I bought my N900 mainly as a replacement for my aging N810. The N810 was wonderful at first, but as the web evolved over the years, the N810 wasn't able to keep up with the new Javascript-heavy sites with all of the whizz-bang animations and things. So I decided to get an N900, even though it had some weird features to it that I didn't think I'd ever use. What did I expect I wouldn't use?

1.) The Phone - The N900 is the first cell-phone that I've ever owned (I had one for business for a while, but it wasn't mine personally). I thought that maybe it would be useful to be able to browse via a data connection, but I figured that there was no point in getting voice service. Boy was I wrong! I got a few minutes just for emergencies and I'm making calls all the time now. So far, it's served me well. I haven't noticed any problems with signal or dropped calls or anything like that.

2.) The Camera - I thought that maybe someday I might be glad to have a camera with me, if I ever saw a plane crashing or a meteor hurtling through the sky, but I didn't see myself taking more than a few pictures. The N900 has since became the primary picture-taking device for my family. We're constantly forgetting our regular camera, but I never forget the N900. It may not be as easy to get good pictures out of the N900 as a typical point and shoot, but it's always there when I need it.

3.) The Video output - Another feature that seemed a bit mystifying when I first heard about it. Why would I want to hook my N900 up to the TV? Now I use it all the time to show off the family photos and play flash videos on a bigger screen. I'm glad those Nokia people know me better than I know myself.

So, I'm glad to have these things overall. I'd say I'm definitely getting a lot more use out of the N900 than I did out of my N810. While there are some things that may bug me, it's still a great device. What about you? Anything you didn't think you'd need/use?

Good thread.

Infrared was the one thing I was sure I'd never need. Until the remote for my TV died. So cool to have the IR port on the N900!

Like you, I also thought that TV out was more of a theoretical thing and I wouldn't use it. I do. I use it often, and it's one of the things that make it worth owning the N900 (even though I already have 2 N800s and one N810 ...)

Hi there,

@benny: can you read my mind? ;-) I never would have thought that I would have a use for IR-port... but now I use it as a remote for TV an Im looking for keycodes for my multimedia-hdd and DVD. . Or I use my N900 as an source for Folms when I'm to lazy to remove my multimedia hdd from the TV, plug it to my pc ect....

What's cool too: my TV has a "radio-mode" that means picture is off and only sound works. I often use this feature with the N900 to listen to webradio or audiobooks. TV got better speakers than my eeeeehhhmmm *stereo* (please remember my never to be on way too cheap side when I need a new one ^^)

Glasswalker