I don't understand the backlash against people who complain about the N900 here. People say things like "you should have done your homework before buying the phone" but nothing about the outlook, price or advertisement of this device says "Don't expect the basic features found in the cheapest of phones, let alone smartphones." I had a Nokia E51 and I was so used to IMAP IDLE that I didn't consider it a "feature" per se. But then, many others use the "its not a phone, its a mobile computer" argument. I don't think thats an answer at all. Isn't a mobile computer supposed to be more powerful (in terms of both hardware and software) than lets say a phone? Shouldn't the e-mail client, for e.g., be closer to how clients are on computers rather than being worse than clients on phones?

Anyhow, coming back to the issue of unresponsiveness, I can mention a few instances from the top of my head right now:

1. Modest E-mail Client: Its a horrible e-mail client, definitely below par in terms of both features and responsiveness. Even when its the only application that is open and I'm not downloading any new e-mails, it takes time to open. (The lovely clockwise motion "loading" animation on the title bar) Click and wait for a couple of seconds or more) for the next screen to appear.

2. Application Manager: The unresponsiveness in this core application amazes me. Every single click in this application leads to a few unnecessary seconds of loading.

3. Media Player: To be honest, the unresponsiveness here isn't that bad. Its usable and when you have a big list, scrolling is stupid anyway. BUT why is that a valid justification? Its a "mobile computer" with apparently strong hardware, why can't it handle big lists? Isn't it stupid to have 32 GB on it when it can't handle a lo of media? Personally, I just start typing the name of the song and play it. HOWEVER, I noticed a bug in it the other day. If an artist is called Guns N' Roses and you search for "Guns", it doesn't show anything. You have to search for "Guns " (notice the space). I don't remember whether it was for artists or songs but I did notice this problem a bunch of times.

4. Photos: Again, HORRIBLE software! By default it just shows all the photos on the memory, including wallpapers, other images, album art, EVERYTHING! That makes it another long list of files and surfing through that is a pain! Note that I am not complaining about it not being aesthetic enough, the jerkiness just makes it much less usable! I absolute loathe the application!

5. Contacts: There isn't any significant unresponsiveness here but it just downloaded all my Facebook and MSN contacts, bringing the total to 1000 and as I was merging contacts, I realized how long it takes to merge a contact! There were times when the osso-addressbook process would occupy 97% of the memory just because its merging a contact! Again, it seems like the contacts application can't handle 1000 contacts.

6. UI: Thanks to twaelti for pointing it out. At times, on the desktop and even in the browser, when you tap on a link/icon, the UI glows up but nothing happens.

This is not just another whiner thread. I have questions. I keep a watch on the stuff I install so I am sure that there is nothing wrong with my device. In fact, there are times when it works smoothly. However, from what I have listed above, its obvious that there are issues with core applications. They don't use the memory efficiently.

Are these issues going to be resolved? Will Modest ever be a usable e-mail client for a "mobile computer"? Is there any hope of these particular issues being resolved with PR1.2? More importantly, I want to know what is being done for the resolution of these issues because I spent 550 euros on this device in December and I think I and other customers have the right to ask that question. Nokia does owe us some sort of an answer. I mean, IMAP IDLE isn't that much of a memory hog; doesn't it seem like Nokia removed it so people use Nokia Messaging instead?