A (not so) great comeback: The Nokia N9

This might be the most polarising review of a gadget I have ever written. The Nokia N9 is a beautiful phone, cool to the touch and deeply gorgeous, akin to the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is also a disgustingly obtuse phone, stuck with both feet in the past and unable to accept its fate. Let me explain.

The Dark Crystal
The screen is deep, richly black and instantly responsive. At the Nokia N9 launch, Marko Ahtisaari (head of Nokia design) said that he wanted “less looking into your screen, and more of interacting off the screen”. With a 3.9″ AMOLED display as beautiful as this, you will have a hard time peeling your eyes off the quartz-like display. Full specs can be found here.

The screen is tough and coated with a layer of anti-glare polarisation. It’s one of the best screens I’ve ever seen, almost beating off the retina display of the iPhone 4. Multi-touch input is the icing on the cake and will be described in detail later on.

A series of patterns
The interface, a simplified Linux mobile OS known as Meego is crap and hey, it still looks like Symbian. There is no excuse for Nokia having to release a phone this beautiful with such a backwards and archaic OS. The genius implementation of the general interface is lost with the sloppy OS. If the N9 was paired with an Android or Windows 7 mobile OS, then the phone would truly shine.

I can see what Nokia has tried to do here though. “Don’t bury your head in the sand, find what you want and carry on with your life”, the interface intones. What it does not realise though is that we have become accustomed to phones that mirror our social interactions. Head down, mute and with the soft glow of a screen running over our face is the way life is. Attempting to change this result delivers an OS like Meego.

The OS has a single redeeming feature though, known as the carousal. There is no “point A to point B”. Instead, there is one single line of consciousness which repeats itself from left to right, up and down, whatever. Swipe off the edge of the glass on an open app and the app pauses, shifts like a playing card on a full deck and remains in a tabbed sheet of apps until it needs to be reactivated. This is remarkably innate and without instruction from the phone, I was able to understand the OS fully from intuition alone.

The home screen is a disgusting page of “squircle” apps which give the candybar form of the N9 a very childish appeal. You cannot create folders meaning that over time your homepage begins to fill up with unwanted apps. How hard was it to create folders Nokia?

Sounds awesome
It really does. This is Dolby sound and delivers a surround sound-like experience with the appropriate and included headphones. Music is downloaded either through the Nokia Ovi Music store or uploaded from a USB connection. With 16/64GB available space, the N9 is winking shyly at you in an attempt to become the new iPod in your life. The music app is exceptionally basic though but like all other apps on the N9, its fast and it works.

It’s all about the apps
This is how Apple turned the iPhone from a handset into magical gateway through which you can realise your wildest dreams. Sadly, the Ovi store is the virtual equivalent of a ghost town, with barely a thousand apps to satisfy your cravings. But dig it, do you really need 500 000 apps in order to have a hit mobile store? It certainly can’t hurt. Too much choice is never a negative.

The Nokia N9 has an included set of apps which will keep you going for a few days before you need to dive into the very dry Ovi Store. Maps, GPS, Facebook, Twitter, Documents, Weather, Youtube, Gaming and Skype — the apps are all functional, speedy and effective. It’s everything you require right out of the box. I need more though, I need an all you can eat buffet and so will everyone else.

The best mobile camera on the market

Nokia has always delivered with its cameras. From the very beginning, its smartphone cameras have managed to impress, mostly thanks to the 8MP, Carl Zeiss optics lens with autofocus, dual LED flash (it’s very bright) and geotagging for that added knock of social relevance.

The camera is fast, insanely fast and snaps high-resolution images at a rate of knots which other phones can barely comprehend. The video is sub-HD and shoots at 720p at 30FPS.

It’s also a phone
Yeah, can you believe it? The N9 makes calls, doesn’t drop them and has a slightly-fiddly contacts list. Outside of this, the aerial is built into the beautiful polycarbonate shell which ultimately leads to crystal clear phone calls.

The N9’s ace in the hole
The battery. It’s fantastic. After using the phone constantly for three days, the battery level is barely on 50% — it is absolutely astonishing how far Nokia has squeezed the power of this phone. Listening to music, watching YouTube, browsing the internet and more means nothing to the N9 and it continues to soldier on and on and on…

Crippled by Meego
At US$750(ZAR5999), this is a premium smartphone and holding it in your hand alone will prove its worth. Sadly, it is let down by Meego and various design-flaws which spit in the face of its beautiful design. I want to love the N9, I want to cradle it in my arms and call it my own. But its chiselled jawbones hide the skeleton of an OS which does it no favours and only assist the N9 in further alienating it from an audience it is so desperately searching for.

Who it’s for:

The style conscious

What We like:

Stunningly designed
Incredible sound
Brilliant touch interface

What We did not like:

Instantly outdated Meego OS
Lack of apps
Childish interface

Gear it or burn it: Gear it!

Sample images of the N9 camera — note the poor macro quality

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Wraggieone

Your way off mate!!! Scary that people might just read this and write the N9 off. Amazing device, beautiful, practical and simple to use. What ever you do don’t let this review be the last thing you read about the N9. Check it out.
jl

my god…stupid review!! how can meego be outdated ?? its simply more simple to use than an iphone or android….. N9 is far away the best mobile today, the only one that gives us gps without internet connection (so you can use it without roaming outside your country!!! gps of apple can be used only in your country….stupidity). The only negative point is the folders…and its not so important… and in a few weeks we will be able to run android apps on it…….. people should stop thinking apple is god…
Pkv2

nokia fired 1000+ meego developers just before the alliance with MS, just think about its future
Pkv2

and it is the first and last meego phone from nokia
chris

….and?
Who cares if it is Nokia’s last phone as long as it’s good. People are obsessed by this. This didn’t matter five years ago. Why start worrying about it now?
V Morkoxbox

I willl kill you!!!
Satyyri

I can’t understand why people go to forums and say this is bad phone, I have this and this don’t buy this one. If person have some understanding and own will he or she could make decision by him or herself. Of course they have to try the thing or read many reviews. But I don’t say to my friends that you wife is bad looking or like that you wife must have bigger tits. Everybody likes what she or he likes. And If somebody make opinion, he or she to my opinion have to say what that opinion based on.
Anonymous

where does it say i hate iphones? can you read? i have many more likes than you…. i am the real winner.

just as a matter of interest, on what basis were you able to have and test an n9 for 1 week……?? can you share with us all ???
Anonymous

hey crappletard fanboi, you’d better buy an iphone 4s before it becomes a collectors’ item – when samsung starts asserting their dual antenna switching patent rights…
Vieras

Your imagination.

Don’t need to be finnish to notice that this article sucks ass and the writer is an ignorant noob.
Davidisaac

A (not so) great comeback: The Nokia N9. What a ridiculous title considering even Nokia is not trying to use the N9 as a comeback.

This is just about the most stupidest review I’ve ever read. This moron considers himself a professional mobile phone journalist when he knows nothing about Meego. Nokia’s position in the smartphone industry is not as strong as it used to be but there’s no need for a completely non-impartial review of an exciting new product.
Dirtymoon

Then again you need folders on your Iphone to organise your 500,000 fart apps
Illo

This is an idiot review!!!
Harry Finch

After my bad experiences with Android (battery drain, lag ,questionable long-term privacy) I am very pleased to see a phone like this.

iPhone would obviously be an option, too. However, it has become the symbol of things I don’t want to be associated with: ignorance and lack of taste (yes, taste doesn’t necessarily equal to what all tabloid celebrities and teens wave in their hands)

Just watch this video and you get a feel of the devotion that has gone into this phone:

Now, that is something I call “taste”.
Dan Weber

So…

-This seems to be the only commented article on your remote website.

-On your Twitter-account you praise Apple and bash all other brands.

Dude, that was a nice one.
Big fat provocation.

You really know how to draw attention for a moment.
However, those advertisements at the top aren’t still getting much visibility in the long run…
Xari3l

I feel the writer owes the general public an apology for his utterly incompetent and uninformed article.
http://grantmcwilliams.com grantmasterflash

I was going to post a comment pointing out the reviewers obvious ignorance but you folks have done such a great job I don’t have to.
JoeHester

As of now… samsung is rumored to start using meego… Just because nokia is dropping meego it doesn’t means its outdated. I’m sure once the company starts to look at this OS they’ll think twice about what OS to use in the future…
http://www.facebook.com/fucqua Ryan Fucqua Smith

Weird everyone else has praised the OS…

I honestly think this is a good review except judging from basically EVERY other review it sounds like the review didn’t actually use the phone’s OS?

Baked in facebook excellent multi-tasking…

For a lot of people this phones only downfall is it’s apps and Nokia itself for not releasing it worldwide.
Rasmus Kristensen

“mobile OS known as Meego is crap”

How so? What is crap about it? Just stating an opinion with no backup makes for a poort start to an article, wouldnt you say?

“it still looks like Symbian”

It doesnt really still look like Symbian. At all. Again you might have an opinion on the matter, but you dont back your claim up with any information. I can, for example, say that the homescreen is fundementally different, the organization of the appgrid is different, the dropdown bar is different, the multitasking is VERY different… But you have not made any reasoning be known for your claim.

“There is no excuse for Nokia having to release a phone this beautiful with such a backwards and archaic OS. The genius implementation of the general interface is lost with the sloppy OS. If the N9 was paired with an Android or Windows 7 mobile OS, then the phone would truly shine.”

Again: What is backwards and archaic? Once more you make a claim, and neglect to specify reasons.

“I can see what Nokia has tried to do here though. “Don’t bury your head in the sand, find what you want and carry on with your life”, the interface intones. What it does not realise though is that we have become accustomed to phones that mirror our social interactions. Head down, mute and with the soft glow of a screen running over our face is the way life is.”

Maybe your life. Personally I prefer the solution in Maemo6/Meego Harmattan over my old SGS2 with Android 2.3. Its faster, easier, and more manageable. You cant dictate your own perception and pass it off as collective fact for all mobile users.

“The home screen is a disgusting page of “squircle” apps which give the candybar form of the N9 a very childish appeal. You cannot create folders meaning that over time your homepage begins to fill up with unwanted apps. How hard was it to create folders Nokia?”

You obviously can create folder suppport, which may or may not come. Its not hard to create, but its a design descision. Personally Im ok with having apps on a page, sice you have a searchtool if need be, and you can organize the order as you see fit.

The fact that you dont like the app icons is moot as you can change the app icons to suit your desire. “omg squircles!” can easily be turned into the android app icons you perhaps prefer.

“I need more though, I need an all you can eat buffet and so will everyone else.”

Not really. I had a bunch of apps on my SGS2, most of which were replacements for stock options. SwiftKey X instead of stock keyboard. Dolphin HD instead of stock browser. New video player. New music player. Etc. The rest were homescreen altering apps like MinimalisticText and so forth. Basically things you dont really need on the N9.

Ive found myself using more apps on the N9 than I did on the SGS2, weirdly, and the apps keep coming faster and faster for the N9. You may or may not realize this, its certainly not mentioned in the article, but you can get apps elsewhere than the Ovi Store as well.

Again you are claiming that everone needs what you need. Myself, I really dont miss much atm on my N9. I have OVP, I have Voddler, I have Skype, GTalk, FB with integrated chat, I have Spotify, Wimp, ebookreader, game emulators, sportstracker, sigma player, dropbox, tv guide, youtube app, etc etc. And more surfaces all the time.

“The best mobile camera on the market”

Are you kidding me? Its nowhere near the quality of the N8. At all. This is just plain misleading.

You also fail to mention that the video camera gives frameskips now and then when shooting in 720p. This is most likely something thats ironed out in PR 1.1, but you didnt review 1.1, and should have noticed this if you reviewed the phone thoroughly, which at this point I really dont see any evidence to support.

“The battery. It’s fantastic. After using the phone constantly for three days, the battery level is barely on 50% — it is absolutely astonishing how far Nokia has squeezed the power of this phone. Listening to music, watching YouTube, browsing the internet and more means nothing to the N9 and it continues to soldier on and on and on…”

Really? You must have had some magic device, cause most reports indicate a days use if used heavily (fb chat active, pushmail, etc etc) and maybe two days with light use.

“Sadly, it is let down by Meego and various design-flaws which spit in the face of its beautiful design. I want to love the N9, I want to cradle it in my arms and call it my own. But its chiselled jawbones hide the skeleton of an OS which does it no favours and only assist the N9 in further alienating it from an audience it is so desperately searching for.”

Maemo6/Meego Harmattan is what makes this phone worth while at all, imo. The HW design is great, dont get me wrong, but if this had android on it Id pick the SGS2 every day of the week. The OS does indeed do it tons of favours, from what Ive deduced.

But this is your perception, which would be fine if at any point in the article you mentioned WHY you have such hate for Maemo6/Meego Harmattan. You just say it sucks, that its bad, its horrible, and fail to mention why you came to these conclusions.

“Instantly outdated Meego OS”

How is this even close to the truth?

“Lack of apps”

Compared to Android and iOS who have had how many years to let people develop alternatives for their stock options and fartapps and talking cats? No shit, sherlock. However the apps for the N9 is growing rapidly, and I have yet to think “dam, I wish I had X app”.

“Childish interface”

This I dont get. If you mean just the appgrid then just change the icons. If you mean the entire device, just change the parts you dont like.

All in all it seems like you just got the device, decided you hated meego for some unknown reason, tossed it away, refused to research anything, and wrote up a halfassed review and called it a day.

Im sorry if this is far from the truth, but thats the impression Im left with after reading this review.
Rasmus Kristensen

well thats all bullshit. “First and last meego phone”.. Its not even MeeGo, its Maemo6/Meego Harmattan, so its basically the difference between Froyo and Gingerbread.

Do realize that MeeGo Harmattan (on the N9) isnt the same MeeGo that is now forming into Tizen? They are completely different things. The name does however make it very confusing to talk about the two MeeGo products…

Maemo5 was also the only phone with maemo5, first and last. But there was maemo4 behind it. It wasnt a big deal. Same with Maemo6/Meego Harmattan. Its not a big deal if its the last or first or both.
Rasmus Kristensen

Okay, look at the N900 once nokia abandoned it. Check out CSSU, the usermade FW updates. The future of N9 is basically PR 1.1 coming shortly with 3500 chages. PR 1.2 is a featurepacked update which isnt finalized yet. Nokia will support the device until 2015.

Im thinking MAYBE, just MAYBE, I might have a new phone by 2015.

Its not a fucking house or a 2milliondollar car. Its a phone. You will replace it before 2015 unless youre insane. Since the N97 was released (oh the horror), Ive personally had the N97, the N900, the N8, the SGS2 and the N9.
Rasmus Kristensen

theres no USBotg yet.
Rasmus Kristensen

Disregarding the applehater:

If you are refering to the iconset you can change it to whatever you prefer.

Ive had the phone in my hands for a month now, and while its a matter of taste, I love the feel and design of the phone. It feels sturdy and solid, sleek and elegant. Unlike the Iphone4 which feels heavy and fragile, and isnt as comfortable to handle.

Again; if the “childlike” thing you mentioned is about icons and graphics these are all changeable.

Also, marketing to teenagers is what Iphone does best, which makes what you claim very ironic .
Anonymous

Juditha also said the phone looked cheap. It is very obvious from this comment that he/she has not ever held one in their hands. The device looks and feels pure quality. It actually doesn’t even feel like polycarbonate… it feels like some space age anodised aluminium or something. It is superb to hold. The device exudes quality all over.
Rasmus Kristensen

The polycarbonate doesnt feel like plastic in the plastic sense at all, it feels like brushed aluminum. Thats basically a fact, not subjective. If you feel differently then you have abnormal connotations.
Pete

the most retarded review i have seen in my life!