The N8 and N900 are two Nokia smartphones that are vying to stem the bleeding that Nokia has been experiencing on the smartphone market from its competitors; mainly Apple and Google. The biggest difference between the two is the operating system that they are using. As Nokia is trying to replace the ancient S60, they are trying a two-pronged attack on a replacement OS. On one hand, the N8 is equipped with Symbian^3, and on the other hand, the N900 is equipped with Maemo. The two are very different and has their own advantages and disadvantages. Between the two, Symbian^3 is the more polished and probably the better between the two in terms of daily usage. While Maemo holds a lot of promise and fosters a tight-knit modding community.
Thre are a lot of differences between the two phonos when it comes to hardware. To start off, the N8 is a candybar while the N900 is a landscape slider. The sliding mechanism reveals a three row QWERTY keyboard, which the N8 doesn’t have. Just be reminded though that the N900 is a very thick phone; by 50% more compared to the N8. It may be a bit more difficult to carry around in your pocket. Although the two phones have similar sized screen, the N8’s screen is better than that of the N900. The N8 has an AMOLED display and capacitive touch screen that provides better color and multi-touch capabilities. The N900 has an LCD display and a resistive touch screen. The only saving grace of the N900’s screen is its very high resolution at 480×800 to the N8’s 360×640.
The camera has always been the N8’s selling point and comparing it to the N900’s isn’t really fair at all. The N8 has a 12 megapixel while the N900 only has a 5 megapixel sensor. The high sensor resolution and dedicated optics allow the N8 to take much better pictures than the N900. But the difference doesn’t end with still as the N900 lacks the ability to record HD video. While the N8 can record at 720p, the N900 can only manage WVGA (848×480).
When it comes to memory, the N900 wins out as it has twice the amount of internal memory as the N8; 32GB and 16GB memory. Both phones do have microSD card slots so expanding is quite easy to do.
Summary:
- The N8 uses Symbian^3 while the N900 uses Maemo
- The N8 is a candybar while the N900 is a slider
- The N8 uses a software keyboard while the N900 has a physical keyboard
- The N8 has a capacitive screen while the N900 has resistive screen
- The N8 has a much better camera than the N900
- The N8 is able to record HD video while the N900 cannot
- The N8 has less memory than the N900