I find the GPS, with no connections, takes a couple of minutes to establish lock when you turn it on after traveling more than 50 miles or so from the last point you used it. It is very fast at attaining lock if you haven't moved far.

On my last trip to Mexico, I used the n900 just like my netbook. I just used wireless access points. I did everything including video skype, that I did with the netbook. I also watched some of the dvd's I'd loaded on my n900 on the hotel tv's with my composite connector. I couldn't do that with the netbook!

The N900 is an awesome travel companion!