Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Masters Do It: Nokia N900

Remember how I rambled in the last post about cellphones, and how nobody did the perfect device with the perfect UI and the perfect OS with the perfect features?

Well, I've been silenced. And who silenced me. Freaking Nokia!

Yes. They did. And what they did was the N900



It's so funny too. This magnificent device hasn't even been created by the cellphone branch of nokia. No, it's been made by the internet tablet branch! Which in retrospect makes total sense.

Because what I wan't isn't really a "cellphone". A "cellphone" is an archaic piece of stupidity (I hardly ever make voice calls at all these days). I want an internet tablet with a phone function.

And Nokia did exactly that.

The Nokia internet tablet division basically said "Well, lets make our next tablet smaller, include a 3G modem in it, and by the way add a phone app, so you can make calls with it" - the later almost like an "oh by the way it also makes calls" kind of deal. And they created the perfect smartphone

And it runs Linux. Well okay a variant called "Maemo" but it's still Linux. And you can log in as "root" on it. I mean, come on, what could possibly be cooler? Anything? Ever?

Even "little things" like, oh, SIP, Google Talk or Skype over 3G networks is a Standard Feature, like it should. What, me, pay for airtime when I'm calling someone? Don't be ridiculous, I have a dataplan and I use it for whatever I want.

The N97 basically stopped existing the day the N900 came out (although for some reason Nokia still markets it), and it does have two tiny piece of "edge" over the N900: The compass (magnetometer) and the "flip up" design, which I honestly preffer to the flat "slider" of the N900.

But what is more important is that Nokia considers the N900 their low end device in this space...

..which basically means I just keep my N95 8GB for a few more months, await whatever-comes-after-N900, and it'll be heaven.



Basically, there are no contenders for this.

None.

Apples iPhone isn't even worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as the N900. As the iPhone was a start of a "new kind of device", so is this.

I full expect a future "N950" to be something with NVidia Tegra accellerated graphics, HDMI port, HD video camera, and 128GB storage standard.

I'm drooling already :)

/Z