SO, since the last thread about returning an N900 has closed, I'll start a new one.

I am reluctant to send it back to be honest, but I had 7 working days in which to decide with my Vodafone contract, and on day 7 I felt I had to press shift-F10. This in itself was quite a process, which included a funny conversation with some sweet girl who told me I couldn't take the phone back to a Vodafone show because I had ordered it from the internet so it had to be sent back to the internet!

Anyway the end result is I have to wait in all day for a courier to collect it from me next Tuesday(hence I have 4 more days to change my mind - again)

So what are my thoughts and can anyone help me decide?

The last time I felt real delight on opening a new toy was my Asus RF-1 a few years ago. The packaging, the added accessories, the neat implementation of new, but not unknown features.

On paper opening the N900 should have been a real kick, somehow it just wasn't.

Perhaps it was because the sticky tape of the I'M SECURE label tore away some of the skin of the box. I don't even have OCD and yet this disappointed me.

Maybe the fact the in dimension it is almost identical to the 2 year old HTC TTYN II that I was replacing which made me wonder why I was bothering.

Still, the cable clips and velcro ties on the chargers were nice, and the inclusion of the tv-out cable was an unexpected bonus.

So Very Pleased - but no tingle of delight.

Since then of course I have been using the phone over a week now and like many other posters have had to trawl the fora and tech sites for clues about getting the device to do the things I expect from a smartphone.

I understood coming in to this that this was a hobby device, and effort would be required. I was happy to make the effort of joining nuevasync top get my google calendars appearing on my phone, I can accept that I would have to wait a few more weeks before I can use the phone as a wireless router so that I can connect using my client's laptop when I am away from the office - though I wish I hadn't discovered this on the day that I needed to use it

I somewhat regret the wasted effort trying to find settings and permissions to enable the front camera for Skype calls, before finally resorting to the forums to discover that this feature currently doesn't work. Hand having since installed Mirror I can see why.

By this stage I was start to feel a little bit of a mug to be honest. Turns out if I had done enough research I would have known that the phone I had ordered didn't REALLY have all the features it seemed to have.

And once that feeling set in it was hard to shake. I'm now finding it hard to forgive that fact that I received no calls or texts all weekend, not as I had thought because nobody loved me, but because the phone needed a reset,despite giving the appearance of working and having full signal.

Battery life of less than a working day, with not much usage of Wifi or Video.

On the other hand:

Speedy and responsive, real multitasking, once you get the hang of navigation between apps.

Built in FM Transmitter - a real bonus and hard to find in any possible replacement. I had a bluetooth car charger type device before from venturi, but that got broken, so having it all in the phone is great, and you can use it in the house as well. Very neat.

The screen, the colours, the definition, the ability to play Mafia wars and Red Hot Pawn on the move - wonderful.

Even the quirky zoom and scroll works once you persevere. Same with the on screen keyboard, so much so that I am no longer sure why a slide out qwerty board was so important to me.

Decisions...Decisions

if you get a full refund - send it back - i would - then maybe consider Maemo 6.2 when that "might" ship sometime within the next 24 months.

I find the phone - great - but to many bugs forcing me to reboot every day just to make certain that my exchange mail actually lands in my inbox. Else the phone might just "hang" with Exchange for quite some time until I remember to check the Exchange Settings Panel (sync failed) - and then realize when I reboot the phone - that 30 mails was waiting. Not professional.

No PPTP VPN - or VPN with default gw as VPN via 3G - makes it impossible to use SIP/skyp where I am...

If I leave SIP/skype enabled and travels outside the range of my router (that automatically VPNs things like that) - then battery seems to be sucked dry in 4-6 hours from SIP or Skype trying to connect.

I know some of these issues can be fixed with debian hacking, scripting and the like - but I do not have time to play around with that. I work for a living..

Thanks, I hear you Kaz . Loud and clear; I also need to spend time earning not learning and tinkering.


So I guess the next question is do I retreat to the comfort of Windows and go for the HTC HD2, simply stick with the TTYN ii and wait ... or does anyone have any better idea?

nexus one ??

No one want to try and convince me to keep it then?

Well, you've pretty clearly stated the things you like & don't about it (and they look to be well-thought out and reasonable reasons as well, unlike some), so you're well aware of the pros and cons. If your specific requirements aren't being met currently, and you don't want to wait for software which may/may not be produced to meet them, then your best bet is to take the plunge and return it while you can.

If your current phone is meeting all of your current requirements, I'd suggest holding off replacing it for a little while. That'll give the Nexus One time to get past the "ooh, shiny" stage (and the inevitable issues will become recognised), the N900 to get another update (and new software to come out), and the iPhone 4 and WM7 to get past the "rumour" stage. That should give you a lot of options to choose from.

@> Bratag & That One Guy

The OP is politely asking for validation of choices - no need to be rude.

Withnailami - Rob1n sums it up well - but I think you are looking for a bit of back up and last persuading before parting with it?

Have you played with any of the alternatives? Did you get on with them? I think Android is the only alternative (if you like multitasking) at the moment. Having come from an N97 myself I wouldn't recommend that as S60 v5 isn't nearly as good as maemo but does offer the FM functionality (Symbian^3 will be OK but not until Q3? this year).

No phone is going to meet your needs 100%, but if it meets most of them, most of the time and you enjoy using it whilst it does then I would say it's a keeper - at least until the next leap - which I don't think any of the competition offer yet you'll be waiting for Maemo 6, Android 3, iPhone 4, Symbian ^4 etc for big changes

No he isn't what he is doing is the same thing that has been done in innumerable threads just like this one.

He is trying to

a) Start the standard flame war RE: Android V Maemo
b) Is looking for us to justify his choice or lack thereof.

I for one am sick of it. I find myself unable to care less about people keeping or not keeping the device.
What I DO care about is the continual clogging of the boards by pointless mfing threads on the same goddamn topics.

"Convince me why I should keep the N900" threads need to die.

Close this thread!

So add him to your Ignore list... duh.