want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

so i have been researching this phone for a while and want to shove my iphone up steve jobs a##. i almost ordered one from amazon but since i was going to nyc i thought i would test it out at the nokia store first.

this is where im hoping to get some clarification. i was at the store for a good hour and tried about 5 of the display models they had. on all of them i found the phones to be slow, choppy, touchscreen not responsive, youtube extremely laggy, switching desktops a pain and etc.

i read some other posts about people talking about demo models and pre production models. can someone please clarify? would the one i buy be upgraded and have bugs fixed?

i want this phone very badly but want to make sure that what i experienced at the nokia store will not be what i end up buying.

p.s please dont flame, im not a troll or trying to diss the phone, i want to make sure i buy a good product. essentially im looking for a phone that does what the iphone does but without the apple BS

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Well, I have never used a demo phone from a Nokia store, but I can tell you that my N900 is running very smoothly, watching youtube videos on it is just awesome... And also I would purchase a new one from like amazon or some place and if you really don't like it you should be able to return in (30 days)... So you got a while to play with it.. idk.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

well, you are not telling us what you want from a phone, is somewhat difficult to point you a north (even comming from iphone, i didnt why you dont like it).

for example, the N900 is NOT:
- amoled samsung screen, is a good quality but tft lcd
- professional camera, 5mp, but fuzzy in darkness and slow on movement.
- high processor; 600mhz is not the more powerfull device out there
- long battery: Some report 20h, 10h, for me its a 6-8 hour phone, but you can replace the battery
- dedicated gps: the official map solution is OVI Maps 1.0 and lacks from a lot of features. but what it does, it does well (IMO)
- polished platform: maemo is beautiful but... strange. nokia seems to have a big budget for marketing but a small one for features. low integration of default apps for a high end phone.

but it is the best phone i have so far!

because it fills all my needs

what are yours?

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

thanks for the reply but you did not really answer my questions or concerns either. i want a phone that will be stable, that has a full functioning browser so i can do my online banking, answer emails, use gtalk, and it must support SIP which nokias tend to do.

i would go with a blackberry but there is no sip support which is a shame as i am very impressed with the solid and stable interface that rim offers.

i tried the iphone for a while as it has so many apps, i found one to connect to my sip account but the phone itself is just too unstable. it crashes, it wont load my emails properly, apple delets my aps and etc.

i am looking at the n900 because it should support all the multimedia and full browsing that i liked on the iphone but is coming from a more serious company and is open source. i like how the sip is supported in the native environment and requires no mods.

having said all that and referring back to me original post i found the n900 to be slow and finicky at the nokia store in nyc. my friend tried it out as well and was surprised that it was so laggy and buggy.

i want to make sure that is not really the case with the phone before i start looking at something else.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Hi henny

to answer some of your concerns. I would say the screen is only unresponsive depending on what you are use to. You probably know that it's a resistive screen meaning you have to actually press down on the screen. its not as responsive as capacitive screens with a finger but it has its advantages when using a stylus or a gloved hand.

As for lag or choppyness I cannot help you with that since I don't know what firmware the demo units were using but I can say that the speed of the browser and flash playback were improved in an update. I would also say that the flash performance pretty much depends on what flash site you visit. Alot of videos are fine but hi resolution videos can become choppy. some flash games run perfectly well but others are choppy. For most flash sites I would say it works well.

My advice would be to find out what firmware the demos were running, or take the plunge, test the phone and if you don't like it you can always return it.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

i know that i cant answer all your questions, please be patient :)

IMO, no interface is like the iphone. its just toot responsive to be true.

and the n900 lags a bit when in heavy use. nothing critical, but the multi process model is not very compatible with the single threaded omap processor. in fact, the phone application has a beauty transition that is very annoyng when the device is on load

in opposition, when i need gps i have three different applications running at the same time: ovi maps (for well, a map), an accelerometer from ovi store (with BIG numbers) and a compass or satellite data from extras-devel (GPSJinny, thanks!). no lag at all for each app and in transitions.

about SIP, its perfect to me. its integrated with the main phone-contact application so you can lost a phone call and call back by sip or skype with the same interface

about browser, its perfect too. it has all the render power of firefox so home banking its ok (while its not locked for ie), every webmail has worked for me (gmail with gtalk integrated, tahoo, hotmail and exchange owa), also has several messenger protocols integrated (gtalk officially, msn unofficially) so you dont need browser for those.

lets talk more about browser: the flash 9 application.
- what works: institutional flashes, buttons menus, youtube of similar low quality videos. so, browsing flash or video flash will not stop you. fullscreen for youtube works well too
- whats a problem: when flash is a crap. if needs power, you are done. big canvas flash needs processor that you dont have, vimeo or other non selectable HD video player drop frames, heavy flashes with smoke and transitions.
- dont work: all that makes adobe work: os integration, like web camera for flash is disabled. AIR and new flash 10 stuff are not available. very rare for navigation, but worth to know.

you must read other threads to know more specific things. every native app has its cons that you can tolerate or not. it also has no unified portait mode.

and the email app its for a casual use only (IE: it lacks for search option)

i dont like blackberry. it has a very polished platform, but its old (and not linux :P)

well... keep asking!

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

very informative thanks :) the email search function is a must for sure, and i did have a question. how can i watch high quality youtube? is there an app? like you said trying to do it with the browser is just asking for trouble.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

yes, email seach is a must. i dont understand how it was released without that function.

there are community efforts to solve that, maybe in a couple of months this situation will be remembered only on a nostalgic chat with friends. (like copy paste function in iphone). until then...

about youtube hd, i dont know :D i think that youtube is filtering the hd function because the button is missing in things like "district 9 hd", but ill try it and update this post

about an app, yes. there are two (to start with, and unofficial) that let us watch and download youtube video. ill try that too.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

I was given a demo N900 from the NYC flashship store as a replacement for my broken N900. (They were super nice!) And the firmware was 42.1.

Also, I'm not sure how much you'll get out of wanting HQ youtube, as 720p is a higher resolution than the phone itself.

@clasificado: I'm not sure if the iphone's interface is too good to be true. N900 is just as responsive unless background programs are taking up CPU time. Also, 600Mhz is not a negative and is not lower powered than other phones on the market. The Mhz race was dis proven for processors long ago. Sorry, just a couple of things I wanted to throw into the conversation. :D

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

i guess the phone seems to be the way i tested it then. did not realize there is so much left to be worked out, but hey its the first attempt so only time will tell.

i used blackberries for years and most recently had a 9700 which is so clean and flawless, i like blackberries because they do what they are designed to do and they do it with perfection. the only reason i sold it was because even though it was unlocked i was not able to use all functions for 3g with my carrier.

got the iphone just to try out and was addicted to the interface pretty quickly. it is very easy to use (too simple actually) and their touchscreen i gotta say is king, you cannot compare. but there is where the good things end. the phone is too locked up, apple is paranoid, apps freeze up, things like gtalk and gmail apps are blocked, jailbreaking broke my youtube, wifi did not work, gps did not work, dropped calls, dropped network, etc, etc.

the n900 on paper seemed like a much better phone and there is no doubt that the hardware for the most part is well above. however, nokia really needs to work on the interface and on the touchscreen (the resolution and screen itself is breathtaking though). flash support imo might as well not even be added because it "seemed" so glitchy in the store. i found myself trying to click exit and maximize and was stuck in full screen mode a few times until youtube ended up crashing the browser.

im not saying i need flash but its a big playing card for the n900 and if it doesnt work well then whats the point :(

im also very surprised at the lack of the search function :(

im sure its a great phone with a lot of potential but it looks like its not the right one for me after all.

i thank you guys a lot for the help and informative posts :) hopefully something better comes up soon.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

@Konceptz: hey! the more, the better :)
im with you, its no a bad phone at all! its fighting the HighEnd-CuttingEdge league.

but lets be fair too, its not old, nor cheap. its like the best than nokia can do today. and really the best that it has is the maemo platform. about the rest, it is impressive (like other phones with this price) but not a killer.

the iphone has a trick: its single application minded by design. it resigns a lot but does a good work to workaround its flaws. as result, sorry, its impressive in ui response for me.

about the processor race, i think that is has just started :D the new omap (5?) with two full cores and less power consumption than the current omap4 will give us a new generation of mobile devices.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

@henny: you are welcome :) blackberry its a rock solid king. its damn old, it remembers me to garnet os at some point. i wish the other platforms see it and learn from it.

but browsing flash works fine for me. not a single crash in months by flash. im really happy to navigate like in a pc without restrictions at all. its a big card for nokia becaise it deserve it

for the record, you have a lot of options here. there are several mail clients and with easydebian a lot more! but those are so loose coupled with the platform in my opinion.

maybe someone can throw some light at this point because

im a casual mail user so i dont really need to search any mail

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

As someone who came from an iPhone I will say that the only thing I like about the n900 is the browser, physical keyboard, and running multiple apps. The n900 doesn't have any apps if that's what you are looking for. A lot of people like to hype up the fact that it runs linux and it's "open" but I was able to customize my jailbroken iPhone way more than tne n900. I could go on for a while but I'm typing this on my phone in bed and my arms are tired lol. The n900 was definitely not worth $500 for me coming from an iPhone.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

just visit the store again and ask that the salesperson reboots the device before you start trying it.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

"but I was able to customize my jailbroken iPhone way more than tne n900"


Pity you had to jailbreak it first to do it.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

the sales people there had no idea what the phone was even capable of, hence i ask on the forum ...

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Well for what its worth this phone is spectacular and the only issue i have with it is that I can't put it down for more than 20mins. The flash works great for me and youtube vids are fluid and easy to maximize, minimize, etc and on other flash heavy sites it still seems to work qutie nicely. The browser is truly a work of art and depening on what you need to do on the moment you can switch back and forth from the microb browser or firefox. When I need a quick google search or something i use the firefox browser i find it quicker for some reason. anyways to sum everything up my n900 has been working smoothly from the home screen to the apps adn to the browser. Good Luck on yours if you purchase one.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Everything is relative...

When you talk about speed and performance, it depends on where you come from. What device you've used before.

Having owned the 3GS and N900, I also confirm that the N900 is nowhere near the smoothness and fluidity of the iPhone in terms of UI and UX.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

The demo phones are probably on old firmware, and have had a lot of abuse from people using them. A new phone on up-to-date firmware will probably perform better. Yes, that does rather make the demo phones less useful!

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

One other thing to consider: The fact that the web browsing on the N900 is fully functional means you dont-need-an-app-for-that (tm).

Where you need an iPhone specific app to watch youtube, do online banking, order your tennis shoe in any colour you like, you can do these things with a flash enabled browser in most instances.

Sure, an iPhone app is customised for the interface so is better for most people, but if you are not "most people" and prefer a device you can customise to your tastes, then the N900 can't be beaten IMO.

We are expecting a major OS update this month which we are hoping will fix a lot of the N900 niggles. This is a work in progress, and those that stick with it won't regret it.

Just my $0.02

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

I came to N900 without going through iPhone phase, and have been impressed about the capabilities in this little computer. For me the UI is not at all or not that laggy - and application performance is something that I hope time will improve, as application developers get more experience writing and using mobile applications on N900.

It is so true that essential features like search and iCal synchronization are missing in the beginning, but I have hopes up on those features coming sooner than later.

Lack of dedicated applications for sites / services X,Y and Z is not such a problem - as others have noted about browser's capabilities, but at the same time websites designed for larger screens are not always pleasure to use on N900. However with web runtime ( hopefully coming soon to N900 ) or python and qt writing these dedicated applications is not such an effort, so it could be requested and communicated to site owners to create their widgets / applications that work well with N900.

Especially the web runtime is promising - as for developers it also opens possibilities to use same code in Symbian phones. Development is done in familiar html, css and javascript combo - so should be a snap for normal web developers.

N900 is on early steps in it's journey, so give it some time and it might take you to places :-D

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

It takes 5 minutes. What's the big deal? Faster than waiting months for something to happen with the n900.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

it seems to be a big deal to apple....

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

I hate when people use the browser as an excuse for no apps. Have you ever tried uploading pictures (and tagging people in them) to facebook using the iPhone app compared to the website? It's such a breeze with the app. I tried doing it on the website on the n900 this weekend and it was such a pain.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

People coming from the Iphone find the home screen scrolling 'slow', or 'not responsive enough'....it`s not the smoothest but it does its job just fine.....also the resolution is 800x480 so it has to process more things at the same time...put that resolution to an iphone and it will crawl

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

I can't believe people are moaning about the "slow" scroll speed!

OK - the Nokia store sucks arse at the moment. I don't see that changng for the time being.

But there are plenty of free apps available right now!

You have that choice.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Just curious. Have you used an iPhone? It's probably just the difference between capacitive (iPhone) vs. resistive (n900) screens because the iPhone is a lot smoother. Capacitive screens also support multi-touch but cannot be used with a stylus.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

At what point does it matter that the n900 has an 800x480 screen besides taking pictures, watching video, and maybe browsing the web? When you're at the home screen I can fit just as many icons on an iPhone as I can on my n900. I just don't see what the big deal is other than the things I mentioned above.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

I have used an iPhone and the scrolling is smoother - big deal.

Would I complain about it - no it just not that important.

Would I base a buying decision on that? No.

I like the hardware of the iPhone - it's very nice.

Capacitive vs resistive argument is plain dumb.

They are just different technologies.
Capacitive screens are nice if accuracy is not important, multi-touch is nice and of course you can have a solid screen (e.g. glass).
Resistive screens allow you to use a stylus, have more accurate control and the screen needs some "flex" in-order for it to work.

Both technolgies have their uses.

iPhone is more an entertainment product and the n900 is probably more practical.

I don't think the scroll speed is tied to the touch-screen technology - it's probably more to do with OS design e.g.The n900 is multi-task system and the iPhone is "single-task".

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Open one app on the iPhone and one on the n900. It's still clearly smoother on the iPhone. Open up 10 apps on the n900. Does the scrolling get worse? No. Then I don't think software is much of an issue when it comes to scrolling. And if it is, then I think we have proven once again that everything about the iPhone is what makes scrolling so nice.

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Games! Actually pretty much everything is better by having the 800x480 resolution.

To add to this thread, do not think of the n900 as a phone, think of it more as a miniature computer that just happens to make phone calls as well.

It's debian in a tiny box.

iPhone has a lot of gimmicks and tricks they use to make it seem like it's smooth. Apple is good at using transitions and neat effects to cover up actual slowness in the UI.

The Beauty of the n900 is that if there isn't an app for something specific, you can use pretty much any language (unfortunately no java) to write an app for it. If you can't write an app, I'm sure someone in the community would be glad to write one, or is already working on one.

This phone actually makes me want to learn how to program, so I can write something cool for it.

With the exception of the UI itself for the iPhone, I'm just not impressed by it. And the fact that Apple has turned into bigger *** clowns than Microsoft, makes me want to never even consider buying any of their products (I used to be indifferent, now I'm annoyed after all the lawsuits)

slaapliedje

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

There is no disputing the scrolling is smoother on the iPhone.

I am just not convinced the touch screen type defines how smooth the scrolling is on these devices.

Why don't you think it is software?

Re: want an n900 but not impressed at nokia store
 

Here we go again with iphone vs other arguments.

To contribute to the author: Yes ive used a nokia store handset too and i concur. I didnt purchase the phone at first because of the horrible condition they keep their phones in. Mine crashed and restarted while i was looking through the menus and then nothing the very "helpful" store manager tried to explain to me the features of a phone he didnt understand. For a new joiner to the Linux tablet/Nokia world I was not impressed.

After following the progress of the community I finally upgraded with Vodafone (UK) and have loved it since.

Oh and as for the iphone vs nokia n900 - Iphone is a feature phone (as initially described by apple) and n900/other similar handsets are smart phones. end.