My n96 has broken..Looking at buying an N900

I've always been curious about this phone, find it fascinating all the stuff it can do! I finally got the chance to play with one in a store a couple weeks ago, and I loved the UI, think it's one of the best around, and I love the customisability (so much better than the glossy condescending way in which other companies' custom UIs automatically stick your facebook and twitter updates smack on the front page or only a click away from it - you really think I can't last an hour without clicking thumbs-up to some twit's inane comment? - sorry, pet peeve!:))

Overall though it seems brilliant, flexible and powerful, and if Robbo is right about Nokia abandoning it it would be really sad indeed! :(

My only really big disappointment when I tried it was the keyboard, but then I have a Universal so I'm spoiled!:) I think I'd get used to the smaller keys and the weird, offset spacebar pretty soon though, that wasn't the issue - it was the extremely shallow travel time of the keys that bothered me, gave it a lack of tactile feedback - only marginally better than a touchscreen keyboard imho, and I really hate those!

The other thing I was surprised by was the lack of automatic portrait mode. I see that's been patched into it now, but I wonder why it wasn't there from the start! A couple of questions, if anyone can answer them: is portrait mode supported for anything other than the phone and browser? Cause I checked youtube and can only find vids demonstrating those two. Also, I know there's a touchscreen keypad for the phone application, but can you enter text in portrait mode in any other app? Seems that for the browser you still have to use the physical keyboard, there's no portrait mode text entry at all (according to the vids I've seen at least). How about other forms of text input, like voice recognition, or maybe handwriting with the stylus? Does the N900 support those, either natively in the OS or as apps?

Then of course there's the many complaints I heard about its battery life... But not much to be done there. I've seen some 1500MhA ones on ebay - has anyone tried replacing the stock battery with a higher-capacity one?
 
manveruppd!

At the moment only the browser and phone are supported (and the occasional application) in portrait mode. It is unclear whether the next (and final) patch will apply universal portrait mode, it is there and can work, it just needs a bit of a tweak.

There is an on screen keyboard that can be enabled for everything but as you can imagine, it retracts from your screen size somewhat, which is a problem when most stuff is horizontal based :p As far as I am aware you can't use the virtual keyboard in any portrait mode.

Voice recognition is hit and miss, there was the odd app but they fizzled out as far as I know. Handwriting with the stylus doesn't really work either, and there wouldn't be much point in using it if it did :p

It's battery isn't too bad, it seems to be quite random on how well it lasts on a charge, but you will always get a general day out of it without trouble.

As I said earlier, it was released as a test project by Nokia, and it worked fairly well. I do like the phone and when I bought it, I knew there was quite a big chance Nokia would abandon it, and they have :( (in order to focus on Meego).

I would have real trouble recommending it to somebody at the moment, when you are probably better off with an Android phone in all honesty, it's developing fast and there are a great deal of ambitious things in the pipeline for it!

That said, it is a nice enough phone, it's camera is superb, very impressed with that. The Multi-tasking works seamlessly too, which is very nice sometimes! One niggle I do have is the fact the screen is resistive, it's just not quite as nice to use as capacitive, but it's not a deal breaker, you don't need the stylus very often.

It just doesn't feel like a phone to me, and it's not really, it's marketed as a mobile computer at the end of the day!

I think I've said quite a bit there :p If there's anything you want me to try/find out/answer for you, just ask! ;)

Getting a Desire on Monday (:D), so will probably be selling it in a few weeks time.
 
I don't know, I quite like the idea of a hackable, open-source phone, and the hardware for it (apart from keyboard and battery) really seems a cut above most Android phones. I just don't like the idea of a "closed" system, with everything being subject to certification and access to the app store tightly controlled by the OS vendor. It's why I've stuck with my Universal for so long even though it's positively creaking by now! (Multitasking on 32MB RAM is not fun!:p) I've unlocked it, removed the certification, and now I'm running a custom Windows 6.2 ROM (it originally shipped with 5).

Thing is, I don't think Nokia abandoning Maemo (sp?) will be the death of the phone. I'll bet MeeGo will also work on it (it was originally going to be Maemo 6 after all). I don't know if there'll be an official Nokia upgrade ROM for it, but even if there isn't some enterprising hacker will do it anyway - they've already got Android running on the phone so MeeGo shouldn't be a problem! Hell, they've managed to get it working as a PS3 controller, seems to be no limit to what that little thing can be made to do! :p

I just hope they maintain the s****y multiple-panels interface, it really is the only touchscreen interface I can see myself using!
 
Well manveruppd, from what you have said, I don't think you will be disappointed with an N900 :p

It's a phone designed for a special market, namely people familiar with Linux and modding phones, which sounds like something you are probably interested in :p

I don't think it's fair to say things like Android are limited, phone software has and always will be modifiable, there are already new Android ROMS and various mods available and more coming for things like the Hero, Desire etc.

Even the iPhone has been Jailbroken for god knows how long, and that is by far the most closed and boring OS out there :p

As I said, it really has to be looked at as a Mobile Computer, before you look at it as a phone, it does the whole phone thing very well, earpiece quality and such is excellent as you would expect from Nokia.
 
Coming from an N95, the N900 is very weird in the way it works, ie slide out keyboard, and used in landscape rather than portrait. BUT after having it for a few months now it feels normal and I love it. Picking up my N95 doesnt feel right now.

Plus dragging/dropping films into it without converting is a joy. BrRips look awesome on it.

When 1.2 is released it should be even better.
 
I'm gonna wait tbh, yeah I do like customising my phone and installing random crap on it (I can't code myself though, so don't consider myself a modder by any means, just a guy who leeches from the modding scene and takes advantage of their work!:p), but if Nokia are reallly abandoning it it might drive a lot of the modders away. Another few months and it'll tell whether there's enough of a scene to make the phone a viable platform even without Nokia's support. (Though again, I'm fairly confident that some enterprising hacker will create a custom MeeGo ROM for the N900, there shouldn't be much trouble getting it running on it as it's still Linux, the only issue is whether every hardware feature will work properly and whether third party apps can also be installed on it)
 
why not a N97?, its pretty much a Symbian N900 with a slightly different shape, screen and keyboard.. I love mine, but I have broken the left D-pad key on it after about 6 month (not the phones fault, just mine, no phone lasts with my usage lol)
 
will13 said:
why not a N97?, its pretty much a Symbian N900 with a slightly different shape, screen and keyboard..
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Think i want a change from a symbian mobile this time....;)

My last 2 mobiles phone were an n95 8GB and then a n96 16GB..

But i do miss my n95 8GB.l really liked that mobile phone apart from it crazy slow transfer speeds..
 
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Robboftw said:
The N900 is a mobile computer, Linux based and it's sole purpose is built around multitasking.

The N97 is a Symbian phone.
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But I said the N97 was a Symbian phone, and the only reason the N900 is a mobile computer and can multi-task good is because of the Linux based OS, but if you look at the 2 phones, and the specs, theres not a lot of difference between them
 
chaparral said:
Think i want a change from a symbian mobile this time....;)

My last 2 mobiles phone were an n95 8GB and then a n96 16GB..

But i do miss my n95 8GB.l really liked that mobile phone apart from it crazy slow transfer speeds..
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I had a original N95, lol it once turned its screen round, the time was on the oppiste side, and backwards at the same time :p worked fine after a month of storage tho.. Strange things are Nokia's, what about a Blackberry?
 
chaparral said:
Think i got my heart set on the N900...Been wanting one for months (even before they were released)

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/search.php?searchid=9893166
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I think in a few months you might regret it, a lot of people who got the N900 are regretting it, due to Nokia pulling support etc.

If you really want something like it, I'd try and hang on until Meego, it will be similair, but better designed and supported. You could get an N900 and then sell it and get a new Meego device, but that's up to you :p

Edit -

The N8 looks nice, but it's just the new version of Symbian on slightly better hardware. If you are going to wait, wait for Meego!

Meego will be Nokia's challenge to iPhone and Android, it's bound to have some oomph :p
 
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The first release of Meego is scheduled for Q2 2010, and will undergo a 6 month release schedule. So there should be a device out within a month or two.

Although I'm not sure what the device will be, and whether the releases will go ahead as planned.

If you really can't wait, get an N900, you seem to really want one and it's not a bad phone by any stretch!

I'd have a serious look at the Desire though, if you dont want that, then N900 you must have :p

Oh, and it's certainly not impossible that Meego will end up on the N900, it most likely wont be from Nokia's doing, but the Dev guys may well be able to sort it!
 
will13 said:
But I said the N97 was a Symbian phone, and the only reason the N900 is a mobile computer and can multi-task good is because of the Linux based OS, but if you look at the 2 phones, and the specs, theres not a lot of difference between them
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http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=2615&idPhone2=2917

I'd say there was a pretty massive difference in the specs. The N900 has double the RAM and a way better CPU with GPU. And Maemo; Symbian s60v5 isn't very user friendly.
 
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