Nokia Delays N900 Smartphone

Fans of Nokia's N900 will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on the Maemo-powered smartphone because it will be delayed until sometime during November. While no one likes delays, this handset is powerful enough to look like it's worth the wait.The N900 is a beast on specs alone: Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 32 GB of storage that's expandable via microSD slot, a 5-megapixel camera, a Firefox browser and a 3.5-inch touch screen. The really interesting part is that it will run Maemo 5, which is a mobile operating system based on Linux. This opens the door for a lot of very interesting apps and use cases, as this device will likely be able to multitask with the best of them. In a video demonstration below, we even see how easy it is to get things like Skype and Google Voice deeply integrated into the contacts menu.

Of course, the problem with the high-end Nokia smartphones is that they cost an arm and a leg, and the N900 will see limited U.S. adoption because of its expected $649 price tag. You'll probably be able to pay a few hundred less on Amazon, but it's still tough to shell out that much cash up front for a phone. Still, an appealing factor of the N900 is that it will support T-Mobile's AWS 3G, which means you can take advantage of the carrier's new, fairly cheap, no-contract pricing. Using this option would mean the N900 actually has a lower total cost of ownership over the long haul.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one, and will try and put it through the paces as soon as possible. They're really pushing the multitasking abilities of the N900, but I still have some hesitations about what that will do to battery life, as well as overall system responsiveness. Feel free to check out the demo video my colleague Fritz Nelson captured for TechWebTV.