Since I am a new shopper here, and I have yet to place an order for the N900, I had to ask, what if any other items on the market right now (not coming out, but available now) can be used for direct comparison to the N900?

I've seen people compare them to an iPhone but... seems apples to oranges there.

Is there a comparable product? If not a direct competitive offering, is something close enough to compare?

Now, I do understand that since this is a handheld product that runs Maemo and yes you can run linux on various PDA/Smartphone products but since the N900 is a shipped product with Linux, does that make it unique enough to not have a real comparable competitor?

I have to ask as it feels like I'm looking at the only hydrogen car on the market while checking out the N900.

Hehe - i think your comprison is a good one

This is a new beast

But it does all depend on the user and what you want.....
Ignoring the tablet side, as i assume you need phone functionality - then a few starters are:
The
Motorola Milestone/Droid
HTC HD2
Iphone 3GS
Palm Pre
Satio

There are others that are good at a few things
Pixon
Omnia

As with every purchase - list the pro's and cons for you

N900 is compared most often to android phones, palm pre, and iPhone. Not sure about which is apples and which is oranges. I bought th N900 because I like my N810 and use linux daily at home and work. The N900 has the potential for a lot of cool applications to be developed, but apparently not too many exist yet. My N900 is supposed to be delivered tomorrow, and I can't wait.

i'd say the direct competitors are iphone, droid/milestone and hd2.
and omnia pro maybe, although this one is a bit older than the others.

I compare the OQO micro PC and the s7 tablets, but only the N900 is designed from the ground up for finger control.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the iPhone is Apple's.






Sorry, I'll get my coat...

hahaha lol

dont laugh at that, it was shocking

For me the most direct comparison would be the Motorola Milestone / Droid.

The hardware is very similar and they both do a lot of the same things. Where the N900 is very close to Linux though, the Droid is a bit further away as it runs Android.

Both have keyboards, very close resolution, the same processor (Although the N900 is slightly faster I believe), similar amounts of RAM (Although the N900 has virtual memory too) and really, despite things like the FM radio/transmitter, it doesn't seem like there are huge differences.

The real thing it comes down to is software. The N900 runs Linux and that's great and dandy if you're familiar with it. You can do a hell of a lot.

This is the way I've come to really compare them -

If you want a mobile computer with phone functionality - Get the N900.

If you want a phone with mobile computer functionality - Get the Droid. You'll be able to do most of the things the N900 can, but you'll have to get to that with apps from the Android Market.

The Droid comes with Google Nav too, which can be a real feature if you drive a lot.