Re: First N900 Review
 

So they made space for a mic, but they were challenged to find space for a relatively flat speaker like the kind you find in the previous tablets or in these newer Nintendo DS machines. I'm not sure it was a matter of space so much as the need to make it LOOK more like an iPhone. Yanno.. copying their look.

It's possible that I may, in fact, be the only person who wanted louder, front-facing speakers. :)

Re: First N900 Review
 

Well they almost ignore the US already. ;)

Re: First N900 Review
 

i'm sorry for that. my main language is german, second language spanish, third language portuguese and only on the last place is english... i hope you understand that. also i'm too tired to write upper case letters (here is after midnight). my post was not intented to be an offense. it's just, that i'm often reading, that the n800 is so much better than the n810, and the n810 is so bad quality and so on... i just wanted to say, that i like the n810 more than the n800 because of the metal backplate, the transflective screen (vs. reflective) and the smaller form factor. for me the form factor was the biggest deal, and i love the design of the n810, but i hate the design of the n800. i don't need the two full sd card slot, because i've an extra hard-disk mp3 player...
overall i think that nobody can say, that this or that device is better.. it is just better suited for the needings of different people. the fact is, that we can't design ourselves the devices and we must find the device that is best-suited for us.

1) i don't have any statistics regarding that. but the n810 was sold much more than the n800.

2) that is possible, but i would prefer the speakers on the side and a better design of the device instead of a slightly better soundquality and (in my opinion) bad design. if i want to hear music (or in my case watch movies) i go with in-earphones. that gives even higher quality.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Not to mention that in the US, Verizon and AT&T are slowly changing everything in that regard:

http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com...rting-us-wifi/

Re: First N900 Review
 

I agree with louder. Front facing doesnt really do much for me. Personally, people are often very surprised at the speaker strength that I get from the n810. I havent used a single Handheld that sounds as loud or as clear.

Louder Louder Louder, as long as it doesnt sound like $h*t.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Ouch, that's pretty bad. Still, considering all the hardware in it, I think the rumored price for the N900 is quite reasonable. I've always paid for phones up front, and frankly I was expecting it to be even more. If you look at the manufacturers' profit margins, it's only Apple that's managing to charge huge premiums like that (big surprise there :rolleyes: ).

Re: First N900 Review
 

I would just be happy to hear the N810's GPS on a rural road.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Really? I hate that crap. I always turn teh voices and sounds off. Drives me crazy. All you need is the map. Maybe a chime to tell you when a turn is coming up, but the voices, oh the voices, how I hate them. "Make a U-turn" ugh

Re: First N900 Review
 

I've had an N810 for two months now.

I like the device a LOT but I find that the applications and software that is available to it is very amateurish (is that a word?) and/or not supported anymore.

I would have gotten this device if it had run on another operating system.
Will not buy anything where I don't feel that it's supported by the manufacturer (like in the case with the N810) as the hardware looks great. Maybe Nokia should give up on trying to do s/w - or to try to 'outsource' it to an unpaid community. I thought that was why they bought Symbian as they realized their shortcoming in the area.

Anyway, to each his own. I respect anyone who wants to 'keep at it' with this operating system but it's simply not for me.

Re: First N900 Review
 

For $599, you can get an unlocked 16GB 3GS now. That's a Cortex A8 device with a decent amount of ram. Right now Apple has the 3G 8GB at $499, but the rumor is that soon they'll replace that price point with a 3GS 8GB.

Re: First N900 Review
 

How much is the 32GB upgrade worth to you?

Re: First N900 Review
 

I thought the N810 was quiet, too. Then I discovered some 3rd party mixers (like aumix). No idea how all that mixing correlates (and pushing sliders CAN get you weird combos), but it can get stuff LOUD.

Re: First N900 Review
 

I always like the idea of having a phone and a tablet with me.
But since I get my Android phone, the tablet is being used very few times now..

I used to connect via bt (was painful, but you didn't have to do it all the time) to my SE phone and it was very usable then.

Then Android made me discover the wonder of being always on-line the way it was meant to be. Always, not Whenever you've got a connection.

But what I am missing in this Android phone is:

a) screen real estate
b) a keyboard, a physical one

The N900 has both. I will definitely love it, I would love to buy it as well when it comes out.

But.. I am sure I'll miss the complete google interoperability of the Android phone.
My Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Docs, Pictures and so on, where right on my phone in a nicely formatted way.

I would like the new Nokia browser to show me the mobile version of some sites (Google ones for example), while showing ALL of its potential on the other websites.
I know it's fast enough to handle them, but I will never use Gmail on a 800x480 3.5" screen.

Good job Nokia, this is the right move.

Just let us know when we can apply for the developer program :D
(even though, I have the feeling it won't come this year :( )

Anidel

Re: First N900 Review
 

It's possible. :)

Dude, relax... this N900 will be jim dandy a year or so after release. I figure with a harmattan device on deck, the price of these units will be halved soon enough. :cool:

After 2 1/2 years with an N800 I jumped when a member recently offered his N810 for $150. Nothing wrong with the N800 but that was the best $150 I ever spent on a gadget. IMHO the N810's sound is a little tinnier but actually louder than the N800's

BTW, there are quite a few devices with an improved N800's feature set about to come to market... just not from Nokia. :)

***

How 'bout american football then? Hide your beagle, Vick's an Eagle. :D

Re: First N900 Review
 

He's talking about a second stylus in the box.

The real quote is :

"Perhaps they’ll decide to throw in an extra stylus into the box (since the N900 already comes with one built into its casing), much like the one that came with the Nokia N97."

Notice the "extra" stylus.

anidel

Re: First N900 Review
 

I won't be buying it at this point, but I can't blame Nokia. I'm the opposite of the target audience! My N800 does everything I need, and I'm a price-point late-adopter. It's just going to have to get cheaper. And then there's going to have to be a cheap data plan like the cellphone plans that charge you only for usage, not by the month.

I'm also not sold on the pure finger UI; I like a stylus-oriented UI. And, even more, I like the bigger N8x0 screen. (Though I'll be interested to see how people on this forum -- especially older, presbyopic types, who also browse and read a lot on the device -- like the screen once they own the N900.)

Ultimately, Nokia may have to blame Bundyo for a lost sale :D; were it not for tear, I might have felt the need to upgrade for the greater horsepower.

Re: First N900 Review
 

$100? That's the difference I paid to get the 32GB 3GS over the 16GB version.

Re: First N900 Review
 

he must have changed that. i've copy and pasted that directly from his preview...

Re: First N900 Review
 

Well, that makes sense. He also corrected "Freemantle" at the start of the article.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Nice analysis by Eldar at the beginning; is this community ready for the attention?
---

I have two N97s right beside me right now; hardware on this looks very, very similar. If the build quality of the first one I got, regardless of price, Nokia has a winner and then some.

Subsidized, this device will be $399-499 USD. A subsidy making it cheaper than that says that this device will be a huge success; and I think it will, but like the Ford FiveHundred, not initially, only after its seen on the road a bit.

---
The UI/UX team gets my sincere applause. Thank you.

EDIT: Small request for the next time you make a genre-bending device though: take a chance and reinvent the way communications are done. That would have natched both techies and consumers in the intended facility.

---
Eldar always writes in a way to make you see the next steps if you read the lines carefully. The RX-71 should be very, very ground breaking. Nokia's CEO made a comment once about netbooks being nothing more than smaller laptops, that Nokia understands the difference between a computer that's mobile and doing mobile computing. I'm very intrigued, and think that the keyboard-shifting model is coming, with Maemo 5.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Heh, still lists Diablo as Maemo 4.2, though :)

Re: First N900 Review
 

I assume the subsidised version would be below 300$ .... more like 250-270. But if they get it to compete with the iphone 3gs at 199$... then we are talking about a war.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Yes, thank you Eldar for the article and the fixes.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Of course if i am not wrong there is the 25$ unlimited data and messages plan... that will save 24x5 = 120$ for 2 years and free unlimited sms...

so 279 should be a perfect price......

Re: First N900 Review
 

I don't disagree on the price assessment. But if I don't want "the hardware in it," it's hardly a good price for me. heh!

I know I'm a oddball when it comes to handhelds these days. But I'm not looking for a smartphone as much as I'm looking for a digital notepad. I use my Palm TX to carry data with me for ready access, and only occasionally use it to access the Internet.

I never thought that I'D be a dinosaur. That was always my dad!

Re: First N900 Review
 

Awesome :)

Cortex A8 looking good. Loving the blurred backdrops on modal windows, and the minimized tasks on the desktop.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Oh dude! I was just pointing out that I thought the grammar left your point a bit too ambiguous for debate. I didn't interpret it in any offensive way. We're all just debating and talking here. I hope my reply didn't come off as offensive and I apologize if it did. Also.. Portuguese? Cool! That's my second language. :)

Oh it's quite reasonable.. if you wanted a cell phone. Ugh. This point can never be emphasized enough--this device is less and less the Internet Tablet that some of us bought into and it's more smart-phone than tablet.

Yyyyeaaahh... on that.. why? I'd rather use SDHC. I didn't really appreciate the move to even tinier SD-related cards much less the push for even MORE flash in the device to bump up that aforementioned 'reasonable' price even less reasonable for some of us that don't think we'll use 32GB.

Fair enough. Good point, but I doubt it'll be anywhere near what I'll want to pay for what I actually WANTED (an Internet Tablet, not en effin' cell phone radio in a smartphone).

I've been saying that all along as one of my points about attrition.

Amen! God.. just... AMEN all-around.

Re: First N900 Review
 

No no no no no no no, according to a screenshot, it only "includes certain free/open source software" :mad:

Re: First N900 Review
 

You know what's really frustrating for me? Of course you don't. "Let me 'splain. No. There is too much. Let me sum up."

I used to be at the front of the acquisition curve! I had "it" before anyone else in the department.

I had a PalmPilot Pro - then a III - then a Vx - then an m500 just to get the SD expansion - then an m515 because Palm improved the color screen. Then I sat around for a few years before buying a Palm TX 3 years back.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I went from being "the geek with the cool new gadget" to "the old coot with the outdated hardware."

That, my friends, was a PAINFUL realization. ;)

Re: First N900 Review
 

and another thing...! :)

Re: First N900 Review
 

There was an article that I did at Brighthand some months back, it was titled "Ahead and Behind at the Same Time;" as mobile technology gets to the point of being more accessible, usable, and affordable, those things that defined power users change.

Within that those is the necessity for companies to not only flesh things out (aka making it available to a wider audience), but also flesh out new areas of innovation and opportunity.

I know its sad that others have cooler gadgets that work with less pain that you; but that's when you as the user at the very edge of the curve needs to take a look at what's next and move there. Only then can the circle of tech life come back around to that point where you will be at the front, and others will be waiting for you to get the bugs out so that you don't look as cool anymore.

Re: First N900 Review
 

That's a nice thought. (And I'm not being dismissive. I truly think it's a nice thought.)

But what if "what's next" doesn't provide an option to do what I need it to do? Specifically, I'm thinking about how I can't seem to find a program for Android or Maemo that does what ThinkDB did for my Palm Vx. But there are other "issues."

Users like me used to be THE marketplace. Now we're just a small part of it, and we're not economically powerful enough to really affect change. I recognize this, and can accept it. Which is probably healthy since I'm not a programmer and couldn't do anything to "fix" it myself.

But it still leaves me without an upgrade path. Although, an n900 (without cellular) and the Access Garnet Emulator could keep me in business for a few more years.

Yeah, yeah. I know. "Suck it up, you old codger." And I'm not even 40! :D

Re: First N900 Review
 

When you have a family as distracting as mine, you will BEG for those voice directions. :D

Re: First N900 Review
 

I've gotta eat some crow on this. : /

Wayyy back when the idea of a cell-enabled version became a really hot topic here, I urged everyone to be calm, that the odds were we would see multiple variants (ie, options) as the platform matured, and I assumed product release plans would be reasonable.

This was not part of inside info (at that point I was not getting much) but more along the lines of common sense.

Oops.

I am really, really sorry for that guys. :(

Re: First N900 Review
 

I've been thinking some more...

I think qgil has been trying to say that there might already be something going on here... He's said on a few occasions that developers who put their apps in the wiki or who show interest in getting Telepathy working in Fremantle won't regret it, and that it would be worth their while...

So developers, get your asses in gear!

Re: First N900 Review
 

I like the device overall, but it seems like the could have fit a 4.3" screen on there without changing the dimensions, or only changing them a little, to say iphone length and width (though not depth). That would have cinched the deal for me. Most of a 4.3" screen difference to a 3.5" is in length, and there seems to some unused real estate in the length on one side.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Although I like the device, I've lived with my current phone in one iteration or another for almost 2 years.

I used my tablet to augment the things my iPhone couldn't do, vice versa. And oddly enough, I don't like carrying around my music on my phone - kills the battery when I might actually need it.

I'm not the typical user though, not by a longshot. Hearing what level of Flash will be supported, the commitment to the platform - sorta need to hear that this will be updated at least a few times and not just one minor update then dropped.

Also, hearing what vendors will be backing this... and gotta ask. Is there not a forward facing camera?

I'm on the fence, as it stands in this iteration as a phone. But I think Nokia has done a good job.

Re: First N900 Review
 

There seems to be two things above the microphone, one rectanglish and above that, one round, the round could be a front facing low resolution web cam.

Re: First N900 Review
 

Proximity aka light sensor may be...

Re: First N900 Review
 

1) Yes, it seems a touch chubby but then the thickness and rounded corners will make it easier to type comfortably.

2) Yes, you buy it and dont put a sim in it. :rolleyes: Seemplz ;)

The 550 euros at launch which will come down to 475 euros within weeks of release, its half the price of an iPhone 3GS (899) and similar to the HTC Hero.

.