The Nokia N9
The Nokia N9 is the MeeGo phone that ended the Nokia Linux line: a 4.5 inch touchscreen device without a physical keyboard, launched in September 2011 and sold as the last Nokia phone built on a Linux platform before the company left for Windows Phone. It is the final machine in the lineage that began with the internet tablets, and this page settles the N900 versus N9 question, records exactly what the N9 shipped, and answers the support searches that keep landing on this device: the case, the battery, the battery life, the replacement parts, and the date of release.
The devices, in order
The devices, in order, form one unbroken line of Nokia hardware: the Nokia 770 in 2005, the N800 in 2006, the N810 in 2007, the Nokia N900 in 2008, and the Nokia N9 in 2011. Maemo and the Nokia Linux line ran on the first 4 of those 5 machines; the N9 carried the successor platform, MeeGo, in the form of the Harmattan edition. The gap between 2008 and 2011 is the interesting part, because the platform changed underneath while the design language barely moved: same rounded corners, same flat aluminium feel, same idea of a screen-first machine. The Nokia 770 is the oldest of the 5 machines, and it is still found in the community archives of the Maemo forums under its n770 model code, which is where the line really begins. The Nokia N900 stayed rooted in the internet-tablet idea, with a physical keyboard cover and a 3G radio in the standard edition, and the Nokia N9 dropped the keyboard entirely and became a touchscreen-only phone, which is the single clearest break in the sequence.
The Nokia N900
The Nokia N900 is the machine most owners still run today, and its specification list reads like a compact reference: a 3.5 inch resistive touchscreen at 800 by 480 pixels, a 600 MHz ARM1136 processor, 256 MB of RAM, a 1 GB flash storage base with room to extend via microSD, a 3.2 MP rear camera, an 8 GB internal flash option in the 3G edition, and a 1,500 mAh battery that Nokia rated for roughly 2.5 to 3 hours of 3G use. It shipped with Maemo 5, the release that added the full Linux userland, a 900 MHz clock speed in the 3G variant, and a 3G radio that made the device a genuine smartphone by 2008 standards. The keyboard cover was sold separately in multiple colours, and the case market that grew around the device, from silicone skins to hard shells with cutouts for the 2.5 mm audio jack, is one of the reasons the N900 still feels alive in used listings.
What the N9 shipped
What the N9 shipped is the question that separates it from the tablets. The N9 launched with MeeGo in its Harmattan edition, an 11.6 cm (4.5 inch) AMOLED display at 854 by 480 pixels, a 1 GHz ARM11 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of internal storage, a 7.1 MP camera with 720p video, 4G LTE on the 09A and 09B hardware revisions, and a 1,450 mAh battery. There is no microSD slot, no physical keyboard, and no Maemo on the device at all; the platform is MeeGo, which is why the N9 is described as the MeeGo phone that ended the line rather than a Maemo device. The camera, the LTE radio, and the AMOLED panel are the 3 upgrades that define it, and the 1 GB of RAM is the number that lets it run MeeGo smoothly where the N900's 256 MB never could.
N900 versus N9
N900 versus N9 is a straight hardware comparison, and the table below is the whole answer: same lineage, different decade, different platform. The differences that matter to an owner are the display technology, the RAM, the storage ceiling, and the radio.
| Attribute | Nokia N900 | Nokia N9 |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | December 2008 | September 2011 |
| Platform | Maemo 5 (Linux) | MeeGo Harmattan |
| Display | 3.5 inch resistive, 800 by 480 | 4.5 inch AMOLED, 854 by 480 |
| Processor | 600 MHz ARM1136 | 1 GHz ARM11 |
| RAM | 256 MB | 1 GB |
| Storage | 1 GB base, microSD extendable | 16 or 32 GB fixed |
| Camera | 3.2 MP | 7.1 MP with 720p video |
| Radio | 3G (WiFi edition excluded) | 4G LTE |
| Battery | 1,500 mAh | 1,450 mAh |
| Keyboard | Removable physical cover | Onscreen only |
The N9 is faster on every axis except battery capacity, and the N900 wins only on expandable storage and the physical keyboard. If a machine must run old Maemo software, the N900 is the only one of the 2 that can; if it must be a daily phone, the N9 is the only one that ever was.
The Nokia N9: case
The Nokia N9: case is the most common accessory search on the device, and the answer is that the N9 took cases in two families. The first family is the plastic shell with the flat back that follows the unibody line of the phone, and the second family is the silicone skin that wraps the body and leaves the front glass clear. Both families are easier to find than the keyboard cover of the N900, because the N9 never shipped one, and the cutouts that matter are the micro-USB port, the 3.5 mm audio jack, and the side button that doubles as the power switch. The aluminium back also made the N9 a popular target for metal-look shells, since a scratch on the original finish was almost guaranteed within a year of daily use.
The Nokia N9: battery
The Nokia N9: battery is a 1,450 mAh cell, and the number to remember is that it is smaller than the 1,500 mAh cell of the N900 even though the phone's AMOLED display is brighter than a resistive tablet panel. Owners who keep the screen at the middle brightness, disable the LTE radio when the network is weak, and avoid the always-on sensor features get the most honest figure, which sits near 2.5 to 3 hours of mixed use. The battery is user-replaceable, but the back must come off without cracking the adhesive, which is why most owners hand the job to a repair shop rather than doing it at a kitchen table.
The Nokia N9: kali
The Nokia N9: kali query comes from users who want a Linux build with more freedom than the stock MeeGo image, and the answer is that the N9 is the one device in the line that can run a rebranded community build of the same platform. The stock system is MeeGo Harmattan, the community build is a repackaged variant of it, and neither of them is Maemo, so any guide that promises Maemo software on the N9 is wrong from the first line. The practical outcome is that the N9 accepts the community image through the same update path as the official firmware, keeps the 1 GB of RAM and the 1 GHz processor working, and gives up nothing except the promise that the stock image will keep receiving updates, which it stopped in 2012.
The Nokia N9: battery life
The Nokia N9: battery life splits into two numbers depending on the use. In standby with the LTE radio on, the phone held a charge for roughly 2 days on the 09A and 09B revisions, and in active use with the AMOLED panel at full brightness the figure drops to the 2.5 to 3 hour band that the N900 also sat in, which is why the two devices feel similar on a long day. The battery life is where the N9 does not beat the N900: the 1,450 mAh cell is smaller, the panel is brighter, and the 1 GHz processor idles hotter than the 600 MHz core of the tablet, so the N900's 1,500 mAh cell still edges it out on pure endurance.
The Nokia N9: battery extended
The Nokia N9: battery extended options are the aftermarket cells that claim more than the 1,450 mAh rating, and the honest answer is that the gain is real but modest, typically a fraction of an hour in mixed use rather than a second day of phone use. The extended cells fit the same compartment and use the same connector, but they arrive without the original certification labels, which is why the community advice is to buy them from a seller who states the capacity in writing and to expect a shorter service life. The extended cell is a fine choice for a second device kept in a drawer, and a riskier one for a phone that is the owner's only connection.
The Nokia N9: replacement
The Nokia N9: replacement parts are the battery, the screen assembly, and the back cover, and of the three the screen is the one that is genuinely scarce. The replacement battery is the most common purchase and the most widely available, the replacement back is a cosmetic part that the unibody design makes trickier to fit, and the replacement screen requires the adhesive and the glass to arrive as one unit, which is where most small sellers fail. Compared with the N900, the N9 parts market is smaller but better documented, because the N9 was a phone and phones are serviced more often than tablets, and because the community around the device kept a parts thread alive long after Nokia stopped answering support mail.
The Nokia N9: n770
The Nokia N9: n770 pairing is a search that shows up when the line gets mixed up, because n770 is the model code that the Nokia 770 carried and that still appears in the community archives of the Maemo forums. The N9 and the Nokia 770 are 6 years apart and different kinds of machine, a phone and a tablet, but they bookend the same lineage: the 770 in 2005 started the line, and the N9 in 2011 closed it. Anyone who writes an n770 guide about the N9 has the wrong device in front of them, and anyone who looks for N9 parts in the n770 thread will find only the history of the first internet tablet. The fix is simple: the n770 code belongs to the 2005 Nokia 770 and to the 2006 N800 era that followed it, the n9 code belongs to the 2011 MeeGo phone, and the 2 devices only ever meet on one page, this one, where the whole line is laid out in order so the mix-up cannot survive the second read.
The Nokia N9: date release
The Nokia N9: date release is September 2011, when the phone became commercially available in Europe after its public announcement at the end of 2010, and the date that ends the story is 2012, when production stopped within a year of launch and the MeeGo project was handed to the Open Source Development Foundation in November 2011, 2 weeks after the phone went on sale. The N9 therefore had the shortest commercial window of any phone Nokia ever sold, a few months of real availability before the Windows Phone partnership took the company in a different direction, which is the reason the N9 is now a collector's machine rather than a shop floor machine.
The 2012 end and the Jolla continuation
The end of the line arrived in 2012: Nokia and Microsoft announced a partnership in February 2011, the N9's production window closed within a year of launch, and the MeeGo project was handed to the Open Source Development Foundation in November 2011, 2 weeks after the phone's commercial availability in Europe. The successor to MeeGo, merged with Intel's Moblin work, became Tizen, which Nokia then left for Windows Phone, so the N9 remained the last Nokia phone built on a Linux platform. The continuation moved to Jolla: Jolla 1 in 2013, Jolla C in 2015, Jolla 2 in 2017 and Jolla 3 in 2019, all running Sailfish OS, the commercial descendant of the same codebase. Owners who buy a Jolla today are buying the 4th generation of a design that began with the Nokia 770 in 2005.
What to do with one today
What to do with one today depends on which side of the 2008 break the device sits. For a Nokia N900, the practical path is 4 steps: fit a modern case, since the original keyboard cover is the first part to crack; budget a 1,500 mAh replacement battery, because the originals are now 15 years old and most have lost capacity; update to the latest stable Maemo 5 build from the community; and keep a microSD card on hand for storage, because 1 GB of internal flash fills up fast. For a Nokia N9, the path is shorter: update MeeGo through the device's built-in updater, since no Maemo software will run on it, and accept that parts such as the battery and the screen are rarer than for the N900, which made the N900 the better long-term keeper even if the N9 is the better phone. The n9000 spelling that shows up in searches is a typo for n900, and the N97 is a different lineage entirely, an S60 smartphone that shares only the name pattern. The 5 devices in this line, from the Nokia 770 to the Jolla 3, remain the only mainstream Linux phones Nokia and Jolla ever shipped, and the N9 sits exactly where the line changed direction.