Not sure about that. iphone's GPS is very sensitive and very fast even indoors with A-GPS. My old iphone 3GS can get a lock almost instantly indoors but my N9 takes some seconds. Good but not up to iphone standard.

---

Added on October 29, 2011, 6:02 pm

I agree, apps aren't everything. The UI, integration with social media, ease of getting things done, customizability, screen resolution, camera, etc are also important but a smartphone is only smart if it has smart apps. Otherwise it has nothing above feature phones. In my opinion apps constitute about 50% of the smartphone experience. The iphone hardware is nothing special but Apple can sell at a premium because of the ios appstore.

It remains to be seen what happens to the app development for Meego-Harmattan. This will ultimately determine whether the N9 becomes a mass market product or a niche product for Geeks and N900 nostalgic users. Right now I see some encouraging signs in the Meego community but it is still early days. Who is to say if the 'Holy Grail' of Harmattan, an Android emulator will appear? This will be the "God App" for N9.

16GB N9 has dropped to RM1719! (RRP RM1799)
http://www.superbuy.my/shop/p-78520-nokia-n9-16gb.aspx

What to hear a joke? Nokia is accepting pre-orders for Lumia in Europe. They think they are iphone aarh? Which imbecile wants to pre-order something which will be plentifully available later with supply exceeding demand?

Andy, I agree with you on many points especially the iphone being an app launcher but the success of the iphone show that this is not altogether a wrong path to take. Apple must be doing something right.

On one hand apps can be seen as an extension of the os. Whether the function is built-in or obtained from an app shouldn't make any difference to the user experience. But the way the os allow you to integrate tasks or switch between tasks or gather messages into a thread cannot be duplicated by apps. This boils down to the beauty of the os and Meego is a very beautiful os.

However even a beautiful and capable os need apps to extend its functionality. Those who say they don't need apps don't really need a smartphone. No need for an appstore as big as ios but a few thousand useful apps would ensure its survival.

So have you got your N9 yet?

Andy, I agree with you on many points especially the iphone being an app launcher but the success of the iphone show that this is not altogether a wrong path to take. Apple must be doing something right.

On one hand apps can be seen as an extension of the os. Whether the function is built-in or obtained from an app shouldn't make any difference to the user experience. But the way the os allow you to integrate tasks or switch between tasks or gather messages into a thread cannot be duplicated by apps. This boils down to the beauty of the os and Meego is a very beautiful os.

However even a beautiful and capable os need apps to extend its functionality. Those who say they don't need apps don't really need a smartphone. No need for an appstore as big as ios but a few thousand useful apps would ensure its survival.

So have you got your N9 yet?

Nokia N9 CE Workshop gives away BH-111 plus some goodies... cool!

I won't say doing something right, it's more like the penetrated the market right and know what people wants. What I don't like is how they change the perception and how people see smartphones, and influence some manufacturer to follow its trails, scaling down the OS, removing features, adding restrictions, etc. (e.g. removing Flash support)
If you have tried Maemo, it was an amazing OS, one of the closest to true mobile computing, there's Desktop, support for Full Flash, true multi-tasking, etc. While iOS is like the complete opposite, it doesn't want users to interact or know any of that stuffs, it prefer simple user; In short, it treats EVERYONE as the same, simple user. The good thing is it's easy to use, but there's totally no room for improvement, you can't turn on advance mode; By making things simple, their OS is easily managed, less problem, less complain from users facing problem, and they also make the user so used to it that, when they see something more advance, the user will feel it's too complicated and hard to use.
Personally, I won't consider it as doing something right, but they understand what people wants, apps/games.

Like you said and I said before too, apps can be created anytime, but the OS is only control by the manufacturer and it also depends how customizable and flexible it is.
There sure will be apps and games available, just the matter of how many and more importantly, the quality and useful ones.
And for apps, I'm not sure how many people always use apps and use many types of apps; I installed a lot of apps on my N900, also on the iPod Touch (which I get because I wanted some apps, but after that I hardly even touch it), but I'm not really using the apps much; With a good browser, I don't even use Facebook App, etc. I surf full desktop version sites, so there's no need for FB App and so on. But with the N9, it'll need to rely on the Facebook app, but I still stick back to the N900 most of the time, the N9 is more on reading the feeds.

Anyway, what is the important apps to each person is also the factor, e.g. WhatsApp; As you can see, because of just one app, WhatsApp, it can deter someone decision from getting it, despite how much they want it, and they don't really care about other apps.
So, the manufacturer doesn't have to get many apps to be available for a platform, the most important is they need to know those important and popular apps, and made it available for their platform.

No yet, probably after I return the review unit first, plus tight budget. This years monthly income tax deduction calculation really caused a lot of trouble, last month and this month salary, the income tax deduction both increase by few hundred? Really wonder how they set the formula... how suddenly increase and by few hundred...

i also never use any fancy facebook app. just desktop site all the way.
btw,i treat app is an extension for a smartphone capability.just like microsoft windows,without software,microsoft windows won't be so useful.i got to admit iOS still incomplete even the latest iOS5 but it's most successful OS ever.IMHO,the majority of people want speed,simple,apps and slim.(they dun care whether it's smartphone or whatsoever,as long as it's touch screen)This is why i4 and sgs2 success while N9 got speed,simple and slim but lack of apps support is critical disadvantage for N9.TBH,Meego is still new,judge Meego now isn't fair at all.Judge it after 2 years,fingercrossed!

Apps sure will have, just the question of how many and how many are the good ones. More importantly, does it have the apps/games people want. If there're millions of apps, but all useless apps, there's no point. If there're 100 apps, and most of the apps are very useful, popular and used by many, that's more important.

Apps can be built, can be ported, anytime, as long the the developer develops or port it over; but if talking about OS, then it's different, for people who truly want a smartphone and its capabilities, will be looking for more capable OS, plus, the flexibility and customization means it's good for both the user and developer.
iOS successful because of the branding and its apps. Branding cause it's like a fashion, people wants it, like a must have, everyone talks about it.
As for the simplicity and smoothness, other OS can achieve it as well; the difference? iOS is there only, only provide the most basic features, doesn't matter who you are, it treats you as a "dumb" user, nothing else; just like what I said, imagine a camera with full AUTO mode, and little or no settings; It treats everyone as beginner and forever a beginner, it doesn't want people to learn and improve.

SGS2 is running Android, which compared to iOS, is big difference. People who realizes the limitation of iOS, will eventually move on/away and "upgrade" to other true smartphone OS, like Android. Similarly for tablets, but for tablets, even Android is not good enough because people will again realize, what they want is to be able to run those Windows app, so they again switch to Windows Tablet, but for most people, Android Tablet is good enough, while some others iPad is good enough. Just like for some people, a netbook is good enough, they only use for browsing, watching some movies, listening to music and play some facebook games; Those more demanding uses will not look at a netbook, but maybe confused into buying a netbook for its price.

The majority of people need simple,slim,apps and fast.undoubtedly maemo5 was a best os but it's not simple for majority in the market.N9 is the 1,simplified,faster and more user friendly.Most of the user in the market are not geek.IMO,90% of the phone user are just normal user which need only simple+fast+apps.They don't care about limitation of iOS and Android(still got a lot of limitation here and there).back to the N9,it's good enough,suit for the mass market demand.1 or 2 more years will cater the market as the apps ported or developed for meego.

As soon as you open the box, you will fall in love with the N9. This is one of the most gorgeous pieces of smartphone hardware I've ever seen, and it feels excellent in your hand. The device is made out of polycarbonate (which feels like brushed aluminum in your hand) that is slightly curved to sit in your hand, with an edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass display on the front (which is also slightly curved).

It's a big statement to make, but the build quality on this device is on par with the iPhone. There are no seams, no harsh edges; almost no buttons. It's almost impossible to resist touching it.



The screen is actually an edge to edge touchscreen, and the lack of buttons is made up by MeeGo's love for gestures. If you want to wake up the phone, you double tap the screen. To unlock it, just swipe from the black bezel to the top of the screen. Simple, and elegant.



The back of the device is just as stunning. The matte aluminum is fantastic from any angle, and the simple Nokia logo and camera don't detract from it's overall looks.

On the very top of the device (pictured below), is the 3.5mm audio jack, a well hidden micro-USB port and the MicroSIM slot. To open it, you have to press lightly on the slight bump, which pops up the door. If you want to get at the SIM, you then pull the edge of the second door towards the audio jack and it will pop up.





It's this attention to detail that makes the N9 so stunning: everything is tidy, and hidden away. There are no exposed ports (other than the audio jack) and even the front facing camera (pictured below) blends in with the screen nicely.



It's worth noting that if black isn't your favorite color, Nokia's got you covered there too. The N9 ships in blue, pink, black and glossy white (by December).

Software is what it all comes down to at the end of it all. Nokia, a company that has a large Symbian following saw itself floundering, becoming old and irrelevant. Initially, Nokia started working on MeeGo, which ships on the N9, but at some point along their journey, they decided to make an even riskier move to an old friend that they think could save them. Microsoft.

This meant the N9's version of Meego -- Harmattan -- wasn't the spotlight anymore. It's still getting love from Nokia, and the company claims it'll be updated for "years to come," but perhaps not as fast as many would like.

Coming from my point of view, I am a very big fan of Windows Phone. I've been a user since the very first Windows Phone shipped last year, and am still a big fan, so went into this review expecting to be disappointed. What I discovered when using MeeGo was that it's almost everything Windows Phone isn't.



MeeGo is bright, fun and beautiful (for lack of better buzzwords). It's stunning. The home screen isn't exactly the most innovative thing we've seen yet, it could almost be compared to the iPhone on first glance, but there's a lot more going on under the hood.

The N9 is fully gesture oriented. If you love buttons and hate gestures this is not the phone for you. To unlock, double tap the screen, then swipe from the very bottom edge of the bezel (or from the right / left bezels) to the top. To close an app, swipe from the top bezel (or bottom / left / right bezel) down. This approach is something that I almost don't want to live without now. I almost wasn't convinced that Nokia could get me to do away with those hideous capacitive buttons, but... this works.

The OS took the homescreen approach as a "three screens" design. You swipe left of the apps and you get a "feeds" view that shows your latest Facebook feed, Tweets, RSS feeds, News and more. You swipe to the right of the app screen and you get the multitasking drawer, where your apps run in the background. This simplicity really makes the N9 shine. You can get news from the media, as well as your social media friends in one place. It's the ultimate way to read what's happening in the world as it happens.

Any service you add to your N9 will show up here (you can turn them off, though). Some of the default ones include Facebook, Twitter, AP, Picasa, and a few basic RSS feeds (you can customize these to your hearts desire).



Multitasking is performed using cards, slightly similar to the way WebOS rocks them. Press and hold on an application to close, or, just close all. Simple.



...

Another good review of N9, a so-called "dead os". It makes you wonder how far Meego can go if Nokia had given it full support instead of trying to beat down its popularity in favour of Wp7.

Andy, as our resident analyst-philosopher what do you think of Nokia's strategy of focusing only on WP7? Will WP7 be able to claw back market share and lift Nokia's fortunes or is this the last roll of the dice? Would Nokia be better off pursuing a multi-platform strategy with Meego in the forefront?