Two OMAP 3430 Phones: Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid
by Brian Klug on June 10, 2010 9:29 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- N900
- Maemo
- Motorola Droid
- Droid
- MeeGo
- Android
- Mobile
Two vastly different software stacks
Without knowing anything specific about either Android or Maemo except that they're both linux derived, you'd probably at first thought expect a lot of similarities. When I think linux derived, I think package manager, exposed terminal, window manager, and all the familiar goodies to keep *nix nerds satisfied, and all the configuration files ready for tweaking to my heart's desire. Suffice it to say, Android and Maemo couldn't be further apart in practice.
Motorola Droid - Pure Android
I'll talk briefly about Android, but for in-depth analysis I'd encourage you to read Anand's Nexus One review where he thoroughly discusses the Android 2.1 OS. What's really important to talk about regarding the Motorola Droid is that the packaged Android 2.1 experience is entirely stock Google. There's no Moto Blur, no HTC Sense, no UI skins or wrappers. What you're getting here really is a native android device. Whether or not you prefer one of those two UI skins is a matter of personal taste, but the native experience keeps the Moto Droid feeling relatively snappy without much distracting flash or pizazz.
In addition, Motorola recently announced that the Moto Droid will see at least one more major software update to bring Android 2.2 'Froyo' support, including Adobe Air, Flash, and the JIT compiler for the Dalvik VM which should speed things up considerably. Barring any outstanding features being brought to further Android releases that require further hardware, it's likely the Motorola Droid will continue to see incremental Android updates for some time - especially considering its blockbuster launch which hailed Android's impressive 2.0 release.
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tarunactivity - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
a notable omission:The FM receiver on the N900 requires Bluetooth to be switched on. So if you want FM, you need to plugin your earphones + enable bluetooth.
Kind of counter productive , if you ask me,and surely a waste of power.
Brian Klug - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Ahh, you're totally right. I think I glossed over that because I already had Bluetooth on, but it makes sense now since the FM radio is on that same piece of silicon.I wonder how much of a difference it makes on battery - had it disabled for those other tests of course.
-Brian Klug
asdasd246246 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
I'm sure the Nokia has sweet hardware, but it's still all plastic..Plastic screen that will scratch the first 10 minutes you own it, and a friend has a similar model without a keyboard, and the plasticness is so horrible I shudder.. -_-
legoman666 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
I've had the N900 since last November. No screen protector, no case. Not 1 scratch. So speak for yourself, maybe you ought to put your phone in a separate pocket as your keys.legoman666 - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
back: http://imgur.com/tf6RE.jpgfront: http://imgur.com/XDsyI.jpg
akse - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
The case is somewhat plastic yeah.. but it hasn't really bothered me so much. I have only a few tiny tiny scratches on the screen, you can only spot them by mirroring a clean screen against bright light.At the back I have a few bigger scratches because the phone fell on concrete..
Calin - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
I have a 1200-series Nokia phone, which I keep in the same pocket as the keys, and the display is in a serviceable condition after more than two years of abusearnavvdesai - Thursday, June 10, 2010 - link
Actually, the Symbian OS- Nokia's No.1 Smartphone OS is more open with entire OS(including the core APIs) being Open Source. Symbian is more open than Android.Talcite - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
That's only true for symbian^3 and newer OSes. Only the Nokia N8 is currently shipping S^3 I believe.You should also mention that the Maemo 5 OS has many binary packages to get all the cellular hardware and PowerVR GPU working.
Anyways, it definitely has more support for the FOSS community than android though as far as I know. You're free to flash your own ROMs without needing to root it and you don't need to do weird stuff with java VMs. Just a simple recompile for ARM and support for Qt I think.
teohhanhui - Friday, June 11, 2010 - link
Nokia N8 is still far from "currently shipping"...