Hi,

I just want to post my "Smartphone Odyssey" to help others with their decision for or against the Nokia N900.

I owned a Palm Treo Treo 680 for a couple of yeras and loved it. But I wanted something new with a bigger screen and UMTS. So I tried to decide between the Palm Pre, Nokia N900, HTC HD2.

The Motorola Milestone wasn't even on the list, because I don't like the concept of sharing my private data with Google.

To my kowledge it would have been possible to sync Palm Pre with my local Computer via additional software. Not ideal but at least possible. Anyway, I tried the Palm Pre in the store and didn't like the keyboard and the small screen.

And there was the HTC HD2. The gigantic awesome screen and the 1 GHZ snapdragon were the reasons for me to order this smartphone.

I owned it for exactly one day .

I hated the OS. All the tweaking can not hide that this is still Windows Mobile. The screen is OK, but it was just to big for convenient everyday use. I also hated the lack of a physical keyboard.

So I sent it back and got myself a Nokia N900. I own it now for 2 days and I really do love this new little toy . Oh yeah, it is far from perfect.

For example my Palm Treo 680 calendar was far more flexible than the Nokia N900 calendar. I hope there will be updates or applications which may solve this problem in the future. But there are so many goodies that I can live with the downsides.

The goodies are: the OS is just great, I love the desktops. The browser experience is great (far better than on the HTC HD2). The phone functions are OK for me. The size is optimal for me. The hardware keyboard is also good (I will never ever buy a smartphone without hardware keyboard).

The short version: In my opinion the Nokia N900 is by far the best of the mentioned devices.

Greets,

Andreas

high knee i did the same i ordered an htc for work and have just sent it back after a week.. i have the n900- its the nuts.. win mo is rank

I had 2 blackberries, then I had the Nokia E62, then the iPhone, then the Nokia E71 and now I'm with the N900, and I can tell you that the N900 is the best device, hands down.

I came to the N900 from an HTC Wizard and SE Xperia X1.

WM was "tolerable" for the Wizard, but when I upgraded to the Xperia and little had changed, I started to get frustrated.

The screen was too small for a start and despite Windows Mobile being so well established, I could never find decent software for anything. Newer versions of the firmware got LESS stable (explorer used to crash randomly for no apparent reason) and finally it started developing physical cracks in the case and I said "no more". Fortunately at that point I spotted the N900 so I got my Xperia repaired under warranty then sold it.

People talk about the N900 not supporting portrait mode, but Windows Mobile natively doesn't even support a touch screen. Its a stylus operated OS not touch, and from what I have read they have only made minor cosmetic changes to the home screen to slightly improve this situation. Having to use third-party applications just to be able to use the device without the stylus, well its just pathetic and messy.

I just love how most things tie together on the N900. Its far from perfect, but to me coming from Windows Mobile it feels like a huge upgrade.

For some reason, Android never appealed to me either as it seems to be "just another phone OS". I have always craved a mobile computer that also acts as a phone "when I need it", so I do not need to carry both and the computer can be always connected. The N900 hits the spot and while it would be nice if it had a bigger screen, was a bit lighter and OVI Maps not being a pile of crap, its still far more what I was after than anything else I have heard of. Its biggest limitation is software, and that can always be improved later.

N900 is ok but battery too bad

Hi,

thanks for sharing your experiences with the N900, It is funny how similar the impressions of this smartphone and it's rivals is...

Greets,

Andreas

the htchd2 is a beaut mind. if it was android/iphone or even better maemo (or even better dual boot android or iphoe) and maemo i may not have the n900.. i think i am dreaming about a dual boot but how good would that b

Its right for me too.

It has rough edges, annoyances and quirks but its unpretentious (e.g if web browser is misbehaving, it tells you so, it does not try to hide the tech aspects - display of unix file convention on download, to mention but a few). This device is totally open - a true WYSIWYG kind of device. Its totally grown up.

Its just right and nothing, I REPEAT nothing can replace a physical keyboard : not voice recognition, touch or the very lifeless virtual keyboard.

This is simply the best in the market right now and the browser is one app in a million.

Review: Nokia N900 shows there's a web browser for that

http://blogs.zdnet.com/cell-phones/?p=2752

i dunno mate. i love the iphone virtual the hd2 however wasnt as good mind. maybe i am just to it.. i am getting used to using the real keypad but 2 probs- i have to keep my nails long on my thumbs and i cant do it 1 handed....

Try doing CTRL+A, CTRL+C then CTRL+V. Worse the Virtual Keyboard gets in the way - blocks the screen, feedback is awful just lifeless, the sound effect is annoying. Only saving grace is the built in dictionary which is awful if you' need to type words that are not in the dictionary.

Good to know you love it but its not for me. I actually do serious work with this stuff - excel, word, XTerm, PyEditor etc. Virtual Keyboard is a gimmick, I hope Nokia keep with the keyboard in Maemo 6 and not try to follow the faddish iPhone , HTC Hero et al.