Nokia N900 Maemo device now shipping to retailers

I have been using a pre-production Nokia N900 for about a month and created the Definitive Nokia N900 Guide as I answer questions and put the device to the test. We finally received word from Nokia that the Nokia N900 is now shipping to retailers in Europe, Middle-East, Russia and North America. The best deal we currently see here in the US is from Amazon where the pre-order price is currently $559.99. This is a full unsubsidized price so no contracts are needed and you can use it with either T-Mobile or AT&T. You will need a T-Mobile account to take advantage of the 3.5G data network though since it supports the 1700MHz frequency.

We have no idea if T-Mobile will provide this as a subsidized device, but they may offer it with their new Even More Plus plans that do not have contracts or reduced phone pricing. If you look at phones on T-Mobile with their no contract plan then you will see that the N900 at $560 is actually not that outrageous of a price. Consider that the N900 has an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor, 32GB internal memory with a microSD card for support of 16GB more, 800x480 3.5 inch display, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, FM transmitter and FM radio, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and powerful Maemo 5 operating system and then you can see it is quite the mobile computer. The web browser is the main strength of the N900.