Nokia has today announced the successor to its high-end N97 in the form of the all-new N900. The latest handset to emerge from the Finnish manufacturer promises "a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device" and will become available next month at an estimated retail price of €500.
Although similar in design, the N900 marks a change in direction for Nokia's N-series handsets as it becomes the first device of its size to feature the open source, Linux-based Maemo operating system. Traditionally, Nokia's N-series phones have made use of Symbian software, with Maemo restricted largely to Nokia's internet tablets.
The handset features an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. Perhaps of more importance to the consumer, there's a panoramic homescreen with easy access to widgets and applications, a WVGA touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 32GB of storage, and a Mozilla-powered browser with full support for Adobe Flash. Oh, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, too.
Nokia reckons the handset's Maemo software will "empower users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the cellular features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard."
Sounds promising but we'll wait for some hands-on impressions before we make our minds up. If you're eager to see more, Nokia will be showing off the N900 at its Nokia World event in Stuttgart on September 2nd.
