Nokia N900, first impressions.

DHL delivered my N900 on Friday night at about 8:45PM. Needless to say, I was up with it most of the night. I have had many Nokia smartphones, all using Symbian, and I have also bought the N770, and N800 internet tablets that run early versions of Maemo Linux, like the N900.

WOW! What a difference. The previous internet tablets were geek linux, but Nokia really pulled out the stops in making the N900 "consumer ready".

Most people that buy the N900's will not even know or care what is under the hood, although is supercharged, injected, cammed, and rumbling with power. What they will see is an integrated theme of communication. The N900 is really a window to the digital world. Unlike the previous internet tablets, everything about the N900 is seamlessly woven together to bring many forms of interaction with the outside world together. You can make a call using the cell carrier, or with SIP (like Gizmo), or Skype, or Google Talk, and they all work the same. In "Conversations" your SMS, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN , Yahoo contacts are all aggregated into one seamless page.

The conglomeration theme continues with 4 desktops that let you arrange links and widgets to area's that suit your needs. The hardware is fast, and scrolling through the desktops has no hesitation whatsoever.

The whole "Window to the digital world" theme is so well integrated that the N900 is hard to describe as one thing. It's not a phone with computer functions. It's not a computer with phone functions. It is what the future of digital comunications will be.

I have been involved with the computer industry since the early 1980's when I worked for a small Japanese computer company called SORD Computer. SORD was years ahead of it's time, but was overshadowed by the big companies of the time. Nokia is a big company, and the N900 is a true milestone in digital comunication.

The N900 will end up in the history books with things like the DEC PDP-11, Morrow S-100's, Kaypro Portables. The N900 WILL change the direction of digital communications.

I am truly impressed.

For those that wonder if I actually have one, here is the DHL tracking:

Click to see!


Short video I took with the N900 outside the Chicago Nokia Store

Another thought. The iPhone crowd keep whining about capacitive touch screens. The resistive touch screen on the N900 is not only very responsive to the fingers, but it lets you use a stylus for exact work. Try drawing something on an iPhone, try writing kanji. The iPhone capacitive touch screen is great for smudging big buttons and things around with big fingers, but I am GLAD Nokia went with a high quality resistive screen on the N900. I think it is better!

One more thing. Do not compare an N900 to an iPhone. If you want a comparable Nokia product, that would be the N97.

The N900, as I said before is a totally new concept in digital communication. It is not strictly a phone.

I changed the picture. I installed an app called "x11vnc" on the N900, and then with a VNC client on my Mac, I can have control of the N900 through my laptop. Answer calls, change settings. How kewl is this!