Waaaay back in May, we put up just shy of 750 words jam-packed with details on Nokia’s unannounced N900 Internet Tablet. This morning, Nokia finally pulled back the curtains on the device – and man, we absolutely nailed it.
Though we would have expected Nokia to announce this at next week’s Nokia World event, they’ve gone and verified all of the details we’d mentioned previously. 3.5″ 800×480 touchscreen? Check. 32GB internal storage? Check. 5 megapixel camera, T-Mobile USA friendly 1700mhz bands, and running Maemo 5? Three checks, please.
While we originally mentioned that Nokia’s target date for the US was July, that’s obviously come and gone. However, their target date for Europe has always been October, and it seems like they’ll see it through; beginning sometime in that month, the N900 will go on sale for €500 ($711 USD) before taxes and subsidies. We still fully expect this thing to show up on T-Mobile USA before too long.
This thing is a monster, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it. The specs we know so far:
- 32 GB onboard storage, expandable up to 48 with microSD.
- GPS and A-GPS
- FM Transmitter
- 1320 mAh battery
- TV-out
- Bluetooth
- 5 megapixel
- WiFi
- Bands: GSM Quad-Band 850, 900, 1800, 1900. WCDMA 900, 1700/2100, 2100 (This is Nokia’s first internet tablet with telephony support)
- 5 Megapixel camera w/ Carl Zeiss lens
- Mozilla browser w/ full Flash support
Update: Nokia’s full set of N900 specs have gone live here.
Of course, something else worth mentioning here is that it’s running Maemo 5, the latest build of Nokia’s Linux-based operating system. Maemo 5 is a complete overhaul, doing away with and rebuilding much of what we’ve seen before. The browser is based on the Mozilla engine (think Firefox), and has full Flash support. You can switch between running apps in a fashion similar to OS X’s Expose; just click the dashboard, and all of your running apps appear on screen for selection. They’ve tied copy-and-paste into the core of the OS here, allowing you to do copy any text to and from any application. There’s a ton going on here, and the new OS looks absolutely incredible; if you want to dive deeper into it, this nascent OS was given a fairly thorough run through a few days ago.
We hate to say we told you so – but we nailed everything down to the capacity of the battery.
You mean if I have this thang I aint have to drop coins into the phonebooth no more?
Oh trust me, given how much this thang will cost, you won’t have any coins left to be dropped :)
Well said!
500 Euros unsubsidised. That’s pretty good.
Yup, and while it may sell in some very limited numbers in EU, in US, 99.99% of the people won’t even look at something like this – hell, most wont even know about the existence of this device.
Hey, I mean take a look at the original iPhone at 600 bucks – even with the crazy hype it wasn’t exactly a runaway success… and well, lets be honest, Nokia doesn’t even have 1% of the mindshare in The States.
But either way, can’t wait to get my hands on this little beauty – been wanting a high-end Nokia device for years now, but the sack of shit which is the S60 Symbian was just killing everything for me — maybe this will… suck less :)
@Michael Flux, yeah… its not as cheap as $99 iPhone …lol…
You gotta see the details….
For $99 Phone you are paying $70 for next 24 months.. and that makes about $1680 and you are limited to AT & T
Where as this one for less that $500 (when launched in US) FREE and UNLOCKED sounds like a whole lot of a deal in itself. NO Contract NO LIMITS….
Yes, N900 can do far far more than what iPhone is capable of… and dont get me started on that.
Oh yeah, definitely I agree with you 100% about actual price being over the few years of the contract and not the phone, however…
…as good of an argument as “its unlocked, no limits etc” makes… well, lets be perfectly honest here, no matter how unlocked the phone is, you can’t really use it without a carrier – and at that point you’re still stuck paying 2000+ dollars over 2-3 years on top of the 700+ you’d pay upfront for it.
As I said, I really really love this device… but holy hell the price of it + the retarded contract… yeah :p
But, you overlooked one thing, it’s a useless piece of shit that nobody wants to own.
Man, you iphone suckers just cannot see anything beyond iphone. Is Apple paying you to do that or are you guys just too arrogant to not look beyond that piece of shit.. N900 has more features, better resolution, more memory, equally fast processor, linux based Mameo platform and definitely lot better pricing rather then iPhone.
And Michael, with iPhone you *have* to pay about 1800 bucks in 2 years, while with unsubsidized N900 you can pick and choose the plan that you want to go with.
As we know the price of unsubsidized iPhone was more then 1000 dollars when launched and then not one sucker complained about the price. One N900 signs up with a operator then I believe it will be available for 200/300 dollars.
So guys, just chill and iphone followers, look at the device with an open mind rather just whining.
-Bhavin
Mobile platform competition is currently very interesting. I wish you all good Nokia to the final battle!
2 points that need clarification: (1) FM Transmitter – I assume this will allow the tablet to transmit audio streams on the FM band? (2) No support for GSM 850/1900?
@GregKumparak
I see you updated the spec list and removed the FM Transmitter – which I thought was actually a pretty cool feature if real! And thanks for the clarification on the GSM bands
Added it back in; had to verify I wasn’t imagining things.
Full specs can be seen here:
http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/specifications/
Ha! Well along with the FM Transmitter you should also point out DLNA support – that is HUGE!
The specs DO say “Quad-band GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900″.
Looking awesome so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhTtsZATwBQ
http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP5R-5NX1BE
Well it does look great in terms of specs. Problem is, so did the N810 when it came out, but using it was such a pain. Although it could technically do more than my iPhone, e.g. run multiple apps and had full flash support, it was a far inferior usability experience, so I dumped it after a few weeks. Hopefully they will have improved the N900 and it won’t crash all the time.
Very nice phone
WOW! An iPhone with a slide-out key pad!
Kewl!! :D
Anyone know what network it’s likely to hit the UK with? Three have always had the most up to date Nokias as a general rule, anyone think 02 will get it?
Probably none of the UK networks will pick it up. It isn’t really a serious attempt at a phone, and getting Maemo as it stands to pass operator requirements would be a several month, if not over a year’s chore.
If you want it, you’ll probably have to pick up up off the shelf at retail.
@Chris, I think otherwhise
i would like to bet with you on this one… I think this will be a device multiple carriers will be interested in the UK… & also there is T-mobile in the UK
I really hope so. Will purchase from any UK carrier that can offer a good data plan, so I can stream Last.fm in-car during my daily commute. :)
Will dump my Nokia Communicator E90 + N810 for the N900. One device, finally!!!! :)
Hmm, at last a Nokia device worth waiting?
No 3G?
Oh yes. And HSDPA, etc.
did yo guys even read the specs???
“We hate to say we told you so”
Yeah right, so that was why most of the article is just boasting about your previous story, then?
No, it’s because we’re awesome.
Ben, have you honestly ever heard someone say “I hate to say I told you so” and genuinely mean it. Even when they try to pull it off in a legitimately empathetic tone don’t you know deep down that they are grinning their smug little asses off.
I know I am when I say it.
I think i need a clean pair of shorts! Been needing to upgrade my phone for a while. Always liked Nokia’s, but i was completely underwhelmed by the N97. Other options were the Pre or the iPhone 3Gs, but, for different resons, neither blew cold wind up my skirt on a hot day.
But, now, *FINALLY*, we have a contender. Haven’t felt this kind of lust at first sight in a very long time.
Anything in the rumour-mill about when it’ll be available at T-Mobile? If there’s a decent carrier subsidy, I’m in, no questions asked.
I’d offer up my congratulations, but it appears you’ve already congratulated yourself enough for all of us. ;-)
Fantastic news for mobile developers. True, having more and more great OS-es on phones makes our job harder and less profitable in some ways, but boy, it is exciting.
So far looking bloody fantastic, Nokia!
rely instead on strong encryption at the protocol level”
Someone have an explanation for what Scott is referring to here?
I don’t understand the point of this. Presumably, maemo will very shortly go away in favour of the Orbit QT based UI/platform on both Symbian and their Linux devices. What then was the point in wasting so much time updating all the GTK+ apps for this device, which will most likely be the last of its kind?
It’ll be interesting to see how fast it is. I gave up on the original 770 tablet because it was so incredibly slow.
I’m confused. In what sense is this an internet tablet, rather than a smartphone? Is it because of the size?
Mostly because of the immaturity of the software. It lacks features that have been standard on smartphones since the 7650, and that operators really need. There’s also no sane security model for anyone’s linux phones yet, not excepting Google and Palm, which means you can’t really sell this to operators who value keeping their support costs down. Also, if previous Nokia internet tablets are anything to go by it’ll crash at least once a day, something which’d have most consumers returning it.
Now that you mentioned it, this must be the first time operators allow network access to a phone, which has full linux root access actually PERMITTED for the user.
I see this as a positive thing.
Nope, its because the UI is designed to feel like a desktop pc. That and because marketing says it is… ok? lol
It has a 3.5 inch screen and is controlled by touchscreen. If the UI is designed like a desktop it will be barely usable and will be a gigantic failure.
Marketing says it is…that makes sense.
Of course the UI is different. UI is different in a lot of Linux distros. RTA or in this case WTA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP5R-5NX1BE
RT…comment. I didn’t say the UI wouldn’t be different. I’m just saying the UI is going to be designed for a 3.5 inch touchscreen, and not to feel like a desktop PC.
Did you mention that it’s sexy?
Seriously a lacking quality amongst other smartphones.
Also Nice:
TV output
PDF support
App Store
Nokia N900 is really cool. The features of Nokia N900 are amazing :)
except for that smallish battery… 1320mah is a bit less … i dont wanna compromise on 180 gm with that battery… it better be 2000 mah atleast
I would buy it tommorow if it was running android !
Android is a piece of crap compared to Maemo. Most people don’t understand the fact that this is full operating system rather than restricted enivironment.
For Android, you have to use managed Java code. With Maemo, you can use your standard linux libraries with whatever language suits you.
+1, you can do a lot… imagine having a remote desktop client etc….
this kind of things cannot be done on iphone or android… or even the shitty palm pre…
Android is not a restricted environment, it is a full Linux environment like any other. There’s even an SDK for developing native apps for Android. Now, the preferred environment for running apps is within the Java-based environment. This is a plus, not a restriction. Nobody likes running anti-virus and firewall on their phones to make sure the apps they run don’t corrupt their data or steal their private information, so sandboxing apps within the Java-based VM is a good idea.
Awesome phone with awesome sepcs. Maemo is a full desktop OS. Nokia advertises it as Vertical OS for mobiles. The first of its kind!
Well can we have full touch screen phone by Nokia?… N900 is good phone, more one can say it is mini tablet…. Features are good, handy and having good camera as well so that good pictures would be saved with it… A very informative article.. thanks Techcrunch = MobileCrunch.
Oh trust me, given how much this thang will cost, you won’t have any coins left to be dropped :)
i love Nokia, I like Nokia, and i prefer Nokia
http://live-point.net
Release:
The phone will be out within 2-3 weeks here in Switzerland, with a retail price of 800 Swiss Franks, which is 527 Euros, or 781 Dollars.
And I suppose it will be the same for most countries, maybe earlier or a bit later, but surely not longer than end of October or the first week in November.
@ All the iPhone fanboys.
It’s HILARIOUS reading your stressed-out comments, hyperventilating in real life, getting a seizure over your keyboard, just because you spent your money on the wrong device! l-o-l!
Tbh, I’d also be pretty pissed off if I bought myself an iPhone, but c’mon, grow up a bit and face the facts of life…Technology gets improved, so either buy it and grow with technology or stick with your old brick like a granny. lolit! <3