My N900 experience thus far
 

After some extensive use with the N900 I have some input hopefully we can all benefit from.

BTW, I am using my N900 on T-Mobile's 3G network.

First, the Good:

1. A very responsive touch screen unlike anything I have ever used. Its almost like a resistive/capacitive hybrid.

2. Extremely vibrant colors and bring screen. With the highest ppi of any phone (267), the screen is very sharp due to it's high resolution.

3. Overall aesthetics of the operating system is attractive. Everything from menu animations to scrolling is stunning.

4. The sliding mechanism seems solid and sturdy. Overall phone build is of high quality (something I expect from Nokia).

5. Open applications w/ access to what developers are currently working on.

6. The camera quality is phenomenal - not a surprise.

7. Bluetooth stereo playback is easier than any other phone I have used. It connected seamlessly with my Pioneer BT car stereo with exceptional quality.

8. Gaming: I have installed OpenArena and all the emulators (before they were taken down). The graphics engine seems flawless and the N900 runs it like a pro.

9. Network: Overall 3G speed is superb and web page loading times are good considering the hardware.

10. TV Out is very easy - just plug and go.

11. Excellent sound quality via speakers and even better over Bluetooth or stereo headphones.

12. The keyboard shortcuts make the device feel even more like an acutal computer. See: http://nokiaexperts.com/tips-shortcu...00-user-guide/

Now, the Bad:

1. Upon receiving a text message, the vibrate often times feels like something is wrong with it on the second vibrate. Its as though its slowly dying or off of it's track.

2. If I receive a text message or some type of notification on my N900 while the screen is off and keyboard is closed, I have to tap the desktop before it will allow me to do anything else upon opening the keyboard or unlocking the screen.

3. Getting a lock on my GPS for geotagging of pictures never works. I have yet to get a geotag for any picture thus far (even standing outside in clear skies).

4. (Popular Complaint) No MMS.

5. Media Player doesn't sort by ID3 tag (like the symbian OS).

6. Media Player doesn't play any video you throw at it.I copied a dvd rip from my computer (a 700MB .AVI file) and it would not play - even after transcoding to .mp4 with HandBrake. I have also tried other formats and the same. Sometimes Media Player fails to display that videos exist on the phone at all!

7. Nokia N900 USB Modem currently not working for me on any machine.

8. I wish I could share videos just like I do pictures via Bluetooth. This includes adding an option for the File Manager.

9. Where's the Media Player equalizer?


I can honestly say that my favorite feature of this device is the amount of support that it's operating system has. Really, the community here is what sets it apart. A perfect example is http://bugs.maemo.org - so much hard work and contribution goes into this device by the community here. I want to thank all who have contributed and those who will continue to contribute. I hope that my presence will also provide some goodness.

That's all I can think of for now. All in all, I see that most of the problems are software based and I hope to see (and contribute to) changes made for a better overall user experience. Feel free to let me know your experience with any of the topics I have posted. Perhaps fixes are readily available that I haven't found.

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

Video playback issues can be solved by installing more gstreamer codecs (all the avis i tried have played fine) or give it a try with mplayer, it plays everything :)

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

Anyone who got his N900 tried to use it as USB-modem on Win 7 already? And if "yes" did it work and how so?

Regards,
Glasswalker

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

I have Windows 7 and it did not work.

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

Great insight! I think there is an app being developed for sharing any file you want through BT (you should be able to find it under the "fresh" category in downloads)

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

The emulators were taken down?! Why? Nothing wrong with emulators, is the roms people have that are illegal.

I was looking forward to getting the emulators.. ARG! Are they really gone from the repos?

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

where have they been taken down?
are there still websites where you can download them?
if not, can you provide them to us? (uploading them somewhere?)

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

see here: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35385 You can still get them at this thread. I believe there is some drama between Nintendo and Nokia right now about copyright infringement over these emulators. Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/yzvkjcn

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

That's not what I wanted to read... ;-)

Glasswalker

Edit: typo

Re: My N900 experience thus far
 

Where can we get the mplayer deb file and is it safe for noobs? I red pilled, but will only use as last resort.