A Nokia N900, no less. Looks like Santa dropped me an early Christmas present this year. Those big stockings I have been hanging at my doorstep paid off, a bit early though!

Enough of the teasers. This is the review unit I received a couple of hours ago from WOM World Nokia. Stay tuned for updates.

If you are not on the list of the flagship stores, you gotta wait like the rest of the US for the N900s to appear on the NokiaUS store as well as other retailers (Amazon, Dell, Newegg etc). While the Nokia US online store is still showing the N900 as available for pre-order, even after 48 after official US release, Nokia Italy has gone ahead and silently released the Maemo 5 device in Italy. Kudos to Nokia Italy and by the way, I wonder when Nokia US will learn a few things from their European counterparts.  With a disastrous launch like this, no wonder Nokia has a paltry share in the American handset segment.

Yeah, I did stumble upon the first retail unit from the US. Lefteyecc of Maemotalk takes the honours of capturing and distributing the first retail unit of N900 in the US, which he bought from the flagship store in NYC. Here go the couple of images of the first retail unit of N900 in the US:

For N900 fans across the Atlantic, MobilePhonesdirect have made it known that the N900 will start appearing Europe side starting December 3. Apparently Italy is no more a part of Europe or atleast thats what MobilePhonesdirect seem to think for Nokia Italy has released the N900 at their online store.

If I was anywhere in Europe, right now I would be headed to the next flight to Italy to get my hands on a retail unit of N900. Italians may be the envy of the whole world right now, for nowhere else can you grab a N900 off the shelf except in Italy. Hail Nokia Italy for the early release!

After having delayed the launch on N900 from October to a previously unknown date, Nokia faced a lot of criticism from market pundits and Maemo fans alike. With the holiday season coming up and the competition gearing up with product launches in the same genre, it was hightime Nokia released their flagship handset. Responding to the market sentiments, Nokia seem to have finally decided on the shipping date for its N900, or atleast Newegg and Omia have some inside infoon the Nokia N900 price, which the world is largely oblivious to.

US N900 Price and Availability

UK N900 Price and Availibility

The deals in the UK look more attractive with both Orange and O2  (other carriers may also join the N900 bandwagon soon) offering some good deals on contract basis. As with any high end Nokia device in the US, N900 is again available contract free and the 89 dollar discount from Newegg should convince the skeptics to take the plunge into what promises to take mobile computing/communications to higher levels.

Now that the shipping dates are announced, I just can’t wait to get my hands on one of these toys. I just (pre)ordered mine, have you?

With gaming on phones becoming the latest fad, the N900 is taking mobile gaming to places where we dare say there is no competition at this juncture of time. Obviously we are referring to N900 gaming on humongous LCD panels that takes the centerstage in your living rooms. Check out the sample videos (or gigs!) after the break.

Quake III

The first person shooting game which took the gaming world by a storm is back! YouTuber twaelti, has managed to get Quake III up and running on his N900 and guess what, we just cannot wait to frag on N900s (which looks like its going to be pretty soon with the latest rumor being Nov 9th launch)

Bounce

First seen on Nokia 5800, the first touchscreen phone from Nokia, Bounce was shown in its full glory in Stuttgart, Germany during the World of Nokia in mid September this year.

Live Soccer

If gaming ain’t your thing, soccer probably is and the flash enabled browser of N900 is perfect for streaming live content from the web and look what twitter user, yerga did with his N900:

Yeah, he got his weekend dose of live soccer on his TV very much from his N900!

There are leaked information of Dell’s Android handset called The Streak that carries a huge 5-inch display and similar features. Included are some photos of Dell’s The Streak. It has a 5-inch WVGA 800×480 touch screen display with true MID. Also, it features 3G WWAN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity and microSD support for extending your memory. Not much information has been given on this phone compared to the Nokia N900.

But the Nokia N900 is no pushover either. Tagged as “Experience the speed and raw power of the high-performance Nokia N900 mobile computer.”, the newest offering from the Finland-based Mobile giant is powered by the OMAP 3430 ARM Cortex A8 processor with three microprocessors bringing a lot of raw power. This microprocessor provides a generous boost on the phone’s graphics, communication and multimedia features. Memory is a whopping 1GB, which enables the phone’s user to open more applications simultaneously.

Text messaging, e-mail checking, web browsing, mobile audio listening, FM radio and GPS are just some of the exciting features that come with this phone. Among other hardware features include a full QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, WIFI and an impressive 32GB internal memory that is a direct swipe with the iPhone’s biggest capacity.  And you can extend the phone’s memory up to 16 GB of additional storage with an external microSD card.

Can Dell’s Android handset knock the much-hyped features of our beloved Nokia N900 phone? All of these are plainly speculation. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. We will determine these facts when all these products are out in the market.

With a full screen browsing feature, you can view your favorite websites. Hand gestures and tapping commands will enable you to zoom in or out or scroll in any direction on your website. The graphics and animations will be displayed as it is like on your desktop computer.

The Nokia N900 phone is capable of 3.5G and WLAN connectivity, support Quadband GSM with GPRS and EDGE technology, ultra fast data transfers over a cellular network 10/2Mbps and data transfers over Wi-Fi 54Mbps. Whether you are connected via WIFI or accessing the 3.5G network, you do not have an excuse not to be online.

What does this mean for the mobile Internet aficionado? Well, it means that you can now truly take the Internet wherever you go. No need to carry your big clunky laptop. No more worrying about plug-ins. No more wondering how come your flash website doesn’t work. The Maemo Internet browser courtesy of Mozilla technology has empowered us to really enjoy web 2.0 and not be taken back to the 1990’s.

Imagine playing your favorite Facebook games. How about watching YouTube without having to wait forever? Web as we know it is now in our grasps thanks to the N900 from Nokia.

Rumor on the internet was that the next iPhone killer contender will be released on October 19^th 2009. But as we can see this is not the case as the date is already over and there is still no sign of N900 anywhere.

However, word has it that the N900 phone should be available by the end of October 2009. Perhaps, it is being positioned nearest to December to take advantage the Christmas and gift-giving season. Not quite the gift you can get in your stockings but, if you can afford the estimate $649 price tag, why not?

As for Amazon, they have posted in their website that the Nokia N900’s availability will be on November 2, 2009. Of course, things still remain to be seen.

You have the option to pre-order from the Nokia website. Unfortunately, not all countries can do this. Only Finland (of course), France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and USA. Interestingly, there are no mention of any Asian countries which is highly loyal to Nokia products and are more open to embrace new gadgets like the N900.

When it does get released by the end of the month, let’s hope the unit lives up to the hype of being “Raw Computing Power” and not just “Raw Publicity”. After seeing the videos online, this could just be the phone that can give the Apple iPhone a run for its money (and market).

The world continues to wait.

This is NOT true.
Maemo’s GUI can be customized.

Nokia denies any intent of locking the customization capabilities of the Maemo software. In fact, the Maemo operating system welcomes the idea of harnessing the power and the uniqueness of the N900 to satisfy the appetite of the consumers, application makers and communication carriers.

What will be the advantage for the mobile carriers? For one, they can modify the look and feel of the graphical user interface according to their color scheme and put their patented logos, icons and familiar markings. They can even install proprietary software that enables their customers to download ringtones, wallpapers, mms picture messages and the like. The possibilities are endless.

This news gives a sigh of relief to those who have been praying that the Maemo platform will not be as limited or locked as the iPhone operating system.

However, more questions pop-up.

Will this open platform also open a door for malicious use? Can Maemo be opening its doors to scoundrels who will take advantage of the Maemo’s architecture for cruel purposes?

How will this affect the end consumer? Perhaps it will not be much unless the customers complain of their carrier’s version of the N900 user interface. However, this still remains to be seen since the phone is practically a mystery to most of the world. And will the customers of these mobile carriers accept or complain about their custom-made interfaces or will they prefer the original Nokkia N900 look-and-feel?

The answer to these questions will emerge soon. And you will be able to read them all here at the Nokia N900 blog.

The Nokia N900 has a PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support 3D accelerator. This will make the phone’s graphical user interface non-clunky and very smooth. You will be able to see graphics displayed vividly and in full color. The animation is superb. You will be making all those swiping of screens, placing widgets on the desktops and playing of games more enjoyable.

This is the heart of the Nokia N900 phone, which aims to be the best phone available in the market. It is positioned as a powerhouse of a phone. Don’t think about bringing that clunky and heavy laptop. The N900 will be your mobile computer especially with the awesome muscle inside its little frame. Together with the Maemo 5 software, the 600 MHz ARM Cortex – A8 superscalar microprocessor core will make multi-tasking a breeze letting you more work to be done wherever you may be.

The Nokia N900 is the phone that can put a dent into the mobile market currently being hyped and dominated somehow by Apple’s iPhone. Will we see any real competition from these two giant tech companies? We shall see.

Video highlights include web browsing, gestures, dashboard widgets and multiple screens.

If you want to know more about the software, read our article entitled “What is Mamo?“

Enjoy the Maemo video below.