Comments on: Nokia N900 review

By: Gamgigo

Gamgigo — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:03:00 +0000

No capacitive touchscreen? BRILLIANT, all those capacitives can go jump. I find resistives a lot more responsive. The iPod touch's screen is the worst I've ever used. Also resistives can be touched with anything, capaitives need a finger or special stylus. No MMS, does anyone really care? The last time i sent an MMS was years ago (literally).

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:31:56 +0000

Have had the phone a few weeks now and while there have been a few glitches with software (possibly because I’ve ben downloading pre-production software) I must say I’m really impressed. What I really don’t understand is all the fuss about capacitive versus resistive screen.
Personally I’d be disappointed if this came with capacitive screen.
The ability to use a stylus and utilise greater precision to my mind is far better than slghtly more responsive capacitive screens. I’ve found the screen works fine with fingers and stylus, although it took a day to get the finger technique right.

By: F3arsy

F3arsy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:49:37 +0000

Sorry to hear you are having problems – it is a bit more than just a phone so I can undertstand it can be frustrating at times. If you still have the device and wish to re-install the shortcut just tap on an empty space on the desktop, you will see a settings icon appear at the top right hand corner – you probably followed these steps when you accidently removed the icon – just tap on the wording tab ‘Desktop menu’ and a full menu will apear – if an application shortcut has been removed it should re-appear in the shortcut list – just add again and position on desktop of choice.

Hope it helps.

By: Neb

Neb — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:56:34 +0000

I’ve had the N900 for just under two weeks and am about to take it back for a refund. I can’t really compare it with the iphone or other phones as it is my first Smartphone. But, it was expensive, as the reviewer and others have said, given the price, one wants a phone that one feels really happy with. The screen is sometimes perfectly sensitive to light finger taps and very responsive indeed. At other times, in exactly the same place (on the screen) it requires several taps, and sometimes no amount of tapping will be picked up and you have to try to complete the task by a backdoor route (opening and closing the keyboard, opening a drop down menu, etc). one of the 4 homescreens comes with a Phone Icon which you click to get to the phone application. The icon is rather small, consider that this device is a phone. The device has the possibility of adding and removing icons from the home screens, including the phone icon. Fairly often, by accident one can switch on the function that allows icons to be removed. I did this by accident two days ago and accidentally removed the phone icon. And there does not seem to be any way to replace it. So, I have a 600 dollar phone, but the only way to use it as a phone is to go into the address book (which i sometimes can’t open at all) and tap on a contact or create a new contact and then call the contact). There is another way to open the phone application, by setting the phone so that when you rotate it to portrait the phone app opens automatically. Sometimes this works quickly, but typically it is slow and sometimes doesnt work at all. Once you are making a call, it is frequentlt difficult to end the call by tapping the on screen icon.

The phone sometimes shuts down of its own accord. The integrated GPS only works if you first download and then open another app like an exercise app (I only learnt this by trawling Maemo’s web site and finding other user experiences). There are other problems too. The phone is amazing in some ways, but it is tremendsouly frustrating in others.

By: Gurney

Gurney — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:51:35 +0000

I’m new here, just another guy trying to find out info on this device so as to make an informed decision.

I presently have a great user experience on the T-Mobile network so I did not jump on the iPhone bandwagon but I do own an iPod Touch and a HTC hero (Euro version) that I purchased when I had to give in and say “uncle” to my Nokia n97. When numerous apps are resident in memory the HTC Hero does get a tad sluggish but if the user experience of the iPod Tuch and my HTC are anything to go by and I were to compare it to my life with my Nokia N97, talk all you want about resistive versus capacitive and good luck convincing me on being appeased and satisfied with resistive.

For each unit (HTC and Apple) neither being perfect, the user interface and user experience are splendid! Effortless! Works without issue, thought or concern! For all the gripes some nay-sayers may have with the iPhone, the touch screen and unit responsiveness is not one of those issues. It’s the benchmark for a reason and its more than apple hype and marketing…I LOVE MY iPod touch and I’m no apple fanboy!

I have almost used Nokia’s exclusively since the early 1990′s when I got my first cellphone back in the analog days and have hung in there with the occasional forays into the Motorola and SonyEricsson arena from time to time but always came back.

This new generation of smartphones that are now living up to the name of being smart are cranking up the heat, and for me I think my everyday user experience with the N97 might have been the straw that starts breaking the camels back. I had a wonderful time with the E-90, E-71, great units so far as effortless user experience goes I even had the E-75 for a spell up until the n-97 came out…It offered the new user interface and truly compared to Android with HTC-sense and the apple UI the symbian UI looks and feels severely dated (albeit stable and reliable). Nobody is bigger than Nokia, but it’s time to get current..that’s why I was overjoyed when I heard about the N900, I thought “a new platform” when I heard about Maemo. I looked at reviews and demos on good-ol youtube and heard folks exclaim about the speed and sharpness of the UI, but have also heard about less than glowing comments regarding it’s phone capabilities.

Much of the problem I think lies in that all the marketing material I see and read presents the device to me as a smartphone but on various forums I have come across, posters are adamant about the n900 being the next gen of Nokia internet tablets (which it is)…with phone capabilities as a second. Nokia should be much more assertive about this if this is the case. In fact for all my reading and viewing I did not know that the device came with and utilized a stylus until I happened upon this website about an hour ago…MAJOR TURNOFF for a fellow looking for a smartphone..I dont want to hear, see, taste, or smell the work ‘stylus’ attached to whatever device I end up getting, even if it isnt a requirement to use it! I suspect that there may be those folk like myself that have heard the hype and the fanfare about this device and may be seriously let down if it doesnt live up to the effortless-reliable-stable-easy-and-fast dream that is the promise of the ultimate smartphone. I with the neverending parade of E and N series units I have purchased over the years find I have spent crazy amounts of money on mobile phones as I have been buying unlocked units for years because my carrier offers none of them, so although not tied to a contract I am always paying the full retail price. The HTC Hero has been a great unit only let down by its tendancy to get sluggish (kill the resident tasks or restart the device cures it for a day or three), it has lots of apps so far for everything I have a mind to do and more.

After easily over 15-years as a Nokia user, the thought that I could finally be stolen away by products that simply do it better and easier made by vendors that are rather new to the space is a shame. I think the N900 is a potential desaster not because of what the device is (internet tablet w/ phone capabilities) but because of what the marketing material are presenting this device to be. Go to Amazon.com and have a look and if you like myself are a regular consumer looking for a smartphone get the sense that being a smartphone is this devices primary mission…almost the N97 fixed yet enhanced and on a ‘computer’ (linux) based platform, so ‘truly smart’! I suspect a lot of irate early adopters that didnt read the small print, lots of unts returned and on Ebay and alas it wont be the units fault, it will be the fault of the sales and marketers of this unit. Stylus??? I hope that those folks like myself that were on pre-order lists and have this built up anticipation and expectation as we tend to do when we await the latest tech-toy to surface wont feel so let down as to seriously damage their relationship with the brand and it’s products in the future.

I’ve sure said waaay more than I intended and this sure is wordy but I had to say my piece (large piece admittedly)

By: Ben Sillis

Ben Sillis — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:13:47 +0000

I have to disagree – the beauty of the iPhone, regardless of its lack of multitasking and questionable closed approach, it how sensitive the screen is to taps. It never drops an action. I can’t say the same is true when I go to tap the N900′s drop down menu bar at the top of the screen, and when I swipe through profile screens, I really have to remind myself to drag, or use a thumbnail. We now know that phone UIs can be easy to use in this way now without a) dumbing down or b) looking dumbed down so this really shouldn’t be acceptable anymore. I don’t want the pixel accuracy of a stylus – put simply, I don’t draw stuff on a phone on a regular basis. Does anybody?

By: F3arsy

F3arsy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:20:05 +0000

Not sure I understand your response – they may be saving money but the experience is not that different from the Iphone – even the Nokia 5800 and the N97 gives you a very similar user experience the difference being the OS, but the physical act of swiping is pretty much the same from my experience – by saving money on a screen that gives you the same experience as the iphone they have been able to offer so much more and in doing so raise the bar.

By: Ben Sillis

Ben Sillis — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:49:53 +0000

Great to hear a US perspective on the N900, thanks Michael! I agree with almost everything you say about it proving more practical than an iPhone, but I do genuinely think that being able to use the N900 without gloves is the most important feature. It’s so important to be able to quickly pull a phone out of your pocket and drill down to what you need – and right now, with resistive screens, you can’t pull that off with intuitive taps 10 times out of 10. Somewhere along the line that 90-95% success rate hits, and while that sounds like a small percentage of missed touches, it’s enough to irritate you even after browsing just a handful of web pages.

By: Michael Dame

Michael Dame — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:35:29 +0000

There are too many positives about the N900 to make such a huge deal about the resistive screen. The N900 is a high end device, period. It is a touch screen phone. You need to touch the screen in order for it to work. Okay. Touch it. I owned an iphone 3GS, but am a T-Mobile customer. I wanted a native 3G phone with amazing specs, which is why I bought this phone, otherwise I’d be pretty satisfied with my white 16Gb iphone 3GS. And yes, even though I’ve lived in a cold climate and wear gloves many months out of the year- I took my gloves off to use my iphone cause I had too. Its wasn’t a big deal. I did what I had to do in order to use the quality phone that I had. It wasn’t a horrible sacrifice. BUT, it was a sacrifice I had to make because it was capacitive. True, there are some amazing things to be said about capacitive technology, but its not the Savior of the industry. Its all how you look at it. For me, since I have T-Mobile- the difference in data speed, the ability of multitasking, access to a truly open source platform, the superior camera, a REAL web browser, the expandable memory slot, the front VGA camera, the kickstand, the FM transmitter, the IR port, along with the true capacity for personalization of this device BLOWS away the iphone in features, functionality, 3G speed (for T-Mobile), and therefor has gotten 550 of my precious dollar bills. I do appreciate informative, detailed reviews, but I had to add my perspective as a consumer. In short – Its an excellent purchase, and without a doubt the best option that T-Mobile has as a supported mobile device, but its not good enough to switch from AT&T if you’re already situated with an iphone 3GS.

By: Ben Sillis

Ben Sillis — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:39:16 +0000

It’s really interesting hearing all the feedback on our review, and seeing how much support there is for resistive touch out there. And I think you can get around an N900 without the stylus. But, and here’s where I feel Nokia lets me down, you still have to be firm about it. If I forget and just tap with a thumb, which would be enough on an iPhone or Android handset, a window or app won’t open 10 times out of 10. That’s just not good enough now when platforms on rival handsets do.