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-   -   N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory? (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=99182)

cferrism 2017-03-22 15:20

N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
Guys,

My fancy android phone screen smashed and rather than replacing the screen im toying with picking up a second hand n900 instead as it is still the best mobile device I ever owned and I miss my slide out keyboard... however Im looking for a reality check before I do

How is a second hand phone battery gonna be? You guys still making it through a day?
How is the web browser at this stage, can I browse casually on the sofa one handed without frustration
I remember the Sat Nav app/GPS signal being pretty poor. Could I use for my daily commute and detour without fear its not gonna still get me there

Anything else that could say my decision?

This is probably a tired question this many years on but thought Id get an up to date opinion from anyone still haunting this forum

lancewex 2017-03-22 15:30

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
I love my N900 irrationally. But the Web browsing--including via third party browsers--is excruciatingly slow after using a more recent phone. I know some will argue it's not that bad. I wonder what they're smoking.

robthebold 2017-03-22 15:39

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by cferrism (Post 1525809)
Guys,

My fancy android phone screen smashed and rather than replacing the screen im toying with picking up a second hand n900 instead as it is still the best mobile device I ever owned and I miss my slide out keyboard... however Im looking for a reality check before I do

How is a second hand phone battery gonna be? You guys still making it through a day?
How is the web browser at this stage, can I browse casually on the sofa one handed without frustration
I remember the Sat Nav app/GPS signal being pretty poor. Could I use for my daily commute and detour without fear its not gonna still get me there

Anything else that could say my decision?

This is probably a tired question this many years on but thought Id get an up to date opinion from anyone still haunting this forum

You'll want to check that its cell network hardware is still supported by your carrier in your area. For me, I'd have to switch carriers to use the N900 as daily driver again.

GPS works, but should work better if you get the AGPS fix to work properly. I haven't spent enough time on it to sort it out, but I think others have. Power search these forums for some info on that issue. And Modrana is still under development on N900! Using it in the car was always a pleasure, since it perfectly fit the "easel" formed by opening the dashboard compartment that occupies the space in my vehicle that would contain the optional Navigation screen.

Last time I used the N900 for a week (before AT&T pulled the plug on 2G GSM) battery life was ok for a full day. YMMV. And who knows how the previous user(s) took care of yours . . .

The web browser no longer works or works poorly with many websites these days. Again, YMMV depending on just what websites you use. I never found the N900 to be all that well suited to one-handed operation -- just IMHO. [For me, the N9 was kinda the pinnacle of one-hand usage, just big enough to read, not so big as to risk dropping (in the toilet, perhaps, not that I'd do that) when scrolling with a thumb and gripping it with your palm] The best thing I've found to do on the sofa (with the N900, that is) is to use both Pierogi for IR control of my AV equipment and XBMCRemote for my Kodi (fka XBMC) over my wifi. That IR emitter is perhaps the 2nd most awesome thing about the N900 after the keyboard.

Other members will probably have other interesting observations and ideas for you with using your N900 in 2017. There have been a few threads about this subject in the past you might look through, but stuff changes in the smartphone and online world right out from under us whether we like it or not.

cferrism 2017-03-22 16:05

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
Cheers Guys,

As I feared then its probably best to leave it in the past and not spoil the memories

Ill just have to hope some company with insane profits decides to take a risk and offer something similar but with todays specs in the not too distant future...but Ive been holding out for that since the day I retired my old one.

When I think of some of the old phones I had and the flexibility they offered you realise how much the 'smart' phone has killed the smart phone.

xiskillo 2017-03-23 03:18

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
For fast web browsing i think Opera Mini Java is the best choice

justmemory 2017-03-23 07:59

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
Hi,

I'm still using my n900 as a main daily phone. I think if you are interested in using so (i.e. as a daily main phone) you may want to think through want you would like to use it for.
Let me tell how I'm using it:

- My laptop sits at home for my wife and children so I use my n900 as a real pocket computer I can make call and send SMS with.
- The original battery died after 6 years (random reboots) so I bought another one (produced by Nokia) with 1430 mAh capacity. It is nearly a year old now but if I do not touch my phone (wifi on, email is syncing) it makes through even 2 days. Or more; I can't stand to touch it :)
- GPS is working fine for me; sometimes it takes some minutes to get a valid signal, but most of the times it takes only a minute (yes, I know that for today's devices it takes seconds...) or less. I use Sygic (I know it is outdated but for my country and needs it is enough; if I want up to date tiles (fo example for hiking) I use modrana.).
- For web browsing I use opera-mobile 12.1beta1-16. For most cases it is fine. For me... Slowliness is relative for me; I can't understand why is it so necesseary to make huge websites... Anyway, if I want to just read something I use links2. Even midori is available through chroot-ed kali linux.

- I use it for programming/learning programming. I have rebuilt vim with python support and I installed neovim on my kali.
- I have chroot-ed kali linux with i3 window manager; I use Maemo and Kali 50%-50%.
- I like it because I do not have to worry about anything - I can do what I want with my device and I can make my device to do what I want and when I want it...

So it fits my needs. But I do not really care about browser speed if it is enough for me. I do not use any social app (FB, Twitter, etc.).
It would be awesome to have more apps (for banking fo example) but I can live without these because I can adjust these through web browser (opera-mobile). It is a communitiy maintained device so I would recommend treat it that way.

jm

EDIT:// I forgot to mention that on my kali I have rawtherapee so I can edit my photos taken with blessn900 in dng format. It's speed is not bad - even editing curves takes 1-3 seconds to take effect (it depends on image size). I use it overclocked to 1100 MHz though...

sixwheeledbeast 2017-03-23 09:22

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
My N900 is still my daily phone ~7 years later, I can't see me using anything other than Maemo in the near future.

Macros 2017-03-23 11:51

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
I too use my N900 daily.

I haven't found a suitable replacement yet
(Hardware Keyboard, Linux & Phone, small)

As a Phone it is perfectly usable.
SMS, phone, mail, chat everything works.
In my experience GPS on the N900 works way better than on the N9,
but also a fix takes way longer than with A-GPS on a modern phone.

Internet Browsing is difficult on some sites.
I am happily browsing all my daily news site (Javascript disabled)
And the only site I miss is gog.com, which brings my N900 to its knees and does not work without JS.

I love the ability to run Linux tools, to use ssh to check on our company server and to run java software.
Jbidwatcher for example is great. Nothing better as an ebay snipping platform than my always on pocket device.
Also there are so many file formats other phones cannot handle, the N900 opens nearly everything (with chroot).
On the other hand, I miss some android apps and would enjoy a modern game from time to time. Some of these can be replaced by websites.

My original battery is replaced by a Polarcell one which lasts 3 days without use and about 6 hours of heavy use (And I use it often, so I carry a spare)

What does the N900 lack:
Ram, modern websites and many applications which run under chroot want more than 256MB. Also compiling big software on the N900 itsself is impossible. This is the main reason I am looking for a replacement.
CPU is supprisingly ok
The camera was very good when it was released, but today it has low resolution and can't take videos in acceptable resolutions. Therefore I carry a 808 Pureview with me for these tasks.

pichlo 2017-03-23 12:23

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by sixwheeledbeast (Post 1525850)
I can't see me using anything other than Maemo in the near future.

Likewise here.

I made a foolish diversion to Sailfish just to try it out and unwittingly remained stuck for two years but I came crawling back. Coming back to Maemo from Sailfish feels like taking off a straitjacket. I can only imagine how it would feel had I spent those two years with something even more restrictive.

xiskillo 2017-03-25 16:37

Re: N900 viable daily phone or is nostalgia clouding my memory?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by justmemory (Post 1525848)
Hi,

I'm still using my n900 as a main daily phone. I think if you are interested in using so (i.e. as a daily main phone) you may want to think through want you would like to use it for.
Let me tell how I'm using it:

- My laptop sits at home for my wife and children so I use my n900 as a real pocket computer I can make call and send SMS with.
- The original battery died after 6 years (random reboots) so I bought another one (produced by Nokia) with 1430 mAh capacity. It is nearly a year old now but if I do not touch my phone (wifi on, email is syncing) it makes through even 2 days. Or more; I can't stand to touch it :)
- GPS is working fine for me; sometimes it takes some minutes to get a valid signal, but most of the times it takes only a minute (yes, I know that for today's devices it takes seconds...) or less. I use Sygic (I know it is outdated but for my country and needs it is enough; if I want up to date tiles (fo example for hiking) I use modrana.).
- For web browsing I use opera-mobile 12.1beta1-16. For most cases it is fine. For me... Slowliness is relative for me; I can't understand why is it so necesseary to make huge websites... Anyway, if I want to just read something I use links2. Even midori is available through chroot-ed kali linux.

- I use it for programming/learning programming. I have rebuilt vim with python support and I installed neovim on my kali.
- I have chroot-ed kali linux with i3 window manager; I use Maemo and Kali 50%-50%.
- I like it because I do not have to worry about anything - I can do what I want with my device and I can make my device to do what I want and when I want it...

So it fits my needs. But I do not really care about browser speed if it is enough for me. I do not use any social app (FB, Twitter, etc.).
It would be awesome to have more apps (for banking fo example) but I can live without these because I can adjust these through web browser (opera-mobile). It is a communitiy maintained device so I would recommend treat it that way.

jm

EDIT:// I forgot to mention that on my kali I have rawtherapee so I can edit my photos taken with blessn900 in dng format. It's speed is not bad - even editing curves takes 1-3 seconds to take effect (it depends on image size). I use it overclocked to 1100 MHz though...


Can you share with us your Kali image chroot if its possible??


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