A friend of mine asked me if I was going to ditch my N900 for the new E7 when it comes out next month. I said no, because all I've read about Symbian3 ain't so hot, and I'm not trading in my Maemo for something that is only half as good. But the hardware looks nice...

I was thinking about buying another N900.

But is it really coming next month?

i dont find anything intresting about Symbian .... Need Another Lap With Phone Function gonna replace my N900....

If someone can make a working port of Maemo to run on that, I would be tempted.

Yeah, I wouldn't trust anything Symbian again. Even the name gives me the shivers. I've just moved on from s60v5 on the N97 when I got my N900 last Wednesday. Worst year of my life with that N97. And I ain't joking either.

As much as I'm a sucker for the QWERTY form factor, its Symbian that just turns me off completely.

Symbian doesn't really feel like anything from this day & age, and it's just so stagnant. There's just really nothing interesting about it.

I was lucky enough to have a good play with an N8 at launch and have to say that Symbian has improved a lot.

People are hacking Symbian^3 now and the list of apps is growing daily. Many of the features and functionality we enjoy on N900 will be there on E7 - albeit with limitations and an arguably less sophisticated user experience compared to Maemo 5

Symbian^3 also retains excellent power management and efficiency compared to Maemo 5.

The new Symbian Browser should bring a browsing experience on a par with MicroB, and when the first big FW update brings this it will be accompanied by many improvements across the OS.

What puts me off the E7 is the hardware; although E7 has a better-spaced keyboard I doubt it will have the shortcuts we enjoy on N900. Although the case and glass screen will be more durable than N900, I would miss the resistive screen that allows you to handle the device without inadvertantly answering a call or buying something on eBay by mistake.

Above all else, I would miss the auto-focus camera of the N900, complete with its sliding cover to protect the lens from rease and scratches and the magnetic switch to launch the camera. EDOF ("Full Focus") has its uses, and 90% of the time will take pics as good as N900, but the lack of Macro and general flat photo detail does it for me.

Oh - and the non-replaceable battery...

...might get an N8 to keep my N900 company, though f they are now very good value on the used market here in the UK.

You bring up a really good point. It seems to me that the OS of a solid busness phone, not a tablet but a phone, should be uninteresting. It should work, work well and not cross the end user's mind. It should handle all the e-mail. messaging, phone calling, adress booking, note taking, web surfing, photography stuff so well the user never thinks about the underlying OS.

Maemo5, on the other hand, is very interesting in part because you have to do something to get it to handle many of the above chores well. Interest in the OS becomes a survival thing if you are using the N900 as your daily phone. Then, it also does a lot of stuff most phones only dream about. Which makes it even more interesting.

I'm not sure we want Symbian interesting in the way Maemo5 is when it comes to stuff like hooking up a Bluetooth keyboard for example. Can be done but you have to edit files to make it happen. Having Symbian plug and play that sort of thing makes it uninteresting but serviceable.

When someone is out there trying to conquer the world with a calculator does he or she really need to be xterming a phone to type on a better keyboard?

My point is uninteresting is best for the business phone use case.

Nope, Symbian feels like it would be a step backwards. On top of that if the Android crowd gets 2.3 onto the 2011 catalog(as in what comes to CES and MWC) then I feel that Android will be at the point where I will spend the money on a top of the line phone and respectfully retire the N900 from daily use.