Video: G4 – Attack of the Show's 'Review' of the Nokia N900 [RANT: My rage meter is high!]
Here’s a somewhat scathing review of the N900 from the Attack of The Show peeps.
Unlike previous reviews which actually REVIEWED the handset (i.e. actually spent more than 5 minutes on it), previous reviewers found the N900 to always be too big, the resistive screen to be a disappointment (instead of the feather light capacitive) but on the software side, the N900 was a big plus in terms of what you could do with it. I mean, even engadget was giving thumbs up there.
But these G4 AOS peeps seem to be blinded by the fact that the N900 is not an iPhone. Or anything remotely negative to bitch about is something they latch on to.
No capacitive, no multitouch, fat, and stylus = fail. I guess being more of an entertainment show than a gadget show, it is easy to pick on the stylus. I’m on the capacitive camp myself, but wanted to point out that just because the N900 has a stylus, it doesn’t mean you actually need it.
Nokia has made the excuse before hand that this isn’t meant to be a mass market device; it is for geeks who like to tinker and like to find their way about a phone (Hence MeeGo, for mass market). There’s intuitiveness about it, if you bother to take some time getting to know it, rather than just assuming it’s a Fisher Price pick up and play my first smartphone for Grandma (That’s what MeeGo will be -_-)
Other points (prepare for the rant):
- Menu hierarchy – this was ok for me but something I always had concerns about in terms of the general public getting used to it. No offense but if you’re as stupid as these two, you obviously won’t understand the contextual menu button. But this reinforces my opinion that there should have always been a separate button – one for menu/homescreen one for multitouch/homescreen. Or make some really good adverts to teach people how to use the phone (Adverts that go on TV!!!)
- Closing windows - I’m sorry Alison, but if you’re too inane to work out how to close a window, you shouldn’t even be holding a phone. There’s that X thing there. If you’re talking about how to go back, i.e. pressing space around icon/options screens, I think that’s much better than actually having to reach for the back button. Much more intuitive.
- WiFi connection - I agree with them here. Once you get WiFi connected, N900 handles connections really well and switches to mobile/wifi whenever necessary. A really nice touch. However, it can be a pain for novices to get connected. Although for seasoned users you’d go straight to settings, it is very annoying to try and connect to WLAN via the status panels as it gives you a different set of options rather than just putting in the password. I mean, it works so simply on Symbian?!?!
- The homescreens - one of the greatest features is the flexibility of customization – they just glossed over it. I don’t think they actually knew it was there, just read off a spec sheet. If they knew it was there, they’d talk about it a bit more rather than quickly going on to the next thing they dislike about the N900
- Multitasking - “a great added feature…but it takes a bit of learning” It’s like they cannot stand pointing out something good about the N900. Everything takes a bit of learning. Unless you’re a blinkin rock and totally devoid of the capability to learn, everything new takes a bit of learning. The only difference with Apple and Nokia is that Apple made adverts to teach you how to use their phones. Pinch and zooming is NOT a natural movement, but adverts showed you how to do it and you learnt.
- Although they should have talked about how great it is to be able to have so many tasks (With live tasks of live windows) open and quickly switch between tasks (important in a busy 24/7 lifestyle!!) on the flip side, they are hindered again by the contextual menu button.
- I hope Nokia watch this and learn that they either have to make amazing adverts to teach people about their OS, or make sure the OS is simple enough for even the world’s biggest idiots.
- MeeGo may sort that out. Maybe the G in MeeGo is for Granda – an OS even Gran will understand ^_^
- Browser is overlooked – single handedly the best thing on the N900 – MicroB, mozilla based browser that Engadget touted as glorious, surpassing iPhone/Android. I guess, due to lack of multitouch (and knowledge of spiral zoom) the experience of Alison/Chris is ‘tainted’.
- Flash - it is jittery for the first 5 seconds of buffering (esp embedded videos) but it works even better on the direct sites which those videos are hosted. I.E. YouTube video page direct. i.e. NOT the user profile that contains too many flash components. Even my XPS stutters there (when I’m heavily multitasking).
- Flash – LED – Yeah, It’s not the best solution, but hey you have flash. (It is annoying when something like the N95 takes better low light with flash than the N900) You have neither Adobe flash or LED flash on iPhone, but that’s totally fine isn’t it? (Please, dear Nokia, bring back Xenon, although idiots like these will probably gloss over it, market it well and point it out to let people see what a camera phone is supposed to be!)
- Ovi Store - Um, just to be fair and point out misinformation rather than just negatives over N900. Ovi store may have thousands of apps but NOT for the N900. There are quite a few hundred over at App Manager with the right catalogues.
- I really have no idea with the whole email thing – that’s out of my depth a bit. All I know is I use GMAIL and Nokia Messaging and it gets my emails 5 seconds before GMAIL.com does.
Nokia have made a vast improvement with the UI in comparison to Symbian (which I can happily moan about). But there’s so many improvements with Maemo that it does need and warrant defending when it’s improperly reviewed.
So in reality, multitouch/capacitive/fatness aside (they will all be sorted most definitely in the next iteration as tech progresses with Nokia) the biggest flaw is the contextual menu button as it hinders the use for most people who expect a pick up and play device (see here, it’s stopped them enjoying the homescreen and multitasking).
Pfeh. Honestly, why get so worked up? They’re Americans, what did you expect? All that exists for them is the bloody fruitphone and that’s it. Although, I guess even a 12yo could learn how to use the N900 faster than either of this two here.
Not really mad, just in a rant mood
I don’t mind when something is criticised and it’s warranted, but this was possibly the most closed minded review ever.
It’s a shame they have an audience to influence.
On the plus side, it highlights issues of the N900 brought up many months ago.
UI wise, it’s all about pick up and play. Heaven forbid anyone is forced to LEARN something.
Size wize, the N900′s successor MUST be slim(er) and have capacitive multitouch (the latter is pretty much inevitable).
[...] 1 votes vote Video: G4 – Attack of the Show’s ‘Review’ of the Nokia N900 [RANT: My rage m... Heres a somewhat scathing review of the N900 from the Attack of The Show peeps. Unlike previous [...]
completely agree Jay, I have the perfect example, a few nights ago I went to a restaurant with my older Cousin sister, her husband and their kids, the husband was trying to figure out my N900 and he was struggling, but then my niece, who’s about 8, picked up the phone, without me even showing her much, was going through my games, and the web browser, opening and closing windows, etc, so really shows how easy it can be…I think the G4 people are just afraid of the phone!
Yup, the iPhone broke old UI paradigms and created new ones. Despite some nagivation styles potentially being more intuitive, it may be perceived as not so because they’re too used to iPhone.
That’s not to say N900 is perfect, there are many areas of improvement. But here are also many strong points which this review did not touch upon.
I believe those 2 are trying to act cool by beating on a product. Honestly the N900 is too thick and looks unimpressive but maemo is the best smartphone platform. OK , i don’t know how to say it nicely.. 2 dumbos saying really dumb things.
Agree. N900 is too thick, possibly too heavy, and may need capacitive. That’s what pretty much every reviewer has mentioned, but have always given kudos for OS/UI. Here not so, more of an entertainment thing, “Nokia, aha, lets burn ‘em!”
i just want to say the every person that works in attack of the show are i-phone zombies. they spend their entire time glorifying the iphone. on their n900 review, they only spoke about the resistive touchscreen. 1000 apps, give me a break. i like that show, those two are the co-hosts from the 2 main hosts. i own a n900, i love it, i can do so many stuff that anyother phone prohibits. like i said, they just zombies and the iphone is their brain.
Funny how iPhone’s closed ecosystem which prohibits and traps you is the 1984 Apple’s infamous Mac Ad was supposed to break.
“Think Different”
By different, we mean, Don’t you dare think different.
The iPhone is a great phone, there are many things I love about it. But I hate those blinded by it and think that Apple/Jobs/iPhone invented and started everything and that they’re better than everyone else.
Please don’t generalize us American’s in with these idiots. (Wasn’t he the host of shipmates?)
Honestly, I miss TechTV…G4 is just crap.
How on earth did they get confused closing applications? Ummm…the X at the top left? You know, like every version of windows…ever…
All you N900 Users out there, has anyone found out how to delete a Note from my Notes list ? My list is getting bigger and bigger and I can not work out how to delete them .. it’s SOoo frustrating but SURELY I must be able to (it’s not via Calender cos that doesnt do it, even though it says delete a note, you select that then go to your list of notes and they are all still there …) grrh anyone help me yet ?
Show SUCKS
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