Nokia N9 hands on review
Filed under: consumer review, mobile handsets, Nokia, technology
First impressions of the N9?
This is possibly the sexiest mobile phone ever created.
The combination of an infinity-edge like form factor (read:3.9in, super AMOLED, edge-to-edge display) is just amazing to look at. It is a truly inspired design. Even the back isn’t entirely flat, instead featuring a curved, polycarbonate unibody design making it absolutely scrumptious to hold in your hand, yet placed on a table it still lays relatively flat.
In the box
In the box is the device, a cover, a set of stereo headphones, and what is possibly the coolest power supply ever invented. A tiny little white round plug with a universal USB output. Brilliant idea, should be universal and global! The input on the N9 is micro-USB so cross compatibility with other devices is good also.
The screen itself is the same, not flat but slightly curved, just enough to feel exactly right in your hand or placed against your ear. Again, simply stunning looks. I challenge you to act bored when you first glance at this phone – it is that beautiful to look at.
Available in stores as of 14 October when the whole world was talking about another phone, this new little baby from Nokia snuck quietly into stores without much fuss. But let me tell you it truly deserves a closer look. Why? Well first up just because it is so amazing to look at and hold, and simple to use.
Operating system
Even though it may ship with a seemingly bespoke OS, MeeGo is a really clever and ingeniously simple OS that just works. Not a button in sight, no home or back button, the experience may feel confusing at first, especially for those of us used to using a different type of smart phone.
The UI features three basic home views (events, applications and open apps) with the primary control being a single swipe gesture. Locked screen had me stumped for a while. How do I unlock it? Double tap to wake, then swipe up to unlock. Swipe left to right or vice versa to access any of those three views. Magnificently simple. Once adjusted I found myself tapping other devices to unlock them, then being annoyed that they did not. In fact the swipe function is so elegant and simplistic it really deserves a big pat on the back, I especially like being able to swipe down to close an app, it feels intuitive.
Everything I tried worked, it may not be perfect, but on the whole I actually started to fall for it, and it’s quirky OS. Perhaps that has something to do with my fierce allegiance to Nokia for almost 15 years. Perhaps it is the fact that function takes precedence over ‘must-do-everything’. Functional, simple, elegant.
Take a look at this ‘Nokia N9 Journey’ video from Nokia – everything about it says precision, elegance and quality.
Features
The standby screen is classic (you can switch it on or off), a subtle digital clock that floats across the screen in a low opacity accompanied by notification icons. Little @ symbols for email, a speech bubble for SMS – the other notifications are lacking a little – but I think it could be a setting thing, as I did see an IM that I had a DM on Twitter at one point with the screen locked.
Camera
All up though there are some amazing features to really enjoy. The camera is FAST, point click and shoot. Did I say eight megapixel sensor, Carl Zeiss F2.2 wide-angle autofocus lens, dual-LED flash and 720p HD video recording? Holy cow, this baby is loaded! And image quality is as good as my amateur eye can tell, nice crisp lines, balanced colours that look pretty natural and it has a built in flash that did some weird things to my mind’s eye but I don’t have the tech-talk to tell you just what that means precisely. Just know that the camera does NOT suck.
Maps and GPS navigation
Ever used Drive with Ovi Maps? Now’s the time! It is amazing. Great quality in the maps with 3D street view that is functional and helpful, especially the way it displays recognisable landmarks that give you point of reference in major CBDs. Zooming in and out on landmarks is mesmerising.
Connectivity
Really cool feature of the N9 is the Near Field Communications capability built in out of the box. This means that you can ‘pair and share’ with other device. All you do is touch another NFC-enabled phone to share a photo, video or contact with a friend. You can also use NFC to connect phones and play multiplayer or connect to any accessories supporting NFC, like the Nokia Play 360° wireless speaker. Just one tap and you’re paired.
Dolby Sound
Sound quality is exceptional, with Dolby Headphone for a great spatial sound, but I am not a fan of the headphones that have no volume control on the remote – ok getting picky here.
Wi-Fi Hotspot
And finally, share the love with a built in Wi-Fi hotspot straight out of the box. Great for sharing and travelling, this means that if you have other Wi-Fi only devices then you can share your data across those devices with a simple swipe and activating the Wi-Fi hotspot on the N9.
Wrap up
So in summary the N9 is a high spec device with amazing built in features that work straight out of the box with minimal fuss, and when you consider these things; NFC built in, GPS with turn by turn voice navigation on Ovi Maps, Wifi Hotspot, integrated social stream, Skype and all the standard smartphone capabilities you can think of, it suddenly seems quite a seriously capable phone for someone who wants the simple things to ‘just work’ without too much fuss.
And that’s what this super sexy smart phone does. It just works and looks really, really pretty while doing it.
Oh and for extra bang for your coverage buck, it gets the Telstra Blue Tick of approval to boot! This makes it a great option for people living and working beyond the city fringe.
Pricing
Telstra is offering the Nokia N9 on some great-value Freedom® Connect Plans. For instance, customers can purchase the Nokia N9 on the $59 Freedom Connect Plan with a $20 per month handset payment, after using an included MRO Bonus (for eligible customers) over 24 months (min cost is $1,896) which offers $550 worth of calls and MMS plus unlimited text messaging to standard Australian numbers and 1.5GB of data for use in Australia. Telstra also has a range of Business Maximiser plans to keep Nokia N9 business customers productive on the go.
Related Links
- Buy from Telstra
- N9 technical specs nokia.com.au
- Nokia Ovi Store
- Nokia Developer
What is application development like for Meego ?? I would assume since Nokia has signed up for Windows Mobile, Meego may not be supported too well ? Please correct me if I am wrong.
These days it’s all about having apps that make your phone work for you.
Rocco: Qt apps from Symbian, Playbook, Maemo, Windows, Linux or Mac will work on the device unmodified. The same apps can recently run on Android and iOS.
You can use QtSDK to develop apps. The code actually doesn’t need to be modified at all to run on all those operating systems.
The apps work in exactly the same as as the N900 (Maemo) with apps being packaged in a .deb (debian file).
The N9, like the N900 before it, is essentially a mobile Debian Linux. Hence, many Linux apps such as rsync, terminal, compilers and so on with ssh and ftp servers out of the box. These apps can be delivered through debian repositories.
Also of note, emulators such as PSX, (V)GBA, N64, (S)NES ATi, Speccy are all working perfectly.
Yeah bit expensive to be giving it’s ‘not perfect’ and ‘quirky OS’ a go.
Hey Dan,
If you think that phone is sexy and amazing – wait to you see that Nokia form factor and hardware attention combined with the Windows Phone OS!
In less than 3 hours now – full coverage HERE at Nokia World Keynote: http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/
Confirmation of new Nokia WP7 handsets, one of which is modelled on the N9 design!
#winning!
Application development is actually quite good. Using the Qt Creator IDE, and the Qt Toolkit, it actually gives you a desktop quality toolkit.
Disclaimer: I joined trolltech 6 years ago (and work for nokia now). Despite working inside, I still love using Qt over anything else even after all this time.
Also, creator’s been targetted at making developing, deploying and testing for mobile simple, so that you instead focus on making the application.
To Dan: Thanks for the excellent review!
@rocco
There’s not a huge deal, but they’re there & steadily growing.
Of course it’ll never gain the momentum iOS has, since it was all but killed off entirely about 8mth ago.
But they do have an aggressive strategy for Qt beyond MeeGo apparently.
I imagine they’ll be clarifying that now at NW, and in the coming days
The whole idea with Qt is to be a compile once, run anywhere type affair.
They’re not quite there yet, esp. with Symbian harmattan.
But it works between other platforms nicely…
Outside the small-ish repository of commercial apps, there’s also a wealth of F/OSS related apps.
But that’s more for experienced users…
Really? You’re reviewing this the day the Lumia is announced?
Just get the Lumia 800 already!
Yes really, because it may have been abandoned…
But, surprise, surprise, it is actually a superior OS overall.
And unlike you, I’ve actually used both OS’s extensively.
And why not, Australia won’t be getting WP’s until Q2 2012, or perhaps later.
Same for dozens of other countries that were/are stronger markets for Symbian than WP
Hence they were targeted with N9/Harmattan 1st.
WP may have the ‘potential ecosystem’, but there’s no reason Harmattan couldn’t have leveraged Symbian’s, & been aggressively grown from there from 9mth+ ago.
Instead of being totally undermined/compromised, before it even had a chance to gain momentum.
WP’s commercial apps are still non-existent compared to iOS, Android, & even Symbian’s.
It’s only impressive stat is it’s strong dev community, by virtue of the Windows/PC world.
I think you will find meego will be meegone once Windows mobile takes hold on future Nokias
LOL
And I think you’ll find WP will continue to remain insignificant compared to iOS, Android, & even Symbian (despite Nok management’s best efforts).
The Lumia 800 is a killer. Same “infinity-edge like form factor” but with a beautiful, modern, sleek, and fast Windows Phone 7.5 OS.
I’m not buying the N9 for this reason. Please Telstra, push Nokia to give you the Lumia 800 handsets. Setting the colour scheme of the WP tiles to match the phone colours, really makes for a beautiful billboard marketing image.
I’d buy one yesterday, if you had it.
N9, Beautifully simple. But doomed before it hit the shelf. Lumia 800 please.
@Paul
Have you actually seen the objective reviews out there?
All of them were totally surprised/blow-away by Harmattan.
It’s a more capable OS overall*, WP8 may change that in 6mth, but for now.
Srsly, forget all the total FUD about ‘ecosystem’ floating around.
Nokia explained their roll-out plans mths ago, & clarified further in the past few days.
You’ll have to get used to the fact that WP’s targeted for markets where Symbian’s weak/non-existent.
And N9′s targeted for where Symbian’s strong, & still far stronger than WP.
N9′s hardware is actually better overall than the 800 too:
NFC/BT4.0/802.11an/FMRX+RDS/FMTX/3.9″/1GB RAM/64GB storage.
The CPU clock-for-clock performs as well, the GPU, as well or better.
The CPU will be easily OC’d to the same clock-speed as N800.
Honestly, what’s not to like unless you’re blinded by some kind of “MS/WP only” love?
*of course WP’s stronger in some areas, just as Harmattan is.
@paul
I have read the windows one also doesn’t have the front facing camera nor the dolby audio. The windows one seems to be a cut down version of this to me.
I 100% agree with Paul, Bring on the Lumia 800.
The hype in Europe for the Lumia is amazing, ive got mates in UK/Germany/Italy who are all iFans and there all lining up for a Nokia again, because of what the Lumia is, Super fast, easy to use, sexy, desirable, and to top it off, the easiest OS to support. 35k+ apps and growing at a rate faster than Apple or Android ever did.
Telstra could do well to sign up a for Nokia’s Windows Phones, as they can and will compete with any Android/iOS price wise and capability wise.
Yes at the moment it’s the 710 and the 800, but there’s enough rumors being dropped to state that the range could be quite a pleaser.
Please, at least sell one to me? hehe
LOL no thanks….
The N9′s better, as if you wouldn’t pick it if you had the choice.
See Jed’s response to Paul…
If Nokia had released a WP that’s way better than other WP’s.
(Hello. HTC Titan as one e.g!)
Then choosing the N9 wouldn’t be as obvious.
So much for the rumor they’re releasing a ‘Nokia Ace’ (900).
hmmmm… one more point to make…. $636 from Dick Smith, unlocked, outright and quad band so NextG compatible or $840 from Telstra….
either there is a large markup or Telstra lacks the buying power that Woolworths has ??
Yeah TS’s price is a mystery…
This is the somewhat dubious explanation i got as-to-why it’s so much more:
“Thank you for your email. I understand that you are enquiring about the Telstra outright price of $840 for Nokia N9 16GB.
Please be advised that Telstra rigorously tests handsets before they are launched onto our network. That means that our phones are not just compatible with our 850Mhz Next G® network – they’re optimised to run on it.
As a general rule Telstra puts new handsets through three test cycles. We do this because we know you expect the best from your new purchase. We’re told by handset manufactures that it’s one of the most complete testing regimes anywhere in the world. At the conclusion of each test cycle we ask our vendor partners to resolve any significant issues identified. These improvements eventually comprise a Next G®-optimised software package that runs the phone.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information or assistance.”
So Dan,
have you overcome your NFC reservations enough to actually play with the sharing capabilities on this phone?
If so – hat was your impression?
errr…
sorry – what – what was your impression?
I really do like the look and design of the N9, but knowing its the only MeeGo they will release does turn me away .. though of migrating all from Android to MeeGo only to know I need to change again most likely in a few years – I’ll wait.
I have mixed feelings about the Windows OS phones, mainly because I havent had any hands on experience, but looks like it has potential and could integrate well with my home PCs and network. Lumia 800 doesnt look as classy as the N9 IMO.
Really do want to go back to a Nokia handset though, after growing up on them .. quality is always miles better than any other.
“though of migrating all from Android to MeeGo only to know I need to change again most likely in a few years – I’ll wait.”
There is Meltemi*, which Elop has hinted they’ll be clarifying in more detail soon.
Plus there’s the fact that they’ve said several times, they’ll support it till 2015.
Even if they only make it till Oct 2013, that’s more than good enough.
At which point if there’s no other Maemo/MeeGo devices, a shift of data to Android or similar will be trivial.
*basically a continuation of Maemo/MeeGo, but rumored to be targeted for bottom-end smartphones, & feature/dumb-phones.
im in the exact same boat. i love the look of the N9 and the software, just dont like the idea of MeeGo being stillborn, and not having any further development like android does. Especially considering how pricey the N9 is…
@will.
Contrary to popular blog opinion…
Harmattan (that’s what it is, not meego) is actually not still-born.
It’s still being actively & heavily developed ‘right now’.
PR1.2 is already confirmed as coming…
It includes many feature adds, & bug-fixes.
It’s not due till approximately 8mth from now.
Pr1.1 is weeks away & has many feature adds, but it’s focus is bug/performance fixes.
There was production ramp-up “issues” in the 1st few mths.
Apparently that has been resolved now, & the main factory is near peak capacity (as of 2wks ago).
Over the coming days/wks we’ll see better supply of the N9, & better prices across the board, inc. the 64GB flavor.
If you actually shop around effectively, you’ll find it for a decent price.
Get tips/ideas from the whirpool.net.au thread…
I got my 64GB for $720, that’s far below the official RRP.
Someone else got it for slightly more, & they scanned their receipt for me.
@Si | In response to “I have mixed feelings about the Windows OS phones, mainly because I havent had any hands on experience, but looks like it has potential and could integrate well with my home PCs and network.”
Playing around with a HTC Mozart handpiece today (my other son just picked it up for $240 on special at WOW Sight & Sound). I can confirm that it connects to my Nokia CK-20 bluetooth car phone system (after the second go) and works fine. The Turn-by-Turn Navigation ap for $6 from the MarketPlace works fine too. Synching with my Windows 7 laptop via Bluetooth was a breeze, but only have two options – to use my laptop as a “speaker phone” or to stream music from the HTC to my laptop. Nice if I have a great set of laptop speakers, I guess. But I don’t. What I do miss, is access to the phone’s file system for drag-n-drop of files directly from PC to Phone.
So I tried out SkyDrive. Works well enough but would need to us my PC to transfer all my relevant files to the SkyDrive first. With 25Gb of free space in the cloud, that should be plenty for my needs. I haven’t tried the Synching of folder and files via the Windows Mesh option, but will give that a go some time. The only thing I don’t like about this kind of setup, is having to have all my stuff out there on the cloud, in order to get it on to the WP handset. (Is there an easier way with WP7.5?).
So, to be honest, while it does look promising for Windows Phone, I think the ability to access the file system (at least a “My Documents” file), straight from my PC to Phone rather than via the Cloud, would be my one main gripe right now. With all its initial teething problems, Ovi Suite with my E71 is a great match – photos, maps, videos, messages, contacts, calendars – all synched between PC and Phone. Without a cloud between us – and I can drag files straight from PC to Phone.
+1 for Nokia/Meego & Android on that account.
It is just a shame Meego in its full blown format, won’t go beyond the N9.
@Jed | Meego may go on to another life as Meltemi, but it sounds like it will be somewhat less of a life accommodating the lower end smartphones and feature/dumbphones. If that is the case, then it may end up being no more powerful than WP is right now. The key thing for N9 users (not those who like tinkering with it, or “rolling” there own debian packages) will be the ready availability of good apps on the Nokia Store. Let’s hope sales for the N9 in Asia (India) will give enough incentives for developers to make attractive apps that are no fuss to download and install for the English speaking users. If Meltemi apps end up being compatible enough to install no problems, then that will be a big plus for those wanting to hang on to the N9 for a while.
Review recently done by a WP-centric site.
Quite honest/frank, very refreshing & rare:
http://www.neowin.net/news/nokia-n9-review-its-incredible-2
Comes to conclusion that…
Harmattan simply is the better OS overall, till WP8x.
@Jed and PAV | You’re both right. Yes, undoubtedly, the N9 is a supreme mobile business tool – as you say it is basically a debian linux system in your pocket.
Had I not tried out a WP7.5 handset, (Samsung Omnia 7 updated to Mango), I may have not even took any interest in Nokia’s WP efforts. But I have tried it out, and from a pure user experience point of view, I think it is a great interface. MS have definate plans to increase its features, which should be seen in next years release of WP updates.
From a purely business user experience, I want a phone that can do calls, messaging, email, edit the odd word or excel doc on the go, good PDF viewer, and good integration with the internet, including internet tethering. I think WP7.5 is there right now in all these areas. From a recreational point of view, it definately brings all the key communication tools together – FB, Twitter etc, in one handy place, and works out of the box pretty much.
Being a tinkerer with Linux over the years from Redhat, to Mandrake to Ubuntu, I understand the potential that’s there in a native Linux based system such as meego is. But based on Nokia’s policy to drop the full featured meego system for what I understand will be a cut down version for its feature phone ecosystem (Harmattan project), I don’t see a future for it.
On the otherhand, WP has a bright future, provided OEMS, application developers, and Network Service provideds (ala Telstra, Voda and Co) get behind it. Admittedly, the network providers only stock what people want, but I think marketing for the WP Phones has been light on, to say the least–particularly at the retail level (try to find a WP phone for hands on use by consumers at any of the kiosks or outlets in your local Centro or Westfield).
So, Yes, for Power Users and Tinkers, Meego and the N9 is great, but for a slick, elegant, and unique UX, WP is my preference.
I’ve tried out WP7.5, I haven’t tried an N9 handset out. But do like the video reviews etc I’ve seen of it. But at this stage, I’m inclined to grab a WP7.5 handset as my next Smartphone of choice. (BTW, I still love my 2 yr old Nokia E71, and will be sad to see it go.)
Cheers.
“edit the odd word or excel doc on the go”
There’s an app coming out soon that’ll do this on Harmattan.
Not sure it’s ready yet: Calligra Active.
There’ll of course be something based on LibreOffice (openoffice) that comes in time too.
Everything else you list Harmattan does, arguably better when it comes to comms integration.
“But based on Nokia’s policy to drop the full featured meego system for what I understand will be a cut down version for its feature phone ecosystem (Harmattan project), I don’t see a future for it.”
Some slight misunderstandings here…
MeeGo the N9 uses, is actually Maemo6 + MeeGo compatibility layer.
Nokia had not even ‘begun’ to hit their stride w/a switch to MeeGo proper, before the strategy change was announced mid-Feb.
Nokia has confirmed they’ll actively support N9/Harmattan till 2015.
And it’s clear they’re still heavily developing it till at least PR1.2.
Beyond that is unclear right now, as that’s 8mth away from now.
There are rumors of a revival of Maemo via a project called Meltemi.
Elop has hinted a few times in recent days, that a announcement is coming.
But we still know very little of it’s exact nature…
There’s no reason to suspect it’ll be any less feature-packed than Harmattan.
If you do have some Linux experience, even if only a bit.
Then I’d most def. implore you to try the N9 for a while.
I have used WP7x phones, & the N9 for ‘extended’ periods.
And in my personal experience, the latter’s a substantially better device “overall”.
If Nokia doesn’t continue to heavily develop a successor over the next yr, then it’s probable WP will leap-frog it.
But that’s something we just dont know yet, & even if true, WP8x isn’t due till approx this time 2012.
@Telstra
Any reason my response to Paul wasn’t cleared?
It cleared-up some misconceptions quite well.
Hi Jax, Yes we don’t modedrate after 5pm and over the weekend. All good. brendan
I read on engadget on the weekend that the mango version also has a smaller res and smaller size screen. thats a pity – they shouldn’t have cut so many things I think.
*update* My bad, I see it’s still there, just awaiting clearance.
“Meego may go on to another life as Meltemi, but it sounds like it will be somewhat less of a life accommodating the lower end smartphones and feature/dumbphones. If that is the case, then it may end up being no more powerful than WP is right now. The key thing for N9 users (not those who like tinkering with it, or “rolling” there own debian packages) will be the ready availability of good apps on the Nokia Store.”
@Paul RE this ^
I seriously doubt they’ll dumb-down Maemo/Meltemi.
If they run into resource constraints they may…
But as the silicon’s evolving so quickly, I don’t think it’ll be needed.
Time will tell, there’s too much we don’t know yet.
For now aggressive development continues for ‘at least’ 6 more mths.
As following PR1.1 (due this yr), PR1.2 has been confirmed.
Then of course solid support continues long beyond that.
Then there’s the F/OSS community, which will have gained much more momentum in 6mth.
You guys are still too dear on plans and phone payments!!!!
Voda have 64gb N9 on 49 cap and $10 for phone!!!!! Same cap contents! More shapening of pencil as discerning buyers will just buy elsewhere!
All of this is good to know, but how do i find out when Telstra will release the V20 firmware upgrade pac for the N9? and will it be deployed as downloadable/installable or will I have to attend a Tshop to lodge it only to be told “not a network issue – see nokia” (again).
There are so many little feature improvements in it (or so im told) and nokia are already pushing it (but of course not to branded devices).
indeed, when will PR 1.1 be available??? apparently its a substantial improvement. other carriers have already rolled out the update for their N9….
Hi guys – I have asked the questions of our products gurus for you about the update, I will let you know as soon as they come back to me.
Cheers – Dan
thanks Dan, i’ll be watching this space (have ticked the notify me about comments box). perhaps advise the aforementioned guru to update the page on telstra.com.au that shows upcoming softwares updates for smartphones
http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/phones/smartphones.html#tab-spf
Hi all,
I have been advised the update should be available for our customers in early February at the latest – baring any showstopper issues identified in testing.
Will keep you updated as more info comes to hand.
thanks dan,
you are the first telstra employee to actually give an answer to this…tech support on the phone told me it’s the manufacturer that supplied the update and i kept telling him yes, but it’s a telstra phone, but he would not listen and insisted it had nothing to do with telstra. I think the tech support workers need more training as they clearly don’t even understand the process of smartphone updates.
I also think you need to reply to all the questions about pr1.1 in the crowd support forums. Cheers, early feb, can’t wait.
Thank Keaton, I have gone and left a similar message on CrowdSupport now.
Hi Dan, any further information on when this update will come through?
Agreed, an update on this is kinda due…
hi guys – really appreciate your patience on this one.
I have been pushing our guys for an answer and hope to be able to come back to you this afternoon with something…I have you in mind and will keep you updated as much as possible.
Again appreciate your patience, I know it can be frustrating not hearing from me.
Cheers
Dan
@Dan
Any chance they can just skip straight to PR1.2 & 1.3?*
They begin rolling-out to unlocked N9 owners in 3wks or less.
They have some huge fixes and improvements.
And would improve your customers experience immeasurably!
Your techs should already have beta builds of 1.2 & 1.3.
*apparently 1.3 will come very soon after 1.2
I agree with Jed. The PR 1.2 update is already arriving on people who have Vodafone N9′s and unlocked N9′s. I hope that telstra slipstream this process after releasing the PR1.1 as the PR1.3 is out very shortly after PR 1.2. I am really confused as to why this takes so long as the software for the N9 is not modified by telstra. Don’t they just have to test if the phone makes emergency calls and then give it a green light?
No Voda started getting 1.1 about 2wks ago…
It has not yet passed-on 1.2, & AFAIK they still haven’t confirmed if they’ll offer it & 1.3.
Because they’ve already dropped N9 (about 1mth ago), sadly they may never offer it.
Nokia’s doing it’s best to get carriers disinterested in the N9, & more interested in it’s 1st gen WP’s
It doesn’t have to do much, it did heaps to sabotage the N9′s chances of success b4 it even landed here.
It’s done more than it’s done in recent years to promote a top-end device, but not nearly enough given the stigmas they placed on it.
Heavy marketing stopped almost 2mth ago in mid-Dec, about 1wk before the pk shopping season.
This is many months before the 1st Lumia’s are even due here!
The program had been going for about 2mth, maybe less.