Gadgetory

hey guys LP here from TechnoBuffalo and welcome back for another very exciting unboxing and review this time around we'll be taking an in-depth look at Nokia's new n series device n900 we're going to be looking at the hardware and software and I'm also going to be putting the n900 through some tests and benchmarks we'll be taking a look at how the device handles multitasking and different video codecs we're especially going to be focusing on the new Miami 5 operating system which is the first experience for any mobile device and a first for myself as well but before we get into the review let's check out what's bundled in with the device nokia always includes a nice set of accessories and it seems that they've not made an exception with the n900 inside the box we find your standard safe operation manuals a proprietary USB sync cable with the microUSB end and surprise surprise we find the Nokia charger this time with a micro USB connector there's also an adapter for the old power cable as well the device comes with a 1320 milliamp battery we also find a nice set of inner earbuds which have been excellent and as a nice extra we find the TV out cable and that's about it for the accessories there might have been something else in the box but unfortunately this device has gone through another review before me so I'll never know what he pocketed but if I later find out that there's been a microfiber cloth in box I'm going to hunt this guy down or not but let's get to the device itself so here it is the n900 has a very familiar but distinct look to it it has an all black finish and it reminds me of the n86 which was a very cool device from last year the n900 packs a 3.5 inch touchscreen that's based on resistive technology meaning it registers on physical pressure it is pretty strange that Nokia didn't go with a capacitive screen on the n900 as they've already come out with a device with a capacitive screen but I'm a fan of the old resistive screen so it doesn't bother me but it's quite evident that capacitive screens that register on thermal and infrared signals are the future the n900 has a definite presence in the hand and I have to admit it feels a bit chubby it's even fatter than the touch pro2 which is a bulky phone on its own accord it's not the heaviest phone and in my hands but it's definitely not a featherweight and why the phone is fat and heavy I'm pretty sure this is the reason the n900 has a three row QWERTY keyboard that pops out with a bang the mechanism itself is very solid but it leaves very little space for the actual keys there's only three rows of keys so no dedicated row of keys for the numbers which is a slight disappointment luckily the keys do have a nice feel to them they're nice and raised and pressing the keys has a nice feedback so it is a nice keypad but I would have liked to seem some more space between the keys and the edges because with fat thumbs like mine it all feels a bit cramped especially the topper which is a bit too close to the edge of the screen on the back of the device we find the 5 megapixel camera with the carl zeiss lens and dual LED flash and the device is an extremely useful lens cover which activates a camera when opened there's also a stand mechanism if you want to use your 600 bucks device as a picture frame the back cover comes off nicely and under the cover you find a thirteen hundred and twenty milliamp battery beside the camera lens we find the microSD slot and under the battery you find the slot for the SIM card build quality of the n900 is okay the frame supporting the slide-out mechanism is made out of metal aside from that the whole device is made out of plastic it's not as well built as the hd2 I reviewed last week but I would say that the build quality is pretty much similar to the touch pro2 so I'd say build quality is sufficient the Nokia n900 is a device designed specifically for landscape mode use so this is actually the top of the device where you find the power button beside the power button we find al volume up and down rocker and a dedicated button for the camera on the left hand side of the device we find the micro USB jack and a stereo speaker on the right-hand side of the device we find the other half of the stereo speaker and a slider switch that works as a locking mechanism for the device we also find a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and as you can see there's also a built-in stylus which was missing from the n97 so as you notice the front of the device has no mechanical buttons which gives it a nice streamlined look inside the device we find an ARM Cortex processor which actually the same CPU found on the iphone 3gs the processor is clocked at 600 megahertz and the device has 256 megabytes of RAM and it also uses 768 megabytes of virtual memory the n900 comes packin with a whopping 32 gigabytes of storage which puts my 8 gigabyte microSD card to shame ok let's fire up the device and check out the Maya interface there's my pin code if you want to steal my phone and if you watch my Nokia n97 review you might remember that I wasn't too impressed with the old and outdated Symbian operating system and it was pretty obvious that it was time for a change so this is the mom of five desktop and as you can see you start with an entirely clean slate it's actually just not a single pane you have up to four separate desktops and each desktop is fully customizable on the top of the screen you find the clock and the applications tab which are fixed to every pane tapping on the upper edge of the screen gives you access to the desktop settings from where you can add shortcuts contacts web bookmarks and widgets to your desktop you can also change the amount of desktop so you can for example have just two panes to keep it simple you can also adjust the theme and desktop wallpaper and let's add some stuff to the desktop I'm more of a Twitter guide than the Facebook guy but let's add a Facebook widget you can move the widgets anywhere on the screen and on any of the four panes you can for example have social network links and widgets on one pane and contacts on another it's simple enough but I have to mention that the shortcuts are a bit small for dragging around with your finger I sometimes ended up holding the shortcuts accidentally if you have fat fingers like mine here you're going to need the stylus but overall customizing the desktops is made very simple and the mom of five I think has a very short learning curve it's fundamentally a very simple interface but it's also very versatile and there's endless possibilities of customization the interface has many similarities to the Android interface which shares the same Linux platform a very important thing to note about the n900 is the fact that it's a landscape only device meaning there's no portrait mode for the device so if you rotate the device into a vertical position don't expect the screen to rotate and scale to portrait mode but if you are insistent on using the phone vertically you can have the device vertically in your hand and rotate your head about 90 degrees but I don't recommend it luckily while the interface itself does not rotate there are some programs like the phone application that does rotate to portrait mode and helps with the usability as a mobile device but if you want to use the phone for anything other than calling you're going to have to use two hands to do it it definitely takes some time to get used to but once you get the hang of it it's not too bad the resistive screen on the n900 is quite responsive I'd say about the same as on the n97 not quite as responsive as on the newest generation of HTC devices but sufficient the 600 megahertz ARM Cortex processor handles interface with impressive speed the n900 is much faster than the Nokia n97 swiping between panes is super fast there's no loading time and no delay and it's almost as fast as your fingers the screen on the device is very sharp and the colors are vivid but I would have liked to seen an AMOLED screen on this device like on the Nokia n8 e6 which had amazing colors in contrast overall my first impression of the device are quite good the interface feels solid and I'm very satisfied by the speed of the device itself I'm not too happy about the lack of single hand usability but I'll be going deeper into the interface and testing out the hardware and software in the second half of the review LP signing out