Two OMAP 3430 Phones: Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid
by Brian Klug on June 10, 2010 9:29 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- N900
- Maemo
- Motorola Droid
- Droid
- MeeGo
- Android
- Mobile
Conclusions
We've revisited two phones running the same SoC, each a bit over halfway into their product life cycles. It's an interesting perspective that this gives us, as they're no longer the latest and greatest, but still far above average, and a ways from being obsolete.
From a physical perspective, the Motorola Droid remains the flagship of Android phones that come with a hardware keyboard - a feature that enthusiasts and casual users alike still identify as hugely important. If having a hardware keyboard is important to you, the Motorola Droid is almost the only option out there with a modern ARMv7 CPU.
Even though Motorola's summer refresh is looming - likely bringing along the Motorola Droid 2 and Motorola Droid Xtreme - the phone that launched Android 2.0 will still get an update to Android 2.2 'Froyo,' and likely be offered at a discount price as it continues its life cycle. Already, Verizon is offering buy one get one free on the device. In fact, although many expected Motorola Droid sales to slow down significantly after the HTC Incredible's launch, sales continue to shore up supply, with Motorola's Sanjay Jha making note of device shortages similar to the HTC Incredible's due to demand.
Motorola's made support for its current Droid an obvious priority, as we've seen the device get multitouch in the browser, maps, and gallery, with Android 2.1 among other important features. From a performance perspective, the Motorola Droid's 550 MHz Cortex A8 simply isn't a match for the 1 GHz A8 in Snapdragon's Scorpion CPU - but the Motorola Droid's GPU is faster. The OMAP 3430 still has a lot of life in it waiting for overclockers - in fact, many already do. From a battery life perspective, call time on the Motorola Droid is absurdly long compared to other smartphones at 8.13 hours. In spite of the looming Droid 2 and Xtreme, the original Droid is a sound choice to make if you're on Verizon and absolutely need a hardware keyboard. Though we didn't test it - I would expect much of the same from the handset's GSM cousin - the Motorola Milestone.
When I sat down to tackle the N900, I was hugely excited because of how much potential Maemo still has as it evolves into MeeGo. A month later, I still feel the same way - like I've explored maybe 10% of the platform's real depth. There's something to be said for how truly and completely open Nokia's approach is compared to platforms like Android and iOS. For as big on 'open' as these latter two platforms advertise being, it's refreshingly mindblowing to see Nokia offering instructions on how to get superuser access on their own handset, on their own support website. Contrast that to iOS or Android where one has jailbreak or 'root', respectively, to do things the platform creators don't intend. To that end, I find it incredibly depressing when the Linux chief architect himself, Linus Torvalds, (who is notably Finnish, same as Nokia) embraces Android over Maemo. It's the difference between a platform that lets you fire up a preinstalled X-Term and apt-get install away versus one that doesn't. While that's not really an end-user feature that any handset maker will tout, it's telling about platform philosophy.
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Fri13 - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - link
Symbian is server-client architectured operating system. Symbian has EKA2 microkernel + servers (modules). But Symbian is not at same time _just_ the operating system. It has other features (like libraries and so on) as well what does not belong to the actual OS.Fact is that Symbian really is open source.
But in other hand, the Android is not the operating system. It is a software system. The Linux is the operating system in the Android. Linux is monolithic kernel. Monolithic kernel is exactly same thing as operating system. It is the oldest (actually original) OS architecture. Server-client and layered architectures were developed almost few decades after the monolithic because there was demand to get OS architecture what is in theory more secure and more stable, but slower.
Symbian is licensed under EPL. While Linux OS is licensed under GPLv2 (only).
Both licenses are aproofed by the OSI and FSF. So both OS's are Libre software.
Android is software system what has multple different licensed software in it. The Linux OS in it is the GPLv2 (what can not be changed) and the distributor itself can use as well closed source software if the license allows. Usually this means that the software platforms or the softwares what are responsible for user interface can be with different license than F/OSS license.
By the facts, it is not true at all to say that "Android is not F/OSS operating system". Because a) Linux kernel is the operating system in Android. Android is just one distribution of the Linux. b) When talking about the operating systems and android, if wanted to be very wide speaking by terms, then Android is totally F/OSS.
numberoneoppa - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
Great article, Brian. I learned a lot. =)legoman666 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
I love my N900 :D I bought it last November, right when it was first released. I had a N810 at the time, so I was excited to get the next iteration. With PR1.2 and a modest overclock to 800mhz, it scores ~12000ms on the sunspider javascript benchmark, which is on par with the HTC Incredible and the Nexus 1.I didn't have to get t-mobile, as my local carrier, Cincinnati Bell, uses the same 3g frequencies as T-mobile. I get blazing fast speeds of 3mb/s.
As Brian said in the review, the Skype integration is excellent. It even tells you how much credit you have remaining and the call cost at the end of the call. (And I can make video calls over 3g, take that iPhone)
topsecret - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
You should test the N900 with it running meego.Talcite - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Nokia doesn't plan to port meego to the N900.CityBlue - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Yes they do plan to port MeeGo to the N900 - in fact, the N900 is the primary development platform for MeeGo so not making it available in one form or another would be utterly ridiculous.What Nokia have said is that the version of MeeGo that will be made available for the N900 will not be officially supported, which basically means you can't go running to Nokia Care when you find a bug. Since I can't believe anyone does this even with a supported OS, the lack of Nokia Care is no great loss - you'll still have a very large and committed community to fall back on for help.
So in brief: Yes, MeeGo *IS* coming to the N900 - whether you install it or not is your choice.
jed22281 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Yup, exactly what cityblue said.Brian needs to clarify this in his article.
There'll be plenty of "unofficial" support for meego on n900
tbutler - Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - link
...sorry, those airquotes have some very painful memories for those of us who lived through the 770 era. When 'unofficial' support meant a kludged-together hack.Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Thanks for the clarification CityBlue, I'll definitely update. I wrote some of this partially when support wasn't fully understood.-Brian
topsecret - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
"the Motorola Droid remains the flagship of Android phones that come with a hardware keyboard"I dunno, the samsung moment is a pretty nice phone.