Proud 2 be geek’s - Nokia N900 – The Maemo OS Experience

 

   What is the Nokia N900’s OS (Operating system) all about? dig deep here at BF's blog ;)

 

Meow..Meow..

Proud 2 be geek's impressions with the N900

 

  Just want to inform you guys that I am no longer continuing the review for the N900, don’t get me wrong, it’s a good phone but for someone like me who just needs the basics I was overwhelmed with it and I am not that techie when it comes to those things. But let me tell  you what I love about the N900 first

• Camera 5MP Carl Zeiss with LED Flash
• Browsing feature
• Texting – the flow of conversation is so organized
• QWERTY touch pad
• Can watch youtube videos – but a tad slow

      What I don’t like about it:

• At first hand, it’s not that user friendly, since it has a Maemo OS which is a first for Nokia, what we usually have is the Symbian OS which we’re all familiar with.  
• Battery life – need I say more?
• Can’t play facebook games

       And a whole lot of features that I don’t need. But I am very much happy that I got to try it first hand, of what it feels to have a N900 for just a couple of weeks. If I could keep it I would love to, but of course It’s for reviewing purposes only. Funny though, when I went back to my old phone it felt so small and light, yes, the N900 is bulky but then again it was built for that. The N900  is supposedly to work just like a PC, however it still has a few bugs, for a more in depth review, please refer to BF’s blog here for his impressions on the phone. So if you have questions, leave him a comment or follow the proud 2 be geek

 

Meow..Meow..

Day 4 with Nokia N900

 

    Before anything else, I just want to clear a few things first, I’m not much of a techie person and BF is the one who is soo techie with these things, though I try to learn. Since I am more inclined to beauty blogging, maybe because the N900 is overwhelming for me that there are other features that I don’t really need, I think I’ve said that for the umpteenth time, sorry about that. Anyways, for today’s discovery, I’ve finally found my way through the camera settings. It was all about perfect timing and I got it, I don’t have to install other softwares for that thank god. Now, I am loving N900’s 5MP camera, it’s a good thing to have, 2 – in – 1 gadget that serves a a cool phone and a cool camera in one, I love it! For a smart phone, it does it job pretty well. Here’s a comparison of how I use to take a picture

                                                          Huge difference right?

The one at the right is far more better, now I can’t wait to take more pictures with it!

 

Till then!

Meow..Meow..

Day 3 with Nokia N900

 

Hello there! It’s been a very busy week lately, hope you’re  all doing okay. Well, this is my day with the N900, so here are a couple of things that I’ve noticed. I don’t really use facebook games with the N900 as for installing for a flash player seems difficult, and there’s no reason to since I can use the PC or laptop. So far, I think the N900 is pretty good for browsing the net like emails, facebook, twitter or my blogs. I tried playing another video yesterday and it seemed really slow, but I don’t expect much when it comes to that. Since my needs are mostly for browsing the net only. One of my concerns are, the battery life, it doesn’t seem to last 1 day specially if you use it a lot. Secondly, the texting part, eventually I got used to using the keypad itself, but it’s quite difficult to use when you are charging the phone or when you need to use the number keys. So this is what made my life more easier

                                                        I am so loving this feature

   As for texting, it’s quite organized since it shows the conversation between you and the sender. But the settings are very limited in the message settings.

  Third, for some reason the picture quality isn’t great at all, I expected a lot here since this is a 5MP Carl Zeiss with flash feature and somehow my nokia 5130 takes better pictures (just a teenie bit better), and I don’t know why? I still have to play around with the settings, but so far it’s a rant not a rave. :(

  Here’s a sample picture I took with the N900

                                                   My work station, quite messy

                                         My girls, Cathie and Emili (no flash)

  I have yet to try the camera with food pictures, maybe this weekend. I just love how the browsing feature is with the N900 which is a rave!

  I don’t really need much with the phone, important factors for me are, good quality pictures, wifi – browsing social media sites, and skype, larger internal memory for my music and video recordings.

That’s all for now!

Meow..Meow..

Day 2 experience with Nokia N900

 

  Hello there! it’s day 2 of my experience with the Nokia N900, below are the essential things that I bring with my everyday at work and at home since I kept most of the other accessories in BF’s drawer at the office

                                        Charger, head phones and USB cable

   Of course music is what keeps me from being bored on my travel to work or during work (Specially after lunch) and headphones are THE most important for me. However, I did not like the headphones that came with the box, closer look

    I find it uncomfortable in my ears and kept on falling off, and the wire seemed rather thinner than what I usually have. So I’m using my old headphones from my Nokia Xpress Music 5130.

   Anyway, here’s how my desktop looks (forgive the very poor image quality, I need a good digital camera, and it’s the Nikon that I want. Not sure if I can buy one asap though)

                                                     L-O-V-E anything Hello Kitty

        Browsing through facebook, you can chat with your friends as well. I’ve tried Twitter, blogger, youtube and skype which all works perfectly just like a pc but smaller of course. As for facebook games, I’m still figuring out if I can install a flash player for it.  I tried playing Baking life but it says I have to install a flash player. You see I’m squeezing in time this week, while doing this N900 diary of mine, but I promise to have more photos and other features this weekend.

  Another thing I  noticed but I’m still observing is the battery life, It seems to last for 1 day only, maybe because I’ve been using it too much but still on further observation.

  That’s all for now, I promise to have more

  Meow..Meow..

Day 1 with Nokia N900

 

    Hello there readers! It has been a wonderful Monday for me yesterday. First up, I received my prize from annalyn (ajay’s writing) the wonderful, talked about Dr. Jart+ BB Cream, which I’ll be making a review of this coming weekend. As I have another blog post which I will be doing first. Remember my post about Updates + something else? Okay, here is the mystery something else :)

   The package, thank you Paul from WOM/World Nokia! The first package I got, I was able to receive it myself since I was in my work station. It was almost nearing 12PM and I was getting really hungry already so I decided to buy some food at Kenny Rogers. When I got back the HR skyped me and said that I have a package from DHL! My most awaited package! Don’t get me wrong of course Make-up will always make me happy and giddy and everything else, but for this one, the reason why it makes it special is because this is my VERY FIRST gadget review, which was offered by Paul of WOM/World. Thank you for trusting me with this hot item. It’s practically quite hard because I have to take extra extra care of the unit since it’s not mine. Anyways, I’m babbling too much, haha!

                                                              Back of the package

                                   Package tightly wrapped with bubble wrap

I couldn’t help it, I just had to pop one piece of bubble, lol. Pet peeve >.<

                                                         The trial phone N900

 

    The box that came with it, consists of:

• N900 unit
• Charger
• USB cable
• Battery
• Manual
• Headset
• TV/Video cable
• and another cable (square type)

   The actual unit (you can see the reflection of me taking a picture with my Nokia Xpress music phone)

      And another thing that came with the package is the return documentation, which I will be reading 2 days before my review ends. I kept everything in BF’s drawer at the office since he doesn’t share it with anyone.

      This review won’t be like just a review perse but more of my daily experiences with the Nokia N900.

   Just a recap, the OS (Operating system/software) is a Maemo software developed by Nokia for smartphones. The Nokia N900 is a smart phone competing with the Iphone and Android. What’s the difference? Here in the Philippines, it’s waaay cheaper than the Iphone. Well, okay not super cheap but a better alternative for the Iphone when it comes to pricing. I’ve asked around Nokia stores and the unit costs around Php 25,000+ up, depending on where you buy it.

Some technical stuff:

Display:

• 3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display
• 800 × 480 pixel resolution

Web browsing:

• Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology
• Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support
• Full screen browsing

Camera:

• 5 megapixel camera (2584 × 1938 pixels)
• Image formats: JPEG
• CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens
• 3 × digital zoom
• Autofocus with assist light and two-stage capture key
• Dual LED flash
• Full-screen viewfinder
• Photo editor on device
• TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
• Landscape (horizontal) orientation
• Capture modes: Automatic, portrait, video, macro, landscape, action

Language support:

British English, American English, Canadian French, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Swedish, Russian

Connectivity:

• 3.5mm AV connector
• TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable
• Micro-USB connector, High-Speed USB 2.0
• Bluetooth v2.1 including support for stereo headsets
• Integrated FM transmitter
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS

Battery:   BL-5J 1320mAh

Video:

• Wide aspect ratio 16:9 (WVGA)
• Video recording file format: .mp4; codec: MPEG-4
• Video recording at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) and up to 25fps
• Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263

Music and audio playback:

• Maemo media player
• Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
• Built-in FM transmitter
• Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
• FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR

 

   Those are just some basic features of the phone, for a complete list of specs please click here

     I thought the box that will come with it will have a complete run down of the specs however it didn’t have any, probably because it’s a trial phone only. The list of specs I got are from the Nokia site.

     The package arrived around lunch time and I was really trying hard to keep my posture, seeming like I wasn’t excited at all. My officemates would find that weird, hehe. It was just in my desk the whole time, just beyond my reach of opening it. Now, before anything else, my love for the C3 will always be there, and I am still considering of buying it. Girls just got to have pink phones (well I do!) It just seems like I am drooling over the N900 too much, maybe because it has everything I need when it comes to browsing the net (noooooo).

      After work, told my team that I’m logging out, that I’m done with all my reports, and just a touch away I opened the wonderful yellow thing. It was hard because my friends were like ooh’s and aahh’s when they saw the actual unit, all thinking that I bought the phone, haha. I explained that it’s not mine and I was asked to review a Nokia phone, yadda yadda yadda! lol. I wasn’t able to browse much because we’re waiting for our monthly meeting to start. When I got home, went in my room asap and played with it. Good thing my brother was using the net so I didn’t have to set up the wifi. First thing I did was to try all my social networking sites like, facebook, blogger and twitter, and you can browse through it just like you would in your PC or laptop. The qwerty keypad is a little bit small so I may have to cut my nails (to avoid scratches), it’s quite hard typing or texting but it’s all about adjustment I suppose. Touchpad, the response is rather quite slow, so if you’re impatient, then maybe that would be an issue for you.

    While I was on the meeting BF set up the wifi settings for me, thanks babe! it’s actually easy to set up a wifi connection which you can find in the internet connection settings, then make sure that connect automatically option is always ask. If you’re the type of person whose into slim phones then this would be another issue for the N900. It’s bulky and taking pictures are difficult. Slim phones are nice, they look sexy and I wouldn’t mind having a slim phone either but for this one particularly, it’s bearable. Another feature that I loved about this is the Skype feature, I was able to test it out and chatted with BF and friends. So far, it’s like your own PC on the GO, and I love it! It’s not bad really, but of course, I can’t tell for now since I haven’t played much with it yet.

   So this ends for my day 1 experience with the Nokia N900, please look forward for  more posts. And if you have questions about it, don’t hesitate to ask okies?

 

Meow..Meow..