Cool New Nokia N900 Smart Phone Runs Linux!!

jikelly · Apr 5, 2010

My brother-in-law has one of these and I was very impressed with it. It is yet another touch screen phone, but it seemed easy enough for my clumsy fat fingers to use.

The phone runs Linux which is perfect for a super tech geek like my brother-in-law, but it still seemed easy enough for me to use.

I haven't fooled with Linux at all, but maybe I should look into it. Anyway, I'm going to add this phone to the short list of possible replacements for the iphone/curve and even the tilt as my work/personal primary outside world connection device.

And now for something completely different. The N900 is Nokia's first Maemo OS smartphone and it's their first Maemo version 5 device. Maemo is a Linux-based OS, and prior versions powered Nokia's non-phone Internet tablets like the N770, N800 and N810. Maemo has morphed significantly since the N810 and it's now more of a consumer device than a geek tool. The User interface is impressively modern, slick and fun with its cool sound effects, animations and transitions, and the ARM Cortex A8 with GPU is very fast. The N900 is in some ways a developer's platform since it's Nokia's first foray into what may become the eventual replacement OS for Nseries high end phones, but that doesn't mean it requires a degree in computer science or that it's not a pleasant product to use. It means that Nokia wants to attract more developers to their new platform since the world's abuzz for phones with strong app stores.

Nokia N900

The N900 is an unlocked GSM world phone with EDGE that will work with any GSM carrier. It has 3G HSDPA 10 Mbps on the Euro 2100MHz band and on T-Mobile's US AWS 1700/2100MHz bands. T-Mobile users: this is definitely a phone worth looking at! We don't see that many cutting edge, high end phones with T-Mo's US 3G bands and it's pleasantly surprising that Nokia made one since they usually opt for the larger installed base of AT&T users and their 850/1900MHz bands. Do you use AT&T? You'll get EDGE for data but not 3G since the N900's cellular radio doesn't support those bands.

The N900 is full of flagship specs-- gone are the slow Symbian OS CPUs and paltry RAM. The smartphone runs on a 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU with hardware 3D graphics acceleration in the form of the PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support (same as the iPhone 3GS). The N900 has 256 megs of RAM and can use virtual memory up to 1 gig. It has 32 gigs of flash storage and an SDHC microSD card slot. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera has a dual LED flash and a Carl Zeiss lens that's up to Nseries standards. The phone has WiFi with seamless switching between WiFi and cellular data networks (no there's no UMA calling but there is VoIP), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with a full set of profiles and a GPS that works with Nokia's own Ovi Maps. The resistive 3.5", 800 x 480 pixel display has an accelerometer, ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor.

Nokia N900 Review - Smartphone Reviews by Mobile Tech Review

More on exchange support.

I was pleased to see Nokia include these clients in Maemo 5 on the Nokia N900 and have mine syncing via my work Exchange server. Notes is also present on the N900, but these do not sync via Exchange and I haven’t tested out if they sync via the PC Suite connection. Check out my video below for a walk through these three PIM areas on the N900 and please excuse the areas I had to cut out to keep my specific contacts and calendar entries private.

Nokia N900 video: PIM support is pretty strong on this Internet Tablet | Nokia Experts

Dr_EluSivE · Apr 9, 2010

There are several phones that run linux based systems. Most notable the Palm Pre/pixi WebOs phones. It is Essentially Java running on a linux OS.

Dr.

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Cool New Nokia N900 Smart Phone Runs Linux!!

jikelly Well-Known Member

Dr_EluSivE Founding Member

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