Running on the new Linux-based Maemo 5 OS, the Nokia N900 power lies in the capable multi-tasking, which should make it stand out even among the ranks of the Symbian smartphones. According to Nokia reps, however, the new Maemo device is not meant to compete with the Nokia Symbian smartphones, but instead cater for different market needs.

With Nokia N900 you’ve got around-the-clock connectivity thanks to Wi-Fi and HSPA. The N900 offers phone features as well allowing full-featured telephony.

Nokia N900 runs on the Linux-based Maemo 5.0 OS

The Nokia N900 packs a powerful ARM Cortex-A8 CPU much like the Apple iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and Samsug Omnia HD and offers hardware graphics acceleration and 256MB RAM.

Switching between applications is simple, as all running content is constantly available through the dashboard. The panoramic homescreen can be fully personalized with favorite shortcuts, widgets and applications. We wonder however how many of those features will be available in portrait mode though, as Maemo is Tablet OS that’s hardly been put to use in portrait mode before.

Interaction with the handset is available through the large 3.5-inch touchscreen display with a WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels) and the 3-row QWERTY keypad. The touch screen also offers a virtual on-screen keyboard and operating with a stylus is possible, though one doesn’t seem to be included with the N900 itself.

Nokia N900 is smarter than most other smartphones

Thanks to the web browser powered by Mozilla technology, websites should look just as they do on a desktop computer. Online videos and interactive applications are not a problem as the Maemo OS has full Adobe Flash 9.4 support.

The Nokia N900 has 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card. Other features include a GPS receiver with Ovi Maps, an FM transmitter, a 3.5mm audio jack with TV-out function, Bluetooth and DivX/XviD video playback support.

For photography on the go, the Maemo software and the N900 come with a new tag cloud user interface that helps users tag and share photos and videos more easily. The 5 megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics is also capable of recording 16:9 video with a resolution of up to 848×480 pixels@25fps.

Here’s the official demo video of the Nokia N900 where you can check how the new cloud photo tagging system works among other things:

The Nokia N900 should be available from October this year with an estimated retail price of 500 euro before taxes and subsidies.

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With only several days remaining to the start of the Nokia World event, we can already feel the excitement building up. We already got one announcement yesterday just to warm us up but we are certainly hoping that more will follow once things get rolling in Stuttgart on 1 September.

After the preview that popped up yesterday we were quite confident in predicting that the Nokia N97 Mini will be one of the new devices to be announced at this year’s Nokia World. The trimmed-down version of the company multimedia flagship has now made another unofficial appearance, through a leaked press shot. It certainly doesn’t give any more information that we already have, but it’s another confirmation that the actual launch of the handset cannot be far away.

Nokia N97 mini

The other device that made an appearance in similar fashion is the Nokia N900 former tablet. Again previewed ahead of announcement, the Maemo-based smartphone is certainly quite far ahead in its development and it will hardly be a surprise if we see it announced next week. And it certainly looks like a real beauty at those official shots, right?

Nokia N900

So stay tuned as the Nokia World unveils next week and tells us if there is more left to unveil.

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Nokia are obviously getting more and more serious about their touchscreen portfolio. Hot on the heels of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, they have announced the Nokia 5230 – an entry-level touchscreen handset. The newcomer has the same dimensions as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic but looses the Wi-Fi and has only a 2 megapixel camera.

Much like the Nokia 5800, the Nokia 5230 sports a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels, FM radio, 3.5 mm audio jack and microSD card slot. The camera has been downgraded to 2 megapixel resolution but manages the decent VGA@30fps video recording.

Nokia 5230 runs the latest Symbian S60 5th edition and is powered by the same battery as 5800 – a 1320 mAh one, which is good 320 mAh larger that that of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. According to the manufacturer the 5230 will be capable of 33 hours of non-stop music playback.

Nokia 5230

The final noteworthy features of the the 5230 include Ovi Maps and social networking integration such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

The available inbox colors for the Nokia 5230 are black and white for the front panel and red, pink, blue, yellow, silver and dark silver for the rear covers.

The available inbox colors

The handset will be available in Q4 this year for a recommended price of 150 euro before taxes or subsides. It will also be distributed in a Comes With Music package in certain markets, priced at 259 euro before subsides and taxes.

And here is a short promo video of the new handset, that underlines, what Nokia consider to be its key features.

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Some of our readers were still skeptical after the first two leaks of the Nokia N97 Mini but that should be enough to convince them that the handset is just round the corner. A live preview of the slightly downgraded version of the Nokia multimedia flagship appeared online, revealing almost everything there’s to reveal about the handset.

Being a sized-down version of the original Nokia N97, the N97 Mini-Me will come with 8GB of internal storage rather than 32 GB. There’s also no D-pad this time and the keypad size is reduced, which according to the author makes it uncomfortable for users with larger hands. While the camera module has remained unchanged, the protective cover is dropped, leaving the N97 Mini lens exposed to fingerprints and scratches.

Nokia N97 Mini

On the positive side the Nokia N97 Mini replaces the plastic battery cover with a much nicer metal one and has more solid build quality. There’s also kinetic scrolling throughout the interface, much like the newly released Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and the latest firmware of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

The good news about the Nokia N97 users is that they will also be receiving kinetic scrolling as an update soon. The new firmware sporting it will be released in mid-September.

The main grudge that the author of the preview has against the Nokia N97 Mini is its pricing, which is said to be only about 100 euro less than that of the regular N97 but frankly we cannot quite agree with that. While we certainly consider the N97 slightly over-priced, we cannot help but feel that such a price difference is pretty reasonable. After all with the original handset nearing 400 euro, we cannot have hoped for its younger brother to sell for less than 300, right?

Nokia N97 mini

Leaving the pricing aside, the preview gives us some more spicy info about the Nokia touchscreen portfolio. Apparently it will be receiving some major update in the coming months with the first new editions right around the corner (presumably the Nokia 5230, announced this morning is one of them).

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This rumor has been circulating around for a while but now it is as official as it gets: Microsoft Office Mobile is coming to Nokia smartphones. This and other mobile productivity and connectivity solutions are the direct result of the global alliance between the two giants, which was announced today.

No, Nokia don’t have any plans of making a Windows Mobile device any time soon. As of today the two companies will start working together on the design, development and marketing of diverse productivity solutions. Target users of the new products will be the corporate users who will appreciate them most. So, it’s not a surprise that the first products to incorporate them will be the members of the renowned E-series.

This might sound strange at first to some but a second look at the written above reveals that this alliance does not only plan to bring the Microsoft Office Mobile to the Symbian powered smartphones (in fact, Quickoffice already does it quite successfully), but also to add new and useful mobile professional solutions.

As of next year Nokia should start shipping the Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones with plans to widen the range of apps in the future.

So, what can we actually expect from that alliance? Here is a clue:

• The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
• Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
• Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
• Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center

With the over 200 million Nokia smartphones sold worldwide it’s not a surprise that Microsoft decided to start this alliance namely with the Finns. And as far as Nokia is concerned, its still young service Ovi will now have a strong reinforcement with Microsoft by its side.