Nokia N9 'MeeGo' phone to sell in Australia in October

NOKIA's buttonless, smarty, arty, N9 phone featuring its MeeGo operating system will sell in Australia from October for $799.

The N9 is a radical departure from previous Nokia smart phones in both design and choice of operating system.

Gone is the Symbian operating system and interface used in millions of Nokia phones beyond its use-by date.

Instead Nokia is using the Linux-based, open source platform MeeGo for this phone, which makes it different from anything Nokia has produced before.

The N9 features a 3.9-inch AMOLED panel with a ClearBlack display, which Nokia says makes the dark bits darker and the colours more vivid. It will be available in black, blue or pink.

There is no physical home button on the N9; instead, it uses touch and swipe gestures.

Nokia says the N9’s casing is made from material commonly used in ice hockey helmets.

“The material also allows for a superior antenna performance which means better reception, better voice quality, fewer dropped calls and a higher GPS accuracy,” the company said in a statement today.

Despite its beautiful looks, the N9 has been relegated to the status of "dead phone talking" in the market before it ever sells, and before its success or otherwise is measured.

Nokia has already said in very blunt terms it does not intend to use MeeGo in future products.

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said there was no returning to MeeGo "even if the N9 turns out to be a hit".

The phone marks a transition point for the embattled Finnish manufacturer, which next year will release Windows 7 smartphones following an agreement with Microsoft.

The N9 will be sold through Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and major retailers with a recommended retail price of $799.

Telstra Mobile Products director Andrew Volard said Nokia fans had something quite special to look forward to in the N9.

“It’s fast, simple to navigate and features a beautiful design that sets the N9 apart in a crowded smartphone market,” Mr Volard said.

The N9 has three home screens, which are arranged in a carousel.

The first is for accessing apps; the second for social networking, calling, texting and calendar, while the third shows which applications are open. The screen can be pinched or zoomed to show either four or nine open app icons.

The phone comes with an 8-megapixel autofocus camera, HD video capture and a lens aperture that Nokia says will give good performance in lowlight conditions.

The N9 is enabled for near field communication. It will allow users to share images and videos between devices by touching them together.

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	Announced	2011, June
	Status	Coming soon

SIZE	Dimensions	116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, 76 cc
	Weight	135 g

DISPLAY	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 854 pixels, 3.9 inches
		- Gorilla glass display - Anti-glare polariser - Multi-touch input method - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off - Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		Dolby Mobile sound enhancement; Dolby Headphone support

MEMORY	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Yes
	Internal	16/64 GB storage, 1 GB RAM
	Card slot	No

DATA	GPRS	Class 33
	EDGE	Class 33
	3G	HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.7 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging, face detection, touch-focus
	Video	Yes, 720p@30fps
	Secondary	Yes

FEATURES	OS	MeeGo OS, v1.2 Harmattan
	CPU	1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI OMAP 3630 chipset
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
	Radio	No
	Games	Angry Birds Magic (NFC), Galaxy on Fire 2, Real Golf 2011; downloadable
	Colors	Black, Cyan, Magenta
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.1
		- MicroSIM card support only - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - Digital compass - TV-out - NFC support - Dolby Digital Plus - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA/FLAC player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), PDF viewer - Video/photo editor - Voice memo/command/dial - Predictive text input (Swype)

BATTERY		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1450 mAh (BV-5JW)
	Stand-by	Up to 380 h (2G) / Up to 450 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 11 h (2G) / Up to 7 h (3G)
	Music play	Up to 50 h