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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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  • Zebo - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    with 750mhz processor convex keys and ditching the lame D pad making this the best smart phone for my use talking 5-6 hours a day plus on best network instead of T or TM.

  • krazyfrog - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Dude, you chat like an eight year-old lol.

  • CityBlue - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    The latest Maemo5 PR1.2 does bring a welcome improvement to battery life, in some cases as much as 50% improvement to standby time.

    The recently released Opera Mobile on the N900 is lightning fast - it would be interesting to see how that performs in your comparison tests, or the latest Fennec (Firefox Mobile 1.1). The stock MicroB browser is beginning to look a little long in the tooth what with all the Javascript run-time improvements in competing browsers, but it does still offer the most complete web experience on pretty much any mobile device.

    Overall though, a very good and welcome review of Maemo5 which is much misunderstood by a world obsessed with Android and iPhone.

  • achipa - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Two small corrections:
    Nokia's next MeeGo device is still going to be ARM (MeeGo is a two-platform OS, ARM and Atom), if there is a Moorestown device far along in the pipelines, it's not Nokia's.
    PR1.2 is very likely not the last update. Nokia has pledged to deliver QtMobility (the mobile device Qt APIs) in a future update, and there is an active Qt4.7 branch for Maemo5 which also suggests work is being done there.

  • The Solutor - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    Not all the Droid/Milestone's keyboard are flat.

    http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5872/dsc00180.png

    http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6551/dsc00176.p...

    This is my milestone (bought in december).

    So there's no need to wait droid 2 to get the raised keys.

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

    Interesting... looks like they definitely identified that issue somewhere between finishing the CDMA 'Droid' design and the GSM Milestone. Cool stuff!

    -Brian

  • strikeback03 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    I read that elsewhere as well. Would be nice if the verizon stores got the newer keyboard models out on display to try

  • BoyBawang - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link

    Sorry to break your heart dude but the ones with raised keyboard were the early builds. Motorola changed it to flat after reported sliding problems with the raised design

  • strikeback03 - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link

    Actually one of my friends got a Moto Droid Thursday and I had a chance to play with it Friday, it did feel like they had improved the key feel slightly. IIRC the Droids on display had concave keys, this one was slightly convex.

  • solipsism - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link

    I understand that's because they are in the same package is the reason why you need the BT to be on to get FM, but that can't be too common. After all, most smartphones seem to have WiFi and BT(+EDR) and FM all the same transceiver.

    For comparison, the iPhone 3GS uses a <a href="http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.... BCM4325</ a>
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