Nokia has teamed up with Microsoft and future phones made by the Finnish manufacturer will feature Mango and other Windows based operating systems. For the time being, we are presented with N9, one of the last smartphones to run on MeeGo, the OS developed in-house by Nokia and kept alive by a dedicated group of fans. The smartphone is supposed to keep the dream alive and the overall impression is positive, with N9 scoring high marks in terms of design, image quality and software.
As for the hardware, the single-core 1GHz Cortex A8 processor might feel a bit underpowered when compared with other dual-core CPUs, but it stays competitive without draining battery life. Add to this the fact that it is backed up by 1 GB of RAM, and you have the fastest smartphone ever built by Nokia and one capable of meeting present demands. For the last couple of years the Finnish producer seemed to be overwhelmed by the competition and always one step behind, but with N9, they can hope to return to the spotlights. The problem is that although brilliant, MeeGo is living its last days and everyone knows it.
This poses obvious problems and the ones who have to choose between a smartphone running on an OS going extinct and a thriving one such as Android or iOS, will choose the latter. The previous model outstripped the competition when it came to video recording, and N8’s camera remains the best ever to be incorporated in a smartphone. Having said this, N9 is still just as good as the next phone and the images are crisp and vivid, even when light is not ideal. No matter how much we’d like to love N9 for its certain qualities, it is very difficult to commit ourselves completely to an operating system that is most likely making its final appearance.