A little history
I picked up two devices this month, the previously posted about Nokia N8 and also a device I've been wanting to play with for quite some time the Nokia N9 - the weird oddity of Nokias flagship past.
The device which was released in September of 2011 aimed to replace the Nokia N8 and introduced a new operating system from Nokia based on Linux called MeeGo - the device was praised for what it brought to the mobile landscape at the time and was not only the first MeeGo device from Nokia but the last as they opted to join forces with Microsoft and we all know how that turned out 💩
According to many at the time, the N9 outsold the Lumia range 3-1 and Nokia were slammed for not exploring the MeeGO avenue... we all know why that is but alas they didn't and here we are
All personal opinion but I do think that Nokia had something that they could have worked with for a couple of years and perhaps even fended off Apple for a time, if MeeGO was the entire solution is open for debate but the die hard approach to Windows Phone was not something they recorded from despite some impressive hardware, it must have been so frustrating to be a long term engineer at Nokia during this time.
The Design of the N9 was pretty much, at least in photos I have seen similar to, if not the inspiration for Lumia devices of the same era, I do prefer the N8 design more, again in photos.
The N9 was available in black, cyan and magenta, and later a white version was added.
Specifications
- Size: 116.45 mm × 61.2 mm × 7.6/12.1 mm
- Weight: 135g
Display
- Clear Black" AMOLED
- 854 × 480 px (FWVGA)
- 3.9" (99.1 mm)
- 16.7 million colors (24 bits)
Camera(s)
- ** Rear Camera**: 8.7 MP (CMOS sensor of 1/3.0" size) with Carl Zeiss optics
- Front Camera: VGA
Hardware
- 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 SoC processor; TI OMAP3630
- 3D Graphics PowerVR SGX530 GPU
- 430 MHz TI TMS320C64x Digital signal processor
- 1 GB Mobile DDR
- Storage 16GB and 64GB options.
Battery
BV-5JW 1450 mAh Li-Ion battery
The Order
The device was ordered on the 15th of February 2022 for the cost of around $35ish USD, like the N8 order it's coming from China and the case/shell issue also is likely more of a problem on this device and will probably not be an original.
Sellers Listing
The sellers listing says I'll get the following
- N9 mobile phone
- 1 charger
- Cable
- Box
The listing does show the device in the sellers hands but all the devices looked a little to clinically clean and it does imply it comes with possibly not on a global rom so something to fix up right away. All in all the reviews were good and the price was really cheap compared to others on the same marketplace so it's a little worrying that it could be junk - the Huawei P9 I picked up was fantastic and it's battery life has been epic - but it did have issues (see link in post for more info)
Arrival
So the N9 arrived on the 1st of March, 2022 alongside the Nokia N8 and as noted on that devices post - it arrived in a simple brown box, each device was in a fake nokia box (same box for both) with a Chinese user manual, the device and the charger! all in all not too bad but the chargers are fake and will likely live in a do not use box.
The Device
Side to Side
The left side of the device contains... nothing... so that's easy, the right does actually contain some buttons the volume rocker which isn't quite as nice as the N8's and the sleep wake button which isn't textured so you may get it confused with volume down but because the device is fairly small .. not likely but could happen...
Trop to Bottom
The bottom has a speaker, nothing else here - the top is where the goodies are at with the headphone jack on the far left followed by the micro-usb charging port which is hidden by a flap 😶 and right next to that is a toolless sim ejection tray I actually don't quite mind the flap or the sim ejection tray if I'm being totally honest but anything flappy is a concern
Front to Back
The front with the screen has a really nice effect to it like the device is flowing over it's chassis... it's one of those you have to see in person to really appreciated at least in terms of design .. but we get a little weird now with that front camera which according to posts from that era suggest it can only be used with Gtalk or applications like Aura so not only is in a weird place, it's basically useless.
The back of the device is and to be fair so is the front much like any windows phone that can later in the lumia series - some had the silver mirror back area for the camera others just the camera/flash but the N9 and Lumia devices to share a very common hardware design language
Camera Test
Much like with the N8 these photos are posted in the order they were taken but unlike the N8 the photos taken with this 7MP shooter (5 less than the N8) these are very usable even in modern photography - you can get a decent photo without much effort on the Nokia N9
All the above photos were taken on auto and I tried shifting into the light, removing the light, changing the angle - the N9 kept up and delivered good shots - I did take one of my cat on at window as the sun was glaring through at me, could not see anything in the viewfinder fired the shot, flash kicked in and hey presto visible if somewhat grainy looking cat
Software
This phone has the weird trophy of being the first MeeGo phone.. and the last - a strange strange move as despite some weird quirks in the way MeeGo works, it's clearly far more advanced than perhaps even Android of a similar time and if Nokia had pushed further could have really had a winner on it's hand...
Sadly Elopp struck and pushed Nokia onto Windows phone which wasn't bad but wasn't great .. and killed the company
The device itself probably does not need buttons, it's gesture based and works incredibly well! The gestures are easy to learn and follow in the same light that the iPhone X was the first gesture phone for Apple or the Palm Pre for Palm it's just a case of once you use it, it becomes incredibly natural to use and you soon pick up speed with it.
You can with a LOT of effort actually make this device a viable daily driver .. provided you can live without most of the apps you may be using on a daily but if you want to deep dive the Nokia N9 an amazing article exists just for you
All in all this device will be my play thing before making it's way into the collection box to join it's fellow Nokias and I couldn't be more happy to own the Nokia N9 but tip to those buying one .. black = FILTHY fingerprints.. go white 😛
