maemo.org - Talk - For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

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- Nokia N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=44)

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

I also desire the upgrades in terms of hardware from the upcoming smartphones i.e. snapdragon or a cool 1Ghz stock processor plus 512MB in dedicated RAM. To top that off, many things like portrait (which is slowly changing thanks to the people who dev-ed SUPER cool things like the latest FastSMSevo and other apps like FappMan which come in portrait mode anyway), or probably some other issues that I kinda think can be improved i.e. HD camera and 1020p videos...

hoewever...

i just don't know what I'll do without my N900 Maemo browser - MicroB. I saw some clips of the E7/N9 and it's still using the Symb browser of some kind...

I've become also so accustomed to taking 'opening apps' for granted that whenever I take another guy's phone, N8, IP4 or HTC or something, I just can't seem to enjoy the task switching experience via shortcutd or camkeyd like I do on the n900. THe fact that I can hold it landscape with the camera button conveniently at my pointy to switch tasks is SO ingrained in my usage of a phone. Even when sometimes it lags after opening too many apps, i kinda can live with it because I don't experience heavy lagging especially when OC-ed when I feel like i am going to run more apps.

I would only change probably if something like an exact phone like the N900 with a similar maemo system with the upgrades that I mentioned above would appear.

I'm just too pampered by the Maemo system and it's abilities....

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

The N900 is still available at amazon as well. I bought a second one recently when I thought my first one was bricked after someone spilled coffee all over it, but after taking it apart and wrapping it paper towels (had no rice in the cupboard) over night it worked just fine the next morning. Now I have a spare to develop on and hack to my hearts content B-)

More on the thread's topic, I did consider switching to an android phone instead but all even anywhere close to having all the features of the N900 were hundreds of dollars more than it's current price. Apple's phones are totally off the table for me as openness is my number one concern.

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikiwide (Post 930432)

It's probably that Nokia sold all the N900 devices to consumers directly or to resellers, and Nokia is out of stock, while resellers aren't.

Hmm. I still see plenty of places selling the device (with full warrantee), and Nokia itself still has their n900 web page up. If Nokia has sold out, shouldn't we be seeing resellers warning of low stocks by now? I kinda figure that Nokia would keep building and selling the device up until they actually have a successor ready...

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mentalist Traceur (Post 929965)

As much as I somewhat-often (I guess... I don't really count) agree with James Littler on things, I feel that in this case that's a luck-of-what-got-installed-when/where-and-what-your-use-cases are.

I've never had problems answering phone calls on the N900, and I haven't heard anything from anyone suggesting I just missed any. I HAVE had occasional bugs where the phone spontaneously shuts off, doesn't reboot (but still has battery power to do so and run for a while), and when it boots up the next time, the text messaging system is f'ed (new messages out refuse to send, new incoming ones arrive but if you close the convo they vanish). Reboot after that usually fixes it though.

The only time I've ever hung up on a call was when I was about to press an entirely unrelated UI element when a call came in. When I have used the N900 as a phone (mostly after PR1.3, with the exception of one week with, I think, PR1.1.1 or PR1.2), I have not had phone call getting problems. (I realize it was worse before-hand, but that's kinda indicative of the existing support.)

At any rate, I don't know how you feel limited, really. We just got a replacement keyboard that pulls of portrait damn well, we have just about everything a normal phone can do and then some, and if you look over the spectrum of users and use cases, we actually don't have more bugs on this platform than iPhones/Android devices have. I know damn well I've heard complaints from Android phone users about their phones being slow. I have also know there's a good amount of iPhone bugs - it's just that most iPhone users are busy going omg-I-haz-iPhone. If we had the same bugs on Maemo every one here would be flipping a **** calling Nokia horrible at supporting this platform, this OS as beta, etc, etc.

Nay, this OS is damn good. And if it had the same limitations the iStuff had, you'd never run into most of these bugs, because the stock apps barely have any. There would be some - but like the iPhone's alarm-not-going-off-at-the-right-time problem, that's to be expected.

What makes everyone here have a problem with it is that this phone doesn't BS you about what's behind the scenes, and it doesn't give you comfortable padding. If this phone only let you multitask on its terms, you'd run your individual apps one/two at-a-time just fine. If this phone hid every bug within an entire closed-source OS, instead of just within some (admittedly very important) binary blobs, you wouldn't know of half these bugs happened. Things would "just(/not) work", and when they didn't you'd either not know about it, or not know what the hell caused it.

You get the liberty to know a binary blob is buggy and Nokia is anal for not open-sourcing it because you get to see through the open parts of the OS in the first place.

- Edit -

At the rate things are going, unless I absolutely need something like later-than-9.4 flash compatibility with bs'ed version numbers soon (which, honestly, I'd like, but I don't need now), I'm probably keeping my N900 for a few years. (Really, dear god, do people really buy high-end gadgets only to upgrade less than a year after the fact? Is this just because the N900 is the first smart-phone I ever liked enough to go out and pay for myself, and it was an actual investment for me? Do the rest of you really have that many liquid funds?)

Anyway, right now, the only things I personally miss from this phone:

Full portraitization (It's known to be in the works, and MohammadAG fixed the Qt bug in Maemo that caused segfaults when launching in portrait). Honestly, given how MUCH portrait support is now available courtesy portrait keyboard and usable-in-portrait status-menu, I'm happy with what's there. I just like the aesthetic of having fully full portrait support.

The Flash being up-to-date, but like I said, frak it, it's not a problem enough for me.

Print function included in the FreOffice UI. I'm pretty sure host-mode + debian-on-armel-driver-for-printer = printing possible for even USB printers. Combined with the already present Bluetooth printing capability, there's no reason that shouldn't be in there already.

Beyond that? I'm kinda set right now. The rest are trifles, for me. I know I'm lucky and I don't have bugs like some other people do. I can't really help anyone there, though.

@ Mentalist, your posts on your personal experience with the n900 are always a joy to read (at least for me) since they usually quite succinctly articulate my own experience with this nifty lil gadget so far. I've always only used the basic telephony functions off all my phones in the past, and have only wanted it to be able to store and play my music as well. The n82 however opened up my eyes to the potential of doing a multitude of things on a device which had an actual OS like a pc. While i quite like Symbian and its ease of use, the OS restrictions, were what prompted me to jump onto the n900 after a lengthy stint with with my old n82 ( which is still running fine i can report, :p ).

Sure the android and iphone markets may have a higher number of apps/customisations in total, but I wonder how many of those apps are redundant ( different apps achieving the same purpose ) or frivolous ( i don't really care about fake fart, fake sounds and beer drinking apps, ) but as far as actual useful apps that serve some real purpose, the n900 is only missing a few IMHO.

To some the whole notion of "need an simple app to do something?Compile it yourself!" does not sit well, but it makes me think that they've bought the wrong phone. While devs complaining about lack of support, bugs, closed source apps, etc are viable issues, I don't agree with comparisons with old/new nokia models and the iphone/android herd. Sure they may be much better smartphones with nifty telephony functionality but thats not what i was expecting from the n900. After my initial research into the device, I came to the conclusion that the n900 was meant for heavy tweakers, those interested in learning about linux, people willing to DIY stuff that wasn't in place, and that it was an unfinished platform meant for devs while offering basic connectivity, so I was contactable. In fact for a while i was unsure that I could handle all the learning, as i come from a non-linux, non-programming background.

I'm glad though that i went ahead and grabbed one ( tho i must admit a large motivating factor was the frustrating disappointment that my n97 was at the time) as its only required a little time, reading, a commitment to learn and a willingness to experiment. Initially i will admit I was a little lost, but by the recommended TMO method of using the search function and actually reading through threads before asking questions, I've started to get the hang of it. The best part though is that the learning hasn't stopped! At the beginning of last year, looking through the QBW thread just made my head spin, but after finally taking the plunge, i know have a much better understanding of dbus commands, and even have gotten to the point of creating my own custom widgets, complete with animated icons, :D

For someone like me who's willing to put a little time in actually read up and then fiddle about, the n900 has been a godsend to my curiosity and interest in tech! Sure i could do with a few more music composition/turntable apps, a garmin port ( I wish! :P ) as well as a portrait mode conversations window, but to be honest, thats about it. Even my very minute gaming needs when it comes to my phone have been serviced with the onset of Preenv. ( I much prefer my psp for gaming on the go, :D )With all the fanfare of new higher hardware spec devices coming out, I more inclined to save up my hard-earned dosh for a psp2 by Xmas, hehe

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikiwide (Post 930432)

I'm not sure, but I have seen threads about this:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...597#post928597
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...251#post927251
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...213#post792213

It's probably that Nokia sold all the N900 devices to consumers directly or to resellers, and Nokia is out of stock, while resellers aren't.

The logic behind these facts is that "If I couldn't buy/find a N900 in the most convenient way, it is discontinued". You'd like to check the fact yourself in this case. ;)

I can still order N900 in Hong Kong. Most of the shops here don't take stock of N900. Of course, they would rather stock newer phones with higher profit margin.

So when you hear a salesman tells you something is out of stock, it probably means "it is old and nobody here has any knowledge with it and I don't want to waste time on stocking something with low profit margin so choose something else or get lost I've more gullible customers to serve"

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

My next phone may be Android based, if there was one with a physical keyboard and front facing camera.

Although I like the N900 even more since being able to take more advantage of the GPU with WebOS games. B-)

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

I'm gonna stick with Nokia, if N9 turns out to be a disappointment in either hardware or software department, I'm quite happy to stick with the N900. For me nothing in the market comes even close to N900 in terms of what I want from my smartphone. (Yes it's not a phone, it's a mobile computer :-P)

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

I would never buy anything from apple, they lock their devices down in a way that makes me feel physically sick. I will probably never use Android for similar reasons. Also, I'm a GNU/Linux guy, stopped using Windows over a decade ago, I want a proper Linux box in my pocket.

When I replace my n900 it will be with another OPEN phone, if there isn't one available I will get the dumbest phone I can find and it will act as a modem for a seperate mobile computing device. My n900 is probably my main computer these days and it's really nice having a single device to fulfill all my mobile tech needs, convergence is important, but not as important as freedom.

all my earlier smartphones have been bricks eg n93 > 9300i > e90 & now n900. since i change phones only every few years i'm in no rush to jump ship just yet as long as she holds herself together. ''come on baby, hold yourself together''. ;)
next phone's gotta have a qwerty, the usual apps & browser like n900 with open os. so yeah- no rush, no regrets. :D
-footnote-
i chose n900 when a next gen nokia communicator never showed. i'm really glad i did.. & hats off to you geniuses too for making n900 practical & fun! :D

Re: For your next smartphone, will you choose N9 or switch to an Android phone / iPhone ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by James_Littler (Post 929955)

Android, for what it's worth, is nice, I just hate hardware buttons, even if they are capacitive. Also I have not seen 1 android phone I like the build quality of, they feel like flimsy plasticy toys. I want metal.

Just as a quick note, the original Droid/Milestone is metal, with a gorilla glass screen. I don't even use a case on mine. It has an awesome keyboard as well. It has this wonderfully comfortable sense of "heft" to it...heavy enough to feel solid, light enough to hold it to one ear for long calls.

Sadly, I bought the Milestone, so I was snookered by Motorola's secret locked down firmware. Droid users were pretty happy with theirs, their firmware was open and they can still update it as new ROMs come out.

The Milestone's version of Android tends to be buggy and Motorola is competing with Nokia as far as who can put out the slowest updates.

Still, metal Android phones do exist, you just have to watch for them.