The N900 was launched alongside Maemo 5, giving the device an overall more touch-friendly interface than its predecessors and a customizable home screen which mixes application icons with shortcuts and widgets.

Maemo 5 supports Adobe Flash Player 9.4, and includes many applications designed specifically for the mobile platform such as a touch-friendly apps.

[14] The release of the pre-alpha Maemo 5 software development kit, in December 2008[15] targeted exclusively the OMAP3 architecture, revamped the user interface, included support for hardware graphics acceleration and other functionalities not found in Internet Tablets at the time such as cellular data connectivity and high definition camera support.

[21] The device was initially available in selected markets starting November 2009 (4 December in the UK)[22] with a retail price of €599 in Finland,[23] Germany,[24] Italy,[25] Netherlands[26] and Spain,[27] €649 in France,[28] 2499 zł in Poland,[29] 5995 kr[30] in Sweden and £499[31] in the United Kingdom, all prices including VAT but excluding subsidies.

[37] The Nokia N900 launched in Hong Kong on 29 May 2010, with added features to facilitate character handwriting input.

The Nokia N900 is powered by OMAP 3430 ARM Cortex-A8, which is a system-on-a-chip made by Texas Instruments based on a 65 nanometer CMOS process.

[41] Nokia N900 camera capability is 2592x1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Dual LED flash, video light, geo-tagging[42] The LCD is transflective to permit usability over a wide range of luminosity (from daylight to dark).

Haptic feedback is provided to touchscreen input by applying a small vibration or a sound; the user can choose whether to have this feature enabled.

[43] A stylus is provided to allow more precise touch input and access to smaller user interface elements.

In addition to the English QWERTY layout, the slide out keyboard will be available in variants for Italian,[49] French,[50] German,[51] Russian,[52] Czech,[53] Nordic (Finnish, Swedish),[54][55] and Spanish.

[57] The device has an autonomous GPS with optional A-GPS functionality and comes pre-loaded with the Ovi Maps application.

[58][59] The 5-megapixel back camera has an autofocus feature, dual LED flash, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio options, and 3× digital zoom.

[66] There is an ongoing community effort to add this support subsequently, currently the software is in beta stage.

[71] The Nokia N900 can synchronize with Microsoft Outlook through ActiveSync and various other e-mail and calendar clients through SyncML over bluetooth or the micro-USB.

[3] Contact information can also be exchanged via the vCard file format which is supported commonly by e-mail programs, including Evolution and Microsoft Outlook.

The device also features an infrared port (not compatible with IrDA[72]) that can be used to turn the Nokia N900 into a remote controller using third-party software.

Early reports from users range from 12 hours (Wi-Fi on, web browsing, video and some GPS),[77][78] to about 2 days online but not used continuously.

The VFAT partition is also available for storage but needs to be used carefully as it is unmounted and exported if a USB cable is connected to the device.

Other applications in the Synaptic package manager that are included in the Debian installation, such as GIMP, can run within the LXDE interface.

[97] Issues with various value-added services resulting from no availability of SIM Application Toolkit include the following: Nokia often offers new N8 or E7 devices as warranty replacements for N900s.

Although warranty terms and consumer rights legislation differ across jurisdictions, users have reported success in refusing those and pressing for an N900 in at least the EU and India as recently as August 2011.

This however will keep the touch screen active and accidental operation of the phone keys in a call may occur when device is used as a handset.

[105] Some of the chips in N900's GSM module might be badly soldered to the circuit board, resulting in multiple N900 devices reported as troubled by the inability for the SIM card to be detected.

[106][107] It was announced in May 2010 that the Nokia N900 will be the last mobile communication device running the Maemo 5 operating system, which will be replaced by MeeGo.

[108] While transition to the succeeding MeeGo operating system is possible, this is mainly of interest to developers rather than consumers, as it is not officially supported by Nokia.

[114] [115] Subsequently, developers rapidly left the project, leading to an abrupt halt of discussion on the Meego-dev mailing list.

A community-based project aiming to provide a hardware upgrade for the N900, called Neo900, began in late 2013 as a collaboration between the Openmoko and Maemo communities.

[119][120] The hardware upgrade would have quadrupled the device's RAM, provided a processor nearly twice as fast as the one in original N900, and integrated additional sensors such as a gyroscope and compass.

As of 2023, the main remaining project offering support for new software upgrades to the N900 is postmarketOS which uses recent Linux kernels and userspace components.