It’s been a long time since I’ve posted something really worthwhile on
this blog. Then again, it’s been a long time since there’s been any precious
Nokia news. And so, after a four-month hiatus, it’s time again to look at one
of Nokia’s latest phones: the oft-rumored N9.
When we last left Nokia, the company had announced that it would be going
the way of the Windows Phone, in what was perhaps one of the biggest deals
between two of the largest tech companies out there. Nokia’s two last platforms
Symbian and MeeGo were going to be jettisoned, in the hope that touching to
Windows would give Nokia the flexibility to innovate both software and
hardware. Symbian had, more or less, happen to a dying platform, and MeeGo
wasn’t living up to its prospect as a savior for the company:
Months later, Oistämö still resist holding back tears. “MeeGo had been
the communal hope of the company,” he says, “and we’d come to the extinction
that the monarch had no clothes. It’s not a nice thing.”
But the release of the N9 proves that maybe, just maybe, MeeGo isn’t entirely
done for.
Let’s create with the specs. Nokia isn’t pulling any punches here with
the N9 (which honestly looks like an iPod Nano mixed with an N8), a candy bar
that sports a 3.9-inch AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera (featuring Carl Zeiss
optics), HD video footage, Gorilla glass, and NFC carry. It runs MeeGo 1.2. It
also looks (granted, this is from the promo video) smooth as hell, with a border
that looks, for once, slightly ahead of the curve.
Gone are the Home buttons (hardware or software) of the past. Nokia’s
touting the simplicity of the N9 over the whole thing, in that all it takes is
just an easy swipe. Swipe to scroll, swipe to move during your home screens,
and even swipe to reduce your applications. And talking of the home screens,
you’ve got three of them here: your request launcher, your multitask view
(similar to the N900′s), and finally, your announcement page which shows missed
calls and social media updates.
Everything about the N9 looks imposing too imposing, maybe. What’s
Nokia’s doing here? They’ve cast aside MeeGo for Windows Phone, but put the
spotlight back with a hell of a device. I don’t quite get it. But I have to
hand it to Nokia: the first release applicant of MeeGo (1.1) looked nothing
like this. I’m astonished that it got this far.
Unluckily, there’s no talk about price or ease of use (yet), other than
the generic “The Nokia N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year, with
availability and local pricing to be announced earlier to the sales start.”
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