Yes thats true but the list I provided are all physical parts that bulk up the N900.Apple have done a superb job (and nexus one) in making their devices smaller with so much power but they do lack a lot of things which stopped me even considering them as a serious purchase. Camera quality and memory being the main ones.

Oh also add to the list

- FM Transmitter
- Keyboard

Not long. The N900 is getting into that neighborhood already.

That just points out the importance of having what is, basically, a real desktop OS loaded on your phone and to me, of the major players only Maemo/MeeGo fits that description. As they are now, Android, Symbian, WinMo, even Win Phone 7 and iPhone's OS-X - all the other OS were designed as 'smartphone' OS. Only Maemo/MeeGo really was envisioned and designed from the start for real 'pocket computers'.

Others aimed too low, thinking in terms of what was currently available and how it's used. They didn't plan far enough ahead for hardware to come and how it would be used. That's where MeeGo is already ahead of the competition - planning for the future. It will be ready for everything the hardware can throw at it in 2, 3, even 5 years.

But no doubt Apple has some OS-X tricks up its sleeve...it's unix base gives it a lot of flexibility also. We'll see if the limitations in the other OS allow them to keep pace. I have doubts.

Anyway, back on topic...nice hardware, an improvement for sure, but...
1. No physical keyboard
2. No removable battery
3. No removable storage
4. Capacitive screen
5. Selling my soul to the Emperor Jobs to be allowed into his walled kingdom
...equals total fail.

@crashdamage: Jobs has talked about how unnecessarily complex computers are in the past (for the masses), so I don't think it's even in his radar to make a pocketable computer in the conventional sense. What I see them (Apple) do in their mobile OSX devices is distilling functionalities to be consumed by the mass. So I don't think we're even talking about products targeted in the same market...

@pissing contest above: do you guys need something to measure with? here you go:

Indeed.

Although in terms of functional components the N900 and iPhone 3GS are neck and neck, in fact the iPhone is arguably out in front as it has a digial compass which the N900 lacks. It's not important that the N900 has more pixels in it's screen or camera sensor, at a high level both devices are feature matched which is the point I'm making. A 3.5" screen is a 3.5" screen whether it has a high or low DPI; a camera will be a few mm's square whether it has 2MP, 5MP or 12MP etc. Quality isn't the point, it's the integration of these components that all have a similar size when considered as discrete components.

That said, the new iPhone device has a 5MP camera (same as N900), is believed to have a higher resolution screen (no confirmation on specific resolution, though if true I'd expect it to be similar to the N900 or possibly higher), and no idea on RAM memory - could be the same or more than the existing 3GS (which at 256MB is the same as the N900).

I have no idea how Apple have achieved this level of integration, unless the A4 CortexA8 CPU + PowerVR GPU SoC also includes all the GPS/WiFi/Bluetooth/accelerometer/digital compass gubbins that are typically discrete components/ICs on a Nokia OMAP3-based logic board.

What it says to me is that TI and other SoC suppliers need to up their game to compete at this level of integration - OMAP is not this highly integrated.

Alternatively, Nokia need to start designing their own SoCs, which is expensive, although considering how many devices Nokia manufacture every year it baffles me they haven't taken the same route that Apple have taken after only a few years in the mobile phone business.

Perhaps the diversity of the Nokia device portfolio has meant investment in a single highly integrated SoC could not be justified.

I agree completely, I just meant that unlike some other mobile OS, iPhone's OS-X should be capable enough to add whatever 'distilled functionalities' His Excellency Sir Steve deems his peons to be worthy of.

So, where does that leave qwerty, replaceable SD cards and batteries (plus, front-facing cam, but that will probably be matched in the 3GS successor) ?

I for my part must confess that I also like the looks of it.
My first thought when I saw it was 'Hey cool, looks like a Nokia!'.

The Samsung chip in 3GS was allready a SoC solution (Cortex A8+ GPU+ memory on a single chip).

I'm NOT comparing the N900 with the current or future iPhone here, I'm congratulating Apple on designing a tiny logic board.

If you want to discuss the N900 feature set in terms of the iPhone then within the context of this thread, any additional components or features present in the N900 - such as those you have mentioned - can be added to any logic board at no real cost in terms of size.

Keyboard? Just a few wire connectors. SD socket? Another few connectors. These connectors may be missing from the new Apple logic board but adding them wouldn't be hard or increase it's size by much, if at all. Adding the keyboard itself and SD socket to the *device* would increase it's overall bulk, but that's not the point of this thread, which is about the remarkably small Apple logic board.

As for a replaceable battery - it's something that matters to some consumers, but has nothing to do with the logic board design.