maemo.org - Talk - N900 Review: Not Just a Phone, Not Yet a Laptop

maemo.org - Talk (https://talk.maemo.org/index.php)

- Nokia N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=44)

- - N900 Review: Not Just a Phone, Not Yet a Laptop (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37098)

N900 Review: Not Just a Phone, Not Yet a Laptop

After about a week playing with my N900, I decided to give a more mature review on my N900. (this review was done and posted from the N900)

Once Again,
NO, Nokia didn't pay me for this. =D you can relax.
AND
if you're expecting 4 a perfect phone out of N900,
look around,
there is NO perfect phone (this isn't a perfect review either).
So again, relax. =)

First impression:

One thing that I like out of the box right away is the built. Solid, black, heavy (coming from Nokia N93 and Samsung Memoir, both lost earlier this year).

I put my sim, microsd, and battery in, didn't turn it on, charged it instead. Took apprx. 1.5 hrs for the notification light to turn green (meaning that the battery is full).

Turned it on, played a lot'a bit, trying to get used to it, got it connected to Tmobile 3g (see http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=36377 to figure it out)

Put my music, contacts (+hermes), some other apps in. Set alarm for the morning. Left it unplugged during the night. The battery was around 60% in the morning.

Q's on charging?
See http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=420265.

A lil' overview:

Phone- It takes a lot of getting used to with the phone functionality. It sounds crisp and clear. The integrated Skype calling is awesome. I could call my family overseas in no time at all. Bravo to the Maemo team.

Keypad: Awesome! Starting to get used to it. Im still learning the true potential and shortcuts. Pretty comfortable for me (I have long fingers).

Music- Sound quality's Good enough for me (both speakers/headsets). Good volume.
(Update) If you're a heavy music user that are interested in the N900, make sure that you have a decent headset. The standard one from nokia was OK. I have a sennhaiser PMX100 and it works awesome. My sony MDR710 on the other hand, wasn't performing good.

Camera- Lovin' it. Quick to snap, quick to share. It takes less than 2 minutes to snap a good looking picture then put in on Facebook. Quality's definitely acceptable.

Apps- Need more!
Portrait would be awesome (Nokia, hear this!)
For the time being, I like Hermes (contacts sync with facebook pictures and birthdays). As a college student, I think Xournal and the graph calculators' pretty tight.

Battery- It meets most of my day to day needs. Lots of browsing, email, txting, facebooking. Besides, I don't hesitate to bring the charger to places. Still a tad more mobile than bringing my laptop around.

Web experience- Pleased. I don't feel the need to carry around my laptop around for it. Some websites like megavideo/hulu is almost unusable. But it's still fine with me.

Verdict (will let you know if it changes in the near future):

Being a Nokia and S60 fan, definitely worth the price getting N900. Though there are lots of improvement still needed, the current functionality is good enough so far. If not on par, the functionality is better than competitors out there.

It has been pretty stable (with a few reboots like once or twice day) and served me good.

Many people comment that the N900 camera isn't better than their standalone cameras. But those standalone cameras don't play music, browse the web, upload to services in an instant, take notes, grah calculator, make a call like the N900 does!
Comparing it to other devices could be distracting sometimes.

I guess the best way determine whether the N900/any device out there is good enough/fit for you is to match the functionality of the device with your needs.

In this case , the N900 serves my needs well as a mini tablet phone that does a lot of things well (if not above average). It has the potential to break the boundaries between a smartphone and computer.
The N900 is definitely a keeper ;)