the meego-powered ‘nokia n9’ smartphone

just introduced at the nokia connection 2011 in singapore, the new ‘nokia n9‘ smartphone features a pure-glass display controlled only by touch, designed with three home interfaces to deliver easy access to common functions. the device’s 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from curved scratch-resistant glass, with a polycarbonate body designed to optimize antenna performance and improve reception.

in place of a home key, the meego-powered ‘n9’ recognizes a swipe gesture to return from applications to one of the three home interfaces. these three individual views– ‘event’, ‘apps’, and ‘open apps’– are designed to offer immediate access to social media and event notifications and using or switching across applications.

nokia n9 smartphone - 2 left to right: the ‘event’, ‘apps’, and ‘open apps’ home screens

near field communications (NFC) permits the sharing of images and videos between devices by simply touching them together; it also facilitates the use of bluetooth accessories like speakers; in particular, the phone is compatible with the newly released NFC-enabled ‘nokia play 360°‘ speaker, usable with the ‘n9’ through a simple tap.

a 8MP zeiss sensor and built-in flash enable photography and HD video capture, while videos can be watched on the device in 16:9 widescreen. the ‘n9’ is also the first smartphone to feature dolby digital plus decoding and headphone post-processing technology for a surround sound experience when using headphones.

free maps and navigation covering 90 countries is integrated with the ‘drive’ app for in-car navigation. the phone also features built-in apps that include mail software and the ‘documents’ application, permitting the viewing of word, excel, powerpoint, and pdf files; additional apps are available on the nokia ovi store, where the company also encourages and facilitates custom app development.

nokia n9 smartphone - 3 full view, landscape mode

the nokia ‘n9’ is expected in stores later this year, produced in black, cyan, and magenta and featuring either 16GB or 64GB of memory.

nokia n9 smartphone - 4 3/4 front and full side views

nokia n9 smartphone - 5 in place of a dedicated key, swiping towards the edge of the screen opens the home page from any application

nokia n9 smartphone - 6 the ‘n9’ features near field communications technology, so that data can be transferred between phones with a simple tap

preview video of the n9

nokia’s senior vice president of design marko ahtisaari discusses the design of the new smartphone