Nokia has announced the N900, an impressive looking QWERTY slider phone and the company's first Maemo Linux-powered smartphone. While Nokia has introduced Maemo based devices before, such as the N810 Internet Tablet, this is the first Maemo 5 device and also the first Maemo device with full phone functionality. Nokia's Linux-based Maemo system is wholly incompatible with the Symbian OS and Nokia's S60 user interface, which has long been Nokia's smartphone platform of choice.

This powerful new phone features an ARM Cortex-A8 600MHz processor and 256MB of RAM along with 786MB of virtual memory which should run its slick next-generation Nokia Internet Tablet-inspired operating system with ease.

A sharp-looking 3.5-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resistive touchscreen display should go along with the phone's 5.0 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash. The camera includes WVGA video capture, geo-tagging with integrated aGPS technology, and easy social media sharing. The device also includes a built-in stand that can be used for watching video.

On the multimedia front, N900 users can enjoy their media in a number of ways. A 3.5mm headphone port includes TV-out functionality and the phone can also be used with Bluetooth devices, such as wireless headsets and stereo headphones. An FM transmitter is on-board, and users can store their music collections on 32GB of built-in flash storage that can be boosted with microSDHC(INFO) cards as large as 16GB, for up to 48GB total.with all this under the hood, Nokia decided to include a high-capacity 1320mAH battery for long use.

The phone has a unique interface, shown briefly in the video below, which looks easy and fun to browse. Users can slide through interfaces and move widgets around the screen, choosing customized placement of menu objects. Maemo 5 includes Mozilla Fennec browser technology with full Flash and AJAX support so users can stream music and video from their favorite web sites.

Maemo has a unified contacts portal that organizes voice and Internet calls, instant messages, and SMS in one place. Users can also merge their Skype and other contacts to their traditional address book with ease. A three row full-QWERTY keyboard will let users easily communicate with their friends and family, too.

The N900 will be available in October for 500 EUR (US$700). More details on the device will be announced at Nokia World next week.

General :

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
HSDPA 1700 / 2100 / 900
2009, August
Coming soon. Exp. release 2009, October

Size :

110.9 x 59.8 x 18 mm, 113 cc
Weight 181 g

Display :

TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors
800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches
Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Full QWERTY keyboard

Sound :

Vibration; MP3 ringtones
Yes, with stereo speakers
3.5 mm audio jack

Memory :

Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Detailed, max 30 days call records
32 GB storage, 256 MB RAM
microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB

Data :

Class 32
HSDPA, 10Mbps; HSUPA, 2Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
v2.1 with A2DP
v2.0 microUSB

Battery :

Standard battery, Li-Ion 1320 mAh (BL-5J)