The Nokia N900

"I'm not a phone I'm a mobile computer"

Sitting in the pub last Saturday, everyone had their phones on the table.  To my surprise, Nokia was winning the smartphone race, with three N97s to two iPhones and one lowly mid-range Samsung bringing up the rear.

Judging by this alone you’d be forgiven for thinking that Nokia was flying high, but the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer has been having a tough year, and could do with a roaring success of a smartphone to help it turn a profit.

Nokia’s “Comes With Music” scheme has been less than successful, and Nokia itself admits that uptake of the service has been disappointing, so the beacon of hope is the “I’m not a phone, I’m a computer in your pocket” N900.  The N900 has been beset by delays in the UK, which Nokia claims is due to the extraordinarily high number of preorders, but as I type the N900 is finally scheduled to hit the shops in the next few weeks.

The N900 is a grown up version of the N97.  Like the earlier model it has a sideways slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and when fully slid (is that a verb?) the keyboard is smaller than you might expect.  The reason for this is that the designers have chosen to omit the top row of number keys.  While this means that the phone is slightly less bulky, it’s irritating that you have to press shift each time you want to key in a digit.

The other problem with the N900’s physical keyboard is that the upper row of letters is very close to the edge of the screen, so pudgy fingers will have trouble.  On the up side, it’s definitely easier to use than the Palm Pre’s vertical slider.

When in landscape mode, there’s also the option to bring up a virtual on-screen keyboard, but we found that though this worked well, it obscures much of the screen, so it becomes difficult to see what you’re doing, particularly when browsing the web.

Speaking in general terms, the N900 is an absolute beast of a phone, weighing in at a pocket deforming 181 grams.  Nokia has a habit of making chunky handsets, and the N900 is no exception; nearly twice as thick as the iPhone.

The material used in the build is good, but not exceptional.  The screen surround feels a little cheap, but the overall look is pretty slick.  The screen itself measures an impressive 3.5 inches, which is similar in size to that of the iPhone, but smaller than the massive one on the HTC HD2, but has an iPhone walloping 800 x 480p resolution, so is beautiful to look at.

One thing that might dissuade some from choosing this phone is the resistive touch screen, which means no “pinch to zoom”.  The N900 comes with a stylus that slides into a slot on one side (unlike the one for Sony Ericsson’s Satio which has no place for the stylus in the body of the phone), but during our brief test we didn’t have to use it at all.  The screen is responsive with a haptic feedback that is common to the phones from Samsung, so you won’t need a stylus unless you’re doing something exceptionally fiddly.

There’s a kick stand at the back which means that you can prop the handset up on a desk or table for ease of viewing.  There are no buttons on the screen’s surround, giving the N900 a clean look that is a pleasure to play with.

The 5MP camera is protected by a sliding lens cover.  While less beautiful than the sleek iPhone, I’m keen on this feature.  You can guarantee that after the shock of having a new handset has worn off (that phase where you don’t like anyone else to touch it and cry when it gets scratched) it will be kicking around in the bottom of your bag like everything else.  There’s no point in having a decent camera on a phone if it’s scratched.

The N900 runs a new Linux based operating system called Maemo 5, which according to Nokia has “raised the bar”.  Consider us duly impressed.

There are up to four home screens with active content that can be customised according to your own whims.  Web links, shortcuts to contacts and widgets can all be added with ease, and moved around to sit wherever you like on the screen just like a conventional desktop.  This is easy enough to do, but does take a bit of time.  For a gadget geek such as myself the process is extremely enjoyable, but be prepared to do a lot of tinkering to get the most out of the phone.

The interface looks good.   As a rule, lists appear as simple thumbnails down the left hand side with text on the right, so everything is very logical and intuitive.

As well as being lovely to behold, the interface has a wonderful feature that we reckon should be common to all smartphones from now on; multitasking is a breeze, and fast enough to make an iPhone owner’s eyes water.  The Palm Pre  did a good job of integrating its multitasking feature, but the N900 easily trumps it.

After a tap on the dashboard button in the top left corner of the screen, all currently open browser windows and applications appear in a series of thumbnails, an experience that mimics that of Windows and feels instantly familiar.

This is hands down my favourite feature of the N900.  It feels fantastic to be able to jump seamlessly from one window to another, zipping from the web to an email and back again, checking information on Facebook before sending a text.

The whole idea of the N900 is that it’s like having a portable computer in your pocket with the capabilities of a phone as a bonus, and this means that the browser experience is all important. The developers have worked closely with Adobe to incorporate full Flash support, and the N900 runs the latest version, Flash 9.4.

The browser itself works like a dream, and is based on the same engine as Firefox.  Web pages are very quick to render, and because of the advanced Flash capabilities, the entirety of the glorious tinterweb is displayed for you in full.  You can stream live audio from sites using the flash player and view the full web version of YouTube.

In actual fact, we found that YouTube videos were a little slow to play, and stuttered along in a stop-frame animation stylee unless left to buffer for a while, but to be fair we were using the notoriously dodgy wireless connection at Geek Towers.

Nokia has given users a variety of ways to interact with the N900, and one of these is the curser tool which appears towards the bottom left hand of the screen when browsing. A quick tap activates and locks it, allowing you to highlight pieces of text, copy and paste, but this takes some getting used to.  We didn’t have enough time with this handset to determine whether the curser becomes easier to handle in time, so it’s possible that regular users will find that it becomes second nature.

Alternatively, if you swipe into the screen from the left hand side of the surround a curser appears behind your finger.  According to Nokia, this is an easy way of clicking on very small links in web text, but in fact you have to do a spot of juggling because to actually click you need to press the spacebar on the keyboard with your other hand.  Do not attempt after a few drinks.

Interaction with the keyboard is meant to mimic the experience of using a computer keyboard so the phone understands short cut commands like Ctrl C for copy.

Because this is in fact a touchscreen smartphone there are also some other controls on the screen itself.  When browsing, a swipe from the right edge of the screen inwards will bring up a series of thumbnails of recently visited websites.  You can scroll through these to find the page you’re looking for.

All of this is well and good, but the resistive screen means that zooming is not as simple as the “pinch” gesture on capacitive screens.  On the N900, a double tap on a web page will zoom in and out of the text, but there’s also a strange spiral custom zoom that is irritating, but does work.

One curiosity of the N900 is that while most of the applications do work with the keyboard closed, there are precious few functions available when the phone’s in portrait mode, so you’ll spend most of your time in landscape using two hands.

Some people have reported that there’s a bug/ glitch doing the rounds that allows the phone’s other functions to operate in portrait mode, with video evidence here.  If the phone is in fact capable of operating in this mode it would make sense for a software update to make it a permanent feature.

It feels limiting to be confined to landscape mode, which you’ll be getting very used to unless Nokia makes a change.  The only options for portrait mode just now are making calls and taking the odd photo or two. You can’t even open the virtual keyboard, so there’ll be no one handed texting unless your fingers can perform previously unseen feats of contortion.

While Nokia’s Ovi app store may be more limited than that of the mighty Apple, or even Google’s Android Market, the improved internet experience means that you don’t need so many apps.  Who needs to pay to download a puzzle game when there are myriad online flash games to explore for free, and you can stick quick links to your favourites on your home screens?  The same goes for translation tools, currency convertors, maps, or practically anything the internet offers already (online MMORPGs might be a bit ambitious though!).

The downside to this is that you’ll eat up your internet allowance, and when you don’t have access to either Wi-Fi or 3G then you’re stumped.  Being from the wilds of Scotland, I find myself without either when visiting anyone north of the Central Belt.  I appreciate that this won’t be such a problem for those living in a part of the country with better infrastructure and fewer mountains getting in the way, but in the absence of constant connectivity you’ll have to rely on downloads from the Ovi store, and I’m sorry Nokia, but it’s rubbish.

The number of Apps available to Nokia customers is on the rise, but right now the Ovi store is limp and depressing compared to the Apple version.  At the moment there’s a comparatively poor selection to choose from; worth considering if you’re weighing up the various smartphone options.

Still, despite its tubbiness, resistive screen and slightly unwieldy keyboard, the N900 is a serious contender.  The browser is brilliant and the screen is bright and clear for video playback.  Multasking on this phone is a life affirming experience and Maemo 5 is a lovely way to operate.

Add to this the very decent music player and the FM radio and I’m almost sold – but I may have to buy a bigger handbag.

The N900 is scheduled for release later this month across a variety of operators, but the cheapest deal that we’ve found for a contract so far is with Vodafone.  You can pre-order just now to get a free handset with a 24 month contract for £34.26 a month.