Several hours before Nokia Connection 2011 kicked off in Singpore, leaked press images of what we now know to be the Nokia N9 hit the internet. One thing we immediately noticed was that it looked nothing like the device we’ve been calling the Nokia N9 since August 2010. Said 10 month old images showed a QWERTY slider and it even had the N9 moniker etched into the keyboard … so what exactly happened to that thing? Turns out Nokia decided to rename what was previously known as the N9 to the N950 and have made it a device that only registered Maemo developers can get. Why the switch? Eldar Murtazin, Editor in Chief of Mobile-Review, the Russian site that manages to get more scoops than any other technology publication on the internet, said in a tweet: “In a last moment Nokia change metal case of N9 to polycarbonat (plastic one). Thats an attempt of cost saving :)”.
Anyway, a couple of guys from the Czechoslovakian site MobileNet managed to get one these elusive N950 units and made a video showing off what could have been the N9 if it wasn’t for someone’s decision to change the design. To be honest, we actually prefer the new N9 design since it’s not only smaller (3.9 inch screen versus 4.0 inch), but also because it looks unique. The N950 looks like the E7, which isn’t exactly sexy, and we’ve been so used to typing on glass thanks to Apple’s iPhone and the numerous devices that flow through our hands that run Google’s Android operating system, that we can confidently say having a device with a hardware keyboard is overrated.
What do you guys think, would you have rather had the “new N9” or the “old N9” and why? Also, has the N9 made you want to delay your next smartphone purchase? We’re hearing that it’ll be at least 3 months before it shows up on store shelves.