My phone is just a week old...and I have tried my level best to search for an existing thread on the issue I am going to elaborate. So please excuse me, if its known and there is an existing thread for the same.

I initially thought that when on the home screen, the volume control on the status applet is for ringtone. I guess I am wrong? I think its the system sound level. So to change the ringtone I need to go to Settings--->Profile and then change the volume level of ringtone? Is there an app which can provide the funtionality in the status applet?

Another doubt! Lets say my system volume level is at maximum. Now I try to make a call with my speakers on. Now I press the volume key(hardware) and I see that the volume level is only half. So the system volume and speaker volume levels are controlled in a different way?

I am sure that the Volume keys control the call volume when a call is made in non-speaker mode. But why are there different controls for call made in speaker mode and system sound?

I hope I am clear enough....

Well, I don't remember ever making a call using speaker, but I do know that the volume applet controls different volumes (and remembers different volumes) when you have no headphones in vs. having headphones in. The advantage of this is that you can decide "I like this volume with my headphones in", and when you pull the headphones out, you don't have to decrease/increase the volume to get it back to how you liked it without headphones in, etc.

In other words, the system stores different volume settings for different uses, so it wouldn't surprise me if it saves a separate volumes for speaker-phone and normal phone in-call than for normal system volume.

It can be confusing at first, but once you set the volumes to what you like them at, you don't have to fiddle every time a call comes in or you put headphones on/off.

Simply put, the volume in the status bar; the volume levels in the other applications (including ring vol, etc found in settings); and the vol keys are separated aspects all together, but still related to each other.

If you change the vol level in any one of the aspects (e.g status bar vol), then you also affect the others.

Pulse audio on the N900 is a mess as it contains a lot of "rubbish."

Thanks friend. I actually thought it might be due to some apps...Is there any app in your knowledge to control ringtone volume from status applet? I know it would be confusing to have two volume controls in status applet. Or atleast, when you select "profile" from status applet, there should be a small volume slider besides "General".

Just to summarise (Kindly correct me if I am wrong)...There are mainly 4 volume levels...

1) Ringtone volume
Controlled by Settings--->Profile--->General
2) System volume (volume level used by media player etc)
Controlled by volume level in status applet.
3) Phone (non-speaker mode) volume
Controlled by volume keys when a call is made in non-speaker mode.
4) Phone (speaker) volume.
Controlled by volume keys when a call is made in speaker mode.

And all 4 are different ones and not related and like Traceur said above, the system remembers the volume settings for all the 4 volume levels.

Yes, you are correct ...to a point any way, because while seperate, they are somewhat related

For some reason Phone volume is never remembered on mine. It's set to half and I have to manually increase volume everytime I make/receive a call. Any ideas?

Also separate volume for when using headphone and when using headset. Difference between headset and headphone? Headset has mic.