Hands On: Nokia N900 – A Good Cheap Option?

Nokia’s Linux-based N900 looks to be shaping up as the company’s real competition in the next generation of smartphones – and it seems like it may be going for the low-price slot.

Earlier this year, Nokia’s N97 was something of a disappointment. A big touch screen phone, with masses of features, and plenty of memory, it was nevertheless underpowered in its processor, and the current version of the Symbian OS with the S60 user interfiace looked very unfriendly compared with the iPhone (the N97 launched at the same time as the iPhone 3GS) or the Palm Pre.

The company seems to have a better idea with the N900. The Linux-based phone is getting less hype, presented as a pocket computer with phone functionality almost as an afterthought. Last month the company announced a slight delay to get the device right.

Above all, there are signs that the N900 may be cheap. Phone price comparison site Omio says it will arrive on 16 November, and it will have a comparatively low price – as low as £20 a month on Orange, if you pay £170 up front and take a two-year contract with only 200 minutes of talking per month. For no up-front charge, Orange will let you have it for £35 a month, and 900 minutes of talking and unlimited texts. O2 has a deal for £30 a month, with 600 minutes and500 texts, and an upfront cost of £10.

Low prices on the N900 will be good news, as Orange has dashed any hope of an iPhone price war now the device is no longer on O2 exclusively in the UK.

What about the phone though?

Nobody buys a smartphone for its price however – and is the N900 any good? We got our hands on a pre-production model, and we like what we have seen. The final version may well be an improvement, but already this looks a good device.

It’s big and chunky (110.9 × 59.8 × 18 mm and 181g), has a very nice 3.5in touch screen, and a 5Mpixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, LED flash, and a lens cover. It charges through microUSB

The user interface is not the easiest thing to get around, but is more welcoming than the N97’s Symbian/S60, and allows a lot of customisation, with the ability to slide between multiple desktops.It’s not slick and easy, like the iPhone or Palm Pre, but it makes sense

A double tap on a button at the top left opens the applications pane, and lets you see apps that are open, any app can be switched to or closed.Multiple browser windows work fine, and it was easy to connect the device to our office Wi-Fi. Zooming in apps can be done by finger swirls and double taps (no mult-touch) which feel like they will become natural withpractice.

Enough power, and a good OS

The process is a 600MHz ARM, the same as the iPhone and Palm Pre, a bit faster than Motorola’s Droid (which is 550MHz) and there’s 32G of memory in there. The Maemo Linux operating system makes good use of it too – its desktop origins show, in a good way.

As a phone, the device is fine. Good voice reproduction and all the features like speakerphone and conferencing that you would expect. This is an obvious part of Nokia’s heritage, but it’s important to see this here as the N900 has evolved from a device that was initially an Internet tablet, not a voice device. It also converges the contacts, so you can dial by Skype just as easily as over the phone network.

The keyboard is usable, with a nice feel. Nokia hasn’t done its clever-clever hinged keyboard as on the N97, which is fine by us as that felt delicate. We’ve got the same reservations about the keyboard layout though. It’s fine to mess with the space bar, but surely it woud be a good idea to have keys for “.” or “@” without using the function button?

Conclusion

It may be too big and chunky for most people, but the sheer range of abilities and customisation that is possible with the N900, and the low price compared with iPhones and others, should encourageplenty of people to have a go on it.