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In the meanwhile, Nokia has announce a developer handset for MeeGo – the Nokia N950, which sports a hardware QWERTY keypad, and much the same specs as the N9, except for the use of a TFT screen instead of an AMOLED display. In essence, this makes two MeeGo phones, though for right now, Nokia hasn’t provided a release date for the developer device. 

Nokia condensed the vapourware Nokia N9 at its Nokia Connection event in Singapore today, raising eyebrows all over the world. The first MeeGo-based smartphone, the N9 has been expected since MWC 2008, and is represents the first major step into the consumer space by the entire platform – jointly developed by Intel and Nokia.

No tentative release date or pricing accompanied the announcement, but based on previous MeeGo hints dropped by Nokia, the N9 will almost definitely be launched in 2011. However, details aplenty were available about the device’s specifications, and Espoo even released a video demonstration for us to get an idea of the brand new MeeGo interface (v1.2) in action.

A sleek all-screen device with a polycarbonate shell, the N9 bears a 3.9-inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass capacitive multi-touch (480x854 pixel resolution) display. The Nokia N9 is also the first Nokia phone with a 1GHz processor – a Cortex A8 CPU, coupled with a PowerVR SGX530 GPU, part of the TI OMAP 3630 chipset. Unfortunately for forward-looking and expectant MeeGo fans, this is still 2009’s hardware. We’ll have to wait and see just what the combination of 1GB of RAM, the SoC and the Linux-based OS and can do in terms of performance.

The N9 will apparently be available in two variants, with 16GB and 64GB of inbuilt storage. It comes with an 8MP wide-angle autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash, capable of 720p HD video recording. As for connectivity, the N9 supports only Micro SIM cards, and has quad-band GSM and penta-band WCDMA radios. It offers 3G speeds of HSDPA 14.4Mbps/HSUPA 5.7Mbps, Bluetooth v2.1, GPS (with A-GPS), Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, TV out, USB-on-the-Go, as well as NFC.
The MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan OS supports QT 4.7 as well asHTML5 apps, supports OpenGL ES 2.0, and has a Webkit2-based browser. It will come bundled with a few apps, including a document editor and PDF viewer, Ovi Maps, Angry Birds Magic, Galaxy on Fire 2, Real Golf 2011, Facebook and Twitter. The interface has apparently been simplified a lot, with just three types of home screen views: apps, open apps, and events. Navigation is all in the swipe.

In terms of dimensions, the N9 thins down to 7.6mm at the edges, up to 12.1mm at its thickest. It weighs 135 grams, and should be available in three colours at launch – black, cyan, and magenta. It has a 1450 mAh battery, rated to deliver up to 11 hours of talk time, 380 hours of standby time, and up to 50 hours.

In the meanwhile, Nokia also announced three new phones in its C2 series - C2-02, C2-03, and C2-06. Stay tuned for more coverage. Check out Nokia N9's press shots and videos below:

Nokia N9 Images (click to enlarge)

 

Amidst the flurry of new open-source phone operating systems, such as Samsung’s Bada, Symbian^3, and Android, Intel and Nokia have finally released a pre-release build of their MeeGo, yesterday.

A Linux-based system, MeeGo is a developer-friendly combination of its parent’s previous operating systems, Moblin and Maemo, and will be released as a completely open-source operating system.

The pre-release build MeeGo OS source code is currently only compatible with the Nokia N900, Intel’s Atom line of computers, and Atom-based mobile phones. It currently is geared towards back-end development, and developer tools, with no GUI or front-end interface as yet. The OS code can also be booted from a USB flash drive, apart from the device directly. Imad Sousou of MeeGo describes the build, "The MeeGo common core includes the various key subsystems including the core operating system libraries, the comms and telephony services, internet and social networking services, visual services, media services, data management, device services, and personal services."

A full release of the OS code is due around May. 2010. Learn more and download the code at the MeeGo site.