[haritia]

*My* opinion of the N900

---

I know there are a few threads about that address this but I felt that it wouldn't be so bad to restart the conversation once in a while.

I got my N900 a week and a half ago and am right in the middle of deciding between these 3 choices:
- keep using the N900
- go back to my N97 and keep the N900 in the hope that within a few weeks/months Maemo and apps will vindicate us
- go back to the N97 and send the N900 back and wait for months until Maemo gets updated or even wait for the next Maemo device.

Here is in summary my opinion of the N900: it's a great device/computer but it's a lousy phone. I am kind of critical of the phone below even though I really like it and really want to use it more. So please read with that in mind.

What makes me optimistic is that all the problems I will be mentioning can and most will be fixed by software updates. We are not talking about dismal memory or scratched lenses like the N97 or wobbly sliders like the N95.

So please be kind, here goes my N900 impressions/opinions:

Hardware
++++
- Solid build. It's huge and heavy but, surprisingly, I don't mind too much. It strikingly contrasts with N97. this is a taste thing.
- Keyboard is great. Much better feel than N97.
- Humongous amount of RAM (for now. Once again, aslight dig at N97)
----
- Device does not fit in my Columbia khakis' phone pocket.
- I really like the tilt flip of N97 and as such currently dislike the flat slide for N900. I'm sure this is an acquired taste.
- I prefer the keyboard layout of N97 though the physical keyboard on N900 is better.
- Kickstand is flimsy
- I still think MicroSD slot should be accessible without removing battery cover. Yes, it still allows for hotswapping so that's still good.

Maemo
++++
- Multitasking is great.
- Task List shortcut *and* effects are nice.
- Effects in general are great.
- I liked the desktops and widgets.
----
- I *do* want my portrait mode for everything. This is a huge downer. Everything is in ladscape except the phone dialer.
- Maemo should implement the "hold-the-key-to-get-the-alternate-character" keyboard scheme that is fairly standard on other Nokia phones.
- On the virtual keyboard, why would the '.' not be on the same slate as the alpha? Makes no sense to have to switch to the other slate just to punctuate.

Communications
++++
- I did not think Skype integration would be that important but I love it. SIP and other networks from the dialer as well.
- I goes and gets your contacts' profile info when you are logged in to a network (Skype, Google Talk, etc) Pretty handy.
- eMail app does HTML. And pretty well too.
----
- Need a way to easily get to the phone app from anywhere.
- No support for network codes *#num# etc...
- No Speed dialing
- No sound profiles! My Nokia 6310 and SE T39 from 2001 did this! **bleep**?
- No Skype video calling (Fring does it!)
- eMail app should allow me to view emails in fullscreen mode.
- The whole message notification system is not very well thought out. If I leave for some time and just unlock the phone, there is not obvious way to tell that I got any new messages. It's only when I do a task list flick that I see that a conversation has resumed. Yes, the notification light flashes but nothing obvious is on the display.
- There is no obvious notification that I have missed calls. Same as message notification above.
- It seems to me that the internet connection is never disconnected. Even when all I have that needs the connection is the email app to poll every 30 minutes, the internet (whether 3G or Wifi) icon never goes away. This could be a huge battery saver if optimized.
- On the flip side, it also appears that if I just turn on the phone, it does not automatically initiate internet connections so then my email does not get refreshed unlees I remember to do it first by hand. Pretty inconvenient if you ask me.

Music Player
++++
- It's ok. Not a big critic so I am neither excited not negative about it.
----
- A FM receiver on the device but no FM software? **bleep**?
- Creating playlists is not clear. I still am sot sure how it's done after 10 days.

Video Player
++++
- Broad format support
----
- No support for changing setting when watching a movie. I have some 16:9 movies that it shows at 4:3 and vice versa with no way to change. This makes it useless.

Web Browsing
++++
- Browser is very good.
- Love the (albeit limited) gesture shortcuts. Slide from left to hover (ok this one isn't that cool or clear,) slide from right for history, spiral on the screen to zoom in or out.
----

Maps and GPS
++++
- GPS lock is much faster than other phones I've used. This is great in conjunction with Camera for geotagging purposes.
----
- I don't know what the Maps application is doing on there. It can't do anything. Search finds almost nothing, directions are barely average and no turn-by-turn. Please at least steal or beg Google to make Google Maps for Maemo.

Camera
++++
- Pretty decent. Better than N97 in my opinion.
- Geotagging is much faster than N97 even though it seems to tag too early so sometimes it's off because it uses the cellular info before a full GPS lock.
- Love the 16:9 mode. I realize one can do it post in Gimp but it's still cool.
----
- No Xenon flash means photos not as good as N82 in the dark.
- Once again, same problem as with N82, when taking a portrait photo, Nokia decided to put lanyard slot on "top" of the device which makes the lanyard sometime get in the way of the shot.
- Photo browser could be so much more.

Applications
++++
- Fennec, anyone? http://firefox.com/m
----
- Obviously, I wish the Maemo catalog of apps were as big as that of Symbian apps but we'll get there, right?

Office/Organizer
++++
- PDF viewer included.
----
- Pretty basic so close to useless.
- No syncML support so can't sync with GooSync or NuevaSync.
- I think a device of this caliber/price/power should just have office applications built-in. I don't care if it's DataViz or OpenOffice or AbiWord/Gnumeric but it's bunk that we only get a trial of Documents-to-Go. Anyone know if OpenOffice or AbiWord is coming out for Maemo soon?


Other
++++
- I am on T-Mobile so 1700 3G rocks.
- I love doing apt-get in the command line. I am a geek!
----
- This has been talked about everywhere and opinions/mileage vary but for me battery life has been dismal. As a test, I charged it up before going to bed: 9pm and by 7am it said it was half empty. All I had running was my mail checking every 30min and all my "identities" were inactive. No Wifi usage just 3G. It dies by 11am. This was after a week of cycling so that battery had a chance to be normalized.
- Wifi also killed the battery even if it was not connected all the time. This is a known bug so it should be fixed soon.
- For a > USD500 device, it's stupid that I don't get a full User Guide in the box.
- Why do they insist on Ovi store. It's **bleep** for Symbian phones, it'll be **bleep** for Maemo.

As I said, some of these are already on the Maemo bugs database, some are widely known issues and some are just personal preferences that may or may never be remedied.

I hope it helps people who are thinking about getting the device and I am hoping that the feedback I get here will help me decide whether to return mine or not.

Message Edited by haritia on 31-Dec-2009 12:27 AM

[cpitchford]

Fair comments.. I stopped when I got to the virtual keyboard bit..

'.' on the virtual keyboard? 

On the alphabetic tab (^abc) a period can be entered using the large button in the bottom right, next to space.. press it multiple times for . , ? ! - _ & | \ / < >

On the 1!+ numeric tab, . has its own button..

Don't know if that helps!

Now, I'll carry on reading

Phone app.. press power button to pop up menu, then press phone! two steps but can be done anywhere..

Message notification.. In addition to the flashing LED, the task button in the top left corner of the screen glows.. It is normally a grid, or if there are other programmes running, it looks like two folders.. when you have a missed call, email, im, sms it glows (for me it glows a blue white according to the default theme)

 

fm receiver can be downloaded. open this link on your phone:

http://maemo.org/downloads/product/raw/Maemo5/fmradio?get_installfile

Message Edited by cpitchford on 31-Dec-2009 12:55 AM

[DrEJV]

agree. send in the N97 to get gps sheilding updated.  unload all of the incompatible software off the N97.  load skype/fring and you will have a better 'phone' then the N900.  it will be interesting once symbian 2 firmware starts to roll out. I have the N97 on AT&T and N900 on T-Mo and the N97 gets more use.... as a phone.

[tehrules]

I run my N900 with the internet disabled. You need to turn off anything that will automatically access the net, and if you've finished, yes its a pain, manually disconnect.

[zareh_jerjian]

ok guys there is an important problem is the "BATTERY LIFE"

IT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE TO PAY 800$ FOR A PHONE THA THE BATTERY LAST FOR 9 HOURS (WIFI ON,MSN,AND SOME CALLES AND SMS)

any news solving this issue

[DrEJV]

WOW! 9hrs with WiFi on congratulations....can you tell the people who are getting 2-3 hours how you configured your N900?

[SirTitan]

1. . on the alpha onscreen keyboard needed.  Pretty dumb to be on the 1!+ screen.  But hey you got your ; / on the alpha screen.  lol

2.  Battery life sucks.  Made all the alterations to minimize battery use and I still need 2 chargers per day.

3.  No sound profiles definitely sucks.

4.  Still waiting on more apps.  Such a monster computer and no apps.

5.  No video skype uber suckiness.

6.  Random "brain farting" when clicking on any menu items.

7.  The timely updates on firmware.  I hate have to xterm the command to prevent the rebooting issue every time i power down.

8.  The kickstand is a joke. It tips over on stylus clicks.

[haritia]

cpitchford,

- I did not see that button on the alpha keyboard. it looks grayed out but it works. nice find, thank you.

- I knew about the power button shortcut but it's just not obvious. maybe i need to get used to it.

- I did not know about the task button notification. still, it seems too subtle. let's see if now that i know it it catches my eye.

- I tried the FM software but it seems to be broken. I read somewhere it is in the process of being fixed. Still, why would Nokia not put one that works in to start with?

DrEJV,

- what is the gps shielding update for N97?

Message Edited by haritia on 31-Dec-2009 04:52 PM

[DrEJV]

early versions of N97 have poor shielding that causes GSP to loose lock.  If your GPS signal is strong and holds lock you may have revised back on your phone.

[haritia]

DrEJV,

How do I tell if I need this update?

[DrEJV]

plot a route in GPS- if A) your accuracy is greater then 200 ft and/or B) the nice lady tells you every 30 or so seconds that GPS signal lost...you need a new shielded antena...  send in to Nokia.  Also if you call then they should be able to tell you.

[SirTitan]

so last night i was at a new years party and i take out the n900 to take a pic and i get operation failed. i tried various times ... same result. rebooting does nothing. epic fail!

[DrEJV]

  dude what happened?

[SirTitan]

It works now.  I did the removal of the battery and then reboot method.  The camera is now functioning again! YES!

[haritia]

so i just packed up the n900 i had and shipped it back. The single reason i sent it back was the battery life (4hrs with wifi and less than 9hrs with only 3g with moderate use in both cases is not realistic.) I definitely see myself getting another one or its successor when the os matures. It was an awesome device in every other way. With the Nexus One being just another HTC phone with Android (I've already owned two of those [G1 and MyTouch]) IMO I don't see myself going to Android right now though the SE X10 may be interesting.

I do miss the N900 already.

Message Edited by haritia on 08-Jan-2010 04:53 AM

[BigMac822]

I agree, the N900 has great potential and I love using it but there is just too much missing for what Nokia is describing as their most powerful phone;

No MMS - many posts on this topic but I use it regularly!

Only 2 Profiles - I use at least 3 on a regular basis because of my work and shift patterns

No Remote Sim Profile for use with Nokia 616 Car Kit - Connects in handsfree but won't download contacts; have tried several different methods but no joy!

Battery life is pants! - After just a few texts the battery starts to reduce and there's no way I can get through a whole day without a charge, even being careful.

No facility for individual ringtones for contacts or groups - Can't even create a group!

Come on Nokia, these should all be easy fixes. Get the update out so I can start using the N900 again. I've had to ditch it as it's no use to me in it's current state.

[haritia]

So it appears that almost none of the firmware fixable items were addressed in Maemo 5/PR1.1. Out of the 23 issues I had that could be fixed via firmware (10 were either hardware or other issues that were not), only the #6 got a partial (and unofficial?) change: you can now browse the web in portrait mode by keying in ctrl+alt+o on the keyboard. Still waiting for another update I guess. I really do miss the phone, it just did not make sense to own and tie up that much money in a device I will not use as my primary phone. although the < USD450 price at Dell is very very tempting ;-)

Still waiting, Nokia.

 

For reference, below are my issues from original post.

 

---

haritia wrote:

*My* opinion of the N900

---

Hardware
----
1- Device does not fit in my Columbia khakis' phone pocket.
2- I really like the tilt flip of N97 and as such currently dislike the flat slide for N900. I'm sure this is an acquired taste.
3- I prefer the keyboard layout of N97 though the physical keyboard on N900 is better.
4- Kickstand is flimsy
5- I still think MicroSD slot should be accessible without removing battery cover. Yes, it still allows for hotswapping so that's still good.

Maemo
----
6- I *do* want my portrait mode for everything. This is a huge downer. Everything is in ladscape except the phone dialer.
7- Maemo should implement the "hold-the-key-to-get-the-alternate-character" keyboard scheme that is fairly standard on other Nokia phones.
8- On the virtual keyboard, why would the '.' not be on the same slate as the alpha? Makes no sense to have to switch to the other slate just to punctuate.

Communications
----
9- Need a way to easily get to the phone app from anywhere.
10- No support for network codes *#num# etc...
11- No Speed dialing
12- No sound profiles! My Nokia 6310 and SE T39 from 2001 did this! **bleep**?
13- No Skype video calling (Fring does it!)
14- eMail app should allow me to view emails in fullscreen mode.
15- The whole message notification system is not very well thought out. If I leave for some time and just unlock the phone, there is not obvious way to tell that I got any new messages. It's only when I do a task list flick that I see that a conversation has resumed. Yes, the notification light flashes but nothing obvious is on the display.
16- There is no obvious notification that I have missed calls. Same as message notification above.
17- It seems to me that the internet connection is never disconnected. Even when all I have that needs the connection is the email app to poll every 30 minutes, the internet (whether 3G or Wifi) icon never goes away. This could be a huge battery saver if optimized.
18- On the flip side, it also appears that if I just turn on the phone, it does not automatically initiate internet connections so then my email does not get refreshed unlees I remember to do it first by hand. Pretty inconvenient if you ask me.

Music Player
----
19- A FM receiver on the device but no FM software? **bleep**?
20- Creating playlists is not clear. I still am sot sure how it's done after 10 days.


Video Player
----
21- No support for changing setting when watching a movie. I have some 16:9 movies that it shows at 4:3 and vice versa with no way to change. This makes it useless.

Maps and GPS
----
22- I don't know what the Maps application is doing on there. It can't do anything. Search finds almost nothing, directions are barely average and no turn-by-turn. Please at least steal or beg Google to make Google Maps for Maemo.

Camera
----
23- No Xenon flash means photos not as good as N82 in the dark.
24- Once again, same problem as with N82, when taking a portrait photo, Nokia decided to put lanyard slot on "top" of the device which makes the lanyard sometime get in the way of the shot.
25- Photo browser could be so much more.

Applications
----
26- Obviously, I wish the Maemo catalog of apps were as big as that of Symbian apps but we'll get there, right?

Office/Organizer
----
27- Pretty basic so close to useless.
28- No syncML support so can't sync with GooSync or NuevaSync.
29- I think a device of this caliber/price/power should just have office applications built-in. I don't care if it's DataViz or OpenOffice or AbiWord/Gnumeric but it's bunk that we only get a trial of Documents-to-Go. Anyone know if OpenOffice or AbiWord is coming out for Maemo soon?


Other
----
30- This has been talked about everywhere and opinions/mileage vary but for me battery life has been dismal. As a test, I charged it up before going to bed: 9pm and by 7am it said it was half empty. All I had running was my mail checking every 30min and all my "identities" were inactive. No Wifi usage just 3G. It dies by 11am. This was after a week of cycling so that battery had a chance to be normalized.
31- Wifi also killed the battery even if it was not connected all the time. This is a known bug so it should be fixed soon.
32- For a > USD500 device, it's stupid that I don't get a full User Guide in the box.
33- Why do they insist on Ovi store. It's **bleep** for Symbian phones, it'll be **bleep** for Maemo.

Message Edited by haritia on 31-Dec-2009 12:27 AM

---

Message Edited by haritia on 15-Jan-2010 04:16 AM

Message Edited by haritia on 15-Jan-2010 04:18 AM

[Laithhmoud]

and no sync for images or txt msgs as well , while i was tranfereing data to N900 , its only tarnfered calender and contacts ... !!!

and the option of (first day of week) in calender sucks ... i cant select saterday as my first day !!!

[fuzzbuzz238]

haritia:

13- No Skype video calling (Fring does it!)

You can't expect Nokia to make every software that every person could possible need. You can't expect it with Windows or Linux or anything else either. Fring is a 3rd party applications. A lot of functionality comes from 3rd party developers. What Nokia CAN do is make it "accessible" to 3rd party developers to make useful apps, and Nokia has done just that (IMO, this it the most "accessible" phone ever).

In general, most of your software complaints are understandable. The N900 seems to be pretty much in a Beta state as of right now, and the battery performance is dismal.

However, I disagree with your statement that the N900 is "lacking" applications. On the contrary. There's an overwhelming amount of software. Try installing the easy-deb package. You can think of that as a "virtual machine" on your phone, running plain ol' Debian (basically a desktop version, no touch optimizations whatsoever). I was able to install

samba (server + client), vsftpd server, ncftp, rsync, mplayer, less, firefox, thunderbird, basket-notepads, curl, openoffice 3, and others

All important, mature software. And as far as I can tell, everything that runs on Debian (or Ubuntu) is installable.

I also discovered a "trick" that allows you to run these applications within Maemo (so they look like normal applications), not within the Debian chrooted environment. 

There's much more software for the N900 than the N97. This is understandable, since Linux is quite mature and used for a wide range of applications. On the other hand, the N97, following Nokia's usual history, is just slightly different from every other Nokia phone that it's impossible for 3rd party developers to ensure all their software runs on it. This usually means a smaller number of applications for each phone. The only reason I got the N900 (instead of the N97) was the linux software stack. Besides that, these two devices have almost identical hardware features.

In addition, if you are a Linux user (or know enough about it), you will find indispensable that you can SSH into your phone. This is a KILLER feature compared to the N97, or any other phone for that matter (think VPNs and ssh -X!!). 

I think it's a shame you sent back your N900, especially if you're an "apt-get" guy.

[yeuemmaimai]

wow this is pretty depsressing

lets see here

1. no contact customization

2. no voice dialing

3. No java support

4. phone has 32GB but due to hardware limitations, only a small amt of that can be used for installed application storage space

5. FM transmitter software has to be done via third party?

6. Extremely short battery life?