Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

Nope. After getting past the commentary, I do not disagree with his assessment of the N9. It's a phone that's built out of a normally cheap - in price and application - material that is done in such an industrial application/methodology that I look past it as being polycarbonate.

The screen, I have to say that its sharpness saves it from being so damn small. I have big hands. I want a bigger screen. 4.1 inches is my absolute minimum, and I'm making excuses for the 3.9 inch screen that the N9 has. But it is sharp. And looks great even in moderate sunlight. I cannot say that about any iOS device. Can say that the N900 fared a bit better, but not to the point I'd switch back.

The reception... I'm starting to have problems in some areas where it's weaker - mostly where iOS and my Android devices would downright fail, the reception would invoke that robotic voice.

I've run into stutters every now-and-then. Some frustrate the ever-lovin' hell out of me - mainly around phone, contacts, Skype and switching the audio from Bluetooth to Device. It just freezes every now-and-then and I lose my religion sometimes. It stutters. Anybody that says it doesn't, they're not using it as an actual damn phone. I'm not going to overlook that, but you know what? I can say that WP7 on my Dell Venue Pro hangs a bit in the transition from Device to Bluetooth (opposite direction) most of the time too.

Camera has been a positive and a negative. Fast as hell. Introduces a crapload less noise than say my Atrix or Dell Venue Pro - all WP7 phones prior to the Lumia 800 had horrible cameras. In a natural light setting, it's killer. The moment I have to use flash though, the results are all over. Too dark, too many shadows, added noise... something's gonna go wrong and I better be close to Photoshop. But if I shoot with the sun to my back or not in the frame, I can pull off some incredible photos. Fluorescent lighting gives it a fit. Sometimes it comes out too blue shifted, so you have to add yellow to even it out. Or if it's incandescent lighting, it can turn out too yellow, and the reverse applies. Don't use the camera at night...

Battery life has been absolutely great for me... when I'm not in Developer's Mode. Once I did that, battery life went to absolute ****. And talking about battery life, what kind of damn car charger do I need!? 2.1 amp is enough to charge an iPad. But not enough for the N9? What the hell!? I'm honestly disliking that. Immensely.

Wi-Fi settings... I find the wi-fi reception poor compared to my Atrix.

Keyboard - love Swype, hate the fact that if I start any word with the letter P, I might be switching from the Swype keyboard to the standard keyboard. Way too sensitive on that. I do it at least three times a day. The normal VKB is actually good, but man, you have to be a sharpshooter. And I have big hands, so it can get frustrating. Sure, it's supposed to be flexible; however that doesn't mean that it's not a pain every now-and-then.

I'll have to go back and re-read what Eldar said, but as far as it goes, I'll say this. What he says, after his commentary is rather accurate.

It's the rest of the bitter pill that people are unable to deal with... but let's face it. We'll never have What'sApp, we'll probably not get a lot of updates nor bigger vender 3rd party support. And Elop wants it to go away. MeeGo is gone, Tizen is "here" and Harmattan may live in other iterations that might make its way onto things we will probably care very little about. The nice piece of shiny plastic in my hands looks great, works well, frustrates me how I can still outpace it - but I do that with an 8-core Mac too daily - and it's deemed a dead end, lacking experience if you're expecting Android, the N900 or iOS.

And it's neither of those. The article has merit, in my humble opinion.

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

The article is mostly ********. Its like he's searching for everything he could possibly whine about.

I only agree with three points
- it had definitely performance issues until 1.1.
With 1.1 I have no problems.
- The camera sucks. I guess its not the hardware but the software. Seems nokia has not yet ported their camera stuff from symbian to meego and wp7.
- I don't really like nokia maps, google maps still has the upper hand in many areas.

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

I certainly don't want the OS to decide when apps should close. I may leave the music player paused for hours because I want to continue where I left off later. This is something which most users won't agree with Eldar. By the way this is the same guy who made the wild claim that only 92,000 Ns will be produced which has been debunked. This number won't be enough just for China.

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

You can use Google maps with CloudGPS
http://www.my-meego.com/software/app...dAuto=61&faq=4

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

The N9's auto white balance isn't great but the proper WB for fluorescent or incandescent lighting can be selected in the camera options.

Putting developer mode on or off has no effect on my battery life but I'm not dismissing your experience.

My Nokia car charger which is only 0.55A can charge the N9 fine even when battery is draining using GPS. It could just be a problem of compatibility.

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

I managed to read through the entire thing/'review', no time right now to read more of this thread than the first page, but I must say about the review, I can't take anyone seriously who thinks it's better to have the OS decide for them what programs to close when.

If you really want to not have basic control over your device I'd be okay with that kind of **** being a settings uption, but advocating that that is the right way for an OS to work isn't just something I disagree with, that kind of thinking is downright problematic in my eyes.

The OS closing your apps for you is the epitome of the OS working against YOU, unless you explicitly told the OS to go do so. If someone just doesn't conceive of closing programs running in the background that they're done with, which is apparently what this guy's problem was, that's the fault of the iCrap and Android devices for making people so used to that that they somehow are okay with that.

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

Nice review. Regarding the charger, could it be the same issue as with the N900, ie won't charge on any charger if the usb data pins are not shorted?
On the N900, that was the reason it would charge on some chargers and not on others, regardless of power, although always was "not sufficient power".

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

Yeah... still trying to get used to it. Seems "opposite" of what I'm used to.

After PR1.1, I cannot say the same.

It says that it cannot charge, but it "charges" it seems.

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

Ever-so-slightly off topic, but this afternoon I had the rather delightful opportunity to experience an N9 in Jack's Place, NYC. I had a few minutes to play around with it, and I must say, I'm taken by it! Of course, glancing down to see the $799 price tag on the phone's display stand nearly made me puke, but it was SOOO nice! Actually I think I messed it up, because I was so interested in the polycarbonate (yeah, the girl told me "it's all metal" - oh bless her, she thought earlier that the E72 was a recent model!) I inadvertently lightly scratched the back surface with my thumbnail as I was "feeling it up" so to speak. Have I permanently marked the thing now, and does that mean it's very easy to mark like that?
Ab-so-lute-ly loved the swiping and the scrolling slickness.
More tempted than ever now :)

Re: Eldar's N9 review pt1 ... honest?
 

It's actually hard to mark the polycarbonate (or high quality plastic)