N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Hello, I am new to the community here at maemo but I have been using the facilities of the community through THE n900 for for some time. So lets get started.

I had the pleasure of having a Samsung Galaxy S2 for about a Week. And here is a bit of a story and a review.

A friend of mine, very fond of Android took a day of usage of Galaxy S2.

1. He seemed to be very excited about the 8 MP camera.
(People who knows photography knows MP doesn't matter)
And I kept thinking I got fCamera on n900 which lets me control "Depth of field" that can put many DSLR to shame not to mention shutter speed and what not.

2. He really likes the screen size.
hmm, I checked some specs and it seems
Galaxy S2 has today
800 x 480 pixels, 4.3 inches (~217 ppi pixel density),
while my years old n900 has
800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density).
Seems as if same resolution spread over a large area.

3. GS II has no FM transmitter. Me and my friends hang out a lot and we really don't know which car we are gonna use the next minute, having a FM transmitter helps a lot.

4. "The wonder Galaxy S2 touchscreen" as my friend calls it. Then I showed him MY PAINT. N900 comes with one of the most sophisticated touchscreen with TILT and Pressure sensitivity. I design 3D models and half the time I sketch what will come to life on the n900. This if it was produced by WACOM would cost a zillion dollars. Man I can even run Blender 3D on it.

5. Galaxy S2 has thousands of apps my friend says. I say, I don't need 99,900+ fart apps. I can run an entire OS (easy debian), Code on the GO, program on LISP, what can you do?

6. Galaxy S2 has good voice commands. I am like, dude.... I would rather take 5 seconds to do it rather than have a voice command women repeat what I said for 10 minutes and then make a mistake.

7. Galaxy S2 has a great browser he says with tilty zoomy thing. I said: native microB will destroy every emulation browser you got with mobile optimization. When n900 logs in to a site, it considers itself a PC.

8. Galaxy S2 has Dual core processors and 1GB ram.
hmmm.... Intamaresting. ......
Then how come the n900 runs faster?

9. Games and apps. The android market is full of it. Then I showed him the 3000 game roms I got in my n900 from SEGA.

n900 is a PC not a phone. Its not a toy like the iPhone. This is from an era when people were thinking of getting things done on the go rather than waste time. There are three kinds of people. People who use a software, people who market it and people who makes it. n900 belongs only to the latter group. THE END...

**Update:
My dear friend made a come back with some n900 bashing points:
1. Battery Life
2. Pinch to "zoom and crap" is missing.
3. Hardware is older ( spec wise ) .

My answer:
I told him to check out this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk6F2V144Hc

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

you may forget to tell yor friend about multiboot/u-boot and having more than 1 or 2 OS's at the same time (like nitdroid-meego-nemo-ubuntu....etc) and the OVELOCKING :p

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

A totally biased review that supports my opinion.

I agree with this post.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

hi vi_ im curious to know what this code for the one on your signature ;)

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I could have easily done that. I could have mentioned
1. Overclocking to 1.2 Ghz with ease.
2. Multibooting everything out there.

and even some more such as

3. The amount of swap space I got and that I can keep Easy debian on a class 10 card and have it run like its on a Pentium 4 with 2 GB of ram.

4. THE Great OTG.

5. Not to forget cult of developers supporting it.

6. His face would have exploded if I showed him GIMP and Word inside easy debian.

Man, those were the days. When nokia made goods stuff. Today Nokia is just seem to be very confused.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

It rolls a virtual dice, if you get 0 then you'll get a forkbomb and your system will (probably), after some time, freeze. Otherwise, you live.

The second one is probably something on the same theme, except there's no virtual dice.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

you are totally right gearspec
btw i always make my friends hate their phones especially the E7 N8 and some android phones and two of my friends sold thier phones and bought an N900 BECAUSE OF ME :D

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

The N900 has:

Maemo
HW qwerty (with numerous shortcuts)
The Ultimate connectivity (wlan, bluetooth, fm trans, irda, Skype,gps, etc etc

^those are the 3 main pros (imo). i know there are many things as well which the N900 excells!

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

:D man i like your living directory (dev/null) ;)

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

There are a couple of n900 surfacing from time to time and floating around in my country (used) at a great price, and I keep inviting my friends to the DARK SIDE. But they would rather buy an iPhony and join the EVIL & SLAVE side.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I think its 8 MP not 12 MP

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

great read. Also tell you friend that i can also use my N900 as remote controller.

Really a great device.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Love the enthusiasm even though this comparison is years old.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I stopped reading at '"I can run 3d blender on it"....

How are you doing this? I would like to know!

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

n900 better than galaxy.... interesting but real !

because

maemo better than android.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

If the N900's dialer didn't take 2 seconds to bring up after the screen unlocks and lights up, it'd probably still sell today. I mean, you can chroot on Android too, but the end-result's performance is total ***. Yes, even on the SGS2's hailed dual-core Exynos. PS1, GB/C/A emulation works equally well for both phones. BlessN900 still takes better pictures than HDR Camera+ And the SAMOLED+ screen on the SGS2? Take a picture, and look at the colors. Look at them. Look. Compare them to the N900's 16bpp screen. All the colors are way too bright and pastel, a physical limitation of the LED technology. Poor colour reproduction for true blacks (who cares about blacks when you usually look at the screen straight?). I would've liked a high-resolution S-IPS LCD screen instead. P.S. Don't use Samsung's Touchwiz ROM. They used to be better than AOSP Gingerbread, but now they suck now that CM9 is out. EDIT: WTF, TMO is eating my line breaks.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Most likely through easy debian.
shinkamui I think also ported it:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=32775&page=3

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Biased sure, no problemo. Ill informed, meh.

The same week my gf, after a considerate amount of thinking and doing research, decided to treat herself with an SG2, that same week I bought my second N900 and I've had a fair amount of time comparing the two, both running Android (albeit slightly different flavours) while my other N900 was running Maemo5.

I think any comparison should start with a phrase stating it's not fair to compare the two. Even if you would consider these devices as falling under the same category, it's still comparing a 70's car with an 80'one. But ultimately I think I don't see my n900 as a phone but as a mobile computer that rings when someone calls you. It's a 70's car versus an 80's skelter.

Let me react on the points I find interesting.

2. You mean to say the GS2 has a bad screen? A screen worse than the N900?

3. I love mine and use it all the time. She could care less.

4. When my gf is using my N900, I see her strugling in ways she never does when she's using her SG2. I see myself struggle using her device's screen. It's a matter of preference and even more, of getting used to it.

5. Only fools use the phrase "thousands of apps" as a positive characteristic of a phone. An ecosystem is not equal to a phone.

7. Have you really used that device? Have you opened long web pages with plenty of pictures and lots of text that made you use your scrollbar extensively? The N900 lags often and shows the canvas for seconds before displaying content where the SG2 scrolls incredibly smooth.

You're aware that you can switch user agents on an SG2? When we checked, my N900 couldn't properly view the nike for women website, while she could, after having changed her user agent, and she got to see the full blown version of the site. www.nike.com/nikewomen/us/index.jhtml

She's learnt to do it herself now and frequently utilizes her fresh gained knowledge with great pleasure. It does not work guaranteed but what does anyway?

8. Define faster, describe what it is you're running/doing/comparing on both devices.

9. I don't see how your point 9 differs from your point 5. Are all these 3000 games top games?

Long story short: I don't think the SG2 is ill fit for the job of being a pretty decent smart phone for my girl. She has different needs than I have and is not looking for a terminal (b.t.w., anyone seen terminal IDE on Android?), root access and what not. For her it's a good device.

As I said: The same week my girl got a SG2, I bought my second N900. I wouldn't trade 4 SG2's for one N900 but that does not make the SG2 a bad device, just less suitable for me.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Well it is super biased.
I shall admit, the GS2 is pretty good, but it definitely is not a piece of innovation like the n900.With that huge screen it is possible to cram at least 1280 pixels. People to people, usage vary. Like I said, n900 is for the people like Gordon Freeman from Half life. You can compile anything from source right on your device even your own home grown software. Android needs a license and for some apps it needs premium.

Since you are comparing cars, to me ,the n900 is like a weapons grade car like the Mclaren F1. While the GS2 may be Bugatti Veyron, faster and build to comfort you, the feel, the drive the sophistication and the engineering behind the Mclaren F1 will stand the test of time and you can only tweak it to be exactly the way you want it. Just like the n900 has become a collectors item, no other device gave me so much out of so less.

and about the game, what meant is that with emulators running, I can play classics like Metal Slug and Mario, paperboy and comixzone. Those are famous games. With WebOS games, I have a whole lot more. With Nitroid, even more.

And about the "nike women" website. My n900 just loaded the actual PC version in a jiffy. And I have have the webpage lag you are talking about but very rarely. And sorry If I offended some GS2 owner, I myself own a rooted GS2.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

my n900 also rendered the nike page perfectly and without lag btw running at constant 1 ghz overclock

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I'm surprised how many of guys here are having the GS2, myself included.......not saying that one is better than another (again almost 2 years is a lot in technology) but I must say, yeah once more :mad: , that Nokia were a having a penalty kick and they missed it...damn' they should 've just made a bigger, thinner, faster maemo5 (or 6 or whatever) device....

Well now time for Barca - Real...;)

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Unfortunately, most people who buy a smartphone today don't really care about actually doing something useful on it. Today, it is games and visuals that weigh more in the decision process, not productivity, and more often than not a solid hardware spec is considered innovation.
When it comes to software, it's the same. Example: change hardware keys to soft ones and then brag about a buttonless design. Or spend 6 months designing a different toggle switch and finally use white font on black background.
I'm not against any company doing what it does and designing what it designs in order to improve its product, but if one had to stand out for the novelties it introduced, it has to be Nokia.
Don't know how much of that spirit is still left today. However, one thing is for sure: the NITs were far too advanced for their time, and one can only be proud of joining the exclusivist and select club of Maemo owners (and users alike). :)

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

user/zero .
i agree with you man

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I think thye should've stuffed that pureview tech in a MeeGo device. They should've stuck with MeeGo instead of letting M$ push there WP platform out through Nokia to gain market share. Really bad to see Nokia going mainstream.
I would've loved to see MeeGo evolve, I just hope that with the WP/Apollo update Nokia get's free hands to do what Nokia does best, innovate.
Yeah it should be renamed from smartphone to joyphone/funphone?

Regards Dousan...

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

da*m you nokia, da*m yous all to hell!!!!

if only they have... well:
Not hired elop
Continued making devices like the N900... there are seriously still nothing that comes close if you ask me.

And OP, good post, really good post, really captures many things that what i call dumb phones can't do, now and again i think about getting a newer device/phone because of bigger screen, higher res, CPU & RAM, but then i think about having to "live" with android.... no way, that would really limit what i can do....
Oh and they are dumb phones when you need others to make programs (apps.............) to get them to do anything, we can strip ours down to terminal and still do pretty much anything (of course with the optional GDM :) )

How did i even get by before i got my N900???

I will say it again, only way to move forward at some point is to build our own device OR hope that when UBUNTU comes out with phone/tablets they make something like the N900 with full ubuntu on it, i could really dig that :)

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Nope. It´s not an N900. Nothing else than the N900 is. And actually my statement was not a car to car comparison. It´s a car to skelter comparison.

To my surprise the nike site works. I am not sure whether they changed code to be standard compliant or whether I did not look good enough. At the time, that site was the reason for my gf to start tinkering with user agents.

Oh, and on the topic of insulting, I would not feel offended abot such a thing. I only meant to share some other user experience.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Oh crap ! I didn't know what a skelter was.. :(

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

To many and nokia itself, the n900 (a piece of innovation from the engineers) seemed to be a FLOP to general users. Why?

In this official thread n900 Flops thread
http://forum.dailymobile.se/index.php?topic=23482.15

One user mentioned something like " I want everything to just work".

Thats the thing ? Just Like Apple or Banana or whatever, people just want it to work. With n900 one has to work hard, and the rewards are tremendous. (example: I spent a whole day freeing up around 113 MB on the rootfs). General people dont know what is a " MB ", let alone rootfs. With the introduction of siri on banana, in upcoming years people will forget how to optimize and get more than you bargained for, if you work hard. They are pushed far in to the interface and we are pushed far inside the core.

The gap between users and programmers keeps increasing.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

gearspec you said it just right there, there are people that just want something that works, and nothing wrong with that at all, and then there are the few (very few) that want more than what i REALLY call a dumb phone.

It also amazes me how much of a dump google took on linux with android, even if you do EVERYTHING (root, kernels etc) you will never get no where near where maemo/meego, and lets not forget that we even have to "suffer" with the closed bits in maemo.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Yep. With the arrival of banana and green bug (green-eyed monster? :D) now almost everybody brags about their 'smartphone'. I'd like to repeat this comparison and show people once and for all that, although technically they do own a 'smartphone', it is the user, not only the devs who built the OS, who truly defines how 'smart' your otherwise inanimate object is. In my country there's a saying, 'Humans/The individual consecrate(s) the place.' Couldn't apply it any better here.
P.S. 1) I'm taking things to an individual level. Obviously, there are knowledgeable users in every camp, but I can't help feeling that to be called a 'smartphone user' formerly stood for a lot more than today.
2) 'siri on banana'.... :D just too good

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I wouldn't count on it. There may be some technicality somewhere but the only real reason I still carry my N900 is because of GNU/Linux and that's about it (there are other reasons which are not OS related i.e. HWKB, IR, FM radio, etc). When this releases I will consider dumping my N900:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQozs5tXxwY

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

That is pretty sweet with the android/ubuntu mix, but it still isn't enough for me.

I want a big screen with 720P res, the same kinda touchscreen and full ubuntu running on the phone (no mix match), and still having a HWKB, everything else would be nice to have as a bonus, FM, IR etc.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

I miss my N900 =[. I like my N9 but it is NOT what the N900 is for me. Being on AT&T in the US, I couldn't get 3G with the N900 but I was still in awe with it. I really wish Nokia released a proper successor to it. I don't count the N950 because of its specs, and the N900 really is a mobile computer. I seriously miss that phone and its home screens and multitasking. My N9 is great, but still not the same. The N900 will always be near and dear to me, and still the best device I have used to this day.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

That is properly cool. All we need is a full desktop distro of linux with an app called "dialer".

Well someday we all have to move on. And may be that device would be it.

PS: did you know there is a course in Stanford University called n900 Programming.
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee282/...rogramming.pdf

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

you can not browse www.sahibinden.com with GS2 because it does not opening slide bar in this sites sub menus, but n900 very perfect browsing and opening to slide bar menus in www.sahibinden.com.

iphone, ipad, android and n9 does not opening sub menus on www.sahibinden.com

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

The biggest blight in Android (among others) would be Bionic libc. There is no dynamic linker, which pretty much forces you to use a chrooted system if you want to be able to use a proper GNU userland. Unless you're a masochist and statically link all your utilities.

Oh, and did I mention that the rootfs is a ramdisk (holy crap, why? Not even iOS does this.), and the actual system root is in /system, user stuff in /data. It's crazy - as if I were in Windows again with a nonunified root filesystem.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

Dunno... seen lots of embedded systems where the root of the filesystem is a ramdisk.

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

sorry for the OT but have you guys seen my posts in the first page ? i was totally AMD :p, please excuse that :)

Re: N900 vs Galaxy S2 (Super Biased Review)
 

We can just give a new name to this condition; AMDtitis anyone?