Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Well, I really want to know what made you buy your device, and because I'm going to go first.

I remember it was 2009, and it was that frenzy with "who's got the smartest phone around in your group of friends". At that time I owned a brand new HTC Touch Diamond PRO, and it was a bomb. A phone with a physical qwerty keyboard, that revolutionary G-Sensor for games and it was running the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 PRO OS, another friend had the Samsung OMNIA HD, anohter one had a I-Phone and so on. One day, a friend which had more money than all of us said that he bought a brand new, off contract Nokia N900 device. When he showed us what that phone is capable of we were all stunned. Since that day I was craving to get a N900 too, but it was always over my budget.

I had some other spare phones @ home and with the help of a local forum we started trading those phones. I sold my LG KS-360 for a HTC Touch Dual and a HTC Viva. That HTC Viva I sold for a LG Viewty, and after a while I sold both the Touch Dual and Viewty for a Nokia N800. The N800 was GOLD, the OS was fast and smooth, very capable of EVERYTHING for that time... After I saw what the N800 is capable of I wanted the N900 even more!

Then a girl appeared, we got together but the only problem with me and her was the fact that she was on a different carrier and my contract with my carrier didn't have minutes to call on that carrier. So I got myself a second SIM on that carrier but I didn't have a second phone anymore since the N800 was a tablet, so I gave up my N800 for a HTC Universal 64. That was a really sad moment for me, since I was saving up money for a N900, so I can exchange the N800 + some money for a N900.

Years passed (and of course devices from my signature appeared over the time) and just this year I could get my hands on my own N900 device and it was pure gold! But they broke down, so I am just going to lie myself again that I just had bad luck.

Here are some pictures taken over the time...

Attachment 32714

Here there was the HTC Viva and the PSP (another great device, it was the first generation phat...). Picture taken with the HTC Touch Dual.

Attachment 32713

Here are the N800, HTC Touch PRO, HTC Touch Diamond and Xperia X1. The Touch Diamond was a present for my mom, this was just around mother's day.

Attachment 32715

And here is the N800 in all it's glory!

Okay, long story short. Until now I bought my devices over the "love at the first sight effect" and the N900 was not an exception from this. The only device I really read about and did extensive search before buying was the HTC 8s (my current device).

Now, it's your turn to share the story!

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

My first smartphone was the Nokia N-Gage. I didn't know what a smartphone was and I was just stunned when I realized I could install applications on that thing. The years passed and more features came over, like cameras and wi-fi. I was looking at the N91 (the one with the hard drive) but right before I bought it I realized that the Qtek S200 had everything I wanted and with the full sized SD could do the 4Gigs of the N91 too. It had a gorgeous screen, 3times the resolution of the N91 but lacked a full size 3.5mm jack.

I was so burnt by the horrible WinMo5 (powerful but buggy as hell) that I decided I'll go back to symbian, forever. A friend had the 770 but I thought it was useless as I didn't even have WiFi at home at that time.

I got a N81 (not-so-good) and then I got two N95's and a 5800. I loved all those devices, and when Nokia announced it was ditching symbian for N-series I was disappointed. It didn't last long. When I saw the N900 I was immediately, without even looking at the specs "WoW! I *want* this"

The amazement didn't stop a day until today. The N900 has converted me to a full time linux user, and played a role in the job I'm doing today.

The N900 is by far the most important phone I've ever had, and it's not an exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Uhm, first of all I wanted the Lumia 710. I loved it a lot (I was dumb), then I saw the Lumia 800, incredible design, big, cool. Yet there was something in both devices that I disliked, the OS. Windows Phone, I didn't like it much. I kept dreaming about the Lumia 800 until just a few days before my last birthday. Something came up to my mind and I made a bit of searching for Nokia phones, I remembered I saw something similar to the Lumia 800, I found it, it was the N9. I saw some few videos, the trailers and everything... I made a huge look around of the OS, I loved MeeGo, and its Swipe UI. I didn't really care about famous apps other than WhatsApp. But I had in mind that if I want the N9, I shall start learning about NITDroid and how to port it bla bla. Then came Wazapp and did the job! But I wanted to try out Android as well so I faced my fears and tried it out on my previously-new N9. I faced a lot of problems convincing the store owner to give me it, he believed it was a useless device, isn't worth it and bla bla. But I was too convinced with it I insisted to get it, I finally got it and started learning stuff in it. I continued with dev mode and terminal, then learned a few programming languages, but I was too lazy to actually try developing an app. I want to continue to Sailfish..
Well, anyhow, I love it and I definitely do not regret getting it, whether it was a gift or buying it by myself.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Well I didn't really much about n900 (I only new it could run android) but I wanted so much a n9, but I couldn't afford it... So after having a n8(that my uncle had and gave me for free) for more than a year, I found a friend of mine with a n900. So I told him if you would love to give me the n900 for my n8 and he accepted it! So I took his n900 and I have it for almost 5 months and I am really happy with this phone :D

For a long time I had been watching people around me gushing about their iPhones and Droids, but they always left me feeling "Meh..." The UX of the iPhone was a toy, Android was a mess, and multitasking in both was a joke. All I needed was to see videos of the swipeUI to know the N9 would be mine.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Wow! Exact same start for me! I could open PDFs, have a fancy file explorer, use PuTTY, etc. I had also planned to get N91 afterwards, which I ended up not buying. Went to Nokia Communicator 9300i afterwards. Also found this to be awesome, especially that I could even create PDFs here. Not to forget the awesome Qwerty keyboard.
My N900 adventure began on a boring day, when I just googled "linux phone" (because N-Gage and Communicator had shown me how cool it is to have powerful tools in the pocket at all times.) At the time, I was not a linux user, but had seen a friend testing Ubuntu one day. The Google search returned N900 at the very top. The Wikipedia page about it completely converted me. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford it at the time. So I started playing with Linux on PC, and Maemo caused me to choose Debian over other Linuxes. I finally bought my N900 on July 4, 2011, knowing full well that Nokia had abandoned it. Still, it is a decision I have not come to regret. N900 still kicks ***, and it enhances my productivity at work in a way that my fellow iDevice and Android owners can only envy. For me too, N900 is 99% of the reason why I am now a daily Linux user, and can at least consider myself an entry-level linux sysadmin (I have a Debian VPS, and have been assistant administrator on two other servers).

PS: I still have my N-Gage (actually two, if I count the one suffering from White Screen of Death)

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Once upon a day I was browsing the world wide Web,
At the Nokia store I preorder my first smartphone,
The mighty n900 they called it,
But after that I have purchased to many to even count,
And they lived happily ever,
The end.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

My story is:

I was about to get the n810 as my dad gave me enough money for it.But it was about to be discontinued and then Nokia announced the n900.
Waited 2 years trying to save some money and now I got it for 4 months now.
My older nokia was 6630 and it was broken (the power button) so I need a new nokia.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

it was 2009 i was in malisya for visit i saw this first skype phone, which made me crazy so baught it. so that i could talk to my family back in india over skype at any place with labtop.

it was freaking cool at that time.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I got mine by accident. It was June 2012 and I had been happily using my Palm Treo 600 for 8 years and 3 months. It had it all: ergonomic design, fast UI, querty keyboard that could be operated with one hand, integrated address book, installable applications, 10 days battery life... The camera was rubbish and there was no Bluetooth but who cares about those anyway? The only two things I started missing were WiFi and GPS. Not that I really needed it, it was just a whim. So I started looking around for an upgrade but did not want to pay a full price for a new one. eBay, here I come! I tried Samsung S5600 (I think). I liked the display but hated the OS (Bada) and ended up selling it after a week. My next one was Sony Xperia Mini. I loved it, once upgraded to latest CyanoMode. It was cute, small but mighty and did everything I need it to do. But there was something missing. Android just did not feel quite right. So I decided to donate it to my niece and look for another one. Back to eBay, search for phones with WiFi, GPS and HW keyboard. Surprisingly, not too many on offer. I spotted one I had never heard about before that had 2 minutes to go to the end of the auction. In the spur of the moment, I bid £1 more and ended up winning it. I was a bit disappointed at first because the price was a bit higher than what I set aside as my budget but now, a year later, I have three and would take a lot of convincing to switch to another model.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I bought the Nokia 770 because I needed something handheld that could access the Internet that had Linux. Walked into CompUSA, tested it, could ping/trace/connect to a wireless network. Fell in love... three days later, Woot.com had it for cheap. Bought one, learned how to add more libraries, et al.

Nokia N800 was announced and I didn't like the plastic look/feel, so I skipped it (later got one in a trade, quickly traded it away). The moment the N810 was announced, jumped into the queue and bought it on the day it was released. Again, learned how to optimize it, make it run a bit leaner and started to do pen-testing with it.

The N900 came because of the folks here loving it - and I needed something to accompany me on a trip to Pittsburgh for a big project. I needed SSH and other Linux server admin tools from afar whilst doing a major creative project. Needless to say, the N900 did a great job, the GPS wouldn't lock for crap though, but it excelled while I was there. I came back to South Carolina, couldn't get a damn 3G signal to save my life. Had to switch back to AT&T - T-Mobile had crappy service then (and now).

The N9 came about because I was curious; well, my completist OCD had kicked in as well. So I found a way for myself and a few others in the US to get some of them. Kept that as my unlocked phone of international travels and some Qt development.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Before I ever used Maemo or a Nokia N-serie device I was googleing for a free automated mobile voicecall recorder app and after many hours searching I found one at a Maemo downloads page.
I never liked the design of the N900 so I decided to read more about the hardware specs. and operating system. A Debian base operating system HWKB, and multitask convinced me to buy my first N900.
After a year of usage I had to buy a second one because the device got bricked at way it could not be fixed within 48 hours by Jelly_Roll at the time.
Nowdays I own two N900 devices one for testing and another as a main device.
I use easy-debian, frcron,ssh and usb-hostmode on a daly base.
I don't pentest I use a birds feather.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I saw one in a store, I liked its style so much. two days later, I went back to buy it but unfortunately it was sold. I spent the money on upgrading my PC. next year, I started to research about it. everyone disliked my decision because N900 was released 4 years ago, and the OS was not 'popular'. but I finally found a used one in the Mobile Center of the city. I am really satisfied and i love it so goddamn much! and it keeps amazing me more and more everyday with its new possibilities! I enjoy using it more than any device.. or OS. y'know... Android is almost everywhere now(it's like: you'll see chinese whores running android!), iOS is sooo strict and locked, Windows Phones is locked and sucks (and its design requires some power to get in the ***), Holy MeeGo: the father of Sailfish: the son of Maemo is slowly dying, but Maemo is still cool and awesome. I always wanted to start developing for this os, but something always gets wrong and.. Fail.. and Fail again. (curse you, Qt Creator!)

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Where can I see that??

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

First smartphone was a Treo 680, which I used concurrently with a Palm T|X - I'd been attached to the PalmOS platform since my teenage years when I got a hand-me-down Pilot 5000 for my birthday. Was VERY worried about the future of the platform at that point (for good reason, as it turned out), and so when I saw in a news story that there was a Garnet (PalmOS 5) emulator available for these Internet Tablet things, it caught my attention very quickly.

I ended up swapping out the T|X for a N810 with that emulator installed (I went with the N810 because I wanted the sliding keyboard, and a GPS as well while I was at it). It was a bit rough, but I managed to do okay with a few bumps here and there. Had to do a *lot* of custom work, though, and I was never quite happy with the result. It helped a lot, though, that it was based on a Debian-ish infrastructure, as I'd been running Debian on all servers I was responsible for (and as a desktop OS, for a while!) for several years.

Then the N900 came along, and I rushed to ensure that I would no longer need to carry along chargers for and keep track of the battery level for two devices. :) It turned out to be better than I could have dreamed - half to two-thirds of the stuff I'd hacked into or wanted to hack into the N810's UI were already present in the N900, and the rest was extremely easy to add. My sole complaint was (and continues to be) the kickstand; the N810's was SO much better... but oh well.

I've stuck by my N900 for about three and a half years now and I'm not about to leave it.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Well 3 years ago i had a pc but i always wanted a laptop for portability and easy computing. I was a student. I had like 5Gs in my pocket. Pretty dissappointed an idea came to my mind "y look for a laptop when i can get a 2nd hand smartfone ". That time nokia n97 was very popular, i saw the specs n i was ready to buy that junk. I searched many places but market was flooded with mini model so i dropped my plan. Then i started googling about mobile computers n what i saw took my breath away. It was nokia n900 in the image section n wow i was amazed. Had never seen a device like that before n the great thing was the specs but when i saw the price damn i was 17Gs short. The next thing i did was going to d market asking for nokia n900. But no one ever had saw or heard about nokia n900, even second hand werent available. I was pis*ed off man , i wanted to die, not literally. I used to look at the pics of n900 and read the user opinions n 8 months passed away. Then 1 day i figured out that maemo was abondoned and for the first time i saw the demonic face of sir flop. Even that didnt stop me , i was desperate to get my hands on this beast.
Luckily my birthday was coming but this was no ordinary birthday people, my parents gave me the money to buy brand new Nokia n900. But where to buy?
Finally thanx to ebay for that and still it wasnt easy for me to order becoz there was no cod(cash on delivery). Here in India especially where i am from its a rural place , people dont buy stuff online.
I got it for 14Gs and it got delivered exactly on my birthday.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

@hardy where do you live ,, and what god damm connection you use to operate damm browsers:)

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

谢谢楼主的美文。我很享受。

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

from j$k :eek: me from wb and i also use airtel 2g :) its the best connection i can get 20 to 30 kbps stable:D a dream for many :D Btw what i wanted to know was what browser do you use normally and what other for specific tasks:)

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

Wb wow . If u live in India and get that much speed on 2G plans then u are a one lucky man. On the other hand using 3G plans in India are not that cheap and they still dont provide speedy tranfers. And the browser thing, currently i am using a series40 phone (Asha 210) so i am left with only one option opera mini. It is a good browser actually. Fone does have the nokia browser but it goes out of memory every now and then and there is uc browser but many websites doesnot support this browser.
Back in the day I was used to nokia n900s stock browser but i was bored of nokia n900.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

very soon in China!

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I started with N900 but well before N900 my previous smartphone was N95-1.

The N95-1 has been one hell of a horrid experience. Every packages needed to be signed and there was no easy way to bypass the certificate authentication methods. I remember the days of using OPDA certificates and such to get pynetmony working. It was only pynetmony that kept me sane in retaining N95-1. Every other time, if it wasn't issues with getting softwares signed, it was the device randomly rebooting. I read the NAM version of N95 (which was not N95-1) had far more RAM than the horrid N95-1.

I've been using linux on and off for a fair few years now. It just happened one day when a bloke from the US told me about Nokia N900 when he and I were on the lookout for new phones/devices that could potentially be a weapon in the pocket. This was all about aircrack-ng, yes the wireless pentesting suite. He suggested many other devices such as OQO but it just happens to be at the time when I was fully fed up with N95-1 that he found an interesting blog with N900 and being able to sniff wireless traffic. He pointed that out to me. That's when my interest with Nokia N900 grew.

I never knew what maemo were or what N900 predecessors were. At the time my interest grew from simply using N900 as a portable wireless pentesting device into something probably Nokia would have ever wished for N900 to be, a full fledged device designed and used the way it was meant to be. My interests with N900 peaked when I got my hands on a demo N900 at the store, the staff wasn't very knowledgeable but I basically started navigating in N900 like as if I had some insight. At that time I was so happy that I couldn't refuse on buying my very own N900. From one instance of where it was a thoroughly well researched and thought about purchase very quickly boiled down into instinctive purchasing. I simply couldn't resist.

On many levels I loathed my N95-1 but at the same time for a linux handheld (!) to have phone functionality was something I could have never imagined. The conclusion became clear that I am going to stick with N900.

Since then I have had many ups and downs with N900, it was years ago when I first gazed at N900 in my own hands at the shop wishing the device was mine till now having three (!!) of the same thing (actually its four but the fourth one is broken). My interest with N900 and maemo overall has not diminished tremendously since. As I got involved within the *.maemo.org as well as on IRC it became clear that n9 was the last device.

Since switching back and forth between N900 and n9, I did have some gripes with n9 but I cannot stop loathing how I wished n9 to have a hardware keyboard and less of being so paranoid (with aegis). Eventually my n9 broke one day by accident and now I'm stuck with N900 until one day I may be able to fix that n9 again (or somehow acquire proper N950).

Day in, day out I've constantly pondered how such a project (maemo) did make an impact (albeit small) on the handheld/smartphone realm. How linux was close to dominating every (other) thing. How had Nokia decided to keep OSSO/Maemo alive, the dreams of a proper handheld device with phone functionality could be married as one instead of the way N900 is. Then again the reality as we can see is far different.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

In 2009, I owned several Nokia pearls, E51, E71, and loved the phones. iphone and Android love was raging all around, but I wanted to stay loyal to NOKIA and like the feel of their phones. I did have a lot of issues with E71 and my corporate email, but learned how to live with it. I was hoping that Nokia will respond to iphone and android challenge and come with a game changer. Nokia N8 came out, and it was truly bad. Everything about it was just substandard compared to iphone. I guess the touchscreen Symbian just couldnt do it. I still wanted to stick with NOKIA and saw N900 discussed on gsmarena and saw youtube videos about it, and I really liked the look of it. I liked that it was a mobile computer, with nice keyboard and that you could customize it. I could care less that it was open or closed. I got it and really liked it, but to my dismay it could not handle corporate email, it could only handle one exchange account at a time, and because I could not forward my corporate email, I could not get my calendar to sync with it. That was unfortunately a deal breaker. I did love the lay out, the keyboard, the social integration, and how pretty everything looked. So it became a dumb phone for me. I used it to make calls, IM, skype and browse where strong wifi available, otherwise painfully slow on T mobile 3G. I still have two and use them from time to time as my second phone......

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

And did you? ;)

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I did care less than less, which equals lesser.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I got my n900 by accident. I ordered my third iphone from vodafone but it didn't arrive. they said they'd run out of stock. I asked what else they had. I'd had 2 communicators before and loved them so went for the n900. I hated it, poor battery life, ovi store was a joke after appstore, couldn't believe I hadn't waited. A couple of weeks later, vodafone rang me to ask how I was enjoying my iphone. I gave them an earfull about my n900 so they said sorry and that they'd send me an iphone. Before my iphone arrived I discovered this forum and what the n900 actually was. The iphone went on ebay as have the last 2 upgrades. I now have 2 n900's and a raspberry pi and am trying to learn python. I've also changed from windows to ubuntu. I still enjoy discovering new things 3 years on.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

N900 came out in 2009, but back then I was stuck with a Symbian phone (the lame Nokia 5320, the 3G-less version), and still thought I was "good" at messing with phones... Until I read on the net that N900 as well as HD2 can run multiple OS and has great raw processing power.
Then in 2011, time to change my phone, I made a wishlist of all sub-$500 smartphones available, including competitors like HD2 and Milestone 2, but N900 finally persuaded me because 1) it has QWERTY and 2) it is Nokia.
It has been in active use for 2 years, during which it led me to a far more complicated and interesting realm, thanks to its Linux interior, and even served as my Android entry device that helped me grow attached to and know more about Android (NITDroid still rock!) But this spring, when it's once more used for calls & SMS, I found its battery life extremely disappointing (compared to my other Android devices) and opted for something else in June - a Nexus 4.
But guess what - on the same day I purchased the Nexus 4, I got another phone I longed for: an N9! :D Yep I've been drooling over N9's design and its better hardware for too long, I've even test drived NITDroid Alpha 5 (JellyBean) on my classmate's unit, and now I have my own unit to play with! It's now my second-in-command device, though battery life is still not ideal, it's now capable of serving me some more months until I put both N900 and N9 into my collection box...
And yes, there'll never ever be a QWERTY device as good as an N950. I long for one, as a dream, forever.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

1,5 years ago, my N8 got stolen and I needed a replacement urgently. I use Nokia maps alot and since they are free on a Nokia, I decided that my replacement phone should be a Nokia again... Only problem was that the N8 was only available secondhand or refurbished, so the N9 sounded like a worthy upgrade and the price has dropped dramatically since its launch... Today I own 2 N9's (16G and 64G) and my phones still amaze me and my friends... for instance, I live in China and still have access with Facebook or Twitter (without the need of a VPN)... the notification center is soo smart and I have not seen this feature with any other phone... Even the hardware is not outdated yet (1GHZ speed, 1G ram, ...)... I like the Lumia 1020 based on the reviews, but no access to Facebook/Twitter anymore, so probably I will stick with my current phones...

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I bought N900 because my Android (HTC Hero) was piece of ****. Then if was natural upgrade to N9. Then there come biggest idiot ever who decided to kill upcoming Meego phones at Nokia. If not it would be logical step for me to go for an N10.

And the rest is history.

Re: Story time! How did you decide to buy the N900/N950/N9
 

I wanted a mobile PC to carry with me at university without having to lug a Laptop, and one I could use standing/riding on public transportation.

After a few months of researching the best Sharp Zaurus to load debian on... Nokia announded the N770 and made my task much easier, and more rewarding for me :)
I pre-ordered one at full launch price (350usd, still much more affordable than a PC) and had web, an x-term, gcc, mplayer, pdf, and ebook reader on my person, all-day-every-day - and this was winter of 2005.

At the time I was using a Nokia 6010 bar phone, switched to a Motorola flip-phone with bluetooth, camera, and to tether with the Internet Tablet(smaller/lighter to carry,
when the motorola broke in half, picked up a Nokia 2760.

I saw a handful of people with Compaq or HP windows-phones, later the HTC-variant Windows OS, but was already computing circles around them and began to see 2-3 other people around campus with N800 or N810-WiMax editions.

Upgraded to N810 after sitting on a table-edge with N770 in my back pocket one time too many, and cracked the screen quite badly. Upgraded to N900 nearly a year after it launched only because I began working more than half-time a location with a no-wifi security policy and intollerable EDGE reception.

And that's when I entered the world of only carrying one device, faster mobile computing, and irritating 9-hour battery life thanks to 3G data (bt was bad, but not 3G bad).