Multimedia capabilities

The music player does a decent job. It allows for the creation of playlists on-the-go and is well complemented by the excellent earplugs, which churn out good quality music. The earplugs, however, suck at noise isolation, which is something we expect from all in-ear headphones to some extent. The audio formats supported include MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+.

The 800x480 TFT screen does a good job of playing the videos indoors, although something like newer OLED would have helped reproduced better colours in outdoor conditions, and saved battery power too. The player supports WMV/RealVideo/MP4/AVI/XviD/DivX video codecs but more video and audio formats can be played easilly on the device, by downloading the compatible media players from the Linux repositories. The videos can be displayed on a bigger screen with the bundled AV cable. It transfers the display of the phone to any device with AV input. Once plugged into the 3.5 mm jack, the phone automatically detects the AV-out cable. If you are checking into some place far away, the phone may entertain you with a few movies but don't expect HD-like clarity.

The 5MP camera comes equipped with a Carl Zeiss lens and a double LED flash. The lens is protected by a cover, an addition we have always appreciated. There are scene-modes like night, macro, high-speed etc. but it lacks effects like sepia or B/W. The camera however has manual ISO adjustment settings, which is a powerful addition and makes up for almost everything else. The device provides no native application to touch-up the clicked pictures, with only 'crop' and 'rotate' functionality available. Video is recorded at WVGA resolution of 848x480 @25fps. Again, the video has no settings except a night video mode. A little more tweaking can be done using the saturation and exposure controls. But we expected a little more in terms of effects and editing from the N900 because it has the ability to do it. The camera did great in outdoor test but there was a lot of noise in low light conditions. The LED flash didn't really light up a dark room but would suffice if you are clicking some close up pics in a night-out with friends. Video recording performance follows a similar trend.

Outdoor- not too bad

Low light - lots of noise (2)

Dark room - poor flash, lots of noise

GPS and Navigation

The GPS performance of the device is very good, with the device locking onto the satellite in no time, and operating with a resolution of about 15-20 metres. When we throw in the fact that the sky was very cloudy on the day the device was tested, it gives a lot of plusses to the GPS of the device. However, the version of Ovi maps that came with N900 lacked turn-by-turn voice navigation, which comes as a shock, as this feature is available in many lower end phones such as the E71. Google Maps is not available for the N900, and can only be accessed via the browser. But the browser on Maemo does not support geolocation, which makes the online version practically useless for navigation.
 

Gaming

There are some good games available in the 'Ovi Store' and 'Maemo Select' for free. ‘Angry Birds’ is an excellent physics based game that reminded us of the good-old ‘Worms’ series. The motion sensor based ‘Labyrinth’ rendered as well as it did on iPhone and showcased the excellent sensitivity of the accelerometer sensors of the N900. You can also head over to the Linux repositories and download free games, or get one of the many emulators available, and turn your device into anything from the old NES to the newer Sony Playstation 1. We went old school and downloaded the NES simulator, getting back to the good old days of Super Mario. The N900 will eventually get great games because of its powerful hardware and the precious talent of TV-out. Also, the fact that Maemo devices support Bluetooth controllers, like those of the PS3,  has us drooling. Currently though, the choice of games is nowhere as wide as that on iPhone and Android phones.

PC Sync

As far as syncing the device with your PC using the Ovi Suite is concerned.... we were shocked to find that Ovi Suite does not support N900. Having given them 30,000 bucks in exchange for not being recognised by the Nokia suite just does not seem right. We hope the next iteration of Ovi Suite corrects this blunder.

Verdict

All in all, N900 is Nokia’s best offering till now. Even though Maemo is in its early days, it is still way better than the touch-driven Symbian S60v5. Maemo will only get better, now that Intel has pitched in its expertise into MeeGo. For now, we don’t really think that this phone is a very good value for money for non-geeks. So if you had decided to go out and get yourself the latest swanky N-series phone, take a deep breath, and think again because if you are not looking for the customizable Linux experience, the other features can also be found on devices much cheaper than the N900. This phone can be turned into a beast, but it isn’t very easy to tame. So if you are looking for an easy interface, reliable ‘approved’ apps, you should not opt for the N900. If you are ready to venture into the open source world with an equally open mind, N900 is a one-of-a-kind device for you. Maemo is a platform you can nurture, customize or, write code for, yourself. The choice between N900 and other smartphones is somewhat similar to the dilemma of choosing between Linux and Windows on your PC, respectively. What spells doom for Nokia is that the masses have, till now, gone for the closed and easy to digest Windows. But the trouble for Nokia is that even another Linux-based device, with something like a trackball or a capacitive touchscreen, may spell trouble for the N900. Ah! This competition, this open clash of sharp swords reminds us why we love open-source.