Nokia N900 Review: The Display

Display

Rating:  Pretty good, 5 out of 10.

Personally, the N900 display its too small for me, but I like larger screens.  I must be the only person in the world who liked my venerable old HTC Advantage  (which bought the farm after it took a header into a swimming pool).  That form factor was large enough to serve as a GPS car device, a proper ebook reader, and a decent phone with a bluetooth headset.

The touch functionality of the screen is good, once I figured out how to turn off the vibration.  Fast response, didn't have a problem with registration.

The screen is not a capacitive touch screen, so you do not have multitouch ability.  I personally like styluses every now and then depending on the app, which you don't get with a capacitive screen, so I don't mind the non-capactive touch screen.

Here is a slight annoyance, but I am going to rant about it for a second. The N900 has that annoying 'vibrate when you touch the screen' feature that was enabled by default.  I can't understand what user testing group thought this was a good idea, but its popular these days.  The functionality works like this: Every time you touch the screen, it vibrates slightly to give you a sense of feedback.  The puzzling thing for me is, I already know when I touch something.  See, the nerve endings in my finger sends electrical impulses to my brain through the spinal column, a complex delicate sensory system which evolved from millions of years of evolution.  This inane shaking feature gives me redundant feedback, because the device shakes even when you don't hit a meaningful input area.  For instance, in a calculator, you would want to get feedback if you actually hit a key.  On the N900, you just get feedback if you touch anywhere on the screen, I guess to confirm that YES, you actually did manage to hit the 3.5" display with your fingertip, and NO, your spinal column really isn't sending false signals.

This aside, the display is a very bright and crisp display, but seems a bit small given the form factor of the N900.