Got my phone today.

Two parts of first-day impressions:

First some physical impressions. Lately I'm coming from N97 and E90 prior to that, so I'm used to sizeable phones.

* Thickness-wise it feels on par with N97 but the screen does make it clearly wider. No problem fitting the official Nokia black/yellow sock "case", though. Nicely more phone-feeling size-wise than the E90 Communicator was. Good in hand.

* Opening the keyboard does not quite have the same satisfaction as N97 because the N900 doesn't snap open, you have to push it open - once it reaches the end, though, the N900 does snap open quite comfortably. OTOH, the way the screen is not angled in N900, is quite a bit more useable when holding the phone and it feels sturdier. Maybe N97 felt a bit more show-off here, N900 more useful tool.

* Silly, and unforeseen problem, the camera protrudes from the casing enough to make the phone tilt and wobble a little when placed on a desk because (unlike N97, the battery cover is not angled to compensate). One could solve this with a bit of rubber under the right side of the phone - or, like I do, by placing it over the aforementioned Nokia sock (which stabilises it physically) when using the phone placed on a desk. Or just use it by picking it up, like I'm sure most do.

* The small stand in the phone does snap in nicely, but feels quite flimsy otherwise. I wouldn't call this a problem, it does what it is supposed to do - that is, if you want to place the phone on a desk and just watch some video or something, it works good. But don't think of using the stand as a lethal weapon or smacking the N900 when the stand is mounted. When using the stand, the screen is somewhat pointing more to the sky, than the N97 angled screen, but when not comparing them side by side they feel similar in this regard.

* Compared to the N97, the USB port would seem to be in a better place. The side-mounted USB on the N97 always lead to silly situations when trying to use the phone while charging. The N900 wins this one, although charging while talking on the phone will still look crazy (the port is on the top).

* The screen-lock button on the N97 was overly sensitive and seemed to live a life of its own, sometimes deciding to lock and other times, I guess, just taking a vacation. The N900 screen-lock button seems sturdier and seems to work well. The positioning favors horizontal use, in vertical use it may not be optimum. An improvement over the N97 here in my (early) opinion.

* Keyboard. Definitely an improvement over the N97 and approaching E90 levels on comfort and usability. Nokia did well, in my opinion, disregarding the (poor) D-pad of the N97 and widening the keyboard and making it more E90 style. The keys are still smaller, but it seems quite useable. And a huge improvement for myself are the return of the accented scandinavian characters. The N97 had these behind two key-presses and that made texting and emailing a pain. I understand some consider the lack of four arrow keys a bad thing, but for me this was the better compromise. I'm sure a solution (configurable keys) for games will be found. Of course E90 is still the best in my experience, but N900 does well with the form-factor and size available - the E90 is just too big for pockets. I also welcome the CTRL-key again. Hated how N97 did away with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V! N900 wins over N97 with room to spare.

* Stylus. Now, the lack of a capacitative screen is a turn-off for some, but I must say the N900 does capitalize on the benefits of its chosen screen technology better than the N97 did. The fact that the stylus is inserted into the phone means I actually started using it (unlike the N97 styles which would have had to "hang in there"). And once I started using it, the benefits over poking with a finger on, say, tight web pages were obvious. No more missed presses like on the iPod touch I have. I'm sure capacitative is better for finger touch (more experiences below), but the stylus does offer some tangible benefits in my books.

* N97 is a nicely designed phone, but also it doesn't look very long-lasting, style-wise. It looks a bit gimmicky like it will go out of fashion quick. N900, like the E90, have this timeless boxy look accented with glossy metal-looking trim. N900 has its familiarity with N97, but the look is executed in a much more simplistic way that lets the content of the screen (Maemo) speak for itself. An upgrade over N97 overall in my books, very happy with the way the phone looks.

* The screen. I got limited exposure on the screen today, since most of the day I had it covered with the black protective film that came with the phone (waiting for my screen protector in the mail) trying to see something through it (works just fine like that touch-wise and with stylus too, btw, just a bit hard to make out details)... :-) But the time I did spend looking at it uncovered, it was a revelation. The N97 looked very oldschool in comparison, as did the iPhone-like iPod touch. The resolution on the N900 is obvious and wonderful. Very useful for Ctrl+Shift+X:in a terminal too, you can actually use this thing for some work...

* There are times when I miss the physical menu button, but the touch-based answer/don't answer buttons on the N97 were so useless that overall I think N900 is a better overall setup here. The buttons that are there, work great.

* Nice box comes with all sorts of goodies, the included TV video cable was an especially welcome bonus. Standard headphones seemed to be in-ear too, not that I'm going to use those. Manual was just a small quick-help booklet.

Overall, solid hardware (with the exception of the flimsy stand) and a clear improvement over the N97 in my opinion. A good setup, hardware-wise, for a long-time E90 user seeking for smaller size too.

Second, about Maemo:

* The touchscreen clearly works best when used with the stylus, I can not find any fault with it when using it this way, even through the temporary protective film I'm using. Very Nintendo DS like experience, works great. Okay for clicking with finger too, but when using with finger to drag things around felt a bit N97-like clumsy (the first setup of time and date seemed unnecessarily tricky and I couldn't get thumb-turn zooming to work in browser?). I will probably use fingers for simple point and click and take out the stylus when doing something more intense, the stylus works way better for many things than the finger even on capacitative competitors.

* The sketching program is a clear example of what can be done with the stylus, and what works really well on the N900 with the stylus, but wouldn't work without.

* The home screen is wonderful. The way you can configure multiple spaces as you see fit, and add widgets as you go, is really nice. I wonder if there is a line-up icons function somewhere? I didn't have the time to look for a manual yet. This is much more useful stuff than on the N97.

* Overall the user-interface works well and intuitively once you get the hang of it. Especially when using with the stylus, it does seem naturally touch-based and intuitive, not slapped-on as N97. Graphics are nice as are the menu animations. The multi-tasking and swapping between windows is both intuitive and very impressive. The performance is great. Some animations and transformations could use a bit more polish, though.

* First impressions of the browser are excellent. Unlike the N97 where I ended up replacing the Nokia default setup with Opera (N97 default browser is dog slow, E90 default browser was much faster), the N900 browser is really fast and useful. And again, that stylus really makes some things easier! Pointing with stylus may not be as cool as iPhoning with one's thick fingers but it works hellofalot better on many tightly wound websites.

* Automatic orientation in the phone application works, but seems a bit slow. All the orientation stuff obviously needs more work as, as is known, it is not available in other default applications at all.

* Conversations seem nice, as does the calendar - clear improvements over their older Symbian counterparts. As noted here, the email application misses search and maybe some other features, but overall seems quite nice too.

* From the looks of it, the Facebook applications that comes with the phone seems to be just a desktop widget, not a full-blown interface like on the N97.

Overall, the user-interface looks and feels quite slick. It does not have the baggage of the once-great-but-now-old Series 60. Transformations between screens and modes could use a bit more polish, but overall this is very good stuff. Exceptional on the stylus+hardware keyboard combo, even. The main concern are, of course, the missing features like MMS, rSAP, old Maps app etc., as was of course known beforehand. I look forward to Nokia and the community polishing these things and adding more features down the road.

A very solid start for a Maemo phone! Here's to a long and happy roadmap. I'm starting to wonder if they need to keep a resisitive screen option available always because of the stylus...

There are the impressions. Feel free to comment and add your expriences. I am looking forward to experiencing more Maemo in the coming days.

BTW, it is truly impressive how YouTube works on the N900 browser. It is just like on a desktop computer.

Browse with the stylus like on a desktop, click a link and open - everything like on desktop. Super-fast. Even clicking the full-screen button on the YouTube player bar works just like on desktop. (And even the flimsy stand held the phone up while the video played... :-)

I was too lazy to setup WLAN yet (not that there is much to setup, just haven't logged into mine yet), streaming YouTube over 3G works like a charm. No need for a separate application like on the iPhone, this simply replicates the web experience 1:1 you get on a desktop machine. And very, very usably.

This is indeed the ultimate mobile web experience, mostly because it doesn't really feel mobile at all. Except it is mobile. And it just works.

Spectacular stuff. I may have to start using YouTube on the sofa. Hey, a use for that video out cable that came in the box...

http://tomch.com/maemaps.html

Continued from my report above...

I even made sense of the "thumb-twisting" motion in the N900 browser. Not with thumb, though, but with the stylus whose praise I've been singing here... You just draw a circle in one direction and it zooms out, in the other and it zooms in. It works very well with the stylus and makes complete intuitive sense. Double-tap zoom works faster for many instances, but if you need to fine tune the zoom level, then this is very useful.

Just because El Jobso or someone once implied a stylus is for loosers or something to that effect, it doesn't mean it wouldn't suit web browsing on a mobile device very well... I mean, Nintendo DS uses it to great effect and for a good reason. It just offers superb precision compared to fingers. And from my one-day experience N900 seems to be as a good a job with the stylus as does my DS.

I also noticed that the screen can be locked and unlocked another route too, not just from the screen-lock slider button. You can also do it via the power button and on-screen button/slider. Useful when holding the phone in an orientation where reaching for the physical slider lock might be less favorable.

Good stuff!

Once you get the pointer, can you use it to pan just like on Firefox running on a PC?

Yeah, I found that double-clicking the power button to lock is super convenient....

Yes, using the power button to lock/unlock is very convenient in two situations:

When holding the phone vertical after making a phone call. The power button lands beneath the thumb of a right-hand user.

When holding the device with the left hand (forefinger will be on/near the power button) and a stylus on the right hand - to unlock, just click power with left hand and swipe the on-screen lock with the stylus.

When holding the device horizontally with two hands (e.g. after typing), the regular screen-lock slider works best.

Some thought has been put to this stuff. Two ways to accomplish the locking, really useful.

I just goofed around with mine a bit, and the most wobble seems to come when the keyboard is closed, pressing on the lower left corner (where the LED is). I wasn't able to get any wobble at all from the right side. But it is significant on that lower left corner, and it extends more than halfway down the lower part of the screen. Interesting; I didn't even notice it before, probably because I'm always working with the device in my hands, or with the keyboard open.

Yeah. I agree. It is really weird looking.

It just requires a little practice; you need to find the right pressure and angle to do it with your fingertip. I've gotten very good doing these things with my finger, so I don't the stylus at all when working with the built-in apps

I've ditched the Facebook widget too, and I just check Facebook from the browser. It works fine from there.

Sadly, they've announced they're moving to a capacitive screen in the Maemo 6 devices. To me, that's another step in the wrong direction, but I'm not the target audience.

Yes, although this is definitely stylus territory, and the format is still ugly. (Note the zoom bar: the + and - are right on top of each other!)

(EDIT: Streetview kind-of works. In non-fullscreen, you can see a fairly narrow strip of the street view. But if you try to go fullscreen, it gets trapped in this endless loop where it will show the address bar while it loads the pictures, then hide the address bar when finished. The address bar hiding changes the screen size, however, which triggers streetview to resize the picture window, which triggers some more picture loading, which triggers the address bar... etc, etc...)

Am i right in thinking release firmware is 42.11?

I spotted 42.20 on a reps N900 today, hopefully a minor update round the corner.