Nokia announces N900 phone, and it runs Linux!

Looks like Nokia officially announced the N900 today. Good for them. I really like the ARM Cortex A8 SoC platform, such as Texas instruments OMAP 35x series, and I wish we had more devices on the market running it. Specs are awesome. Check them out:

Display

• 3.5 inch touch-sensitive widescreen display
• 800 × 480 pixel resolution

Language support

British English, American English, Canadian French, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Swedish, Russian

Connectivity

• 3.5mm AV connector
• TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable
• Micro-USB connector, High-Speed USB 2.0
• Bluetooth v2.1 including support for stereo headsets
• Integrated FM transmitter
• Integrated GPS with A-GPS

Battery

BL-5J 1320mAh

Processor and 3D accelerator

TI OMAP 3430: ARM Cortex-A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support

Memory

Up to 1GB of application memory (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory)

Size and weight

Volume:

Approx 113cc

Dimensions:

110.9 × 59.8 × 18 (19.55 at thickest part) mm

Weight:

Approx 181g

Mass memory

• 32 GB internal storage
• Store up to 7000 MP3 songs or 40 hours of high-quality video
• Up to 16 GB of additional storage with an external microSD card

Keys and input method

• Full QWERTY tactile keyboard
• Full QWERTY onscreen keyboard

Colour

Black

Operating frequency

• Quad-band GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• WCDMA 900/1700/2100 MHz

Data network

GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 107/64.2 kbps (DL/UL) EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL) WCDMA 900/1700/2100. Maximum speed PS 384/384 kbps (DL/UL) HSPA 900/1700/2100. Maximum speed PS 10/2 Mbps (DL/UL) WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g

Call features

• Integrated hands-free stereo speakers
• Call waiting, call hold, call divert
• Call timer
• Logging of dialed, received and missed calls
• Speed dialing via contact widget
• Virbrating alert (internal)
• Side volume keys
• Mute/unmute
• Contacts with images
• Conference calling with up to 3 participants
• Internet calling

Email & Messaging

• Supported protocols: Mail for Exchange, IMAP, POP3, SMTP
• Support for email attachments
• Support for rich HTML
• SMS and Instant Messages as conversations
• Support for Nokia Messaging service
• Instant messaging and presence enhanced contacts
• Multiple number, email and Instant Messaging details per contact, contacts with images
• Support for assigning images to contacts

Web browsing

• Maemo browser powered by Mozilla technology
• Adobe Flash™ 9.4 support
• Full screen browsing

GPS and navigation

• Integrated GPS, Assisted-GPS, and Cell-based receivers
• Pre-loaded Ovi Maps application
• Automatic geotagging

Camera

• 5 megapixel camera (2584 × 1938 pixels)
• Image formats: JPEG
• CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens
• 3 × digital zoom
• Autofocus with assist light and two-stage capture key
• Dual LED flash
• Full-screen viewfinder
• Photo editor on device
• TV out (PAL/NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or WLAN/UPnP
• Landscape (horizontal) orientation
• Capture modes: Automatic, portrait, video, macro, landscape, action

Video

• Wide aspect ratio 16:9 (WVGA)
• Video recording file format: .mp4; codec: MPEG-4
• Video recording at up to 848 × 480 pixels (WVGA) and up to 25fps
• Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263

Music and audio playback

• Maemo media player
• Music playback file formats: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
• Built-in FM transmitter
• Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma, .m4a
• FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR
• Digital stereo microphone
• DLNA

Personalisation

• Background pictures
• Widgets on your desktops
• Intelligent contact shortcuts
• Shortcuts to your favourite websites
• Shortcuts to applications
• Themes

Operating system

Maemo 5 software on Linux

Applications

• Maemo Browser
• Phone
• Conversations
• Contacts
• Camera
• Photos
• Media player
• Email
• Calendar
• Ovi Maps
• Clock
• Notes
• Calculator
• PDF reader
• File manager
• RSS reader
• Sketch
• Games
• Widgets
• Application manager for downloads

Gaming

• Bounce
• Chess
• Mahjong

What´s in the box

• Nokia N900
• Nokia Battery (BL-5J)
• Nokia High Efficiency Charger (AC-10)
• Nokia Stereo Headset (WH-205)
• Video out cable (CA-75U)
• Nokia charger adaptor (CA-146C)
• Cleaning cloth

An interaction video is now available:


I've been waiting patiently for a similar (non-phone) device called the OpenPandora Console, but seeing a device like this with Linux (well, Maemo), GPS, as well as an integrated phone is pretty darned cool. I'm wavering on my singleminded determination towards purchasing the Pandora, although the unoffical Pandora blog has kept me informed well in the meantime.