The N900 has a frustratingly unfinished feel to it. There are just basic things that a phone should do that it does not, or does in a less-than-ideal manner. For example, the email client is a bit ropey, you can't cut and paste text in it, etc. Apple's stuff rocks when it comes to usability. But if you like mucking about with a phone and customising it, it's not a bad choice. And it has some serious advantages over the iPhone, especially when it comes to hardware:

1. swappable battery - no use having all those features if it's a brick by mid-afternoon. I keep a spare in my wallet, so no problems.

2. resizeable fonts in the browser - amazingly, Safari doesn't do it (nor does Firefox Mobile yet), but some websites are just much easier to read if you make the font bigger (not merely zoom in).

3. a real keyboard - it's definitely an advantage

4. a real FM radio (downloadable app is free) - low power, no data portable entertainment

5. FM transmitter - nice to be able to listen to music without special speakers sometimes

6. Bluetooth that's for more than just handsfree, like file sharing

7. Usable built-in speakers - again, great for listening to music in certain situations

The iphone apps thing is a bit of a red herring. Most of them are rubbish, or are good but do things that, very quickly, you stop doing. No great loss.

And nobody else you know will have one, so it's a conversation starter.

If Nokia really got behind this phone, it could be really great. Properly 'screw you, I've got an N900' material. Unfortunately, the company seems to suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder and has already turned its attentions to Meego.