Hands on with the Nokia N900 and Maemo 5

Andrew Orlowski at Register Hardware managed to get some time with the N900 at Nokia World and gives it a thumbs up but wonders how the small battery will cope if you use it as a gaming device.

He was more positive about the future of Maemo and upcoming devices though;

Now that Linux, rather than Symbian, is Nokia’s focus for expensive prestige devices, I’m more confident about improvements. Nokia’s tie-up with Intel suggests larger, faster and more powerful Maemo devices.

The N900 excels at task switching, the communication apps are good enough, and music playback and photo browsing are better than on any previous Nokia.

But even though the N900 is not an essential purchase, Nokia deserves credit for plugging away, and appreciating that a completely fresh approach was needed.

Read the full first look at Register

Update: Tech Radar has a good hands on too.