Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Hi,

First I'll say that I love my N900

A mobile computer with QWERTY keyboard running Debian GNU/Linux.
It has an open source hildon-desktop, terminal, web browser, media player and all that nice stuff, but the battery life is really killing me.
On a busy day it only last about 8-10 hrs. with dimet screen.

So my question is should I keep my N900 as an internet tablet and buy a new smartphone as my primary phone or just keep my N900 as my primary phone?

And if I should buy a new phone, why should it be the N9?

Nexus Prime

Pros:
Fresh updates from Google direcly
Vanilla Android
Gets fresh updates for a long time (properly 18 months)
The basic system including the UI is open source when released (I think)
A lot of apps available in the Android Market

Cons:
No psychical keyboard
Not developed in the open
Fake multitasking
Strange Linux underneath
Strange Java UI

Nokia N9

Pros:
Real multitasking
X Server
Good Debian GNU/Linux bash underneath

Cons:
No psychical keyboard
Proprietary Swipe UI (difficult to patch by the community for future updates)
Not developed in the open
Already (nearly) dropped by Nokia

What do you think? Please share thoughts :)

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Why not get a dumb phone and use the N900 as a mobile tablet computer? I find that I don't use the N900's computing abilities as much as I use to. I myself am probably going with the Nexus Prime or the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

i sold my sgs2 for the n9 myself.

because in everyday use the n9 eats the sgs2.

course, i wanted a phone thats easy to use onehanded, and can be picked up and put down fast and simply. sgs2 wasnt as smoothly awesome in normal use for me. also, i like the ui concept so thats no minus for me.

but i guess youve got to just try the phones out and see for yourself.

prime and sgs2 both will be/are great phones. its just android im sick of.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

No one can really be sick of The Nexus Prime (Samsung Galaxy Nexus?)... Ice Cream Sandwich is brand-smacking-new and has undergone a major rework under-the-hood.

It also has awesome features, it'll be a phone that wont be beaten in the next 6 months and will probably last for over 2 years.

The N9, I'm not so sure of. It has no support. Not really a community either. If you decide to get it, in 6-8months there's a high probability you'll feel "left behind"

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

in 6-8 months im sure ill be buying a new phone anyway. thats me tho.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Keep the N900. Personal preference. I hate changing phones and having to re-learn all the different functions (no matter how intriguing they may be).

Unless your N900 is already in bad shape and behind on productivity, then it's a totally different situation.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Just keep in mind that battery life seems to suck in Android too. That was a huge surprise for me (2 weeks now on android) as no-one was telling this to me (voluntary – before I joined the club, later yes :D ). Also it was not told to me that basic google-ware is something you need to replace with something else with more functioning apps and that those apps are many times pay-apps. On the positive side, installing custom rom with latest updates was very easy. For actual phone use Android sucks big time, the UI is not even close of being smooth for that purpose. Oh the Android market UI sucks too, there is no way in hell you can actually use market without knowing beforehand what to download.

But I’m happy. It is wonderful toy phone.

So, imo, it is better to buy a cheap android so you will feel free to play with it to extremes.

Laughing Man’s suggestion to buy dumb phone to go with tablet computer is very good but maybe impractical.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

SGS2 lasts one day when used. Like the N9.

Very long when unused. Like the N9.

Id say keep the N900 for heavyer mobile computer use if its still working fine, and get th N9 for basic phone functions and awesomeness.

Cause... why the hell not.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

I am in the same situation. And just two days ago i had the oportunity to try in the shop the N9.

Unlike you, i'm not gonna buy a new phone in 6 months but in 2 years probably, so i have to do a smart movement.

I would prefer a higher-than 3.9 inches screen, but i know what to expect from the n900 so i would go directly for the n9. The OS is imprressive.

But, that phone is already dead, and i don't like the idea of repeating the mistake of the n900.

So i'm waiting to see android 4 and what does he offers. Nexus primer is my num 1 candidate.

However, i think that when i buy the new mobile, we will have some nokia w7 phones, and perhaps nokia will say someting about future updates of meltemi in the n9, which would make me think again about it.

Right now, the only option that i see in the new android.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

If you wait for ICS id guess theres more phones out that beat the nexus, like sgs3 and so forth.

If you want a stable OS that isnt going anywhere anytime soon, get an iphone or android device. If youre slightly more daring, perhaps a nokia windows phone when that time comes.

Personally Im going to be checking out the nokia windows phones. Despite my better judgement...

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

my advice is to spend this next week looking at what you use your phone for most. be logical. for example my needs are:
must have good call quality and signal quality because i spend a lot of time talking on the phone.
The battery must be decent enough to last a whole day with med/heavy use.
if it has no physical keys it must have a good vkb because i'm a heavy txter.
i do use the web on the go so good browser.
i need a decent email client.
i IM through skype frequently
it has to be able to multi task as i tend to have multiple things going eg browser, conversations and notes.

lots of phones can fit that bill for me. some are better in some area's then others. if i take all my usages and needs and then weigh up phones that look decent and i like i'll see what fits me.
you don't owe nokia or google or any company anything. don't be convinced by zealots from the different camps. Base your choice on what you do with it and how it feels for you. i go into the phone shop and test out new phones all the time to see if i like them.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

the other dimension is around not what you use but how you use them. N900 made the experience pleasant - hit empty space to go back, one button to display all open apps etc

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

So, the key question, how is the browser in android? As good as the one in the n900?? And how is multitasking? Why is it fake?

I know that both questions in the iphone are easily answered with a "bad or really bad" and "not multitasking, but a workaround that works well most of the times but extremely annoying when you want to close apps"

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Well. I'm a long time Linux and Open Source fan, so I don't think i'll be buying a Windows Phone or an iPhone.

Like petrelli I don't want to switch phone every 6 or 8 mouth, but wait at least a year or maybe a year and a half.

The reason why I've looked at the Nexus Prime was the clean, fresh and long time Android updates, but I still miss the psychical keyboard.

In Denmark where I live the only Android smartphones available with physical keyboard (as far as I know) is the HTC Disire Z that's kinda old now and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro that's ok cheap.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro is not that popular which means that very few (or no at all) custom roms will be available and if I know Sony right there will only be released very few and late official updates and will it even get Ice Cream Sandwich?
So then we're back to step 1. Maybe I should just keep my N900 as my primary phone.

But thanks for your toughs guys. It's nice to see the Maemo community still kicking and alive ;)

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

You mad, bra? You seem to believe that everybody is Kangal....

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Personally I'll stay with my (second) N900 for now. N9 would be awesome but it's twice the price I'd pay for the hardware that is built in. My ideal phone would be 4.x" with 720p screen (non-pentile subpixel arrangement), dual-core cpu, 1GB+ ram.

It's a shame that there are so many android phones with such great hardware and the n9 keeps struggling behind with almost the same cpu as the N900 and a pentile screen while it's still too expensive.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

The last time I used Android at daily basis was about a year ago (Version 2.2)
The web browser is okay. It's very mobile orientated. You'll get the mobile version of websites (if they have any) and the default web browser is quite limited as far as I remember, so you won't the the Firefox-like real web experience you know from Nokia N900.

What I mean with "fake multitasking" is that every time you switch to a new app it'll atomically close the old app and save the state and when you go to "Last used apps" and open an app it'll reopen the app form it's previous state.

That's the case of multitasking Android 3.0 Honeycomb (for tablets) and I think that Android 4 will handle it the same way.

In Maemo 5 (N900) and Harmattan (N9 & N950) it's real multitasking. You have an overview of your current open apps and can choose to close them when you want to.

As far as I know the iPhone is really bad at multitasking and the jailbreaked workarounds shouldn't work that great as far as I know.

But I think that an iPhone owner can give you a better answer on that ;)

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

i doubt we will see another phone like the n900 for years to come if ever. they way it multi-tasked, how open and configurable it is, xterm out of box. for me it was the last of the open phones. the n9 is pretty closed compared to it but you could tell that was what nokia were going to do to compete, companies like to have control and so do phone operators. unless there's a revolution from the consumer and they choose not to support the closed devices i don't see a mass market opensource phone that is as open as the n900. i will be getting another phone, probably the n9 to prolong the life of my n900.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

I'm under the impression that ICS's main point is to stop the fragmentation between manufacturers(ie. when a new version of Android is released, you wouldn't need to wait that your phone's manufacturer brings its own version of it, if it even will bring it) and combining phone(Gingerbread) and tablet(Honeycomb) Androids together.

So in other words: if you want to know what ICS phones are more or less going to be like, see Honeycomb. Or...?

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

what happened to your N9?

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

If only :rolleyes:

Well just think about it.... how can you be fed up/sick of something you haven't even seen or used. Until a proper review of Android 2.9 Ice Cream Sanwich or the "Nexus Prime" is done, you cannot be sure.

Btw, for all of those that say "who cares about how long a phone can last competitive"... I'll say "look at your N900"

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

The thing that caused me to return to my N900 was mainly the integration of chat with the entire experience. To be able to be online with 4 different IM services with little effort on my part, to have that integrated into the contacts and conversation applications, to have Skype integrated into the phone application - all this made the experience clean and straightforward.

No other phone had this. Now the N9 recreates that, adding the feeds from facebook and twitter. Yes, the Skype video calling is missing. From much of the time my N900's Skype video calling was useless to me - the other party was on a Mac and Skype there wasn't at a revision that could pick up the video. No matter, I used the phone to have voice conversations with nothing to indicate this was other than phone conversation but the small Skype logo.

The N9 will give me that, nothing else will without the need for separate applications. My needs, my use cases for my handheld device are specific (impacted by almost two years of using a highly-advanced device, the N900) - the N9 meets them.

Specifications, within reason, don't matter. Functionality does - for me.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

The seamless IM integration is really a nice feature that you take for granted in your daily life.

I remember using the Meebo Android client on my HTC Hero and it often just closed the client and I really hated it.

Does anyone know how the IM integration is on the N9. And what about Android? Can you get a nice IM client that always remain open, does take up your battery life, supports Jabber, Facebook and MSN and maybe can be integrated into the address book and mix with your other conservations (SMS and MMS)?

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

I'm fed up of Android, and I've seen that (honeycomb or gingerbread). ICS will just be a mix of both for smartphones, like the leaked videos already prove.

Enjoy your Android, Kangals.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Its fully integrated. Ive got fb chat set up to be online at all times, and it is. You see in your contacts list who is online by a little icon on their display picture, you can start a chat right from contacts list, you get notifications like its an SMS, its really pretty damn great.

Of course all your available chat accounts can be set up for this, like google talk etc.

Thats one thing the N9 did pretty well. No MSN though, which is a shame.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Ouch! You can't IM support with a plugin like MSN Pecan?

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

I've bought the n9 and it is soooo good. Much better then android.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

@kjmackey who wrote: "The N9 will give me that, nothing else will without the need for separate applications. My needs, my use cases for my handheld device are specific (impacted by almost two years of using a highly-advanced device, the N900) - the N9 meets them."

-> concerning Skype integration you could check the Pre 3 WebOS phone.
It has integrated Skype, out of the box. It was the reason I have bought one
The Skype video chat works perfectly, also over 3G, probably thanks to the 1.4Ghz processor.
the only annoying thing with the Pre3 is that when you have multiple Skype accounts and you want to switch like on the N900, you have to delete the old Skype account and the related Skype contacts will disappear from your address book.

It is too bad that the few devices that feature this seamless level of Skype integration somehow end up to be judged not commercially viable by their creator....

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Check out the galaxy note

by the way

maybe it's not random. Maybe the carriers see to it..

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

After reading these threads, I think I'm lucky I don't have to think about this. Good thing that the N950 solves my thoughts about whether I should get a new phone.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

N9
even though IM SURE nokia will cut the support.. but it'll still be worth it..

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Such a show off.
My S_Note eats N950's for breakfast !

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Good thinking!

But after reading so many of these useless threads:

Why bother about support!? updates!? and a lot of other such useless stuff!?
-Get what you want and like as it is today...
... And dont buy something that doesnt work for you, and probably never will work tomorrow either, regardless of how many updates it gets...

Is there really anyone who buys a car for daily use, without wheels? even if the engine is really powerfull?
And then is happy just if they get a promise by some support saying that wheels *maybe* will be included in the future...
-Probably noone, unless they are really stupid would do that.

But it seems like everyone wants a phone without wheels as long as it has a powerful engine, and dont even bother whether wheels has been promised in the future or not, as long as they get promises about new uppgrades for the engine....

Get a car with wheels, that you can use today!
And dont bother about future uppgrades,
when you can have something thats works now!

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Thanks for the pointer to the Pre 3. I didn't know about it. I've never owned a WebOS phone. Had the tablet for a week. Returned it and a week later HP dropped it. Sad really. It had potential.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

Interesting comparison...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCGFb0Kgx20

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

I thought the N9 looked brighter, and later in the video the photos had more detail in the whites / highlights.

Will be great to see a similar side by side comparisson once the prime is released.

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

None. Galaxy note it the weapon for you...

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

?




Yoda?

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

No, Chuck Norris, can't read? ;)

Re: Should I a Nexus Prime, N9 or just keep my N900?
 

No, apparently he can:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA_hMq-JUOE