Thread: N900 in Japan?
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jimbochou is offline jimbochou
2011-02-06 , 12:14
Posts: 15 | Thanked: 7 times | Joined on Feb 2010 @ Japan
#129
Originally Posted by lameventanas View Post
I've been reading this thread enthusiastically because I'm thinking about buying a N900 myself and I live in Japan.

I currently use a Nokia E71 with Softbank. It works well except I can't write sms or mms in Japanese, but I do receive them. Sometimes they don't open in the mail app, so I have to browse through the attachments one by one, and save the text one to the sd card, then use a 3rd party app to read it. Its slow and a pain, and sometimes I can't even save the attachment at all!
The only thing I like about the E71 is battery life and its VoIP integration (this is a must for me since I use an Asterisk PBX all the time).

So the main reason for me to buy a N900 is because I'm a big linux fan and this cellphone is completely open, and uses things like v4l, pulseaudio, etc. I might even write some software for it.

I would like to know of any compatibility issues using the N900 in Japan, especially using mms: showing emoticons and animations that people use with their japanese cellphones.

Is there any other thing that I should be aware before buying the N900 for use in Japan?
I've attempted to use an N900 as my main phone in Japan but it wasn't really much of a success.

MMS - I got MMS working with fMMS on the Softbank network but I often had problems where I couldn't receive/open MMSs from Au or Docomo users. Didn't happen all of the time but a lost message isn't good. Other problems include not being able to check the server for messages which haven't yet been pushed to the phone yet (I don't know if that has changed in fMMS yet).

Emoji - I did manage to experiment with the emoticons to get some of the Softbank emoji to appear, though I never finished the solution.

Voicemail - Couldn't use DTMF tones to control my Softbank voicemail system.

Contacts/Phonebook - No katakana reading fields. Also there is no international number prefix setting, so if your numbers are in international format (+81), then you need to change them to local format before you can make a call from the Contacts application.

Maps - No real GoogleMaps for N900 means a very poor User Experience (compared to the S60 Google Maps app). Ovi Maps for Japan just basically tells you you are in Tokyo, no more details than that.

Infra-red - You may know about business card exchange using mobiles in Japan. IR port lacks SW for N900, so you can't easily exchange contact details.

Hate to say this but I personally would not recommend using the N900 in Japan.