Nokia N900 Vs Motorola Droid : Detailed Comparison
Recently, Motorola Droid aka Motorola Milestone in Europe is perhaps the most hyped mobile phone to be released in the Market. Nokia N900, on the other hand, did not get too much attention though it was launched on the market at nearly the same period of time. Both the phones are really capable devices with their high resolution touchscreen display, full QWERTY keyboard with side sliding design and a plethora of other features. Let’s delve a little deeper into the scenario and decide which one is the best for you.
1. Design
Nokia N900 : The phone looks very good with its clean lines and classy finish. It measures 110.9 X 59.8 mm in its face and is 18 mm thick. The weight of 181 g feels like a solid device in your hand.
Motorola Droid : The phone has a sleeker look-n-feel than the Nokia N900. It measures 115.8 mm in length and 60 mm in width which makes it look bigger than the Nokia N900 but it is a lot slimmer than N900 at 13.7 mm. The weight of 165g is also lighter than the N900.
Conclusion : Though deciding on the design is a bit subjective matter and your choice may be different but I like the design aspects of Nokia N900 though Motorola has an edge over it for its slimmer and lighter profile.
2. Display
Nokia N900 : It has a 3.5 inches display showing 800 X 480 pixels. The display supports full 16M color range and has very good sunlight legibility.
Motorola Droid : It has a bigger 3.7 inch display having 480 X 854 pixels resolution and 16M color support. The display is really very good with nice and crisp details.
Conclusion : It is hard to decide between the two displays when you look at them in reality but the specs suggests that Motorola has a little bigger display which makes it a winner in this section if anyone has to be declared one.
3. Touchscreen
Nokia N900 : It has the resistive touchscreen that supports the use of stylus and handwriting recognition but is a little less responsive at times.
Motorola Droid : It has a capacitive touchscreen which is very responsive but it doesn’t support stylus. You have to use your finger to make the selection.
Conclusion : The touchscreen of Droid wins here for its better responsiveness though N900 is not underestimated by any means.
4. Keyboard
Nokia N900 : The full QWERTY keyboard is very good and comfortable while typing.
Motorola Droid : It has a full QWERTY keyboard but the keyboard is flat and is not easy to type fast on it.
Conclusion : Nokia N900 has a better keyboard according to user experience.
5. Operating System
Nokia N900 : It has Linux based Maemo OS version 5 which is really a bold step in the arena of mobile phone operating systems. You can use as many programs you like in the device and it hardly suffers any lag on its ARM Cortex A8 processor clocked at 600 MHz and having 256 MB RAM.
Motorola Droid : It is based on Android OS version 2.0 which is also known as Eclairs edition. The OS is very good but the ARM Cortex A8 Processor used in it is underclocked at 550 MHz. This underclocking would not give any noticeable lag in real world but when we are in a tight situation, N900 should get an edge for it.
Conclusion : Though Android is really an established Operating System and general people would appreciate its wide app availability but I think that Maemo is way faster than Android and really has the potential to be the best mobile OS.
6. Camera
Nokia N900 : It has a 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss Lens Dual LED Flash and autofocus. The camera is also capable of high resolution WVGA video with 848 X 480 pixels at 25 frames per second. There is also a secondary VGA camera to conduct video calls.
Motorola Droid : It also has a 5MP camera with Dual LED Flash and autofocus capabilities. There is also a secondary camera but the video resolution of the main camera is little lower than N900 at 720 X 480 pixels @24fps.
Conclusion : The better video capability and Carl Zeiss Optics of N900 gives it a slight edge over Moto Droid.
7. Multimedia
Nokia N900 : The music quality is very good with its stereo speakers. It supports formats like Xvid, Real Video or AVI.
Motorola Droid : It has lots of multimedia capability but not like N900.
Conclusion : N900 wins for its better multimedia experience.
8. Memory
Nokia N900 : It has 32 GB internal storage and supports external micro SD cards upto 16 GB which can make it a total of 48GB of memory.
Motorola Droid : It has microSD card slot supporting upto 32 GB capacity and an 8GB card is included with the device.
Conclusion : The internal storage of 32 GB makes N900 win over Motorola Droid.
9. Connecitvity
Nokia N900 : It has standard quad band GSM connectivity as well as tri band 3G Connectivity. Apart from having common GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS, it also packs in the lesser popular HSCSD and infrared. There is also an FM Transmitter and you can play FM Radio via third party software.
Motorola Droid : It has quad band GSM connectivity and dual band 3G connectivity. There are also common GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and USB connectivity but no option for infrared, HSCSD or FM Radio.
Conclusion : The inclusion of FM Radio clearly makes N900 a winner in this section.
10. Battery Life
Nokia N900 : It has a standard Li Ion Battery having capacity of 1320 mAh.
Motorola Droid : It has a standard Li Ion Battery of 1400 mAh capacity.
Conclusion : Though the Motorola Droid has a bigger battery in specs but as of our experience with Motorola mobile phones, it will hardly give an edge over Nokia’s battery life.
Verdict
Let’s cut short the whole discussion and decide which one is the best for you.
Where Nokia N900 beats Motorola Droid
- Better overall look-n-feel
- FM Radio/Transmitter
- Better Keyboard
- Better Camera
- Larger memory
Where Motorola Droid beats Nokia N900
- Slim Design
- Touchpad is more responsive
- Better OS at the moment
Filed under Company, Comparative Review, Featured Article, Gadget, Mobile Phone, Motorola, Nokia | Tags: Mm, Motorola droid, Nokia N900 | 8 Comments
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November 25th, 2009 at 10:44 am
You forgot to mention that the most important feature of the Nokia N900, namely the Firefox browser and how it syncs with the desktop browser. Finally the very best feature of N900 which makes it the b
most unquie at this time, is that it has a full flash 9.5.
November 25th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Another reason that the N900 is the winner - is that Motorola is directly supporting violations of international law in Israel/Palestine. Motorola surveillance equipment is used in settlement expansion and Moto communications equipment facilitates the Israeli military’s checkpoint system in the West Bank as well as last winter’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Don’t buy occupation, buy an N900
November 26th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Great review! clear and simple!
November 27th, 2009 at 10:30 am
The only way “Motorolla communications equipment facilitates the Israeli military’s checkpoint system in the West Bank” is by using Motorolla walkie-talkies — completely trivial, you can buy similar systems at a store.
As for surveillance equipment for settlement expansion: I don’t know anything about that, but sounds fishy to me. The more established settlements may each independently have security arrangements that might involve fences, patrols — but protecting the lives of misguided civilians living in illegitimate settlements, at fault though they may be, is not the same as directly enabling them to further expand. I don’t suppose it is necessary to point out the obvious, but their lives are at risk and a desireable outcome would be to see them back within the borders of Israel, *not dead*, so *some* security is very reasonable until a diplomatic arrangement can be made.
Another problem: Settlement expansion in the West Bank is very low tech — essentially land grabbing by angsty teenagers, 2nd generation settlers. I sincerely doubt Motorola or its products are in any way involved… except for text messaging.
That being said — I’m all for the n900
December 28th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Droid is stick to Verizon.
Nokia is free.
It means a lot!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Excellent article. I like the hardware of the Moto better and I’m actually kindof a Moto fanboy with 3 motos (4 if you count the Startac collecting dust in the basement) in my home.
However, I think I’ll go for the N900 because of the full Skype support, whereas, right now, on Android phones, you have to settle for Skype Light (no VOIP) or Fring (flaky).
I’ve also read about aircrack-ng working on N900, so I’m nearly sold.
February 5th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
The Droid does not have a secondary front facing camera.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
The N900 is using Maemo 5 which is a full fledged Linux OS, not like the android which is just based on the Linux kernel .
Imagine using xterm on a device like that.
Plus with IR one can easily port remote control apps to it.
I’m definitely with the nokia n900!!