View Single Post
Flandry's Avatar
Posts: 1,559 | Thanked: 1,786 times | Joined on Oct 2009 @ Boston
#1
So i've been through 1.9 N900s. Both began their decline with a connection problem in the screen/backlight (something in that connection seems to be especially susceptible to high humidity), but the connectors on both are about shot, too. I thought about trying to replace the screen, but I'm increasingly concerned with the possibility of suddenly losing my "brain", and i don't like something i've become so dependent on being so increasingly rare and irreplaceable.

In short, i think it's time to bring in a replacement so i can begin to migrate my data.

The question i have is, what next?

I'll say up front i'm not looking to spend what the N900 cost again, ever, on a phone.

One of the things that i've been mulling over is whether i can ever come to accept and use an onscreen keyboard. It seems like GSM sliders with a QWERTY have all but disappeared. Is it possible to ever develop touch typing speed on a flat onscreen keyboard? How has your experience been, and what works for you?

Another thing is the camera. Now the N900's camera wasn't the best, even when it came out, but it was good enough for me to use as my main camera, especially with the all the extra tricks that came after the FCam drivers. I used a little tripod clamp to take a lot of photos on timer, including of myself during bike tours. I know there are some or many phones now with better cameras in terms of hardware, but which have software capable of replacing the N900s, if any? How has your experience been, and what do you recommend?

The third concern is multitasking. I've only encountered Android briefly in early (~2010) devices and a crappy entry-level no contract phone my gf had. I really didn't like the lack of camera-flicking to the task switcher and tapping in my other app, or being able to switch to a note app and type something in while on a call. How have you dealt with the loss of this aspect of the N900?

Fourth: offline nav apps. One of my important use cases for the N900 was to be able to navigate around on tour outside of network coverage, using predownloaded maps etc. The A-GPS issues and battery consumption made it a less than ideal use case in the end, but it did end up being very useful this way with the software that came out. With the increasing paradigm of always connected and cloud computing, are there any options like this for other phones? How is the integrated GPS these days in terms of performance and battery consumption?

Finally, what about notetaking and spreadsheets? I have my entire life in conboy, and the thought of losing the features it has is troubling. I have read a bit about Evernote and gnotes, but i'm curious about the actual experience from someone coming from the N900 and its options. I also love having gnumeric on my phone.

Thanks in advance for your feedback. I'm considering buying a used MyTouch G4 Slide because of its above-average camera and by virtue of being one of the last GSM phones with a landscape hardware keyboard that i'm aware of. Convince why i should/shouldn't buy a 2-year-old phone to replace my 4-year-old phone. lol

ETA: The "transflective" LCD display that is still visible in direct sunlight is another thing i appreciate about the N900. I don't know if other phone LCDs are this way or if it requires a special design, but that's something else i'd miss.
__________________

Unofficial PR1.3/Meego 1.1 FAQ

***
Classic example of arbitrary Nokia decision making. Couldn't just fallback to the no brainer of tagging with lat/lon if network isn't accessible, could you Nokia?
MAME: an arcade in your pocket
Accelemymote: make your accelerometer more joy-ful

Last edited by Flandry; 2013-05-29 at 16:33.
 

The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Flandry For This Useful Post: