This article was updated on Mar 19, 1100 SGT.
Nokia announced today that the N900 can be pre-ordered in Singapore from now to Mar 26 from http://www.nokia.com.sg/n900/preorder
Available for S$999, the Maemo-based device has a ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. It comes with 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB with a microSD card.
Local bloggers were given a quick hands-on with the device recently and most walked away impressed by phone, including the speed at which the phone handled multitasking and full Flash support from the phone’s Mozilla Firefox browser.
Those who are anticipating an upgrade to MeeGo, the new Linux-based OS melded from Moblin and Maemo, will be disappointed when the MeeGo source codes are released by end March. As reported by Damian on CNET Asia’s Crave blog today, Nokia has confirmed that Maemo on the Nokia N900 is not upgradeable to MeeGo.
As this point, Nokia’s pre-order site doesn’t seem to be responding. Perhaps that’s good news for Nokia (if the site is indeed overwhelmed with pre-orders), which is in dire need of rejuvenation to compete more effectively against the likes of Apple, BlackBerry and a flurry of Android device manufacturers.
Update: In response to enquiries from Techgoondu, Nokia has verified that “their server was definitely up and running on Monday [Mar 15], but due to load, there may have been intermittent issues, where some users may have experienced an error message.”
This is a transition device from Nokia. When I tried an early prototype some months back at a Nokia event, I thought the interface was real fast. I just think Nokia needs to focus on one “hero” phone this year and they can be back on track… by the way, what happened to the Nokia netbook?