A work of art and a beauty to behold. That is how I will label the Nokia N9. I have had a trial unit courtesy of Nokia Connects for a few days. The unit I have is Blue.
What prompted me to trial this device is what I have heard about Swipe being addictive. After using it for a few days, I can tell you how addicted i have been to Swipe. I tend to Swipe each time on my Nokia N8 too.
I will not go into details of listing the specs of the Nokia N9. If you want to read all the specs, you can find them here and some expert review from Mr Mobility. I can quickly tell you that the Nokia N9 runs on Meego OS, not Symbian. The camera is 8MP and shoots close up macro shots. It comes in 16/64Gb storage with 1GB RAM.
How does the Nokia N9 measure up?
If I try to cover the whole Nokia N9 review in this post, I will end up with a book. I will tell you about is looking through my own lense. How do I see the Nokia N9?
It gets my work done—emails, text messaging, social media (Facebook, Twitter), messaging via Gtalk, Facebook and Skype was uber cool (Although I miss not having Whatsapp on it), Photography (Macro shots are possible) and taking screen shots. I am not a gamer and I am not huge with Music. I will touch those aspects slightly though.
Email
You can set up email easily on it. Just go to the email icon on the menu by Swiping and you can enter the parameters for your email.
Messaging
I find the Messaging integration of the Nokia N9 very fascinating. The design of the sms UI and the speed with which the OS responds makes me want to keep texting. The touch keypads are well spaced and very responsive also.
Some awesomeness about the messaging integration are;
- When you sign in to Facebook, Gtalk, Skype and twitter, you are given an option to integrate your contacts with the contact on your phone. When you do, it makes it a very easy task for you to message them directly from the traditional messaging app.
- You can easily click on the tiny messaging icon by the bottom right corner and you’d be given an option to see all your contacts that are online and the methods available that you can start chatting with them immediately.
Using Skype, Facebook and Gtalk chat feels like you are chatting using an iPhone. It is fast and clean.
Photography
The camera is Okay. It gives a better production than what is obtainable on the Nokia E7. It shoots macro shots—you can shoot close up photos without getting blurry images.
Straight from the box, there are applications that are bundled with the phone. Many of the apps are apps many use daily, like;
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Skype
- Gtalk
- Wireless Hotspot – That will allow you to share your mobile internet with other wireless devices
- Angry birds and a few other games
- Note app and some others.
I had to log in with my Nokia Store account to access the store and download some apps that I normally use but are not bundled.
In order to do this review, I will need to take screen shot. So, I looked in the store and saw a screen snap app called; Screen capture. The app is free. It worked just fine. I also downloaded Foursquare app. If you are a huge fan of Foursquare, it is available for free too.
The app I miss not having is Gravity app. The awesome twitter app for Symbian designed by Jan Ole. I also miss not having Opera Mini. The week I got the phone, a beta release was made available for Opera mobile. However, I found the native browser more capable and usable.
The Native browser
The native browser is HTML5 enabled. If you sign in to Twitter, you will get the mobile web app version of twitter.
The browser is equally fast. When reading an article, there is an option to share directly to your connected accounts—Twitter, Facebook, Text message and Email. This is missing in the browser for Nokia Belle on my Nokia N8
The Battery
If you know the Nokia N900, a Meego powered phone from Nokia, you will k now that the phone has serious battery issue. This is not the case with the Nokia N9. I got a full day use after charging it full. I connected to Internet only when I needed to use the web via my mobile internet data.
If you are looking at using your phone for for emails, messaging, social media and mobile browsing. You’d love having the phone. Coupled with the fact that the phone is fast, responsive and beautiful.
The limitation I see with the phone is the lack of a wide range of apps available for it. If you are an app-centric person, you may have to look elsewhere. Gravity app, an app I enjoy on Sysmbian is not available on Nokia N9.
The Nokia N9 does not get the same promotion with Nokia Lumia range. I don’t see any rapid improvement happening to the phone. This is what I am most discouraged about. However, there is a new upgrade to the OS
which shows that Nokia still going to support it. The question is; will developers develop for this beautiful phone that seems to be dead on arrival?
There are limited supply of this phone. So, I see it as a collectors items. I don’t see Nokia producing more of it. The design has already been ported to Lumia 800. The Lumia 800 has the same polycarbonate body like the Nokia N9.
Will you be picking a Nokia N9?
Some more screenshots and photos
P.S. I shot all these photos with my Nokia N8
