Hey, guys.

I just bought an N900 from Hong Kong and glad to be a member here.
Actually, I had posted a few threads here to discuss the Maemo/Android/iPhone devices here before.

And finally, after all, I decided to buy N900.
Not Nexus One, not HTC G3, not iPhone 3GS, not HTC EVO 4G, wihch will be released 2 weeks later.

Here is some of my thoughts:
1.Why not iPhone ?
My answer is because iPhone is just everywhere here in Shanghai. Many buddy here use iPhone. The MAC OS on iPhone is fantasic, you had to admit it, and there are many good applications, such as shazam, etc. and iPhone is more expensive here.

2.Why not Android device ?
This question confused me a lot then. Google Nexus One / Motorola Milestone (Droid) is once to be one of my choices. But at last, I find that Android device is more like a phone. And all the applications runs one a Java Virtual Machine based on Linux Kernel.

Like what I said in the earlier threads, I am kind of like a geek, want to exploer things, and I installed Ubuntu on my desktop PC and notebook. I uses Ubuntu 8.04 as my work enviroment. I like to try different softwares, install and uninstall them. N900 is more like a portable computer, I think thats the final reason that I choose N900.
How about you ?

One thing we had to admit is that from the hardware aspect, N900 is not the leader any more, for example, HTC EVO 4G, which will be released on Jun.4th, has a 1GHz CPU, 512MB memory, 4.3 inch screen.

The only advantage of N900 seems to be :
1. a QWERTY keyboard
2. Maemo is a pure Linux, but Android is just a Linux Kernal + JVM (Dalvic)


Here is some of my concerns and questions, I hope some one can help to answer them :

1. Will N900 support Meego in the future ? I mean officically.
I think when Meego 1.1 released, it will be a hard dicision to make, that we should choose Meego as the OS or stay with Maemo ?

2. What is the Spec of the next Nokia Meego device ?

As I know, Nokia had just released N900 in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
So I think, from the marketing view, Nokia will not release any news about the next generation device which will use Meego (Maemo 6) as the OS. That will influence the sales of N900.
In Hong Kong, Nokia pre-install the PR1.2 on the device to attact more users, in Taiwan, Nokia provide Chinese input method.

Actually, I dont want there to be a fantastic upgrade because I have N900 now. I know it is a kind of selfish.

3.Which one will be the key OS for Nokia , Symbian ^3 or Meego ?
The new released N8 still uses Symbian^3, not Meego.

4. Is N900 just a test of Nokia ? Because Maemo turns to Meego and I am doubting whether Maemo 5 will get fully support in the future. There are only 250 stable applications now.

I think N900 had to be a device that only poplular in geeks because of its OS, etc.. But I hope Nokia could keep putting effort on this, but not give it to Intel.

Thanks !

Some updates on 5/19 :

I tried to search online about the N900, and I find some information about N9-00 (N920), Nokia's next generation Meego device.



Here is some details :
From the image, we can find that N900 and N9-00(N920) is very similar.
I think thats why Nokia set N900 as the develop platform for Meego ARM.

Anybody have other thoughts?

http://wiki.maemo.org/What_can_we_realistically_expect

Thanks. I will check this first.

Hi Ian, welcome to the forums. I think the questions you ask are the same that many of us here have, to be honest not much details have been released about the future products (Nokia are notoriously tight lipped, and not to their benefit in my opinion) but the wiki link provided above will help highlight what we officially know.

My own expectation is that we'll get some sort of MeeGo release, but, as you might see with the wait for firmware 1.2 here in the West, it's best to try and enjoy your n900 as is and not hope too much for the future.

I certainly agree what you say about the iPhone in Shanghai, on my recent trip there I heard many times "Pssst... you want dvd, watch, iphone?" lol But Im not so sure they are all legitimate Apple products

ARM Cortex A8 1Ghz, pentaband, capacitive touch, 12MP/dual-LED, 64GB flash

Oh yeah, and support for MMS.

- mp

Yes, actully, most of these iPhones are smuggling products.

Because iPhone was released on 2007 in US and Apple introduce it to China since the year 2010, it is 3 years later in China than USA.

So people here had to buy smuggled iPhones.

And the official version iPhone in China has no wifi hardware embedded. I mean the Wifi function is removed. (However, that is not Apple's fault, it is because of a law of China telecommunication department that do not allow cellphone has wifi function)

That's also the reason why most people buy smuggled one.

N900 is not officially released in China, either.
One thing intersting is that one Nokia official guy said in the Nokia China Blog that the next Meego device will be released in China mainland, so maybe thats a clue that shows whether N900 can support Meego in the future.

Price is another problem.

iPhone 3GS 32GB (official, no WIFI) is RMB6999 ( USD 1025 ) here.
iPhone 3GS 32GB (smuggled, with WIFI) is RMB4000 (USD 586).
N900 32GB (smuggled) is RMB 3400 (USD 500)
N900 32GB (Hong Kong) is HKD4800 (USD 615)

PS. The everage income of Shanghai citizen is about USD 200/Month.

You forgot the amoled capacitive/resistive 4in touch screen with HD recording video and HDMI out. Also dual core processors with separate gpu with options for keyboard or touchscreen only. The 3mp camera in front in addition to 12mp and support for every GSM 3g band in the world. Bluetooth 3.0, micro USB, headset Jack, stylus, wireless n, and hspa+ support. Exchange support, MySpace, Skype, twitter and Facebook integration. With latest mini sdhc support. For less than $800. And get powermat to make an option for an OEM battery.

Is that too much?

The OEM battery is not a problem in China now.
Because most of the Nokia batteries (or you can say almost all the cellphone batteries) are produced in China, Guangdong province.

There are many versions BL-5J here and the quality is also very good.

The same quality with only 1/6 in price. Like here :

http://www.newegg.com.cn/Product/65-c01-750.htm
http://www.newegg.com.cn/Product/65-c08-078.htm
http://www.icson.com/Items/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=58804
http://www.icson.com/Items/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=36659

LOL, now that might be over the top, but what I list isn't that far fetched.

- mp

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