As a traditional Nokia user and supporter for many years, I switched to an iPhone 16 months ago and have always disliked and had problems with the phone section of the device.

I'm very excited from what I've read about the N900 but I get the impression from various posts on this forum, that I shouldn't buy one as soon as they are released as the functionality will be limited until later firmware versions are released.

When the Android G1 was released I bought one and sold it two weeks later because I disliked it's limited functionality and I don't want to experience the same problem again.

Please advise me if my interpretation is correct?

Thanks
Darryl (new member)

Depends on what you need it to do. The phone functions should be fairly complete, but not every feature everyone may want or need will be included at first.

Make up a quick list of the basics you need and someone here will try to answer them for you.

Even if not all functions are available, we know they'll be coming soon. Like Portrait mode by Christmas time etc...

But if I were you I'd read a little more about the N900 on this forum, and watch more youtube videos inherent to the device before purchasing.

IMHO when you are talking about an iPhone. The N900 is an upgrade compared to that. heck anything is an upgrade to the iphone .

if you have to ask..then the answer is "yes, you should wait". Just about everyone who has ordered the phone effectively sight-unseen (you-tube videos notwithstanding) are the early-adopter types willing to wade through the glitches as they get fixed through firmware updates and the like. If that's not you, then you'd probably be better off waiting until you can play with the device yourself (at a store, or if a friend happens to have one, etc) and make a decision based on first-hand knowledge.

With the majority of the people saying that the phone portions of the N900 "feel like an afterthought" (search for it) I'd say wait.

iPhone isn't stellar by no means either.

I was going to wait anyway. I wanted to get the phone in my grubby hands before making a decision. Given the delays, I would urge you to wait as well. In the absence of official comments from Nokia, I would guess their was a significant show stopper that led to the delays. I would therefore wait until we see reviews of the production model.

Just to be clear, portrait mode web browsing was said to be coming by Christmas, not portrait mode for everything. And that "by Christmas" was the schedule when Nokia was sure of an October release for the N900. And nothing was said regarding text input while browsing the web in portrait mode.

Firstly, thanks to everybody who responded and for your suggestions.

I've been able to ascertain that Optus (one of the three major providers here in Australia) will only be releasing the phone towards mid-year and whilst I'll purchase a phone on eBay, the fact that Optus are not releasing it for a while probably means they're waiting for reliable bug free operating system.

Based on my my unpleasant and expensive experiences with both the G1 and the Blackberry Bold when they were released, I'm going to read and follow this forum and wait.
Thanks once again,

Regards
Darryl

I'm not sure who you mean by the "majority of the people." Here on these forums?

What I've read in actual reviews of the pre-production unit (as opposed to forum comments) is that the phone part of the N900 is really well done and the call quality is pretty good (much better than the iPhone). So my sense about the N900 as a phone per se is pretty much the opposite.