Not bad mate but what did you originally pay for the N900....?

£500, but being an unpopular device I lost a load!!

Bummer. That experience cost you the best part of £200. I feel for you fella. I feel for your wallet more.

I also like the idea of try-before-you-buy that you raised earlier - it's got potential!

I would pay say 5%-10% of the value of a smartphone and a refundable deposit to play with a phone for a week or two before commiting to buy. Sounds like a good business idea.

To whom?
...............

If it's not too personal to ask, did you get £350 on ebay for it? Is that what used n900s are fetching at the moment? At this moment I think if someone offered me £350 for mine I'd snap their arm off to take it

To me for a start. Especially if you could earn commission on the loan of said smartphone. I didn't think about the possibility to actually make money out of it, I was looking at it from a consumer perspective, but now, with the advent of the possible ~5% of the cost as a prospective charge I would say that there is money to be made there....

The cogs are turning.... Nice one berty

I think most of the sellers offer like two weeks time when you are able to return the phone if you are not satisfied. Back in 2005 I think I bought the O2 X3 flip phone as it was probably the first to play mp3s. It only took me about 2 days to realise it was a terrible piece of **** that felt like a prototype in early stages of development. Played with it for two weeks then took it back to O2, got my money back and went for Moto E398.

This is funny.People are flaming the iPhone for having uselles applications,when the n900 has barely any.I bet that you can find at least 50x more usefull applications on the iPhone than on the n900.The browser on the iPhone can easily replace the MicroB browser if you are an average user,as well as the "backgrounder" app(im aware that this isnt multitasking).When it comes to functionality i believe that the iPhone will suit an average user much better.I dont understand why all the flaming?All the fanboys need to calm down and face the fact that there are other devices also,some much better,some much worse.Im an average user so the n900 is not the right device for me,what so bad about that?Software sells hardware,and the n900 is pretty much uselles when it comes to software.I like my n900,but not enough to keep it.Why do i need the awesome resolution?So that i can watch laggy movies or use applications with plain colors and a black background?No thanks,i can get better features for the money i've payed.This is my own opinion and my own personal needs.I wish you the best of luck and may the n900 bring you many pleasant days.

Having a good stable of tester phones that people rent for a couple of weeks before buying would be a good idea I reckon. These fancy phones aren't cheap and currently not all of them can be returned, mine couldn't and I bought it throught the Carphone Warehouse. At the shop they don't have working models to play with, only the pastic models which are useless at best.

I'd pay £50 to have a play for a few weeks of the latest and greatest phone with maybe the chance to switch and change before making a buying desicion for a £500-£600 peice of kit.

Acually I just remembered you can play with iphones and a few others at some shops, but the sales guys are breathing down your neck and others wanting to play too so that doesn't give you a proper chance to test it out.