The Nokia N900 may be an internet tablet, but we can’t forget the fact that it’s a phone too. So how does it handle in day to day use? Is the battery up to the task? And is it something you’d actually want to lug around in your pocket all day? Find out in the next part of our in-depth Nokia N900 review.

In a nutshell, yes, it is. As a phone, the Nokia N900 excels, which is handy, as due to its chunky case, you won’t want to be carrying around another Nokia too. Call quality is fine, and you won’t have any problems hearing your friend down the end of the line ever. The speakers on the Nokia N900 are decent if you fancy switching to guns, if not the best we’ve ever heard, and of course there’s Bluetooth if you fancy hooking up an earpiece.

Check out our Nokia N900 camera review

We’ve already looked at the keyboard and build in detail, but it’s worth adding that for day to day use, the improvements over the N97 are marked. The keyboard feels better, while the lack of angle on the sliding screen doesn’t make it wobble when laid out on a table. But most conveniently, the stylus is built in – you won’t have to remember to bring the plectrum like stylus with you wherever you go, as with the N97.

The Maemo 5 operating system on the Nokia N900 adds to the overwhelming ease of use too. We’ve touched on that already in our look at the software of course, but we can’t stress enough how the instant messaging integration, multitasking skills and live feeds on your home screens speed things up. We’re also fans of how pop up alerts spring up and fade away on the Nokia N900, so you won’t miss any glaring issue that might arise.

Check out our Nokia N900 Review

As for the battery on the Nokia N900? As ever with Nokia, it’s beefy and conservative with the juice. Despite leaving plenty of apps and internet tabs open throughout the day, we just managed to our waking day – about 18 hours. Obviously, you can expect a big dip if the apps. Obviously, you can expect a big dip if the apps you leave on in the background are processor intensive (music playing or Flash video websites), you’re watching movies on the move, or the Wi-Fi is on, but we found for most purposes that 3G worked just fine.

Why 5 stars when a Nokia E52 will go the best part of a week without needing to be lashed to thewall? Just think about what the Nokia N900’s charge box has to fuel: the 800 x 480-pixel 3.5-inch screen is sharper than ever before (You want more pixels? You need more power). You can run an entire deck of apps at the same time. It’s got the specs to power through 3D games.

Yet despite all these hurdles, it makes the magic one day mark, so you can plug it in at night safe in the knowledge you’ll be good to go for the next day. Many smartphones with smaller screens can’t manage this feat, so it’s for this reason we’ve got to give the Nokia N900 the full five – it may be big, but it sure is useable too.