The Five-minute fiddle: Nokia N900
By Ben Robinson on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 5:59 PM PST In Nokia, The Five-minute Fiddle
So I just received an N900 in the post today, and one of the things I do like to do with new hardware, is to give it the ‘five-minute fiddle’.
For those of you that are not familiar, the aim of the five-minute fiddle is to spend a very short period getting first impressions of a given handset/service, and then write things up with a summary ‘gut feeling’ about it.
Unpacking
My N900 is a full retail model, and so I got a good feeling for the real end-user experience when opening up the packaging of this little bad boy. It’s an understated box, with a good amount of accessories included – and of course, the device itself. One thing I did ponder as missing was a case for the N900. Now I’m not suggesting some kind o’ freaky faux-leather belt-holster affair (that was SO 90s!), I am talking just about some kinda simple slip case, to protect the decent size screen – and the fact you are carrying a 500 GBP/Euro handset around with you!
Hardware form-factor
Although in my opinion Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has dropped the ball in a big way on software in recent years, their hardware design is usually (I say usually, to exclude things like the N96) pretty good – overall, I think the N900 has good hardware. It IS a chunky monkey, make no mistake, and it’s certainly not ’sleek’ – much more blockish than I was expecting. However, it is clad in various types of black material – now given black is my favourite colour, this is no bad thing!
The Slide mechanism and keys are okay – keys possibly a touch small, but it’s going to take some time typing to find out if emails/texts can be knocked out with ease. For right now, it’s certainly all very satisfactory, and at a push I would say it’s ‘good’. One thing I really wasn’t sure about is the kickstand that surrounds the camera – it seems VERY flimsy indeed – to the point where I wouldn’t want to stand the handset up on it. That’s quite a surprise, since one of the good things (and there weren’t that many) with the N96 was it’s cheeky little kickstand!
The (touch)screen is well-lit, a decent size, and … er … resisitive – darn! I personally cannot stand resistive screens, because it’s difficult in my view to regulate your pressure when scrolling lists etc on screen – and this often means you end up accidentally selecting things – unfortunately it’s the same here, which is a such a shame – this device could potentially have been a killer with capacitive screen (maybe that’ll be the N901 or similar probably….!).
Software / UI
So this is really where it’s at with the N900 – does the UI/software cut the mustard? Well, with my five-minute play, I have to say I’m not convinced one way or the other. It did take me some time to orient myself with the Menus/UI, and try out some things which I thought would work on the device (notably one thing that didn’t work was two-finger pinch/squeeze for zoom in/out. Shame.
So apart from the time needed to get used to the UI, overall I think it’s reasonably clear – the four or so homescreens work out well, and to my mind borrow heavily from the iPhone – but they don’t animate between them as smoothly.
As regards programs that are installed, it would appear that Nokia has included web-links as ‘application icons’- and in fact you have to download apps once you have pressed the icon which is simply a link to a website. I can’t help but feel this is a weak approach for building out menus, and also the tedium of waiting for an App to download and install is not good.
Other Apps that work well are the standard ones you would expect – email, calendar, contacts, phone. There’s nothing revolutionary about these, they just do their job well.
Conclusion
I’ve yet to spend some serious quality time with the device – but my initial thoughts are that the hardware (excepting the resistive quality of the screen) is better than the software. Although I’m wary about judging too quickly, my gut feeling is that the software isn’t quite at the level you would expect as a power user of the device. Going forward, it may be that the OS is upgraded and bug-fixed, and that usage improves significantly. For now though, my rating would be somewhere between ‘average’ and ‘quite good’.
“the four or so homescreens work out well, and to my mind borrow heavily from the iPhone”
Heard of Linux?
Thanks dumb I forgot about that.
All these idiot reviewer/reporter wannabes are as brainwashed as most of the consumers that believe that everything Apple does is new.
The resistive screen and the OS are the best things about this device.
You can install/run pretty much anything you want, and you can use your finger to navigate or the stylus if you need more precision for example for handwriting and some applications/games.
Conclusion:
You are an idiot.
…please, stop making reviews, it hurts.
“and try out some things which I thought would work on the device (notably one thing that didn’t work was two-finger pinch/squeeze for zoom in/out. Shame.”
You know the N900 is not an iPhone right?
“and try out some things which I thought would work on the device (notably one thing that didn’t work was two-finger pinch/squeeze for zoom in/out.”
The fact that he tried the pinch gesture on a resistive screen highlights his knowledge about touch screen technology. I really feel that such apple fanboys have not really ordered N900s and just conjure up a Nokia bashing review on the spot to give themselves a false sense of superiority of owning an I-phone.
You are right.. He is just another iphone fan boy.. What is wrong with you iphone fan boys? Why do you have to say bad things about other brands just to make iphone look good?
Just try writhing down the hardware you get in a Nokia & compare them with the apple.. Which is more superior?
Another thing, your eyes must be lousy coz the iphone only has 262,144 color but on most Nokia its 16.7 million color. Check the facts. Iphone is just another over priced phone with lousy hardware.
Yeah well spoken iPhone lover. You have apple stink all over you.
Dude, that was hella funny. I had to share that with my friends. Don’t worry, I gave you the attribute.
Apple stink…ROFL
I rather resistive than capacitative anyday of the week. I’m the type to use my finger nails often. Especially useful when you are eating pizza / ribs etc but still need to do something on the phone quickly without washing hands. To me, it would suck big time if it had a capacitative screen.
“(notably one thing that didn’t work was two-finger pinch/squeeze for zoom in/out. Shame.”
Oh really???? Captain Obvious, Read the specs of the phone before u write such unprofessional reviews.
this is a serious review site I take it? With reviewers who know what they’re talking about?
As you hate resistive touch screens so much, pray tell why you attempted to zoom with a two finger gesture? You did know resistive doesn’t (bar some highly specialised experimental stuff) do multi-touch? Tip, do a swirly motion clockwise or anti-clockwise for zooming.
As for the comment about the multiple desktops borrowing from the Iphone, you did know the N900 runs Linux didn’t you? Of which multiple desktops have been a feature I’ve been aware of since the 90’s.
If clicking on an icon to download an application is too much of a strain for you then heaven help you using repositories. My advice, stick to a simple phone and leave these kinds of hardware to proper power users who know what they’re doing.
lol this dude hasnt even tried the device, he’s using nokia press release pics!
I think you are right.
To “Reviewer”,
Prove that you have the “Release” version of the N900 – maybe a *real* picture of the two of you together?
I then *might* take your review seriously.
I won’t say anything like the author is an idiot and I can respect his review. However, I don’t agree with some points of it; the UI seems to me really good and fluid from the clips I’ve seen. Please remember how buggy the iPhone was when it first came out. I have an iPhone but will switch to T-Mobile and the N900 once it comes out. I like multitasking and the flexibility that the N900 brings: one Youtube clip had someone running 24 apps at once. That’s insane. With the iPhone you have close apps minus the music when browsing your calendar or photos.
The review was not bad but could have been better however, I respect the “5-minute” scenario cause now days people make snap decisions (whether good or bad) within an incredible small amount of time.
So does the final shipped OS version have MMS installed on it?
MMS will be available in the first major update, due in Dec 09, along with some other features including landscape mode.
Of course we know you mean portrait mode
Anyway, the nice thing about the N900 is that it has the Maemo OS, which is community-supported. You can submit, read up on, and vote on actual bugs, and follow their status.
How did someone who bashes the resistive screen got N900 first and I didnt
Nice to see debate is stimulated! Coupla things:
1) the resistive screen is a pain for things like scrolling menus/lists on this device – if that doesn’t bother you, I’m sure you’ll *love* the screen. But capacitive screens for me are preferable. As I said, if there were an N900 variant with a capacitive screen, that (for me) would be excellent!
2) the point of the ‘five-minute fiddle’ is to put some first impressions of the device, the same as if perhaps you were in a shop and contemplating purchasing it. Given more time there will *obviously* be a more detailed review…
3) BigMikeW – will check the MMS and come back to you – in the five minutes I spent with the device, I’d only checked out the email client briefly.
Ben
@Ben,
This was my first visit to Intomobile through a N900 link from somewhere else on internet.
I am assuming you are located in Europe.(was expecting US after reading the above short review). I am from US.
Now, the basic idea i got from the above review was that you pointed out only negative things and not a singl positive thing except saying that “I think N900 has good hardware”. Generally someone who goes into a shop to fiddle with a 5 minute handson of the device, they will have some positive impression to mention and not just negative, which was not the case here.
I get the same kind of impression when i read any US blog here like engadget,BGR,gizmodo and techcrunch. They like you never say a single positive comment about Nokia and/or Symbian.
Always try to put positive things in negative manner.
I looked through around 10 pages on your site, and saw no positve comment about Nokia/Symbian. I see you covering apps for iphone and Android, but not a single post about Symbian.(New apps are release for symbian too). The only app you covered was Carl Zeis app and the coverage was negative, even though after watching it i don’t feel its negative and also especially it was an alpha release. Carl Zeis app seems to be informative app for someone who wants to learn camera functions more.
So my overall impression of this site is that you guys don’t like Symbian/Nokia at all, looking at the things you are.
covering and hence such a negative coverage. Lot of blogs are trying their best to bring down the Nokia empire, but we will see what future holds.
My first and last visit here. Thanks for the review.
MMS is not on the release version, but no doubt it being OSS it shouldn’t be a stretch for some bright minds to create this (if Nokia doesn’t first).
pro-tip – pinch is out, swirl is in.
Where did you order it from?
I ordered mine from expansys 2 months ago ;-(
BigMikeW – Don’t think MMs is in yet, search the forums at talk.maemo.org for more information.
Ben – Scrolling is better done with fingernails (or other “hard” things), as using the “pad” of your finger tends to select (as you found).
Also, try watching the intro video, it is rather good and expalins all of the basics well i think (unlike most intro videos)
Just to correct the record: How can the 4 desktops available in Maemo be borrowed from the iPhone when the iPhone doesn’t even have multiple desktops? Linux has had multiple desktops since forever.
The desktops on the Nokia N900 are true desktops, with arbitrary icons, widgets, workspaces. The alleged iPhone “desktops” are simply an application menu.
Nokia fanboys are just pathetic. They make Apple fanboys look nice.
I have to agree with a few of the previous commentators, being called intomobile kinda implies that the reviewers would know something about the technical possibilities of resistive screens, especially when you go straight to bashing it. I don’t mean to be hostile but it’s kind of stupid to note such things as drawbacks which aren’t possible to do with the technology in the device. Last few phones that I’ve used have had capacitive displays and trying out N900 gave me no problems whatsoever. It’s nowhere near the old devices which required quite a bit of pressure to register. It’s that close to for example G1 screen that it becomes almost as positive thing that it’s resistive, because you can (and should) control it using any part of your finger or whatever object you have handy. In my case that means whatever from the knuckles(I hear you jaki with the pizza-comment
to the edge of credit card.
The fact that he tried to pinch-zoom on the N900 is a total fail on his part and goes to show how totally out of touch (no pun intended) this guy is. It’s like trying to load a Flash-enabled web page with the iPhone, or trying to multi-task with the iPhone and then write about how it’s not working. Well duh!
Yeah, that’s what happens when you go to a “no-brainer” OS (Your iPhone maybe…) to something with substance which would be a Linux-based OS. I’ve seen countless videos of this phone and how the OS performs. I’ve yet to see anyone pressing the wrong link or anything they didn’t want to touch. Simply because it doesn’t have your “pinch-zoom” is a rather lame ass excuse. Circular motions maybe??? Double tap?? This device has borrowed absolutely NOTHING from the iPhone. How can you even compare the two. The countless widgets you can add and customize to the 4 Desktops all the while running practically everything you’ve opened in those “Five minutes” in the background. This is nothing close to the iPhone. Perhaps you need to lose your “Five minute fiddle” theory, it doesn’t seem to be panning out very well.
Just to add, the only negative so far I can see from this device is that it at the present does not support MMS. Wow, that’s an easy software fix. I mean it isn’t Apple or AT&T for crying out loud…
It’s missing the power of 100000 apps written an being sold in AppStore! No matter what others do now, it’s like Windows and software for Windows, both ends feeding each other and growing bigger. You are either compatible with Windows, or an underdog.
There’s not many companies willing to do multi-platform development, by including a minor players.
And yes, Maemo is minor player.
Of the 100000 apps, only 0.01% are must-have killer apps, e.g. the facebooks, twitters, skypes kinda apps. The majority of those killer apps are multi-platforms. When the iPhone was released, there weren’t 100000 apps for it either.
‘Mulitple desktops is borrowed from iphone’ lol, what a duche.
Ive yet to see this feature on the iphone, but if you have a special build, please let us know more.
Dont forget to add what you can do with the N900 that the iphone cant if your going to compare things in a future review.
Everywhere it says its resisitve touch screen. You get your device es one of the first ever and expect multitouch. Why did you preorder this device without informing yourself about the specs?
…
I enjoyed the review.
That’s because there’s clearly value in a “casual first impressions” reaction. I think any commenter who’s angry that it didn’t sing the praises of the device misses the point, which is this: what will a casual, non-gadget-geek consumer think as s/he plays with the N900 in a retail environment? What stands out? What doesn’t work the way s/he expects?
I also think it’s appropriate for the IntoMobile audience, even though it’s clearly not meant to be representative of the average IntoMobile reader. I want all sorts of industry news here, including consumer perspectives, and not just detailed tech-spec reviews or insidery business strategy updates (although I like both of those, too).