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Two OMAP 3430 Phones: Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid

 by Brian Klug on June 10, 2010 9:29 PM EST
68 Comments | Add A Comment
68 Comments

The entire backside of the N900 is the removable battery, SIM, and microSD slot cover. It snaps on and snaps off; there's no sliding mechanism, just a small place to get your fingernail under and pry the whole thing off with. That isn't to say that the back isn't snug, it's just a bit unnerving to rip the back off the N900 the first time, but that's really how you do it.

It's also on the back that the sliding camera cover and integrated kickstand reside. The kickstand isn't perfect; since it's off-center if you put the phone down in landscape mode as intended there's a bit of a tendency for the device to tripod on the other side if you tap on the screen. It's clear that this is really meant as an aide to viewing videos, say on a transatlantic flight.

 
Nokia has included Carl Zeiss optics for some time now on their phones, and the N900 carries that same branding. Beneath the 5 megapixel marking is '2.8/5.2', likely meaning the camera has a 5.2 mm effective focal length F/2.8 lens system. It's interesting that Nokia puts the word 'tessar' next to these two; it's a familiar name for those who know the famous camera objective optical system. That said, it's unlikely the optical system in the N900's camera is anywhere near a traditional 'tessar' lens, as smartphone cameras use acrylic injection molded aspheric lenses. It's entirely likely Zeiss has just named this system with its Tessar brand, as it's now a trademark of German optics company. Sliding the camera cover open while the device is on instantly launches the camera application. There's also a powerful dual LED flash.
 
 
Kickstand extended

On the front is the resistive topped 800x480 3.5 inch LCD, and up at the very top in the center is the small speaker not much bigger than a grain of rice for making phone calls. I was a bit worried at first that volume would suffer, but it's on par with every other handset I've used. Off to the right of that is the front-facing VGA camera, and on the far left side is the IR proximity sensor.

Look carefully, in the top left is the front facing camera. Down below it is the proximity sensor, and then the speaker port.
The Hardware: Nokia N900 Two radically different keyboards
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  • Fri13 - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - link

    Symbian is server-client architectured operating system. Symbian has EKA2 microkernel + servers (modules). But Symbian is not at same time _just_ the operating system. It has other features (like libraries and so on) as well what does not belong to the actual OS.
    Fact is that Symbian really is open source.

    But in other hand, the Android is not the operating system. It is a software system. The Linux is the operating system in the Android. Linux is monolithic kernel. Monolithic kernel is exactly same thing as operating system. It is the oldest (actually original) OS architecture. Server-client and layered architectures were developed almost few decades after the monolithic because there was demand to get OS architecture what is in theory more secure and more stable, but slower.

    Symbian is licensed under EPL. While Linux OS is licensed under GPLv2 (only).

    Both licenses are aproofed by the OSI and FSF. So both OS's are Libre software.
    Android is software system what has multple different licensed software in it. The Linux OS in it is the GPLv2 (what can not be changed) and the distributor itself can use as well closed source software if the license allows. Usually this means that the software platforms or the softwares what are responsible for user interface can be with different license than F/OSS license.

    By the facts, it is not true at all to say that "Android is not F/OSS operating system". Because a) Linux kernel is the operating system in Android. Android is just one distribution of the Linux. b) When talking about the operating systems and android, if wanted to be very wide speaking by terms, then Android is totally F/OSS.

  • numberoneoppa - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link

    Great article, Brian. I learned a lot. =)

  • legoman666 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link

    I love my N900 :D I bought it last November, right when it was first released. I had a N810 at the time, so I was excited to get the next iteration. With PR1.2 and a modest overclock to 800mhz, it scores ~12000ms on the sunspider javascript benchmark, which is on par with the HTC Incredible and the Nexus 1.

    I didn't have to get t-mobile, as my local carrier, Cincinnati Bell, uses the same 3g frequencies as T-mobile. I get blazing fast speeds of 3mb/s.

    As Brian said in the review, the Skype integration is excellent. It even tells you how much credit you have remaining and the call cost at the end of the call. (And I can make video calls over 3g, take that iPhone)

  • topsecret - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link

    You should test the N900 with it running meego.

  • Talcite - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Nokia doesn't plan to port meego to the N900.

  • CityBlue - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Yes they do plan to port MeeGo to the N900 - in fact, the N900 is the primary development platform for MeeGo so not making it available in one form or another would be utterly ridiculous.

    What Nokia have said is that the version of MeeGo that will be made available for the N900 will not be officially supported, which basically means you can't go running to Nokia Care when you find a bug. Since I can't believe anyone does this even with a supported OS, the lack of Nokia Care is no great loss - you'll still have a very large and committed community to fall back on for help.

    So in brief: Yes, MeeGo *IS* coming to the N900 - whether you install it or not is your choice.

  • jed22281 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Yup, exactly what cityblue said.
    Brian needs to clarify this in his article.
    There'll be plenty of "unofficial" support for meego on n900

  • tbutler - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link

    ...sorry, those airquotes have some very painful memories for those of us who lived through the 770 era. When 'unofficial' support meant a kludged-together hack.

  • Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Thanks for the clarification CityBlue, I'll definitely update. I wrote some of this partially when support wasn't fully understood.

    -Brian

  • topsecret - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    "the Motorola Droid remains the flagship of Android phones that come with a hardware keyboard"
    I dunno, the samsung moment is a pretty nice phone.
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