Nokia N9
Hacker ApprovedRanked 12 of 60 smartphones by recommenders
Recommended for its touch interface, design and hardware, seen as ahead of iPhones and Android at the time; the caveat is that Microsoft ended support soon after launch.
Recommended for its touch interface, design and hardware, seen as ahead of iPhones and Android at the time; the caveat is that Microsoft ended support soon after launch.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 30
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 30 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Best-in-class touch user interface
“most modern and refined user interface, 15 years after being discontinued”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, user-replaceable battery” “it still has the most modern and beautiful GUI of any smart device”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “ahead-of-its-time touch UI/UX and power user friendliness”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon” - Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11”
- Comment from 25 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)”
- Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, user-replaceable battery”
- Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy”
Design and hardware praised
“The N9 was fantastic. A joy to use, and in many ways the best design, both hardware and software, I've ever handled.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon” “they still very much had something to say and to show with their design”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” “Nokia was able to match and surpass Apple in taste on all fronts”
Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Taste Is All That's Left” - Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)”
- Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Jolla on track to ship new phone with Sailfish OS, user-replaceable battery”
- Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon”
Favorite phone for owners
“I had both and really loved the N9. My all-time favourite phone.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “I had a beautifully Linux phone once, the Nokia N9.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Ubuntu 26.04 Ends 46 Years of Silent sudo Passwords” “I was a huge N9 fanboy. Wish I didn't sell mine”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” - Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Commodore Made a Digital Detox Phone That Isn't Dumb”
- Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy”
Ahead of iPhones and Android
“It was great. I had it for some years before it broke and then found the Android I had afterwards to be poor compared to it.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “It was such an incredible phone. Easily rivaled the iPhones of the time and was light-years beyond any Android.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “Yet the N9 was years ahead any competition of that time.”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak app selection
“The N9 was pretty good, usability, design, hardware, but the apps started to weight”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon” “it was clearly too late to the market share and app races”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon” Microsoft ended platform support
“Microsoft took over right before the N9 launch and instantly discontinued any further support for the platform.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “launched (2011) similarly crippled in the same week that they shut down the entire team working on the OS”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “the platform was cancelled before the retail release and the retail release was limited”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon” No physical keyboard
“The N9 looked great, but I couldn't get over the loss of the keyboard”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Nokia N900 Necromancy” “its portrait form-factor with a capacitive touchscreen and lack of physical keyboard simply wasn't providing a comfortable experience”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 706 | 882 | 44% | 13 | 7 yrs107 owners | — |
| Fairphone | 168 | 107 | 61% | 13 | 3 yrs19 owners | — |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 144 | 155 | 48% | 12 | 4 yrs26 owners | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 141 | 51 | 73% | 12 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Nokia N9This page | 30 | 6 | 83% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 51 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it excelled in the cards interface for multi-tasking”
“it's still the best UX i experienced in a phone”
“with an awesome design that the OS itself was built around”
“they still very much had something to say and to show with their design”
“Nokia was able to match and surpass Apple in taste on all fronts”
“its portrait form-factor with a capacitive touchscreen and lack of physical keyboard simply wasn't providing a comfortable experience”
“ahead-of-its-time touch UI/UX and power user friendliness”
“The better choice would have been to double down on N9 and successors”
“the N9 was technically a very good phone”
“it was in most ways worse than comparable iPhones and androids”
“Yet the N9 was years ahead any competition of that time.”
“the platform was cancelled before the retail release and the retail release was limited”
“The N9 was fantastic. A joy to use, and in many ways the best design, both hardware and software, I've ever handled.”
“the hardware of the N9 was beautiful”
“The N9 was pretty good, usability, design, hardware, but the apps started to weight”
“it was clearly too late to the market share and app races”
“My favorite phone of all time was my Nokia N9.”
“I had a beautifully Linux phone once, the Nokia N9.”
“The UX left android and iOS in dust.”
“The aesthetics were a little whack, in an endearing sort of way.”
“most modern and refined user interface, 15 years after being discontinued”
“such a work of art I could accept just about any flaw”
“it even received rave reviews from consumer tech sites like engadget”
“N9's OS (and Windows Phone too) correctly identified that users are looking for a much simpler experience”
“Microsoft took over right before the N9 launch and instantly discontinued any further support for the platform.”
“the N9 was definitely much better”
“It was great. I had it for some years before it broke and then found the Android I had afterwards to be poor compared to it.”
“This was a phone which was perfectly good also for average users”
“The N9 had much better UI”
“The N9 looked great, but I couldn't get over the loss of the keyboard”
“the N9 Linux phone was a huge success among everyday people in several countries”
“it still has the most modern and beautiful GUI of any smart device”
“I was a huge N9 fanboy. Wish I didn't sell mine”
“Meego Harmattan was so much nicer for day to day usage”
“The N9 had much better UI, but there was something of the cyberpunk "deck" idea in that thing, it was great.”
“launched (2011) similarly crippled in the same week that they shut down the entire team working on the OS”
“It was such an incredible phone. Easily rivaled the iPhones of the time and was light-years beyond any Android.”
“I had both and really loved the N9. My all-time favourite phone.”
“Such an amazing little phone”
“The N9 had much better UI, but there was something of the cyberpunk “deck” idea in that thing, it was great.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.