That narrows it down, but I still disagree.

N900 has traded ability to manipulate page for gray hash. IPhone has traded it for white paper. E7/Symbian in general doesn't. As the review says, it prefers to render first, rather than allow interaction sooner. That's why it's jerky until it's loaded, and that's why it's faster in many cases - it puts all its might behind renderer, grossly ignoring user. Can be frustrating for large pages over poor connection.

If you prefer the sacrifice in reverse, Opera Mobile and Opera Mini are both available and render in N900-vividity range, full pages, can swap user-agent, etc. Poorer support for Flash, however, as I understand it.

It's still a choice rather than good versus bad, and it makes it (say what you will) faster, by the definition of faster, not by feel. Which is, it will finish first given equal conditions.

You can declare whatever you wish as whatever you wish. Both N900 and E7 are better browsers than iPhone, and E7 versus N900 are very different browsers. However, "sucks" is not a benchmark. There's fidelity (N900), speed (E7) and smooth(iP).

There are many a parameter to a browser. And many a site. As a result, things are different for each and tradeoffs exist. That's why browser benchmarks and reviews are 20 pages long. But I suspect you already have a favorite, and the others suck.

This is a review not a court of law. I don't give a flying duck who's fault is what.

I was aware at the start of this endeavor that I would find people who'd disagree - I'm surprised it's not a riot, considering the review declares E7 a winner on several fronts - some of which have been the undisputed domain of N900 at some point. This is one of those cases. Have fun disagreeing.

It does. It has copy-paste, the Tube app is available for S3, it has easy auto wifi, to known APs or to open APs, just like N900, including banning WIFIs and setting 3G to be over a certain wifi in priority (though quite useless, methinks).

I don't use Skype. You might enjoy arguing here, but AFAICT it's all up to the authors of Skype. My guess is it's en-route, no idea when.

There's a reason why a list of misses isn't already in the first post, bulleted. And that reason is: not everyone misses the same things.

When N900 was new, people kept wanting stuff - like Mail for Exchange bugs - fixed. I haven't even seen one, let alone care if it worked, but I would have paid people for a better Contacts app that can hold labels for numbers, more numbers, better pictures, etc. (E7 doesn't let you rename labels, hello cruel world)

To each his own - some people are music players, audiophiles, they can tell the difference between N900 sound and E7. To me, they both sound horrible, I'm the kind of audiophile that invests in a 1.4Kg headphone with 7 speakers and a great SNR, the best sound card I can find and shielding. Others use FLAC with in-ear devices. Others use speakers. Beyond good or bad, there's user preference. I could argue for a week on sound rendering (that's not an expression), but if user prefers N900 sound, what good will I be?

Many people here shudder the the thought of E7 lacking a terminal and not being able to grep their ls through awk. Personally, I think it's neat, and that's it. Frankly, it kind of loosens quality control if Joe Average can just type sudo and fix it themselves. (another week lost arguing here)

What I can tell you I think is objectively lacking is the app base of proven tools. It is lacking in VNC, RDP (I imagine it won't be long), but is strong in gaming.

Subjectively?

I miss Telepathy integration into Conversations(*) . I miss the M5 status that was always available and could do stuff (S3 status not everywhere). I miss some apps. I miss keyboard shortcuts. I miss overclock. And TMO.

* App named IM+ offers the reverse

I don't miss the awful Phone, the constant swapping, horrible performance unclocked, horrible battery clocked. I don't miss the poor battery management and information, I'm glad I traded IR for compass (fiddling with TV beats Augmented Reality). I don't miss the slanted phone on table, poor kickstand, the camera (photo and movie), LCD screen, poor USB (connector and OTG), headphones on the wrong end, memory leaks in Python widgets, 12M transfer every apt-get update. As I type this I realize this paragraph is way larger than the previous one. I don't miss the poor maps management, lack of map updates and caching, the online routing, online search, no true drive or walk assistance, no voice, no saving of favorites. I don't miss poor PC support. I don't miss device-exclusive backups (the backup data is in Berkley-db format and is N900-only). I don't miss the litany of incompatibilities (BackupMenu needs BootMenu, but Android needs MultiBoot, KP versions, CSSU versions, Python versions, you name it). I don't miss the never-will-be-fixed attitude.

Well, that was a painful trip back through time. Patlak was right about one thing - with time one gets used to the device and starts to develop cognitive bias. The OVI bug with the maps (up there) was fixed in 4 days. Four Days. I missed that. Support. Content. Active development. Being on the map.

Maybe I'm just that guy who made it out of the desert and can't stop drinking the water while everyone wonders what the heck is going on. Maybe I'm rationalizing my decision; but I'm tired of being told I can't have this or that for a hefty sum when people with 1/10th or 1/100th the value in their hands have tons of fun.

When E7 stops being supported, I'll upgrade, Nokia or otherwise. I'm tired of begging unseen faces on forums for a simple app. I don't want to learn a new platform, a new language, sift through tons of manuals just for a small detail. I'm tired of rotating my own tires with only an adjustable wrench and a manual in Japanese. May I be forgiven, for I know not what I say. I'll even buy the damned iPhone.