I’m a happy user of the N900 – an ageing device. As I recall it, I saw it for the first time in real life at Qt DevDays 2009. So, basically, my phone is older than my laptop, and I’m happy about it.
Yesterday, Nokia removed two zeroes from my old workhorse and announced the N9 – a Qt driven phone. You can find a detailed spec here (thanks Ubuntufreak). What I’m excited about is:
- Unibody. Nokia’s phones have been a bit on the plastic side for my taste in the past.
- Capacitive (i.e. multi-point) touch. This has really been the N900’s weak point recently.
- Proper Linux, i.e. MeeGo. No virtual machine layer as in Android, native binaries on a powerful platform.
- Qt – everywhere!
So, now the only remaining question is – is this a device that will keep me happy for the next three years?
Heya. You can see the processor and other more detailed specs here: http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/1-nokia-n9-data-sheet.pdf
I’m real happy with the specs, bar one thing, the fact they eliminated the physical keyboard. Bit sad that.
I agree, the physical keyboard was great, but it also added weight and size. A good on-screen keyboard with a good touch display (which I hope that it has) is hopefully as useful. Either way, it has to beat the on-screen keyboard of the 8500 XM…
Yeah, size and weight are probably 2 not that important items for me. I have big pockets. I need a device to do what I want it to do, size and weight (as long as they are reasonable) and secondary.
Calling it a `market disrupting device’ is probably too much, but it’s certainly damn cool!
I’d love to get one, provided I can afford it. No official words on its pricing yet, and apparently it will not be available until the end of this year.
The press release can be found at
http://press.nokia.com/2011/06/21/the-nokia-n9-a-unique-all-screen-smartphone/
And the are a lot of comments about this announcement at
http://mynokiablog.com/2011/06/21/nokia-n9-officially-announced/
http://swipe.nokia.com/
Seems to be a great phone from Nokia which could really provide a good competition to Android and iOS if properly supported. I feel Nokia could once again dominate the mobile phone markets with the meego based handsets. And on the part of phone specs it seems on par with the latest-gen smartphones, you can check more on the site below,
http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/N9-00/
The problem is this is now a completely toothless operating system. Everybody knows that Nokia: loses money on supporting it, has a contractual agreement to support Microsoft and (probably most importantly) can’t run OS-backing services to save their lives.
Why would any company develop applications for this phone when Nokia’s current stance and past actions suggest it’s probably going to be dead within 24 months?
Nokia had a chance but poor management decisions wasted it.
I cover a more about the steady mismanagement of Nokia and the N900 in my review: http://thepcspy.com/read/my-n900-review/
I’ll buy this gadget as a christmas present to myself and see what I can do with it.
Is this REALLY two Meego devices?
I certainly question that.
Develop apps for these – will they run on Meego proper?
http://lwn.net/Articles/448590/
Excellent sensorship :)
Thanks for revealing true colors.
@Jack: I very rarely censor, I do however sleep.
As for the MeeGo-ness of this device – I’m not sure. Is there a MeeGo compliance test to run?