Nokia N9 mega review part1

First of all a big thanks to Nokia Connects for sending this amazing device for review. And a big thanks to Giridhar for the N9’s snaps. When I last did a review of X7 (for mobigyaan), people to whom I showed the device used to say ‘hmm. Symbian is dead right?’ There is this lack of interest towards the X7 smartphone and not many were interested in taking a look at the phone. Over the past 14 days, when I used to roam around with N9 in my hand, many heads turned. There was this interest to know what smartphone it is. Those who saw the phone were disappointed that the phone is not going to be released in India. Few are ready to get it from other countries if it is available. The general response is something like “Why can’t Nokia release such a good phone in India? Why did Nokia abandon MeeGo“. Even those who hardly used a smartphone took no time in understanding how to use the phone (just had to tell them what horizontal and vertical swipes result in). I would’ve finished this review by saying just one word. Simple! With MeeGo, Intel and Nokia have redefined the term ‘ease of use’. Off to the review then! Do note that this review is divided into two (if needed three) parts. In the first part, we cover the most important aspects of a smartphone. Design, UI, Phone and messaging while in the next part we will cover multimedia and other aspects of the device. A third part solely will focus on conclusion and our opinion. Do note that similar to my X7 review for Mobigyaan, each review area will have Good/bad points (useful for those who are not interested in reading every word) followed by UI walkthrough. If you want to know what the specifications for this phone, please head here.

Package Content

The Good:

1. Cute looking charger
2. Lengthy USB cable (unlike those tiny USB cables provided with symbian devices)
3. Rubber rear protector is handy if you want to be extra safe

The Bad:

• Should’ve included IEM headset and few more accessories

Content of N9’s package is:

• N9 unit
• Nokia AC-16 fast charger along with data cable
• Nokia WH-901 stereo headset
• Manuals and how-to guides
• Rear rubber protective case

The following unboxing video gives a sneak peak at the content in the package: My thoughts: We are a bit disappointed with the package content. First, we would’ve loved to see a premium IEM bundled with the phone (given the premium quality of the handset). Second, what happened to those huge boxes filled with accessories (like car charging kit, unlimited music subscription pass, TV Out cable etc). On the whole, nothing much to talk about package content.

Design

The Good:

• This thing can survive Chuck Norris’s roundhouse kick.
• Polycarbonate unibody and curved glass oozes premium quality and feel.
• Jaw-dropping look.
• Zero buttons on the face. Display is everything.
• It just fits in the palm.
• Available in four colors (Cyan, Magenta, White, Black)

The Bad:

• Those with sweaty palms may have a problem with grip.
• Single speaker at the bottom.
• Lack of HDMI port and dedicated camera key.
• Battery cannot be replaced by user.

Polycarbonate shell and curved glass. Have a look:  If the photos on the Internet and those review videos made you say ‘aah’, when you see it in person, the expression would be ‘ooh’. Very rarely we see gadgets that take the art of design to a new level.N9 looks absolutely stunning. The polycarbonate unibody not only makes the phones sturdy, it also gives premium look to the phone. N9 is available in Cyan, Magenta, Black and White shell colors. When held in hand, the feel is superb, the size is just right. On the downside, battery cannot be replaced by user and there is no microSD slot for memory expansion nor does it have USB OTG. The unit that we received has 64Gb on-board memory, there won’t be a need for memory expansion slot. It would be good if there is one (makes it easier to share and transfer content, which is better than transferring via Bluetooth which kills time and battery).  Face of N9 is dominated by beautiful 3.9″ display, protected by curved Corning Gorilla Glass. As you can notice from the below picture, the glass is curved on all sides. This is more of a functional design element than aesthetic, in fact, it does make the phone look sexy. Swipe is key for MeeGo UI and the curved glass makes swiping easy for users. Do note the lack of keys/buttons above or below the display. The way MeeGo is designed, it doesn’t need buttons for navigation. Consider these four sides as four long buttons. There are few ‘usual’ sensors above the display while the front facing camera (for video calling etc) is at the bottom right corner. This, to us is an awkward position as one has to hold the phone a bit higher if you are using the phone is portrait mode. In landscape mode though, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.  At the top, there is a 3.5mm port, a microUSB port protected by plastic flap and microSIM card adapter.   While the left side is clean with no buttons, the right side holds a volume rocker and lock/power key. Would’ve been good if Nokia added a dedicated camera key on the rights side.

A single speaker grill at the bottom single stereo speaker. I would’ve liked to see a stereo speakers (similar to the ones on X7 or N900).  On the back, there is a 8mp camera with Carl Zeiss lens and a dual LED flash. Right on the right side of the camera is a microphone, sole purpose of which is to cancel external noise while on call. Apart from these, the back side is absolutely clean.  Overall, we are thoroughly impressive with the build quality, looks and sturdiness. Do note that the same polycarbonate shell is used for Lumia 800 and Lumia 900. Continue to the next page 

UI and Display

The Good:

• Swipe based UI is amazing (note: Swipe, not Swype)
• Lag free UI.
• No curve in learning curve, very very simple UI.
• Crisp display, very good outdoor visibility
• Very good onscreen qwerty

The Bad:

• Lack of multiple home screens and widgets
• Some may find the UI too simple
• Discontinued OS

The most beautiful part of MeeGo is visible when the OS is in standby mode. The standby screen that shows digital clock is pleasant to watch and it takes minimal amount of battery. So, dont bother turning it off. A double tap shows you the lock screen and a swipe reveals home screen. Notifications (mails, calls, messages etc) are displayed on lock screen.  This is the home screen of MeeGo. The below icon grid is the homes creen. The icons can be rearranged and the procedure is very much similar to that in iOS. Long press any icon to enable reorganizing icons and drag the icons around. PR1.2 update had added support for folders here, which we will be covering later. No fancy stuff. The top bar shows various data (signal strength, battery status, carrier name, notification related icons, time etc).  A click on the top bar shows profile and connectivity settings as shown below. Drag along the ‘Ringing’ bar to set volume level. Click on Availability to set availability setting for respective/all IMs. You can also change Wi-Fi, Bluetooth settings from here.                        Swipe right and you get to the screen that lists all the running apps (task manager) as cards  To close an application, you can either swipe down the application or you can close all or selected applications from open apps screen. A long press on any card displays ‘x’ for every card and also gives an option to ‘close all’ apps at once.  Swipe left again and you get to the notification center.  Notification screen gives you a list of notifications from accounts that you prefer (in this case, twitter and Facebook). A long press on twitter notification gives you option to clear all twitter notifications or open settings for twitter notifications. 

Same is the case with Facebook stream. You can also set weather display settings for notifications screen (powered by AccuWeather). Do note that this notification stream will not be useful if you have hundreds of friends/followers, in which case, stick to official apps. Notification also displays notifications related to messages, IMs and email etc.  In case you want to access an application immediately while an application is in the foreground, swipe up gives you four shortcuts (you can configure these shortcuts, I decided to use the default ones). The same works when the lock screen is active. Swipe up and you will be able to make calls, send SMS etc from lock screen.  Unlike Maemo that provides full multitasking, MeeGo supports iOS style multitasking. When you you move away from an app, it moves into suspended state and once you open the app from task manager, the app resumes (from background). That’s all that I have to explain about the UI. Three screens (Home, notification and task manager) is all that you have to worry about. Settings too are extremely simple and straightforward. Continue to the next page 

Calling and contacts

The Good:

• Clean and great looking application
• Favorites are listed at the top
• Scrolling and Alphabet scrolling is super fast with no lag at all
• Lot of detail can be added to a contact
• Syncs with IM accounts automatically and displayed.
• Built-in support for Skype

The Bad:

• Unlike Maemo contacts application, this one doesn’t support many IM accounts.
• Transferring contacts is big pain

However good an OS is or a smartphone is, if it fails at Call management and Contact management, it is deemed to fail. N9’s contacts application is clean and straightforward just like the OS. This is how N9’s contact management app main screen looks like.  The list is divided into three parts. At the top is Search, followed by list of favorites and then comes the complete list of contacts. If you are looking for a specific contact, you can either scroll down the traditional way (swipe and swipe till you find that contact) or you can hit the search text box and search for the contact. If you are instead looking for contacts that start with a specific alphabet, easiest way is to scroll at the right edge, which does a fast letter-to-letter scroll. The current letter is displayed in the foreground while the contacts that start with that letter are displayed in the background. Lift your finger and you will be able to access those contacts.  This is how search looks like:  While at contacts app home, you have options to perform tasks like sorting, group management, merge/import/export/delete contact. These options are accessed by clicking on list button on lower right corner. The ‘+’ button on lower left corner is used to add a new contact. 

While lot of detail can be added to a contact, when compared to Maemo’s contact management application, this is very less. Opening a contact gives you option to call the contact using cellular network or Skype. Options to send SMS or IM is enabled based on the type of the number.  Importing contacts can be done using SIM card or via Bluetooth or via online service.   I have mixed feeling about Contacts application. While the layout and navigation is top notch, the number of IM IDs that can be added per contact is limited. But for an average user, this is more than enough. Also, the main problem here is with importing contacts. Lets say that you are moving from your old Nokia device that uses standard sized SIM card. Given that this phone uses micro-SIM, there is no way you can copy the contacts using your old SIM card. You have to rely on online service like Ovi Mail or Ovi contacts (now powered by Yahoo!) and for me, this had turned out to be a painful and long process. Also, given that N9 wont work with Nokia Suite, you cannot copy contacts that you have saved for so long on Nokia Suite. Another issue that I have faced is that Nokia Link tool that is meant to connect N9 to PC didn’t work on Windows 8 Developer Preview (won’t blame Nokia though as this OS is pre beta but do keep an eye).

Call management

The Good:

• Skype integration
• Clean interface
• Differentiation between type of calls is good
• Active Noise Cancellation works well is a boon! Heavily minimizes noise.

The Bad:

• None in particular

Similar to Maemo, one can choose to make call over mobile network or using Skype’s VoIP  The Call management home screen gives three options

• Dial Pad
• Contacts list
• Recent calls

  This app gives you option to filter calls (dialed, received and missed), option to either call a contact or send SMS/IM, option to add the number to new/existing contact. Nothing much to say about. Highly functional application. Call quality is excellent and when the Active Noise Cancellation is enabled, it is superb. To test this, I gave a call to a friend while standing on a road that is jampacked with traffic (you know how noisy Indian traffic is), and the other person couldn’t believe that I was standing at that place. All he hears was a slight hum and that too as if it comes from a distance.

Messaging

The Good:

• Very good combination of colors, feels pleasant
• Superb filtering options
• Very good qwerty make typing long messages easy

The Bad:

• None in particular, should’ve had support for more IM protocols

This is the messaging home:  MeeGo’s messaging app supports threaded messaging. The messaging home displays list of conversations sorted by date. You can apply filters to show messages from various sources. Online contacts are denoted with a tiny green button at top right corner, while offline ones are denoted with grey button (yellow button with wait symbol for those who are idle).  New SMS can be sent either by clicking on existing conversation or by clicking on the icon at bottom corners (bottom left for new SMS and bottom right for new IM). Sending an SMS/IM is not much different from the same in other OSes. 

If you have added multiple IM IDs for your contact, selecting that contact to send new IM will give you the list of IMs, asking you to pick one to start chat. All in all, this is a simple looking Messaging application that is neither complex not too basic. One might wonder how all the IM contacts pop up in contacts and in messaging applications. This is done via Accounts settings. Below images shows accounts home and settings pages for Facebook and Skype accounts.                        Adding new account is straightforward. Click on ‘Add accounts’ and you will get a list of protocols that you can add and all the contacts in those accounts will be added to your contacts (unless you chose not to)  Here, we end the first part. Do let us know whether you liked the review, if there is anything that need to be fixed/changed. Your feedback is very important for us to better our review writing sills.