Web Browser
Rating: Respectable. 6 out of 10.
The web browser is pretty good, somewhat better than what I would expect from a modern phone. Maemo supports flash, though so does the Touch with the SkyFire browser. Similar to the Touch, the N900 could not run Hulu in a satisfying way (frame rate was too low and inconsistent). The iPhone does not run Hulu at all, but that's not that big of a deal, since watching a choppy movie on tiny small screen is rather annoying, and "almost usable" is still "not usable".
Data entry in the N900 browser is very annoying. You have to 'double tap' to get the screen large enough to enter text into a text box, and then enter a special 'slide from the side mode' to switch from 'drag' mode to 'select' mode. I was never able to drag over text and select text very well in the web browser, I guess I never got the hang of it. This is very intuitive on the Touch and the iPhone.
The N900 screen is a little too small to consider this device useful for anything other than emergency browsing. At 3.5", it's the same as the iPhone and slightly smaller than the Touch HD2. However, for some reason, the display feels a lot smaller to me than the iPhone, maybe its the form factor.
For me personally, the overall browser experience on the iPhone is much better with a more intuitive interface. The two finger operations were much easier for me to use when I was walking around and using the phone on the go. The whole 'give your N900 a swirlie' to zoom is gimmickie and only sometimes works for me. The N900 had a slightly better browser look and better speed than the Touch, but each had their own little annoyances. The Touch's slightly larger display actually makes a pretty big difference (or maybe its the form factor... ultra thin and wide seems to make the screen feel bigger). And i never have to give the Touch a swirlie.
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You didnt comment on browser performance and quality. I guess that the mozilla browser on maemo, actually is quite much better than any other comparable deviceh
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ReplyDeleteThis is the area which is usually claimed as a big win for the Nokia N900. I've been skeptical, wanting to try out an actual device. I have a Nokia N800, and the web browsing experience is abysmal- it was a lot easier to browse on my old HTC Mogul. The Mozilla-based browser in Maemo on the N800 is slow, prone to crashing and long periods of being frozen, and just plain hard to use.
ReplyDeleteThe N800 did a little better in the earlier releases of the OS, back when a customized Opera was the built-in browser. Over all, very disappointing... I've often wondered if most of my complains persisted with the N900 and it looks like it may be the case.
Too slow for YouTube, never bothered to try Hulu.
Botom line? Maemo renders web sites just like your desktop does- it just takes five minutes to get there...