when you heard the 1st time, "N900 phone sucks", oh really?
when you heard the 2nd time, "N900 phone sucks." You start to think about it a little bit.
when you heard the 3rd time, "N900 phone sucks bigtime" N900 phone must then suck.
I just found out today, N900 phone more than "doesnt suck", it performed exceedingly well!

I have never seen 3G in my life, less mention 3.5 G. I thought it belongs to some Linux guru with a PhD in order to get 3G on N900. Once connected with 3G, performance is still subpar etc.....

Today I am on the road for vacation, and moved into a different city, Durham, NC. Without making any modification on my N900, it is connected 3G/3.5G by itself! I am shocked and surprised. 1st time in my life on 3G. I fired up internet and go to ESPN, OMG, a website fulled of pictures, usually takes forever to load, the webpage finished loading completely when I lift my finger! Its loading is eye blinking fast! The next test, try skype. I did a skype to landline called using 3G, the guy on the other end of the line did not know it is an internet phone call!

Bottomline, N900 phone does NOT suck. It works well. If you have difficulty with N900 on 3G, it could be the city you living is NOT good with 3G coverage. So dont blame Nokia or maemo.

Some dollar and sense, instead of paying $0.15 per minute on ones prepaid phone card, it makes more sense to pay $1 a day and $8 for 3 month Skype out plan and talke as much as one wants if you happened to live in a city with good 3G coverage. Sadly though, living in a city with good 3G coverage is NOT a factor one can change easily.

What's point? Just want to stamp out some nay sayer that N900/3G sucks
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No pic no story, here is pic, posted from hotel . Note no wifi.

bun

My town has stinky data coverage. When I went to Vegas last weekend I had 3/3.5 but could not test it. I was at a funeral then had to turn around and drive home.

You might want to reconsider. I tried going data-only when I first got my n900. While Skype works very well on 3G, it doesn't work very well when you're out in places with not as good coverage and have only 2.5G or even 2G.

You are right. I tried skype on 2G/2.5G, it works to ring the phone and that is it. You cannot carry out any conversation. I am very impressed with the 3G.

bun

I too am satisfied with T-Mobiles 3.5G. I had AT&T with their 2G before and it was like pulling teeth just to load a mobile webpage. I also used the Wifihotspot app to tether my laptop and I was able to browse very fast and even play WOW. Yes, World of Warcraft over the tethered 3.5G connection without any major problems.

I agree it is fast - but say goodbye to your battery life if you leave skype on 3g 24 hours a day

posting from chicago ohare, 3G is again noted. calling w skype is no problem.
if your main use is phone, this is a good bye! 1$ a day skype as much as you want!
last stop, durham and now chicago, all 3G. Nice. and 3G just catch by itself, you dont have to do anything. next stop San Francisco will see...... if you travel, phone is important and want to save some dough, tmob prepaid.


batttery is not a prolem....... i am in the airport, skype CONTNUOUSLY
bun

T-Mobile seem to improve their 3.5G coverage in Dallas-Fort Worth area even now... Few weeks ago my 3.5G download speed at my home was less than 1Mbit/s. Yesterday when I run speed test I got almost 3Mbit/s. Right now I did rerun it and got 5.63Mbit/s Download speed.

Upload speed is around that 360kBit/s... which Ithink is typical.

Posting from San Francisco Airport, 3.5G is steady and strong, Skype talk is just fine.

bun

The thing I like about the N900, is it apparant will connect to the highest when available without being told! I do not know this is normal or a feature of the N900, but it is certainly a sweet surprise. For the several big metros I have been to, Durham/NC, Chicago/Il, SanFrancisco/Ca, at least in the airport, and Durham city, 3G/3.5G is well covered and N900 just sprint like nothing else. One more, HK, apparantly no 3G without yearly contract. Oh well, I am doing alright with Boingomobile, which is wifi, so skype phone, again is my chosen communication.

Am I happy with N900 'connect'? ABSOLUTELY!

bun