So we got to play with a Nokia n900 phone for the past week. We are testing some new features on the PinPoints site and Nokia phone was needed. Well, it’s not really a phone – It’s more like a small tablet PC!

Yes it makes phone calls, yes it sends and receives SMS’s and PinPoints, but let me explain why it’s a Tablet PC and not a phone.

Under the hood the n900 has ARM Cortex-A8 processor with up to 1Gb of Ram and 32GB internal storage, 3.5mm AV connector TV out (PAL/NTSC), Micro-USB connector, High-Speed USB 2.0 Bluetooth/WIFI/Integrated FM transmitter and the quickest Integrated GPS with A-GPS I’ve ever seen on a nokia. Not to mention it has a full qwerty keyboard, a good 5mp camera but unfortunately the device is let down a little by the dodgy touch screen. The stylus does improve the touch screen but not something I would use all the time so I’ve been left tapping the n900 a couple of times before I get the desired response.

Anyhoo – that’s a lot of spec for just a ‘phone’ – this thing is capable of running XP for heavens sake!

The operating system, Maemo, is built on Linux so you get all the benefits of a Linux OS – It’s not every day you can open one can open an x-term on a phone and ssh into your cloud! sweet!

The user interface is pretty good – nice and swishy. Nokia have kept some of the Symbian look and feel (most notably under the main menu) but the rest of the system is what you expect from a modern phone, errr, tablet pc.
Here is a list of my favourite apps so far

• Facebrick
• TweeGo
• Angry Birds
• Stellarium
• Hermes
• Firefox
• Foreca Weather Widget
• rootsh
• wifiEye

Some of the downsides:

• The size & weight – it’s huge!
• Nokia maps doesn’t have voice navigation!!!!
  this is a development device and won’t really be use to the general public, it is however a big change for Nokia and I for one like the change.
  the touch screen
• battery life – 1 to 2 days tops