Re: My brief take on the N900
 

Even though the hack allows the N900 to connect successfully to the bt keyboard you can't actually use it. See: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34872

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

What's cool is the two people around here I trust most to give me an informed, honest opinion are the top two community cheeses. How did that happen?

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

Well, if you want to keep it -- get a second battery and an external battery charger. ;-)

Nathan

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

I actually ordered a charger-- but that doesn't help with usb connectivity. ;)

Besides, I have to send it back April 2010 anyway.

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

I now feel your pain. My micro USB port has disconnected and is now loose inside the N900 and I can't use for charging or anything else anymore. Unlike you though, I had no violent pulls. I just started noticing that plugging it into a computer resulted in it sometimes not recognizing that it was plugged in. I would have to plug it in a few times before it would start charging. I was always perfectly careful when inserting or removing the micro USB cable... so this makes me think there might be a design problem in the N900.

I'm afraid to see if there's going to be a huge wave of returns/repairs in two months due to this issue. :/

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

Especially with the device needing to be charged twice a day!

I wonder if we could pre-emptively fix this by squeezing some epoxy between the micro-USB socket and the device casing, to remove the stress from the PCB. I'm not sure that I would trust myself with such surgery on my device though.

Regards,
Roger

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

I noticed this too. The connector wall and the actual "tongue" where the data runs are is too tight and can be a challenge to insert of remove. If you try to force in any manner, it will eventually result in a break or crack- resulting in failure.

The connector is so tight, it does not seem that they used a standard micro usb port, or the batch they got were at the lowest tolerance point for acceptance. Any tighter and it would be impossible to place the cable into the connector.

UPDATE:

The micro usb cable that they pack may also be part of the problem. I notice that the Motorola mini to micro adapters I bought are not as difficult to insert and remove. The charger and data cable from the Nokia box are tighter fits for the connector.

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

Sigh. I had already concluded that the change to use microUSB as a common charging interface for new phones was a huge mistake because of the implications on the USB feature set itself (no OTG etc, ref. specifications by the USB consortium).

In addition to that it now sounds like it also brings back problems typical of plastic-framed multi-connector charging connectors. I have had a rip-out failure on an S-E phone, and I have always liked the fact that all Nokia phones have always had a proper, solid, industry-standard charging connector. Not anymore, with this micro-USB fiasco. Argh.

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

Uh? the 2mm charging connector isn't exactly solid.

Re: My brief take on the N900
 

Agreed, the 2mm version is the worst of the bunch - all connectors used by Nokia up to then were solid ones (and standard). The 2mm one is a bit flimsy. To me it's still much much better than any of the multi-connectors I have on other devices. And better than using microUSB, the way the latter has turned out.