N900 mini review

[Andy_con]

for all you tech geeks...

just got myself a new nookia n900 and i have to say it blows the iphone out the water!

its primary use is an internet tablet, so as you can expect very fast internet. also its currently the only phone on the market that can truly multi task, you can have loads of things open at once without crashing it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emvUBpEkbU

theres a vid some where on youtube with it running 30 apps at once and not crashing, so very impressive. the apps are also running not just sat there, so you can open one web page and whilst its loading open another. you can copy links from photobucket and post them into a forum etc... all very very useful.

there are 4 home screens, all full customizable, unlike the iphone there not just little square boxes which all look the same!!

so here we have music player which we can play then go off and do something else.
live weather whichs updates every hour
cpu and memory meter
battery meter
google search bar which is really good, as with one click you can change the search engine to ebay, google, ask etc...
and at the bottom some general short cuts.

just flick side ways to the next screen (friends and family will like this pic)

just click on the pic to phone someone

here we have rss feeds, which you can add as any as you like, all updated every 5 mins.

also my fav web book marks

then last one messaging, texts and emails and calendar

the phone connects to the server and looks for emails ever 5 mins

the phone does have apps like other phones but they are generally useful. there arent any apps that tell you what colour pants to wear on thursday but you will find stuff like a tv remote, which works. the n900 has built in IR.

phone has a full slide out keyboard or on screen keyboard. comes with a built in stylist which i love, using my big fat fingers can be tricky on a touch screen.

32gb internal hard drive plus memory card slot up a 16gb card.

so all in all an amazing phone, which im so so glad i got. i have an iphone so can comment on which i think is the best and the n900 wins hands down.

phone hasnt crashed once since i got it, so again another good point.

the multi tasking is amazing.

 

[Gally]

Nice was a bit too techy for my missus, she opted for the 3gs.

I like the 900 tho, best nokia i've seen in a while.

 

[muld]

i'm getting one this week what network / contract you get?

 

[Andy_con]

Nice was a bit too techy for my missus, she opted for the 3gs.

I like the 900 tho, best nokia i've seen in a while.

indeed best nokia ive had since the n95. loved the n95 due to sat nav.

i'm getting one this week what network / contract you get?

got mine on an upgrade, originally they wanted £150 for the phone on my existing contract which is £35 a month for 600mins any network, 500 tx and unlimited web (o2)

put in to cancel the contract and they came back to me with an upgrade (so existing contract) phone at £20.

so not bad.

but you can get the phone free on voda, £35 a month 300mins, unlimited tx unlimited web

 

[muld]

Yea i saw that voda deal, looks good, am on o2 at the moment tho and had no problems, i guess i shall see what they can do, does that mean o2 are stocking the N900? It's not on their website, well, it wasn't earlier today

 

[Andy_con]

carphonewarehouse o2 who are the most shocking company ever and dont know their ear hole from their ass hole.

due to the above i managed to bypass their system and get my contract cancelled 1 month early

 

[muld]

hehe, yea, i know what what you mean, i tend to avoid the warehouse (and the stealth companies they own) but i may have little choice this time as i believe they have some kind of exclusivity at the moment on the N900. Not sure if this has ended now or not though

edit, runs out march 1st to wait or not to wait that is the question!

 

[172Ben]

Carphonewarehouse use o2 direct anyway, just you have to deal with CPW as you say.

Didnt like the N900 when we looked at it in december, although the few we had were final test models, couldnt get on with it somehow.

 

[Andy_con]

you should be able to get a half decent deal, just make them aware that other companies are doing better deals.

 

[Andy_con]

Carphonewarehouse use o2 direct anyway, just you have to deal with CPW as you say.

Didnt like the N900 when we looked at it in december, although the few we had were final test models, couldnt get on with it somehow.

loooser............. lol

its awesome best phone on the market

 

[muld]

its the only phone i will be getting that's for sure, then again i support Linux systems for a living, hehe

http://www.nokiaretail.co.uk/Brands...es/sb489/p26078.htm#ctl00_content_n97_wrapper

seems nokia's own stores are not bound by the exclusivity deal woop!

 

[Tom]

Its nice but its way way way too techy (Shell commands to perform hard resets when connected to a PC! - Stupidly technical) The browser is brilliant. The rest seems very cobbled together and homebrewish.

If you love phones you constantly need to tweak and play about with then this is for you.

But its not suitable for the average joe.

 

[David]

it uses a stylus? no thanks.

 

[muld]

it uses a stylus? no thanks.

There really is no need to use a stylus except on very rare occasions, a very fiddly website or image manipulation maybe, but that would also be true of a resistive screen anyway. You just need to touch the screen in a slightly different manor. In any case the iphone, HTC HD/Hero etc, Google Nexus and most Palm devices also use the Capacitive screen...

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/feat..._tech_war_in_which_both_opponents_can_win.php

A little light reading for you

 

[Andy_con]

Its nice but its way way way too techy (Shell commands to perform hard resets when connected to a PC! - Stupidly technical) The browser is brilliant. The rest seems very cobbled together and homebrewish.

If you love phones you constantly need to tweak and play about with then this is for you.

But its not suitable for the average joe.

techy! do you mean you have to be intelligent to use it, where as an iphone any thicko can use?! lol

i disagree with the cobbled together, its seems very well put together and it has less menus and options from my previous n97.

needs tweaking? in what sense? ive not done any tweaking.





you dont have to use the stylish, you can use your finger. i just find the fine point of a stylist easier for the web than my fat fingers.

 

[sneeks]

Stylus and not stylish!!!

Not a bad phone but the onscreen icons appear to be very cluttered looking.

 

[Andy_con]

sorry rushing and not rereading.

screens are fully customizable to how ever you like, thats just how ive set mine up

 

[sneeks]

The YT video is impressive but the handset definitely had slowdown issues by the end of his test. The new Palm Pre Plus was capable of opening 50 apps at once which was also impressive.

 

[Andy_con]

The YT video is impressive but the handset definitely had slowdown issues by the end of his test. The new Palm Pre Plus was capable of opening 50 apps at once which was also impressive.

does it, ive not seen or used a palm myself so cant really make any comments on it. but good work if it can.



two bits of info for anyone buying an n900.

its only has 2 profiles and you cannot add more

it does not support mms

but lucky there is an app for both, which i have install and both work fine

 

[muld]

yea, i prefer to think of it as can't yet, the good thing about the N900 is the type of people using them are the type of people who will be willing to develop cool open source apps for them

 

[Andy_con]

theres some cool apps out at the mo if your on the right forum. im loving the tv remote app, means i dont have to bother looking for the actual tv remote lol and u can go round mates and annoy them

 

[paddymph]

how big is the phone itself? its hard to gauge looking at the pics?

 

[muld]

fairly large for a "phone" but this isn't really a phone in the true sense of the word, it's more an internet tablet with phone features, couple of pics, it's next to a Sony Ericsson W980i

 

[Brown.]

Looks a bit thick.....was considering one of these when they were pure internet, nice to have phone capability now

 

[Snails]

Do you have a link to the MMS app please? I had a little look on maemo.org, but couldn't find it.

 

[Andy_con]

ohhhh its not as simple as just installing the mms app.

let me get some details together

 

[Andy_con]

ok how to install fmms and get your n900 to receive mms.

first you need to open app manager, then click the little drop down arrow at the top next to application manager.

then application catalogues, then new -

type the following exactly

catalogue name - Marmo Extra-devel
web address - http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel/
distrbution - fremantle
components - free non-free
leave disabled unticked.

it should now connect to a new server filled with apps. but do not just download any app, this server holds apps that have been made by any jo, so an app could kill your phone. if you find an app you like the sound of, go onto maemo.org search for it and see what people say. if they say its bad dont download it etc...

 

[Andy_con]

once you have that sorted, again go into app manager and click download and search for fapn and install it.

what you need to do is create an new access point for mms.

heres a vid -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PweDR6I0Bt0

as the vid shows open fapn and click new.

go into the menu and click settings and internet connections.

this is the hard part now getting the settings right.

settings can be obtained from here or if your with o2 i can give you the correct settings

http://wiki.maemo.org/MMS

let me know how you get on and ill go through the rest

 

[BenWall]

LoL all that to install MMS?

One thing I love about the iphone is all the apps are in 1 central location and are so easy to access.

Does the N900 have multi touch?

 

[Andy_con]

thats only half of it.

all other apps are strraight install but not for mms.

whats multi touch?

 

[The Hoff]

Does the N900 have multi touch?

Nope.

Andy, it's good to have opinions of things, but you can come off sounding [as you have] like some sort of spotty little Phones4U fool. Slating the iPhone's UI as being anything other than genius is fail worthy... why make life more complex than it need be, which they [and Motorola] are very good at doing.

My phone is mobile, I want things to work in one click, not three. I want to immediately know where the app is, and by sight alone. I want the UI to be coherent, and uniform in operation, is that Nokia?

I enjoy digging around servers at work, maintaining a network, tinkering with variables. But I also enjoy the fact that my 4 year old Godson can navigate my iPhone, find the app he wants to play, and play it without me needing to help... that's the power of Apples UI.

Nokia - Connecting Fail

 

[john.med]

The n900 and it's Linux-based Maemo OS is new tho, how long was it before the iPhone OS had MMS and cut and paste?

Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone, but this handset looks like it has great potential to me and really quick.

Thanks Andy for for the info.

 

[Tom]

That argument is irrelevant. (iPhone C&P, MMS)

It has it now, its had it since the N900 came out. You'd have thought nokia would provide such "Important" things out of the box.

Needless to say its overly complex and having played with one again yesterday its HUGE.

 

[john.med]

I disagree Tom, we're comparing OS as much as phones here, and Maemo is new, iPhone has matured.

You'd have thought Apple would provide such 'important' things out of the box?! They didn't, people still adopted the phone/OS...

I've never seen one so can't comment on the complexity or size, but are we not expecting the next iPhone to be bigger?

 

[Tom]

Maemo isnt new, its older than the iPhone OS.

And at the same time, its dead as its already been replaced by MeeGo

 

[john.med]

Oh, guess you're yet again far better informed than me Tom, I've only read bits on MAEMO, stuff that said it was new blah blah,..

I think it looks interesting though.

 

[Jamie86]

Now the important question.. what's the battery life like in everyday use?

 

[Andy_con]

Nope.

Andy, it's good to have opinions of things, but you can come off sounding [as you have] like some sort of spotty little Phones4U fool. Slating the iPhone's UI as being anything other than genius is fail worthy... why make life more complex than it need be, which they [and Motorola] are very good at doing.

My phone is mobile, I want things to work in one click, not three. I want to immediately know where the app is, and by sight alone. I want the UI to be coherent, and uniform in operation, is that Nokia?

I enjoy digging around servers at work, maintaining a network, tinkering with variables. But I also enjoy the fact that my 4 year old Godson can navigate my iPhone, find the app he wants to play, and play it without me needing to help... that's the power of Apples UI.

Nokia - Connecting Fail

i suppose if we all wana be boring and follow the herd then the iphone is the way to go, where as you say everything works.

but if you want to be different and have at phone that at the moment has lots of potential then the n900 is the way to go.

like i said i do have an iphone so can make comment on it. dont get me wrong i dont hate it, its just not the phone for me. i also hate how restrictive itunes is.

 

[Andy_con]

Now the important question.. what's the battery life like in everyday use?

umm good question my n97 mini battery was fantastic giving me a good day and a half to two days use before charging. that was with rss feeds on email on and web use.

on my n900 it doesnt seem to like a full battery after a full nights charge it only reads as 96% full and im struggling to get a full day out of it. so im not sure if there is something up with the batt