Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

On the subject of whether more than one person claimed the N900 had an easily scratched screen -- here is a SAMPLE comment from early December:

", I have been sniffing around the N900 for a wee while now, and well ,like so many others, heard the rumours of the easily damaged screen on the N900"...

I saw many similar messages, and of course many messages on which screen protector to buy.

I haven't looked at all the threads yet; there are so many.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Many issues are being talked about here but the fundamental issue is obviously if the N900 is a suitable device for you.
The n900 is a developers handset that was released for the benefit of potential developers to get fully involved developing apps for this Linux based device and that has been exactly what has been happening on the device since its release last year so if you need a device to start developing apps etc for then the n900 is for you.
Nokia are not able to confirm the future of the N900 simply because they are awaiting as much development as possible and my guess is that this will lead to a base platform for the next Linux "flagship" Nokia will release.
The N900 has very basic phone functions with a lot of apps and functions missing from what we have became used to on a Nokia device.
On a positive note the N900 is in fact fully programmable and can be a suitable device for a fully developed platorm in the future, whatever it will end up as will depend on the development success in the future.
Meego is indeed the direction Nokia are going and no one knows when this will be available in a complete workable state as a base platform for any device let alone the n900.
For now my thoughts are NOT to buy the N900 if you want a fully functioning device with no conflicting problems within the OS, as said erlier the N900 is a developers tool and obviously has a long way to go if it ever will reach a final point of software completion as this device is primerally designed for developers to develop linux based software for mobile devices of the future.
The biggest flaw the n900 has is the USB port that will detatch itself from the motherboard due to bad design, this has now i believe finally been accepted by Nokia as an official design flaw and this means it is obvious Nokia will go to a better design as soon as the development is at a stage when a complete OS can be installed with the apps fully working without conflicts etc and please note that the os conflicts are simply due to installing new developed apps etc that are causing the partly developed os to crash or malfuntion.
Please also note that a complete fix is indeed possible for the usb flaw but unless Nokia officially implement this on all repairs being sent in (i doubt this will be the case) then to self fix will invalidate warranty so best to wait till the warranty period is over before implementing the usb port fix.
The N900 is a developers "toy" and will i guess at some point reach a state of full usability once development has moved on to the stage of putting together a fully non conflicting os of maybe Meego.
So the choice is yours but a clear point is the n900 is NOT a device that is fully functional with the apps we are all used too and requires time to get to that stage.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Created a thread for this but nobody responded, however thanks to this thread I realized there's a bug log out for this which I tried to contribute to.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

@fidel cashflow
have you installed stuff from testing/devel? If so i would recommend to flash your device (both vanilla and emmc) just remember to backup and copy backup to computer before operation.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

You should have the battery life issue on there.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

I love n900 as a computer devise, its a little slow but its good for what it is. Battery is not getting even close to 6 hours as some would say, try 1 or 2 hours and this is my second battery too. The worst part about this n900 is that as a phone capability this is the worst phone I ever had in my live and I use mobile phones sense 1994. I am on phone a lot and will tell you that I get disconnected at least about 10-12 times daily. I also get many times an error message something like "Connection Error" as well as a busy signal to a cell phone as I'm trying to dial out and if I would turn off and then on the n900 it fixes the problem. I know its not from the service provider because I never had experienced anything like that in the past 7 years ever sense I'm with T-Mobile. I'm also very disappointed from the signal strand of the phone to towers, so far I have been very pleased from Nokia's capabilities to get the most tower bars, unfortunately not n900. My wife uses Samsung also with T-Mobile which I think is the worst of them all on towers, but in some places that I don't get any bars she has a signal and is able to do and receive phone calls and I paid almost $600 for my n900, WOW Nokia, way to go!!! I know that there is a meager software update coming up end of second quoter and I hope it will fix the phone problems I have experience so far otherwise this will be my last Nokia phone ever, unfortunately!

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Well I agree with you but still its all about marketing :)
Here take a look at this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS54VEJF5Gw

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Quim Gil's job title in Nokia is open source advocate. From his job title I believe he's far far away from marketing. At least he meant to make N900 a computer with phone function at the beginning. :)

Btw, thanks for the video, but honestly the ad is horrible, I wouldn't consider buying a N95 if I had watched it. XD Where did it show?

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

The issues fidel describes can be encountered in certain conditions on a fresh N900, once you've set up an e-mail account and use the web browser.

Erratically, the device will spike CPU usage in some fashion. Unfortunately, it is not predictable and by the time the device is responsive enough to bring up top the process has calmed down.

So far the major culprits might be modest, its background daemon, telephony, or browserd. They will sometimes kill responsiveness entirely, other times they will just eat the CPU to the point that no software runs but the system still registers screen taps (you get a buzz, but no action) and the backlight switch can be turned on and off.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Definitely but sometimes business doesn't work that way :(
Marketing team usually are not familiar with all the technological stuff and this is what happens. Its really stupid of course N95 was a great device but comparison to PC is just ridiculous.

Same with N900, When I read it has Skype my first thought was OMG video calls from a "phone" without using 3G and free of charge? but then...

I saw this video in Europe but yes it sucks that guy sounds like tired monkey :D

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Yup! Exactly! Those who always complain responsiveness are usually those who load their N900 up with everything they could find in app man. :)

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Did you read what I said? My point was that the issue he describes can be encountered on a fresh N900, with nothing loaded from the repos. All of those are system-level processes that are part of Maemo5 itself.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

You missed the sarcasm there I'm sorry about that. :)

My apology, but before he could show us the process list, I find it hard to assume he runs nothing else in the background.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

acctually I am facing a problem with the PC Suite for Nokia N900
I cant install it
and when I go to Ovi stor or nokia support home page its not working
so
any one can help me with this

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

ok, i will be getting my n900 on tuesday: i know the current problems and i know what will be resolved with the new firmware. the only last thing that is casting the last doubts is the fact that for the first time i have read that phone conversations suddenly stop or it is impossible to enable an incoming call. does this really happen frequently / are there people who never have experienced such problems?!

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Raubtier
never happened with any of my devices
i am a frequent conversations user

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

My name pops up in the absolute strangest of strange places sometimes.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

@gerbick

either you are becoming iconic or the forums resident ghost?

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Naw. I'm just one royal pain in the ***. I've accepted that fact since 3 years old.

OT: I always read your name as greydouche. It's fully unintentional... then I see gyre, and think of the Jabberwocky. My mind works in very odd ways I tell you.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

No probs! :D The jabberwocky is awesome! havent seen the movie though, but Lewis Carrol writes a good story!

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

@9000: In post #108 you state that you have written a script to have custom ring tones for different callers, can you post an example or PM it to me?

Thanks,
Fred

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

It's simple, rough and required lots of manual work in setup, but still it could serve the purpose when I need it:

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=13

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Just makin sure that the guy wasn't dropping names without proper permit :D

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Wow, that is great. I will give it a try when I have a few hours to get it to do what I want (like convert my MP3 ring tones to WAV, etc.).

I thanked you on the linked post.

Cheers,
Fred

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

No problem. Actually I believe you don't need to convert it, you might just need to rename abc.mp3 to abc.mp3.wav for example, but I haven't tested this hyponthesis. You may try.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

I will, however it is going to take me a week or two to get some time for this as I am getting ready to start a 10,000km motorcycle trip (at least) and this was one of the activities I was going to play with in the down moments.

I will post how it all works. I suppose we should move this conversation over to the other thread.:)

Fred

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

My wish for you is good wind and a happy journey.

(you may just click thanks for a reply if you don't want to water down this thread XD)

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

When I first bought the phone, within two days, I sent Nokia a very abusive email. I was extremely dissapointed with my N900.

I've had the phone for a week now, and I love it! I realised that I was just impatient, and that Nokia has it's own way of doing things. I was a HTC user before.

In my opinion, one of the best phones on the market.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Why should we believe you?

The worst part about this thread is there are 0 sources so why should we believe someone who is simply typing? You should add to all those points at least ONE post that shows someone else complaining about that issue.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Excellent synopsis of the n900 so expensive and so simple.
Your appreciation about contact list is a very important brand and now nokia disadvantage to the functionality of the model n900
I hope someone can soon develop an application for this important point in the functionality of the phonebook
Good job

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Need to update the Opening Post to reflect the latest firmware but I had to send my N900 off for repairs due to the famous USB port issue. Anyway someone else can do some updating as I won't have access to my N900 for at least two weeks?

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

I think some issues are pure bashing:
-criticizing apps, there's an alternative even for the email client
-random restarts? it's almost impossible to find users complaining about that

I could go on but have it your way guys...

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

I have random restarts. And there was a thread over a 1000 posts long about it so it is not some phantom thing. Next thing I know you will tell me the USB port issue which means I have had to send my device in for repairs does not exits other than in my head.

Also the email issue you bring up shows what is wrong with the device. It is like none of the built in functions are satisfactory and you have to use alternatives. Is that not something buyers should be made aware of? Most people don't hang around forums asking for alternatives. They just use the built in functions.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

I'm sorry but I find this somewhat Naive of you:

There will of course be some comparisons with iphone despite the fact many will hate that. However, that is the phone most potential buyers of the N900 would also be considering.

(6) The device can sometimes be slow and unresponsive. If you are a Linux expert or are lucky you will never have any slow down or apps freezing up. However, it is generally not as snappy as an iphone for the general user where you tap an icon and it opens up immediately.

(15) No proper functioning software to sync with your PC the way itunes syncs perfectly with iphone. You can use drag and drop but that is only helpful for the first sync of all your music and when you add new songs to your PC and are sure exactly what the news songs are and can just drag and drop them. There is Ovi Music but it does not work with the N900. Third party PC software programmes can sync but many of them just sync to the main documents folder or the main music folder rather than in an organised manner (via artist, album artist, etc) and so create a huge mess and will kill your use of file manager. You may get something to work properly but will be quite an effort compared to using itunes and iphone.

(6) This does not work properly with the N900. I may be wrong but at present it is not even working at all. Also if you are using your PC you cannot easily load apps from Ovi Store to your N900 the way you can with itunes and iphone. If you choose to install an app on your PC all that happens is you get a link sent to your phone by sms and then you have to follow the link which takes you to the Ovi Store. You can of course browse directly to the store from the device but would be nice to have the option to also search for apps on a bigger screen and have them download automatically to the device like you can with iphone.

First of all most buyers would be choosing between some Android and N900 since the open source experience is the choice factor around N900 IMHO.

Second most of the iphone items can be ironed out and expressed as they are without indulging a subtle comparison with the iPhone.
Eg: The device can get slow.
a) you don't have to be a linux genius to reboot
b) iphone gets slow to the point of sending it back after it's been cycled to a large number of installs/uninstalls.

Eg: No proper functioning software to sync with your PC.
Not to mention that as far as I know someone has actually made wireless sync or that there's an amazing amount of applications that allow USB drive syncing...


I have to agree that most of the points are valid but the fact that you turn this in somewhat of a comparison doesn't lift the post above trolling.

I wish I could be allowed to have a sticky about why I quit the iPhone but sure, then I'll be the bad guy :rolleyes:

Again I'm saying you either make a list of problems or you make a comparison & are a troll.

~ And that's that folks ~

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Not until Bec brought it up do I realize that this thread was made sticky because of its professionalism....oh well.

The original poster might have expressed his point in good English, but that doesn't make his post 'prodessional'. His denial and evasive attitudes shown in his reponses to contrary replies betrays him, it's so obviously to the readers that he made up some of the 'facts' so as to support his arguements. Serious respondents have wasted their time and efforts to discuss on somthing with someone who has no experience with.

Merely by the subject chosen, his intention is so subtle: by listing all problems that could be found in this fourm and summarize them as if this is a single user experience, in order to drive potential buyers away. For example, random restarting happened to users overclocking or reflashing their devices, but he made it as if it happens to all stock N900.

I agree with Bec, trolling in good English =/= professional.

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

i came from the n95 8gb and every thing else than a geek , totally average consumer and gotthe n900 a couple of days ago.

i really must say that i am SO happy with this phone. i love most aspects of the interface, the customization and the fact that you can tamper so much with this phone. droid, htc dont come close in these aspects..tried them before i bought the phone. i must say that i only had the old version 1 day before i got the new firmware, maybe thats why i dont have hard feelings. had no crashes, no freezes, calls worked perfectly fine, very happy with the stability, used it a lot..

the downsides are few commercial apps, creepy media player interface and picture / sms interface, lack of flash 10 and that you need to download a lot till the phone does what its supposed to do. its a bit like work in progress, but was has already been achieved is really great!

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Hi guys,
I am a NOKIA - always high end - phone user since 1995 !!, so I think I should contribute to this thread:
Sorry to say that, but I feel some people like to chat and fight around just to express their feelings. If we want to give a real contribution or advice to a potential N900 buyer there is only a few words to say:
The N900 is a great tablet with a high potential. It lacks of Nokia support and there is not yet a wide range of real useful applications. It is not an ordinary phone, it is a tablet with phone.
If you want to be an active user, if you have at least basic knowledge in PC computing esp. Linux, if you want to enjoy solving problems and making amazing progress, with other words, if you are an active user who is not afraid of doing some command line work, the N900 is the choice.
However, if you are a standard user, if you need a fixed GUI and no command line activities, if you do not want to learn, any other phone (incl. IPhone) may be your choice.
I can tell you that I switched from N97 to N900. I like this phone (N900) and I have learned a lot. But it simply cannot match my requirements.(For example the Chinese input through the VKB or a Chinese hard keyboard; many of my business applications are written in Java ME- the new micro emulation is not really usable- , and some other reasons.) However, this will make me switch back to Symbian (prob N8, when available). All Android and IPhones I have tested are more closed systems and do not give you the same grade of freedom, which N900 gives you. If a user is coming from the IPhone world he never will buy a N900, simply too hard for him/her to learn.
So, the question here is not: Is the N900 good or not, is an IPhone or Android good or not. Just find out what’s your requirement, and then you will find the right phone/tablet in the marked.
So, I will stay here and enjoy the enthusiasm of this group until the N8 will be available for me. CU guys. Don’t stop simply go on and improve further to a new user experience
Greetings from
Chengdu China
RR

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Now that's what we call professional comment. ^^

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

I'm going to but this phone inshallah,these bugs/errors/annoyances/issues are normal in any device or any programm,human being is not perfect,this thread is very good,its good to alert people.

Still I hope the developers can make some patches about that :/

Re: N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers
 

Gee I am a troll. People like you make me want to leave this biased site for good although there are many sensible, helpful people. Maybe Nokia will come back and tell me they cannot fix my phone - here is £500 to get any phone you want.:)

Please tell me how much of a troll I am given these facts (and I assume you are saying I am an Apple troll):

- I have never ever owned any phone that is not Nokia;
- I waited and waited for the N97 and got it as soon as it was released, it was a huge disappointment and I returned it after 3 days;
- I decided Nokia had lost their way and maybe was time to try something else but then I stumbled on word of the N900;
- From around August I used to visit youtube obsessively everyday looking for new N900 videos;
- I live in UK but travelled all the way to US to get the N900 because I could not wait for it to be widely available in the UK;
- I paid $625 for it even though I could have gotten it for free in the UK on contract if I had waited for mobile operators in the UK to have it;
- For many years I told my friends the world would end before I ever bought an apple product;
- I was so frustrated with creative losing their way in the mp3 market and zune hd not coming to europe I banged my head on a wall and bought an ipod touch;
- I was so ashamed to have an apple product that I sold it after 2 months at a loss of £150.

So if that is your idea of a troll either you are an idiot or you need a dictionary. As for whoever suggested I made things up you are the biggest idiot in the world. Yes I have nothing better to do than to make up lies of problems I am having with my N900. And don't know which world you live in but in the real world many people that want to get an N900 would also be considering iphone, htc desire, etc. So if I raise things that work well in iphone and don't on the n900 only an idiot would call that trolling.

Sorry to use this language but you guys have forced me to turn this way.