Nokia N900 preview: First look

Introduction

Usually when Nokia makes an Nseries announcement the geek world trembles with excitement, expecting to see the next master of the multimedia realm. Nokia N900 didn't make any exception to this rule though it was pitched for its web browsing prowess more than anything else (at least multimedia-wise).

Nokia N900 official photos

Or at least so it seemed in the beginning, before anyone actually knew how far Nokia has gone with the user experience on the Maemo 5 platform. Soon after it was first demoed, the N900 was quickly deemed a serious peril to most smartphones out there. It even went as far as threatening Nokia's own Symbian platform.

The Nokia N900 has been so universally positive up so far that it easily turned up high on the wishlist of the tech-inclined. Expectations quickly rose quite high matching its top place in the company portfolio lineup.

Now we've got one and while we're working on a full-featured review as we usually do, we decided to post this quick preview covering Nokia N900 key features. And speaking of those, here's a brief recap of what's under its hood.

Nokia N900 at a glance

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/1700/2100 MHz, HSDPA 10 Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps
• Form factor: Full touch device with a side-sliding hardware QWERTY keyboard
• Dimensions: 110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm, 113 cc; 181 g
• Display: 3.5" 65K-color TFT resistive touchscreen, 800 x 480 pixels WVGA
• CPU: ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics
• OS: Maemo 5
• Memory: 32 GB storage, 256 MB RAM, microSD card slot
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with dual-LED flash; WVGA(848 x 480)@25fps video recording
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB v2.0 with microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, FM transmitter, Infrared port
• Battery: 1,320 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Misc: Built-in accelerometer and ambient light sensors, proximity sensor, IR output port for remote control
• Software: Ovi Maps (voice-guided navigation purchased separately), Mozilla-based browser with Adobe Flash 9.4 support, Facebook and Twitter integration

The chubby Nokia N900 certainly isn't a handset to answer mainstream tastes but then again all those features rarely come in much smaller packages. The geeks know that and are willing to live with it if the performance is worth it. So now that we have a final version of the handsets on our hands we can check that out.

All rise or the honorable Nokia N900

We are giving you a short preview now, to keep you warm until we are done with the full-fledged review. We will try to cover all aspects of the devices performance there but feel free to drop us a line in the comments if there's anything specific you want to know about it. We aren't making any promises, but will do our best to provide the answers to all questions.

So cutting to the chase we begin examining the Nokia N900 ergonomics on the next page.