maemo grow
- Solid Linux with a good browser, but incomplete accompanying software...
- ...which, again, you will see grow and improve in the coming months
- Good hardware with great keyboard, iPhone killing camera and stylus for precision use
- Solid innards with great processor, graphics and memory
- An open, growing, rough-around-the-edges mobile computer that can also work as your phone

If that is not for you, then clearly, it is NOT for you. But approaching from a mobile computing perspective and calibrating ones expectations to see the potential and to be a part of this, very late, but new start for Nokia's smartphones - then it is a good and exciting place to be.

Nokia's roadmap clearly states that Maemo 6 is the consumer release. Agreed, that may be late time-wise, but at least they are moving. Maemo 6, I don't think they can afford to miss, but anyone thinking Maemo 5 would release as a final product simply didn't read the big print in my opinion. This manifests itself in things like missing OVI support, missing features, Maemo is still short of the final Qt user-interface etc. This is all public info! Because of my relatively low expectations, the N900 absolutely blew me away when I got it. It is really, really good for what it is. And actually obsoleted my iPod touch which I wasn't going to obsolete. The music-playing experience in the N900 is great, other than for the playlist management which I don't use.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

iJanne,
thanks for such a well written post. Nice to see someone wirting such a balanced and well presented piece; you could teach a few of the professional reviewers a thing or two with this!

I'm also please to see I'm not the only one with the majority of your views including this being a tech-head release. I hope the attention doesn't cause issues for Maemo down the road but I am looking forward to a strong development push - almost feels like the '80s again with the birth of home computers for the masses!

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

everyone talks about the OS being updated and worked on. has anyone ever pondered the possibility that with their focus on Maemo6, improvements on Maemo5 will be short-lived? Look at Symbian.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I think that is a fair point - and I don't expect Maemo 6 to run on the N900. But Nokia would be smart to use the development base running the N900, so perhaps they will tap into this one more and continue to work on the N900 software offering longer.

Whenever Maemo 6 comes, I'm off to that anyways, that's what we tech-heads do anyway. :) But I do think Nokia would be smart to differ from their Symbian and pre-N900 Maemo history and treat the N900 a bit different, because it truly is a torch-bearer for a reboot.

BTW: When I said "watch Maemo grow" in my original post, I also meant watch the community and third-party offerings grow.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

@ ijanne
Maemo is trying to select people for maemo news. I thing you could give great help there. Welcome to the community.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

HI there iJanne.

I have been following this device for a while, and am keen to get it to replace my N95 8GB as well as my Zen media player.

One question I have, which has not been answered elsewhere is about video bookmarking.

I watch a lot of video on my Zen on the way to work, and when I go out of the video, and listen to music, then later go back to that same video, the device remebers where I was, and resumes.

Does the N900 do this with the built-in media player? I would be using it to watch Divx, and WMV files.

I am really hoping it has this feature, as having to find my place again in a tv show every time I resume watching would be annoying...

Ta!

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

It's almost guaranteed that official development on maemo5 will be dead within a year or two with the introduction of maemo6. The N900 will likely be the only device running maemo5 unless Nokia introduces the N920 early.

However, Nokia may support the N900 in the future by allowing it to be updatable to maemo6.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I agree fully. I loved my N800 and wanted to use it all the time but I needed a phone so I got an iPhone. I quickly grew sick of the limitations that apple placed on users. Why do I need to jailbreak something to make it work in the way I need it to work?

I love my my N900 mostly for the freedom it gives me. No need to fight with a company to run software of my choosing. I am blown away by the amount of additional apps that are already starting showing up in testing repos.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I think there's pretty good reason to think n900 won't run maemo 6. But despite past experience, I think nokia'll sustain support for n900 for a good few years because it's picked up a larger consumer base than they expected. Added to which, the expected hardware changes for maemo 6 mean some people will actively choose to stay behind.

And in terms of apps, people are being steered towards writing in Qt, which will run equally on both platforms (and hopefully symbian, too).

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Yes, it picks up from where you last stopped watching a video.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I don't know about you, but i expect to update my N900 with Maemo6 when it's available.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Awesome thanks!

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I wouldn't expect that. Ofc the only known new features are support for multitouch and full portrait mode support.
But it probably will require a 1Ghz to run smoothly, because that is already state of the art for smarthphones in the next 1-2 months and I suspect the new iphone having 1Ghz cpu aswell.


edit: http://gizmodo.com/5324186/samsungs-...iphone-and-pre

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

In Maemo summit presentation Omap 3 was mentioned as minium processor for Maemo 6

http://www.umpcportal.com/2009/10/ma...-maemo-summit/

http://www.umpcportal.com/wp-content...0073_thumb.jpg

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Omap3 will stay the same for maemo6...but the required clock rate of the omap3 might be higher

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Clock rate is the single silliest reason for it not to be available for the N900, as it does not require any backporting effort, it would just run slower (which would be understandable). ~50% of clock speed difference can't be the difference between super-smooth and unusably slow.

From all the reasons listed the only real one is the multitouch, and even that one does not HAVE to mean breaking backwards compatibility.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I think it would be really nice to have a resistive option in future Maemo devices based on how well the stylus works in same cases like browsing tight web pages.

I never quite understood it myself before, but I used to love the stylus on Nintendo DS in certain games, and on the other hand hated how hard it was to browse on the iPod touch with thick fingers (and mine aren't even that thick). Stylus is really useful.

A point to the N900, then.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I agree with everything you said. Great post!
I just wish the GPS bug(s) would get fixed quickly.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Full-potrait is coming to Maemo 5, is what I gather from the rumblings. Multi-touch is IMHO a fetish, but YMMV. But 1 GHz? Qt is more bloat? I suppose the only reason to move to it is because Nokia bought Trolltech then? Anyhow, all that is likely another forum.

But it is awful marketing to hint that the next version of the OS will not run on a product that isn't even rolled out yet. Just 'cos Microsoft can get away with such things, doesn't mean Nokia, with their botched launch, can do the same.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Kudos...excellent writeup!

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Increased clock and mobile devices is from a practical standpoint, counter-intuitive. Battery technology has not caught up. A good example is snapdragon and the 3430. 3430 is a more balanced chipset where as most of the weight of power with snap is the cpu. Snapdragons are 1ghz, but highest clocked is 750mhz and still a battery hog.

We need to see lower nm fabrication of chips to help correlate power consumption curves with battery technogy that is available.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

N800 was released with Maemo 3 (OS2007) and a clockrate of 330 MHz and when N810 was released with Maemo4 (OS2008) the old N800 were able to upgrade to Maemo4 and it increased the clockrate automatically to 400Mhz just like N810 used. I don't see why nokia can't do the same with maemo5 to maemo 6.

http://arstechnica.com/hardware/revi...07/02/n800.ars
http://europe.nokia.com/get-support-...oftware-update

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

What really has to happen is to have apps written for Maemo 5 be easily ported (if any porting is required at all - realistically no porting) to run on Maemo 6. Otherwise I think it would hold back app development if Meamo5 is a dead end for developers. There should be relative ease of backward compatabilty between major releases.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Because the 3430 in the N900 is not underclocked (unlike the 2420 in the N800). There have been hopes of a potential boost to 720MHz based on Pandora similarities, but more knowledgeable folks suggested it's a no-go for the N900 (it was unclear if it was a voltage or a head dissipation problem).

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Great write-up, although I think one of statements that is inflammatory and riles people up is saying it's "better" than the iPhone, even if you're just referring to for your own use. As you stated (and I heartily agree), the N900 really isn't a good choice for everyone. That makes it DIFFERENT than the iPhone, which is a lot more accessible (due largely to some of the restrictions put on the device).

Plus if someone asks (inevitably...) if it's better than this phone or that phone and you just say "it's totally different, its more like a computer", it's like a total **** you. Either people will know something about N900 and get interested, get offended, or just think you're and ahole. :D

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I like your post but there are a few points that you are exaggerating on. First of all you don't even own an iPhone so I don't think you're in the position to compare...don't you think? You must have used both devices for some time to make an accurate comparison.

Either way:

Surely you are kidding about this point right? Resolution is lower but I don't think this was ever a problem when using the device.

Jailbreak and you can multitask as much as you want. In fact, I do that on a daily basis. The point is correct though. You can watch the iPhone battery evaporate if you leave things open.

Except that you can install anything you want on the iPhone if you jailbreak. Let's also remember that you HAVE stuff to install on the iPhone as opposed to 2 weather widgets on the N900. I doubt any other device out there beats the iPhone at this right now.

Agreed. The screen on the N900 is pretty damn good for a resistive screen. The color temperature is extremely warm though and that might bother some people. There's also no replacement for a good hardware keyboard.

That can't scroll a page smoothly and crashes quite often. Flash is here, it works but it's not pleasant. That was to be expected looking at the hardware.

This goes back to your original software point. What can be replaced with 3rd party software as of today? Who says it will be any better? Just because you can replace doesn't mean it's a good thing. I know the phone just came out but Nokia doesn't get to play in their own sandbox. They have to play on the playground with everyone else. If they release a device that has a long list of shortcomings they will be punished by the market, not praised for advancing on their own internal roadmap.

You make some other points about how smoothly the N900 works with music etc. That is completely laughable. The media player on the N900 comes nowhere close to the iPod. Also, the iPod/Phone doesn't even flinch if you play music in the background and do something else...say browse the web, play a game...you name it.

Is the N900 better than the other Maemo tablets before it? I would say it is and by light years. Is it better than other devices on the market? I would say it excels at nothing. Lots of features, all unpolished which is perfectly fine for 'enthusiasts' but not for the reality of the market where you have the Droid, iPhone a myriad of HTC devices and so on.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

sadfist - I admit, I did go for some controversy, simply in response to all the inflammatory postings comparing N900 and iPhone - just wanted a new twist to it. ;) Hopefully the content speaks for itself, though.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Does anyone want to take a wild guess as to whether the 10.1 update for flash (if Nokia includes it in an update) will have support for the powervx GPU? Adobe is doing GPU accelated flash apparently in 10. Could help make things smoother in the future.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Yes you seem to have some sort of agenda :D One question has been bothering me... Why is it so important for you to make people believe in your "excels at nothing"-point of view?

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Ahh he just has sand in his vag because he wasted 100 bucks getting the device early :)

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

You got me. My agenda is that I have all sorts of phones on my desk and I am comparing them. This is a forum where people post opinions. Why does everyone posting negative facts about the N900 need to have an agenda?

Why don't you post something that this phone excels at?

Here's one to get you started:

- Performing the same tasks (browsing, bluetooth music), the iPhone is left with about 55% battery...the N900 with about 75%. So there you go. Battery life.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Hah' that was money well spent :)

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

I do think that he makes a good point in that this is like a 1.0 release in that there is going to be a lot of room for improvement. Maemo is far from a mature product as a phone and it will take some time for it to be. After seeing all the issues Android went through, that shouldn't be a shocker. It also shouldn't be a shocker that a device that lets you do more is going to show you additional flaws.

Personally, it looks like it is going to be what I want, since phone functionality is somewhat secondary. I don't live on my cell phone and often it spends a lot of time off. That being said, I could used a portable computer which I can do some web browsing and other functions that need a computer. I expect that things will improve as times goes on.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

You know - you could just take the phone back and get a refund since you bought it from the store. Just a suggestion. You do seem very determined to make everyone else adopt your - "it sucks" opinion.

I will acknowledge that there appear to be some hardware (Mic not working) and software (random reboot) issues with some peoples devices and thats bad - but overall I think the response has been positive.

Anyway I guess if I hated a device as much as you seem to hate this one - I wouldnt keep it when I have the option of getting my money back.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

You made some good points in your post, but the statement I quote above is incorrect. Remember, the N900 is targeted at early adopters, gearheads, and most importantly, developers! The N900 is better than other devices for that group. It leverages technologies that most open source desktop developers are already familiar with. Open source developers are going to find themselves irresistibly attracted to this device because of that. Early adopters and gearheads are going to reap the rewards of that. I too wouldn't recommend the N900 to my non-geek friends. Just yesterday I encouraged one of them to get the Droid. But for geeks, the N900 is the bomb!

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

It does make the image look sharper, but for practical purposes it probably doesn't make a huge difference. But it does help when you output it using the TV out.



Several problems with that. For one it requires you to jailbreak the device meaning each Apple update means you have to wait till that update is jailbroken. Two, last time I checked backgrounder and kikare (or whatever the second one was called) weren't 100% solid. 3) The iPhone's apps are likely designed around using the available resources since Apple provided them with a system where only one application runs at a time (besides Apple approves applications like their media player, telephone operations, etc..).



See above post about the problem with jailbreaking.


So far from the videos I've seen in your thread, yours seems to be the only one with the issue with playing music and doing something else. Is it not as smooth as the iPod/iPhone? Yes, but then again the iPhone came from the iPod lineage where its primary function was music (and later other media). While the n900 came from the tablets lineage where the purpose is all around functionality.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Many thanks to iJanne, for this post, very well formed. I found myself agreeing with your outlook on the Maemo platform, and the N900. :)

Megacrazy, just curious I read in one of your other posts where you stated you had something like 8 smartphones on your desk. I am just curious as to which ones, would you mind listing them?

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Well lets start with telling how good the browser is and how many of quite my day to day websites can be used easily with n900 and not with iphone :

1. use my bank's website (access my account, pay my bills etc.) easily

2. Order movie tickets

3. music blog i listen to and read regularily

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

All valid points.

One thing I don't care about though: where, who, how these phones came from. They're all players in the market. Point is, the iPhone is a much smoother user experience overall. Let's not pretend like it's not. Can the N900 play music and browse the web at the same time? Sure it can...just not at iPhone levels.

Re: N900 - My experience: It is better than iPhone...
 

Wonder why ?

No flash and only 320x480..

Much less to handle + that you cant multitask and do other demanding stuff at the same time...

Edit
Cant you just go back to youre Iphone and be happy :)

I can take youre N900 :D