techie-zone

Nokia today announced the Nokia N9, built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smartphone technology.

The Nokia N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Whenever you’re in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes you home.

The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: using apps, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities.

The industrial design of the Nokia N9 is an example of extreme product making and craft. The body is precision-machined from a single piece of polycarbonate and flows seamlessly into beautiful curved glass. The laminated deep black display means that the user interface just floats on the surface of the product.

The Nokia N9 also packs the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

“With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel,” said Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s head of Design. “And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique – the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers – will evolve in future Nokia products.”

Innovative all-screen design
With no need for a home key, the all-screen Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine. The 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from scratch-resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body enables superior antenna performance. This means better reception, better voice quality and fewer dropped calls.

Camera, maps and multimedia
The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide-angle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in lowlighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced.

The Nokia N9 features free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps. With the new dedicated Drive app, you can get in your car and start navigating to your destination right away.

You can watch videos in true 16:9 widescreen format. And because the Nokia N9 is also the world’s first smartphone with Dolby® Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, you get a surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

Touch just got better
Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows you to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together. Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360° wireless music speaker only once, and you get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap.

Colors and Memory
The Nokia N9 will be available in three colors – black, cyan, and magenta with storage options to accommodate plenty of content: 16GB and 64GB. The Nokia N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year, with availability and local pricing to be announced closer to the sales start.
Nokia N9 Technical Specifications:
Networks Pentaband WCDMA 850, 900, 1900, 1700, 2100, Quad band GSM/EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900
Speed: HSDPA Cat10: 14.4Mbps, HSUPA: Cat6 5.76Mbps
Display 3.9” WVGA (854×480) AMOLED display with curved Gorilla glass, no air gap, anti-glare polarizer
OS MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
Memory: 1024MB RAM, 16GB/64GB storage
Camera: 8Mpix auto-focus Carl Zeiss, wide-angle lens, 2x LED flash, Video capturing

MPEG-4 SP 720p @ 30fps, 2nd camera for video calls
Size / Weight: 116.45 mm x 61.2 mm x 7.6–12.1 mm (L x W x T) / 76 cm3/ 135 g
Connectivity: BT 2.1, GPS, A-GPS, WLAN 802.11abgn, NFC, 3.5mm AV connector, micro USB connector, USB charging
Processor: ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP3630 1 Ghz, PowerVR SGX530
Audio: MP3 player, Audio jack: 3.5mm, Supported codecs: mp3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, FLAC.
Operating Times Talk time: (GSM/WCDMA) up to 11 h / up to 7 hours

Standby time: Up to 450 hours (WCDMA), up to 380 hours (GSM)

Video playback (720P): up to 4.5 hours

Music playback: up to 50 hours

Finally the Nokia N900 has made an official appearance as the company has marked the next phase in the evolution of Maemo software with the new device recently. Taking its cues from the world of desktop computing, the open source, Linux-based Maemo software delivers a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device.

The Nokia N900 has evolved from Nokia’s previous generation of Internet Tablets and broadens the choice for technology enthusiasts who appreciate the ability to multitask and browse the internet like they would on their desktop computer. Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the Nokia N900 is designed to empower users to have dozens of application windows open while running simultaneously and taking full advantage of the cellular features like the touch screen and QWERTY keyboard.


“With Linux software, Mozilla-based browser technology and now also with cellular connectivity, the Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience,” says Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia. “The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways.”

The Nokia N900 will feature –

* a 3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display with an 800 × 480 pixel resolution
* full physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard and on-screen virtual keyboard as well
* 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card
* 3.5mm earphone and handsfree socket
* 5 megapixel CMOS sensor autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a Tessar lens as well as a Dual LED flash
* Photo editor on device
* Video recording
* TV Out (PAL/NTSC) via Connectivity Cable (included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
* Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
* Integrated GPS with A-GPS support (Ovia Maps preloaded)
* Video playback includes XviD support (FINALLY)
* Built-in FM transmitter and radio
* Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology and Adobe Flash 9.4 support

The Nokia N900 is equipped with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. The result is what should be PC-like multitasking, allowing many applications to run simultaneously. Check out the video showcasing the UI.

Switching between applications will be simple as all running content will be available through the dashboard. The panoramic homescreen can be fully personalized with shortcuts, widgets and applications. Maemo software updates happen automatically over the internet. Nokia Messaging service is on board as well which mobilizes up to 10 personal email accounts.


The Nokia N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 at an estimated retail price of about Rs. 35,050 (EUR 500) excluding sales taxes and subsidies.