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
N900 - A tank
Nokia has a reputation for building solid, nearly indestructible phones, and the N900 is no exception. Getting your hands on one, it's immediately obvious that the N900 takes nods from its ancestry: the N810, N800, and N770. The N900 obviously builds on the relatively tall and wide form tablet form factor heritage of those devices, squeezing it down into a pocketable form factor. That's clearly been done by trading the wide, tall, but thin internet tablet form factor from the N8xx and N770 for a thicker but smaller footprint device profile. It's obvious this is an internet tablet scaled down; part smartphone, part internet tablet. Compared to the Motorola Droid and HTC Incredible, it’s an unabashedly thick phone; this is a serious piece of hardware that doesn’t make any design compromises just for the sake of staying slim.
I already showed one photo illustrating the thickness against a few other smartphones, but here's a different angle just to drive home that point - the N900 is beefy.
The N900 has a number of signature Nokia quirks that you'll be familiar with if you've used Nokia devices, but might strike others as a bit odd. First of all, on the top of the N900 is where the microUSB port is located, and a speakerphone outlet.
On the bottom, you've got the spring activated standby/resume switch and 1/8" 3.5 mm headphone jack, along with a second speakerphone outlet and the end where the stylus is extracted. For me at least, putting the headset jack at the bottom is a bit confusing, as you get used to holding it this way (and considering it the top, since power is there) only to become disoriented when it's time to answer a call. I mean, look at the USB cable coming awkwardly out of the top. It just doesn't seem natural!
It's an aesthetic criticism that's hardly a major issue, but it's another small quirk that really drives home the point that this is an internet tablet in smartphone skin.
On the left side of the N900 is the region the stylus sits in for the resistive touch screen.
Finally, on the longer side opposite the stylus is the two position camera button, the power button (for really turning the device on or off), and the volume rocker.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
68 Comments
View All Comments
Zebo - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
with 750mhz processor convex keys and ditching the lame D pad making this the best smart phone for my use talking 5-6 hours a day plus on best network instead of T or TM.krazyfrog - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Dude, you chat like an eight year-old lol.CityBlue - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
The latest Maemo5 PR1.2 does bring a welcome improvement to battery life, in some cases as much as 50% improvement to standby time.The recently released Opera Mobile on the N900 is lightning fast - it would be interesting to see how that performs in your comparison tests, or the latest Fennec (Firefox Mobile 1.1). The stock MicroB browser is beginning to look a little long in the tooth what with all the Javascript run-time improvements in competing browsers, but it does still offer the most complete web experience on pretty much any mobile device.
Overall though, a very good and welcome review of Maemo5 which is much misunderstood by a world obsessed with Android and iPhone.
achipa - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Two small corrections:Nokia's next MeeGo device is still going to be ARM (MeeGo is a two-platform OS, ARM and Atom), if there is a Moorestown device far along in the pipelines, it's not Nokia's.
PR1.2 is very likely not the last update. Nokia has pledged to deliver QtMobility (the mobile device Qt APIs) in a future update, and there is an active Qt4.7 branch for Maemo5 which also suggests work is being done there.
The Solutor - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Not all the Droid/Milestone's keyboard are flat.http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5872/dsc00180.png
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6551/dsc00176.p...
This is my milestone (bought in december).
So there's no need to wait droid 2 to get the raised keys.
Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Interesting... looks like they definitely identified that issue somewhere between finishing the CDMA 'Droid' design and the GSM Milestone. Cool stuff!-Brian
strikeback03 - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
I read that elsewhere as well. Would be nice if the verizon stores got the newer keyboard models out on display to tryBoyBawang - Sunday, June 13, 2010 - link
Sorry to break your heart dude but the ones with raised keyboard were the early builds. Motorola changed it to flat after reported sliding problems with the raised designstrikeback03 - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
Actually one of my friends got a Moto Droid Thursday and I had a chance to play with it Friday, it did feel like they had improved the key feel slightly. IIRC the Droids on display had concave keys, this one was slightly convex.solipsism - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
I understand that's because they are in the same package is the reason why you need the BT to be on to get FM, but that can't be too common. After all, most smartphones seem to have WiFi and BT(+EDR) and FM all the same transceiver.For comparison, the iPhone 3GS uses a <a href="http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.... BCM4325</ a>