Re: New review on Engadget
 

This is huge for engadget. They didn't even complain about the lack of pinch zoom. wow

Re: New review on Engadget
 

christexaport @ Nov 16th 2009 1:09PM
FTW :D

Re: New review on Engadget
 

Hopefully christexaport will post Engadget's reply - if they have big enough kahunas to try and reply at all...

Re: New review on Engadget
 

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/16/n...ents/23148115/

This comment is pure gold.

Re: New review on Engadget
 

Christexaport is GOD.

Re: New review on Engadget
 

Thanks for the comment. Can you be more specific about what phone features are missing in the N900?

I completely agree with you that the potential of the N900 is huge and it's a very forward looking device. That said, Engadget is basically a blog for consumers. Most of it's readers are just looking for a phone that will serve their current purposes, not betoken a wonderful world of possibilities that isn't quite here yet. So I think from the perspective of the average smartphone consumer the review was perfectly fair. The review was full of admiration for the N900, but also suggested that it's probably a better device right now for developers and people who like to be early adopters. That seems perfectly fair, to me, and not a criticism at all.

Yes, MMS and Portrait mode will probably come later to the N900, but who wants to buy a phone based on features it might get in the future? No one spared the iPhone from criticism for lacking cut and paste, MMS, 3G, etc., when it first came out. It's fair to base a phone review on the features that it will have when it comes to market, not at some future time after that. Like you, I too have read pretty much all the reviews out there. They all say the pre-production N900 units are pretty much supposed to represent the feature set the final N900 will have. So I think it's fair to come to some conclusions based on a late pre-production N900, viewed as the final unit is actually in the process of shipping to retail outfits. What exactly is Nokia going to change on the devices while they're in a shipping container in the middle of the ocean?

Also, it's really tiring how everyone is so happy to jump down Engadget's throat for allegedly being unfair to Nokia. Engadget is snarky about everybody. They do not single out Nokia. DaveP1 has a great post here (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...9&postcount=23) where he lists the leads from recent Engadget posts about the iPhone. They are just as snarky and critical as anything they ever say about anyone else. It's like, if someone says something critical of a product you don't like, then it's justified, but if someone dares say one non-positive thing about Nokia or the N900, then it's sacriledge. I'm excited about the N900, I don't like the iPhone, but I hardly think the N900 or Nokia are above reproach.

Re: New review on Engadget
 

I guess they deleted his comment I didn't see it.

Re: New review on Engadget
 

1. No portrait messaging
2. No home button
3. Take steps from landscape to portrait to access the phone function (smartphoners like their one hand phone operation).
4. No direct call feature
5. No voice dial or search

These are things being pointed out. People expecting a fancy smartphone will either accept the issues and wait for improvements or get a more phone centric device.

I only repeat this since you asked. Been beaten to death in reviews and here. The reviews are the danger sign though, since they are assuming the same thing many others are that pre-ordered- the N900 is a smartphone.

The flood of posts that shall come to this board by these confused and surprised people will point this out quickly... well, whenever the N900 finally comes out.

Let us hope there are no typhoons or heavy wave systems (assuming the N900s are on a boat). I lost an entire container full of ASICS, memory and motherboards when I worked for IBM :(

Our customers were just as unforgiving as you all are ;)

Added: The more I use the Droid, a little less I like it. Flat keys, wasted d-pad and the OS kind of drifts into la-la land every now and then. Maps rock though!

Re: New review on Engadget
 

To be fair, it seems to me that Nokia is clearly targeting the smartphone market with the N900 and Maemo. That's why they shrunk their internet tablet platform to phone size and added a phone.

I assume Nokia intends to sell hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of this device. Only a tiny fraction will be developers, early adopters, and gadget geeks. The rest will have never heard of the N810 and the like. They will come to the N900 from the perspective of the phone world and shape their expectations accordingly. Nokia knows this.

Further, one of the things that supposed to be good about the phone on the N900 is that it integrates the regular phone functionality with voip services extremely well. Some say better than on any other device. Clearly Nokia in some respects has tried to make the phone component very powerful and not just a side application.

Here's even Nokia itself, on it's Conversations website, saying the N900 "bridges that wilderness between smartphone and compact laptop" (http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/...ew-nokia-n900/). So clearly for Nokia the N900 is not supposed to be a computer with a phone on the side, but rather the sum of the two (and therefore more than both).

So I think the distinction between a computing device with a phone and a smartphone (a term whose meaning no one has ever agreed on anyway) is splitting hairs a bit. Nokia has packaged the N900 in a way to create a certain set of expectations, it seems deliberate to me, and so Nokia is responsible to the market it creates with those expectations. Nokia will after all be marketing the N900 in the phone market and through carriers. It may be the first N series device offered directly by a U.S. carrier in a long time. How much more does Nokia have to do to make people think this is a phone?

Re: New review on Engadget
 

Seems an option would be to provide a more phone centric UI profile that includes things mentioned above. If you do not want it, don't use the profile.