Travel+Leisure Design Awards: Nokia N900 is a Winner

What do the Nokia N900, a Swiss airline First Class suite and Berlin’s Neues Museum have in common?

If you guessed ‘winners of the Travel + Leisure magazines Design 2010 award', you are right. The Nokia N900 along with the 1st class airline suite, museum and other examples of design were awarded the magazine’s annual design honors. The winners are showcased in the magazine’s March issue.

Each year, the magazine looks for examples of design and architecture in the traveler’s world as selected by an esteemed panel of judges. The design awards cover a range of categories including best resort, restaurant, spa, museum, luggage, car, retail space and for the Nokia N900 mobile computer, the best travel gadget.

T + L magazine honored the winners at a gala held at the Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on February 23. Representing Nokia, Samir Agarwal, Devices R & D, attended to receive the prestigious award. Unlike a museum or resort, Samir was able to pull out his Nokia N900 and show why it was worthy of a design award.

Guests arriving at the gala saw a group of models wearing orange labcoats, each with an award category and winner printed on the back. The models stood on individual cubes with their backs to the door. Design-wise, the presentation of the models upon guests’ arrival was an indication of the fun evening ahead.

The Nokia N900 was up against stiff competition for the best travel gadget category. Joe Gallo, NAM Comms, submitted the Nokia N900 last October and recalls that “we beat out a variety of netbooks, digital cameras and eBook readers including the new Barnes & Noble Nook”. Additionally, he commented “other mobile devices were considered including the Palm Pre, HTC Hero and the Garmin NuviPhone.”

Congratulations to the entire N900 team.