Having finally obtained an N900 direct from NOKIA and having cancelled my 3 month old Amazon order (thanks guys, nice work) I have to report that I’m very impressed with the device.
Setup is easy and I had my G-Mail and NTL-World email accounts running quite quickly just by using the automatic configuration application. The browser is stunning and very quick, it’s easy to browse any site and even small links can be clicked on using a finger rather than the stylus so the resistive screen is really not an issue. I particularly like the way that SMTP servers can be set up as connection dependant, so I can use a different SMTP server depending on what data access point I’ve got and the device automatically sends through the correct one. It was always a nuisance using my N95 to have to manually tell the phone what connection to use, the N900 just does it all for me, great!
The UI takes a few minutes to become intuitive (do read the manual) but really is very simple. The contacts are marvelous. Set up a contact and they populate throughout the relevant apps on the device. Include a mobile number and there’s an automatic SMS button on the contact entry (etc).
The phone app works well and I’ve had no problems but been aware that the microphone mute button has a permanent red line through it. The mike mutes but there’s no graphical change so be warned. The hard keyboard is really good and reviews claiming that there’s not enough space above the top row of keys are incorrect in my opinion. I can type quite easily. It’s possible to lock the number keys into number mode by pressing the blue key twice and that helps a lot.
The display resolution and general clarity is excellent and I can read all the text of the top half of the BBC News website on one page (for example). Battery life is ‘interesting’ but not catastrophic. It’s no worse than my N95 and there’s a lot more going on. I’ve downloaded ‘Bounce’, a demo game that uses the accelerometer to control a rolling ball across a beautiful landscape. Battery life is ‘interesting’ but not catastrophic. It’s no worse than my N95 and there’s a lot more going on. The built-in analogue antenna gives me a lot of choices to get useful information. The stereo audio and graphical quality is amazing and this has the potential to be a good gaming device.
So, it’s a fine cell phone and I’m impressed. I’ve only had it a day so I’ll be more impressed still when I’ve got thoroughly used to it and the firmware has been updated to improve the (already good) experience.