The Nokia N900 has just started shipping some days ago and there are already a number of reviews of the device out on the net.

I've the opportunity evaluate a pre-release N900 for a few days now as you might see here and here, and while you can expect a full review in an upcoming issue of SymbianBriefs, I wanted to give you a quick look into what the N900 is like from the perspective of a symbian's power user !

As you may know, the N900 isn't Nokia's first pocketable Linux computer. The N770, N800, and N810 are all previous models of their "Internet Tablet" all running Nokia's Debian-based Maemo Linux distribution.

The N900 is the latest device in the series and what makes it special apart from updated hardware is the fact that it adds cellular connectivity. This means that not only do you have a Linux device in your pocket with an always-on Internet connection (if you have a data plan), you no longer have to carry a separate cellphone. Plus, like the N810 before it, it provides a hardware keyboard, which I think is crucial for an interactive shell !

The hardware has finally gotten to the point that you can legitimately do many laptop-like tasks on it. It sports a 600Mhz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256Mb RAM (plus 768Mb swap), 32Gb of storage, wifi, bluetooth, TV-out, FM transmitter, and an 800x480 resistive touchscreen. If you combine that with hardware-accelerated graphics you find that there are more and more things you can do without pulling out your regular computer !

What’s hot:

- Fast and mean :)
- Power of linux
- Seamless multitasking
- OS-level integrated services (Evernote, Facebook, Flickr, Google talk, OVI, Pixelpipe, Jabber, SIP, Skype, Twitter...)
- Intuitive smooth UI (basic features on the N900 are the most impressive : an easy way to get connected to Wi-Fi, an instant messaging app, a great SMS messaging application and built-in VoIP)
- Fantastic web browser (with Flash 9)
- Usable keyboard
- Wide screen video recording up to 800 x 480 pixels (WVGA,.mp4: MPEG4, AAC)
- Beautiful display (3.5″, 800×480 resolution), even if i still love my Omnia's HD one ;)
- The 5.8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens is on pair with most of recent N-Series.

What’s not:

- Resistive touchscreen, again, while it's not only very responsive to the fingers, but it lets you use a stylus for exact work, i still love my Omnia HD's one for some reasons (No i have no iphone ;))
- No portrait mode for now (except phone and image viewer apps, but hey, i'll show you something, stay tuned)
- No MMS support for now
- No built-in Twitter support (Mauku not pre-installed)
- Small battery (same as the 5800)
- The N900 resembles an old-fashioned cigarette pack, it’s not the prettiest device on the market.
- Heavy and thick !
- Plastic used is both sleek-looking and nice to touch but i'd like to see a Samsung Omnia HD quality like...well Besides standing at 181 grams now we wouldn't even dare to think how much an N900 with metal-finish would have weighed

WOW! What a difference ! As i'm a early adopter of Symbian since the 7650, i'm impressed with the N900 !

My full review will cover the overall "desktop environment" and software community in more detail, but also, all multimedia capabilities and features with a comparison of the latest Symbian touch devices !

If you want more information about the overall desktop environment and features and can't wait for my full review, don't worry ! There'll a number of daily brief video reviews ;)

You can see some pictures of the beast !