Maemo 5 reviewed in breathtakingly granular detail

It's one thing to read a product preview here and there, but if you really want the Maemo 5 experience before you're even able to set foot in a store and buy an N900, look no further than mobile-review's characteristically exhaustive look at the platform. From the endless array of screenshots, you quickly get the impression that this is an attractive shell -- evolutionary and familiar for owners of the 770, N800, or N810, yes, but significantly freshened nonetheless. Here are a few big takeaways from the War & Peace-esque compendium:

• There's apparently an N920 in the works that lacks a QWERTY keyboard. We've heard rumors in the past that the N900 will remain Nokia's sole Maemo 5 phone for at least a few months, so we might look to see this in 2010.
• Process management invokes a curiously webOS-like card view which looks great. Helps when you have a beefy OMAP3 in there, doesn't it?
• The call log effortlessly aggregates GSM and VoIP calls -- a neat trick, and a tip of the hat to Maemo's roots as a VoIP-friendly platform.
• MMS isn't supported, strangely, though the platform's SMS support handles both threaded and traditional views.
• While chatting up Maemo's calendar services, Eldar specifically says that he "Palm's WebOS-powered organizer much more enticing and promising." Lack of Google Calendar synchronization sucks, but we're not sure what that's all about -- Maemo does support Exchange ActiveSync, after all.
• Eldar his the nail on the head regarding Maemo's Mozilla-based browser: it's always been good, just way too slow. The N900 cures those ails on better hardware, though "it hasn't caught up with the rest of the pack yet." Flash support seems wonky and performance isn't always great -- it depends on how many apps are running.
• The music player is pretty bare-bones (typical Nokia), though anyone happy with the N97's sound quality will feel right at home here -- it's the same hardware.
• The integrated Maps app apparently lags way behind the bar that Ovi Maps has set over on S60 -- super slow and "resource-hungry."

Of course, the beauty of Maemo is its wide-open philosophy, so many of the niggles here that aren't corrected by Nokia proper will hopefully be handled by the community at large -- and the good news is that by the time you get done reading this review, the N900 should be on store shelves for you to try yourself.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 5:14PM]

Maybe I am hallucinating or maybe I have gone delusional in my old age but... Did I just see a semi-positive article about a Nokia product from Mobile Engadget? WTH? Did I wake up into some alternate reality or something?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 5:15PM]

I don't think it's out yet either. My pre-order is still in the 'In Progrss' mode at Nokia.

[glenskey Posted Sep 29th 2009 5:26PM]

i remember a time, in the old days, when products like this were discussed on the engadget mobile podcast. anyone one else remember those happy times?

[Chris Posted Sep 29th 2009 5:45PM]

Oh man, have I got a treat for you coming up in a few minutes...

[Renegade Fanboy Posted Sep 29th 2009 6:27PM]

@Chris: there is a much better review out there - http://my-symbian.com/other/preview_n900.php

that one is also based on a proto device, but at least not the stolen, cannot-do-firmware-update-because-Nokia-would-catch-me-Eldar's N900 version from last year.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 6:28PM]

i love all the comp the industry can handle but this review sounds like its buggy and not ready for prime time.. wm gets negative reviews that sound much better than this all day..

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 6:45PM]

I'd buy N900 in a heartbeat if it supported AT&T's and Rogers' 3G frequencies.

[Paullll Posted Sep 29th 2009 6:59PM]

Send feedback to Nokia :)

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 7:07PM]

agreed

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 7:27PM]

please explain this "-- and the good news is that by the time you get done reading this review, the N900 should be on store shelves for you to try yourself."

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 17th 2009 7:30PM]

It's because the review is so freaking long. Nice and comprehensive though

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 10:06PM]

Don't get too pumped about a positive Nokia Engadget review, Mobile Review was pretty harsh. They said that Maemo's browser was inferior to Apple's safari mobile DESPITE the n900 having flash 9.4 support

Ok, Apple's browser is great but all those little boxes being replaced by actual content? Streaming Multimedia?

Sounds sweet!!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2009 11:06PM]

Yeah, I'm with Ale on this one. It looks damn good in all the videos out there showing the browser. I wonder if it's due to the lack of multi-touch?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 3:11AM]

I thought I remembered hearing that this phone supported T-Mobile's 3G band. Is that true? If that is the case, that would seem to be a pretty strong indication that T-Mobile would be picking up this phone, but I have to say that I still feel pretty skeptical about that. I hope I'm wrong though!

Has anyone actually seen any confirmation or evidence that T-Mobile will, in fact, be picking this up? I'm trying to decide whether to just buy an unlocked/unbranded one in a few weeks or to wait on T-Mobile. Thanks.

--Eric

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 4:08AM]

It does support T-Mobile's 3G band. There is only one other phone (Pharos Traveler 137) released with those bands that WASN'T subsidized by T-Mobile (and even that had some under-the-table subsidies), so it's likely that it'll end up on T-Mobile. I've heard various rumors that it will be in the early months of 2010, but obviously T-Mobile is pushing the CLiQ and Nokia is trying to sell them unlocked, so neither is willing to answer the question. The real question is whether or not T-Mobile is going to cripple this thing. I can see 32GB of internal memory down to 8 or 16. I mean, T-Mobile thinks the TouchPro2 is worth $350, what in the hell are they going to charge for THIS?!? Add in the mandatory data plan ($600) and you might just be better off buying unlocked and getting whatever data plan suits your needs.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 30th 2009 12:31PM]

Haha! Good point on the TP2. That pricing is absurd. That's part of why I am skeptical about T-Mobile getting this phone. They have some nice phones, but the N900 would be so far beyond anything else that they have. And T-Mobile has never subsidized a Nokia phone that was really worth anything... Thanks for the reply!