Review of the Nokia N900 : Switching from the iPhone was a Painful Mistake

Summary

My first impressions of the Nokia N900 were all positive, for the first month I thought the N900 was going to switch me away from the iPhone.  After the honeymoon, when I actually tried to get the phone to 'do things' and be reliable and useful like any other PDA/cell phone, the experience quickly turned sour in almost all departments.  I cannot get the N900 to do the things I have come to expect a primary PDA/cell phone to do.

If the software ever gets to a releasable point with full functionality, then this device would be a real competitor.  But the software is just not there, and I don't see the open source community delivering any finished or usable products for this device in the near future.  And worse, given competition with free software mindset of the open source community, I don't think many software development houses will invest time and money developing novel software products for this device, when the open-source community will try to reverse engineer and redistribute your intellectual property for free as soon as you release it.  Most of the popular applications available for the N900 now are just that, particularly the video games.  That's a suicidal business model for any small development firm, which is a shame, because this phone could be an real iPhone competitor.

If you read other ratings online, I think these reviews were rating the N900 based on potential.  The reviewers hadn't spent time with the N900 as a primary cell phone device, and always ended the reviews with statements like "this device could be a real competitor".  Sadly, based on all my experiences to date, I have come to the following conclusion:

The Nokia N900 is hands down the worst PDA/phone experience I have ever had in a mobile device.

To use the Nokia N900 is to be an alpha tester for half working Linux software applications that, when cobbled together, form the worst phone experience I have ever encountered.  The hardware specifications really are formidable, but sadly this potential isn't even closed to being realized.  This phone is missing even the most basic of functionality available from PDA/cell phones when they were first introduced over a decade ago.  No office applications, no network browsing, no third party applications, and hardware that isn't supported with software makes you wonder why Nokia even bothered to add some of the hardware to the device in the first place.

If you are not a Linux user and an enthusiastic developer, I would not consider buying the N900.

Before the N900, i hadn't use a Unix machine since grad school.  Recently I have spent more time in a Unix terminal window than I care to remember.  I have learned things and done things in that terminal window... shocking, dirty, terrible things.  You have to know obscure undocumented commands to use this device, and you have to know this perplexing Linux language to even interact with the user community... The user community, by the way, is completely made up of spare time Linux enthusiasts who spend countless hours working on porting the most obscure Linux applications to the N900.  I tried, but even after all this time, there are applications available that mystify me when I read the descriptions... i have zero idea of what these applications do, the words seem to make sense by themselves, but put together?...  If you don't speak Linux, you are going to be in for a culture shock.  The phone is a ongoing developer and enthusiast project, and the applications feel like it.  Most apps are full of software bugs, glitches, and quirks.


Ratings

I have been using the Nokia N900 now for a few months now.  After countless hours trying to get things to install, get things to work, trying to develop applications for it, downloading massive image files on both the phone and my computer, playing with the terminal screen and delving into the hidden dirty world of the Linux command line, I am tired of this device.

I will start with the positives aspects about the phone, then work down from there.  I also have an Apple iPhone (my preferred device) and an HTC Touch HD2 (Windows Mobile, pre-release, pretty sexy device I must say), so I will compare between the phones. I also used to own an HTC Advantage, a Blackberry, and an HP iPaq 6315.

Comparison of N900 Ratings with iPhone 3GS and Touch HD2
All rating are on a scale from 0 to 10

Feature	N900	iPhone	Touch
Web Browser	6	7	6
Display	5	7	9
Battery Life	5	4	4
Camera	0	3	7
Look and Feel	2	7	8
Games	2	8	6
Operating System	2	9	5
Community	2	9	2
Cell Phone Functionality	1	8	8
Applications	1	9	7
Overall (Average)	2.6	7.1	6.2

Detailed Review and Comments  (hopefully more entertaining near the end)

• Part 2: Web Browser = 6... Not bad, but these days the browser is about par for the course.
• Part 3: Display = 5... Bright, visible outdoors, not bad.
• Battery Life = 5 ... Battery does not last me all day, I have to plug it in at work.
• Part 4: Camera = 0 (or 8) ... When it used to work, it was outstanding.  Camera is not non-functional, the software gives non-descript "Operation Failed" error.  (Wanted: Linux users to fix my phone!)
• Part 5: Look and Feel = 2 ... Shaped like a cigarette box, only not as sexy.
• Part 6: Games = 2 ... These aren't your daddy's video games... no.... wait... actually they are.  The games available are reversed engineered games from years past, and are borderline illegal to own.
  
• Part 7: Operating System = 2 ... Cobble stone patchwork of half working applications.
• Part 8: Community = 2 ... No, I don't play Dungeons and Dragons.
• Part 9: Cell Phone Functionality = 1 ... Missed calls and missed voicemail can be avoided with the proper training.
  
• Part 10: Applications = 1 ... What applications?  If you can get anything to install, they won't work.

Nokia N900 Review: Look and Feel... and the Linux Experience!

Look and Feel
Rating: 2 out of 10


Horrible.  The Nokia N900 plays on a strange 'thick brick' motif, with all the wrong dimensions.  The screen is too small, the depth it too large.  It is fat, it is ugly, and it looks more like a cigarette box than the latest is technology.

The N900 is nothing compared to the iPhone and the Touch HD2 (the Touch is a pretty darn sexy device).

The "Linux" Open-Source Experience
Rating: A subjective and personal rating i guess.. 0 out of 10 for me.

I do not know Linux.  If you don't know how to use mount, df, chmod, apt-get, ..., you are going to be in for a world of hurt when you buy your N900.  I can't stand it.  There is no easy way to do anything.  There is no documentation.  And when you get things to work, they don't work completely, and they will not do what you expect.

From an end user experience, open source means there are no professional applications for this device.  All of the apps are 'works in progress' by part time linux developers who like to spend their free time programming linux applications.  I don't understand that at all, but to each their own.  Because of this, all the apps have bugs, quirks, they all look and feel different, half of them seem to have been simply ports of very old command line tools, and if there are any problems, someone on the forums is going to tell you to stop wining and go into the source code... ugh.

Nokia N900 Review: Operating System Experience

Operating System Experience
Rating: 2 out of 10.  Horrible.

The system functions well enough switching between applications and scrolling between screen, but that's where the fun ends kids.  The speed of the operating system is comparable to the iPhone and the Touch, but the iPhone is slightly better at responding, and by better I mean more consistent.  What annoys me about the Meamo is that animations sometimes are 'jagged', they seem to be interrupted by background applications, transforming a soothing transition animation into a jarring cover your eyes type experience.  A small quibble perhaps, but these slight little annoyances start to becomes a little large once you get jaded with the rest of the system.

Every application is very different, and it gives the OS a feeling like things were cobbled together.  Many of the applications (dare i say all?) are ports from old (some times really old) applications, and it some of these feels like a linux machine.

The control panel options are inane, giving you no options for the simplest of tasks.  After a few months, I still don't know how to do the simplest things on the phone.  I have no idea how to disable the internet connection while keeping other wireless functionality on, or disable the phone while the bluetooth and internet is on.  The organization scheme is really perplexing to me personally.  For instance, how do you change vibration?  Well, it depends, part of vibration is controlled under 'profiles' for some reason, part of it is controlled under 'display' for some reason.  Oh, and you change your ring tone and other sounds under the 'Sounds' options!... Crazy!... no wait, I mean... you can change your ring-tone and sounds under the 'Profile' options.  Remember, Profile means "Sound Settings + 1/2 of the Vibration Settings".  The profiles?  Oh, that's actually accessed exiting to the desktop, clicking on the top of the screen, and selection another option for "Profile".  GOOD.  TIMES.

The text/entry mode in the Maemo browser let you switch from 'click and drag' to 'text select', but sadly, none of the other applications work this way.  Many applications you cannot select text because you can only click and drag.

I'm not sure the OS supports the most basic of operations, like talking with other computers.  There is no network file browser.  There is no FTP browser.  You cannot access any of your files on network shares.  In 2001 I bought my first PDA, an iPAQ with a plug-in wifi card.  That PDA could access file shares.  Almost a decade later, this phone is really a huge step backwards in terms of functionality.


And then there are the applications... (see next review)...

Nokia N900 Review: Games

Games
Rating: 3 out of 10.  Wow these games are old... Is that a dos game in your pocket?


I am curious what it means to do open source development.  From what I can see, it means you will steal and reverse engineer whatever is popular on Windows or Apple from 5 to 10 years ago.  I'm not quite sure why people don't have ethical problems with stealing and reverse engineering games that companies spent millions of dollars developing.  I guess software developers don't need a salary.

• You can run Maelstrom.  Released in 1993 on the Mac.
  
• You can run Doom.  Released in 1993 on Windows.
• You can run Warcraft 2.  Released in 1995 on Windows.  But you have to know lots of little Linux commands.  If you don't know what 'su' or 'df' is, you are probably not going to get this working.
  
• You can run a game I never heard of called Ur-Quan.  Apparently its the hottest thing on linux, released in 1992 on DOS (yeah, that's right, DOS).
  
• There are 'clones' (reversed engineered) of various games that you could run from the early 1990's.
  
• If you steal all the roms from online web-sharing sites, you can run your father's favorite Nintendo, Game Boy, and Coleco Vision games on the N900.
  

Unfortunately, you can't play any of these games.  I tried Maelstrom.  The keyboard is way to cramped to actually play the game.  It was near impossible to thrust, rotation, and shoot at the same time, which makes the game frustating and basically unplayable.  Same with Doom, and same with a few Nintendo games that I *shame* downloaded from the net.

Nokia N900 Review: The Community (No, I don't play Dungeons and Dragons)

Rating: 2 out of 10.  At least they answer, not that you will understand anything they said.

I was really trying to get into this whole 'I am one with the greater Linux commune, can you please pass me a cup of kool-aid' movement.  But I failed.  Miserably.

The Maemo.org website is perplexing, and the members of this community seem to have a problem communicating in English.  Please don't post a question to the users of this site.  You will get nonsense about how you are a horrible person for not understanding Linux, you will get acronyms you don't understand, and you will be humiliated and berated, and you won't even know why.  I was berated for not knowing what 'su' and 'df' command was, apparently i was wasting the Linux community's time.  Also, I was educated to the fact that the N900 is not a phone, its really a computer.  Its a really... small... slow... featureless... computer... for  Liliputians, I guess.
Of the pitiful handful of "applications" actually available, only a small percentage of them are even  understandable to non-linux users.  Seriously, here are actual 'descriptions' of application on this site that you can download.  Do you know what the hell this means?

Pidgin and Telepathy Extra Protocols (Bonjour and Sametime)  Adds Bonjour and Sametime support to Pidgin and Telepathy (via Haze)

Here is another one:

Scripts to mount and chroot into images/partitions
Fremantle version; (This does NOT use the 'turbo-charged' dm-loop for mounting image files.)

These are the actual and entire description of these apps.  I have no clue what these words mean, and I have absolutely no idea what this app even does.  The screenshots show a bunch of text in a terminal window.  Apparently these are Linux things.

Other applications don't even install.  I tried to install an app called "easy-deb-chroot".  The great name aside, this was supposed to run another version of Linux on my Linux PDA cell phone.  I guess you can't get enough of a good thing.  I just wanted to actually run office applications, and apparently there are office applications, just in another type of Linux, not the one installed on the PDA.  Which makes we wonder why this other version of Linux wasn't installed in the first place.  Of course, this program didn't work, it took 40 minutes to install 2.5 GB of data on my machine, just to pop up an obscure 'error unknown' message.  This is par for the course with the N900.

Of the applications that install, most don't work well, or crash.  The FM radio, the camera, for goodness sake even the clock application crashed on me, or wouldn't function.

I tried to go to the Maemo.org website to post a bug report.  Now Maemo.org is not the slowest site on the web, but it is doing its best to be darn darn close.  Forget about trying to search through the forums, it takes too long to respond.  And this site itself seems to be 'in development'.  If you click on any link to 'submit bug report', you get an error message that Firefox does not know how to handle the link, so I guess bug reporting is not a feature yet implemented.  Today I went to the Maemo.org site, and the page is filled up with error messages about flipping arrays.  That really figures, Nokia can't even get the website right?

I can't imagine I am the only person who find this phone and infrastructure lacking and almost comically tragic.  Maybe I have a lemon phone?  It seems like everyone on the forum spends hours and hours getting their N900 to work.  And its not hours and hours of fun.  Its hours and hours of 'compiling' and 'developer mode' and trying to type on that tiny keyboard into that tiny terminal window i guess.  I did learn what apt-get means.  Good times.

Nokia N900 Review: Applications

ApplicationsRating: 1 out of 10.  Oh my god.  The applications...

There are none.  I guess this is why the N900 isn't called a PDA, since it doesn't have the functionality.  I have had a PDA since 2001, and even back then, that little Windows Mobile device had a suite of basic office applications.  I could write tiny little documents with nifty formatting, I could edit spreadsheets, I could make and organize lists.  Ahh those were heady days indeed.

The Nokia N900 has NO OFFICE APPLICATIONS.  Zip zero nada.  You can buy a program that lets you view office documents, but you can't edit them.  You can get a VI editor and edit ASCII files, and go crazy like it was 1975.  Compared to the iPhone and its massive store, and the Windows Mobile with tons of freeware and third-party content, the N900 is plain pathetic, especially given all this impressive hardware.

This phone has hardware for an FM radio.  Is there is a radio, you ask?  Well, there is one open source 'app': http://maemo.org/downloads/product/Maemo5/fmradio.  And as typical from the Nokia N900 apps, this application is 'in development' and is unusable.  If you turn on a bluetooth device while this FM radio is on, the program completely stops working (you have to physically shut it down and start it again).  If you try to connect to the internet while its running, it stops working.  If you leave it alone for more than five minutes on battery power, it stops working!  And the user interface on this god awefull application is something from vector-graphics hell, i swear it was stolen from the 80's arcade game battlezone.  You cannot scan through channels, it takes more jedi power than I have been able to muster to actually set a station with the weird click and drag interface.  So there might as well not be any radio at all on this device.  You physically cannot listen to the radio for more than 5 minutes.

This phone has hardware for a front facing camera.  NO APPLICATIONS USE IT.  Well, to be fair there is one called 'mirror', which just displays the camera image on the screen.  Breathtaking!  Video conferencing?  No way.  Skype only works with voice on the N900.  For me, there is only one reason to use Skype... video calls.  If my friends are by a computer with internet connection, they will for sure be able to receive a cell phone call, which is easier and more convenient than trying to call with Skype over spotty wifi connections.  So for me, Skype might as well not be on the N900.  I use Skype every day on my computer, never use it on the N900.


This phone has hardware for GPS, but there are NO APPLICATIONS THAT PROVIDE GPS NAVIGATION.  Oh there is Ovi Maps version 0.0.1.  Now I have been using GPS applications on my PDAs for a long long time.  My favorite right now is Tom Tom, where I have an Arnold Swartzneger voice to berate me when I make the wrong turn, but I have used Destinator, Magellan, NavMan, and Garmin outdoor mapping product for backpacking and sailing.  There are many possibilities on the Touch and the iPhone.  When in the wilderness, I am typically out of range of cell phone coverage, so anything online won't work.  The N900 has one application, and that application doesn't work.  It's called Ovi Maps.  Apparently its a very old version. This must be the version released before the application actually had functionality.  First, you must have an active internet connection to work. Even when connected, the search feature doesn't find addresses or business names or cities or states or... well... anything.  I had it find an address ONCE.  I don't remember what I did, I don't know how to repeat it.  Believe me, I have tried.

The Touch has a working FM radio application out the box. NOKIA!  Please please please look at working examples of applications and use their interfaces.

Nokia N900 Review: Cell Phone

Cell Phone


Rating: 1 out of 10

In a word, HORRIBLE.  The poorly thought out and implemented feature will make you miss phone calls, make it difficult to interact with automated phone service.  At least the interface doesn't crash. But that's all I can say about it.  The software developer who plopped this turd on the mobile computing community has apparently never used a PDA cell phone before.  There are NO features that you would expect from a PDA cell phone.

There are no visual screen indicators that you received a message or a voicemail or a text or an email, except for... get this... a tiny colored LED in the bottom corner of the device.  Now this to me is unacceptable in a device.  PDA phones since the beginning of time have realized you need an indicator to let you know you have a message waiting.  Every cell phone I have ever used has visual indicator.  The Nokia N900 is the ONLY phone I have ever used that omits this feature.  Rather, it has a multicolored multi-purpose LED light.  That's it.  Do you remember Star Trek from the 60's?   Remember on the bridge control screens, where the only computer feedback the crew had was a bunch of blinking flashing lights?  It's kind of like that.  Only now take away all the lights except one tiny light tucked away in the corner of the device.  And in the control panel/options menu... get this... you can overload this tiny single LED with a kazillion functions.  A light LED is supposed to mean that the N900 is charging, it is low on battery, you received a voicemail, you received a call that you didn't answer, the device is on, you received an email message, and the horribly intelligible "other notifications" event has just occurred on your phone.  All from one tiny single LED light.  That is your ONLY notification.  There is no graphical icon to tell you anything.  And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, the software comes into play and screws up even that menial feature.  I tried to disable everything except text messages and voicemail.  The light still seems to turn on sometimes when charging, but it never turns on when I have an unread message or voicemail.  Good times.

Next is the interface.  Dear lord... the interface.  The only portrait mode application is the phone, and the randomly triggered animation causes you to miss phone calls, and makes automated services hang up on you when you are waiting for the animation to end.  The interface was not well thought out at all, and makes what should be incredibly simple task incredibly difficult.  If look through your phone history and see your contact, and want to send them a text message, there is no way to go from the contact information in the phone history to a text message.  There is a method to do this in EVERY PDA/phone I have ever used since I had the misfortune of encountering the iPAQ H6315.

A typical experience answering the phone on the N900 will go one of two different ways, depending on how long you have owned the N900.

1) (the N900 noob way)  The phone rings, and you look around for the phone on your desk.  You pick it up in the middle of the third ring.  This is a critical mistake, this move really identifies the N900 nubs from the expert N900 user.  You see, when you pick up the phone, the screen will try to switch orientations, regardless of how you pick it up.  Depending on what is running in the background, this is a seemingly exhausting animation for the N900 to perform, taking all its might to flip the screen around in some virtual 3D world.  I suspect that the N900 is actually flipping the entire universe about itself, and what you see in the screen is a GUI that is actually stationary.  This would explain alot... for instance, this explains why the animation always pauses at some point in the middle of the animation, as if the N900 is exhausted by the effort and needs to catch its breath, put its head down for spell, or maybe take a breather and pop out to the pub for a bit... (in my mind, I picture the 3D Mario animation huffing and puffing when I hit him with one too many goombas).  While you wait for the phone to complete its animation, you stare at the screen and guess where the answer button is going to appear.  The worst thing you can do at this point is to panic, and physically rotate the phone back to the original orientation.  This causes the animation to repeat once it finished the first animation, and there is no possible way you will answer the phone in time.  You will have to wait for a voicemail.  So you put the phone down, and if you are absent minded like me, you will forget to watch the screen and start doing something else.  You will look back over to the phone, and look for the all knowing indicator light to light up and show you if a message has arrived.  No light, so you go back to work... A message was left, of course, but the light didn't turn on, and tomorrow if will be one of the 10 messages in your voicemail that you didn't realize had accumulated from the last three days.


2) But your experience with the N900 doesn't have to be like this.  The N900 will train you like an uber jedi ninja to be patient and methodical.  When the phone rings, your body immediately and instinctively assume the 'tiger' position.  Now you are in the N900 zone!  From your jedi training, you know that touching the phone or disturbing its orientation in any way may trigger a universal rotation event.  So you advance on the phone like a lioness approach its prey... you reach out, hang your finger directly over the phone, and with a carefully aligned vertical motion, you press your finger downward squarely and lightly on the screen, then withdraw it quickly.  Success!  You have answered the phone!!!  But its not over yet...

You bring the phone to your ear and try to enjoy your conversation, but in the back of your mind, you knw your jedi power of concentration are still to be tested when you try to hang up.  You see, when you talk on the phone and hold it up to your ear, the touch screen turns off so you don't dial accidentally with your cheek.  When you finish your conversation, you pull the phone away from your ear.  The screen turns back on, and without fail, no matter what orientation you hold it in, the poor N900 feels it must go through that... whew... exhausting animation and it diligently tries to flip the universe on its axis once more.  Now, if you are using an automated interface where you have to press a button, you are once again proverbially screwed.  But you are a well trained N900 jedi, you know that you must be in speaker phone mode to use automated services.  You are just trying to hang up, so you take a deep breath and close your eyes lightly, and patiently wait for the universe to unfold itself one more time, suppressing the urge to rotate the phone into another position as if you had caused phone to rotate.  You may announce "Hold on, I'm hanging up the phone now", and again take a deep breath, because you friend with an iPhone knows exactly what you are doing.  In the distance, you can hear his muffled laughter through the N900's speakers.  In a few moments, you open you eyes and see the universe settling back into place.  Calmly, and with a sense of calm wonder, you press the end telephone call button.

GOOD. TIMES.