The battery life for my D Z(aka G2) has been comparable if not better than the N810's.

I am getting a barely a day out of my D-Z, but of course I am still in the initial flush of new-gadget-love!! That said, I am only actively using it for maybe two hours a day, mainly on wifi. For most of the day it sits on my desk at work.

I don't know what battery life I'd get out of an n900 for the same use as I don't have one.

I'm now on the Modaco custom rom, based on 1.72.

Device is configured with the google account plus a single imap account. I installed ATK so I could kill off processs. All I have on the home pages are a smaller clock widget, email widget, power control widget, and default htc sense weather widget.

Actually that sounds like the Desire Z has slightly better battery life than the N900.
Considering the Z has a faster CPU, bigger screen and smaller battery, its doing well.

I'll still wait for the Sony Xperia Pro with quicker CPU, larger battery, and front facing camera.

Just thought I'd add my tuppence worth, my N900 USB socket came off the other day (I was heart-broken, fortunately it's still in warranty) and it turns out my contract was up for renewal and I was due a "free" upgrade (from an ancient Motorola RAZR9), so I went for the Desire Z, mostly because of the keyboard.

It's generally inferior to the N900. Some things are better, multitouch is nice and has it's uses (music apps for instance). Obviously the USB socket is more robust! The GPS seems much better, I got a lock almost immediately, and apparently it doesn't drain the battery constantly. The case is nice. The screen seems fine.

That's about all the pros on the hardware side (that I've noticed so far), the keyboard is not as easy to type fast with. Built-in speaker output is mono (not that I really noticed the stereo on 900). No video out (that I'm aware of, though I never used that on the N900). No FM transmitter (though there is an FM radio). I did use the N900 transmitter quite a lot. The camera does not seem as good, although it's probably acceptable for what it is.

I quite like the software, though it is obviously more restricting than Maemo. I have yet to get very deep into it, but I like the email application and the web browser is fine too. Flash works properly! There is voice recognition which works fairly well (in the Voice Search app). The integration with google apps like the Navigation tool is good. There is a lot of crap in the Market but some good stuff too. I'm particularly interested in music/sound synthesis stuff and there is a dire lack of Maemo apps on that front, but I found a few very nice apps, both for free and for money, in the Market. Not much in the way of good-old Free Software standard Linux fare though.

No native FLAC or Vorbis support which is a bit of a killer as all my music is in those formats. [actually it DOES support Vorbis, from the SD card, but doesn't want to stream it from Mediatomb] There are 3rd party apps though which I will investigate, but I doubt I'll find anything as functional as the Maemo media player, it really is a great app, it can stream FLAC and Vorbis from Mediatomb, I don't think I'll be able to do that on the Z, at least not for the moment.

Streamed video playback is outstanding! Codec support less so.


Not made a call yet so I can't comment on the phone software.

It's a weird one, the software is good, not perfect but as it's software it can be fixed. Whether the hardware issues will become thorns in my side is something only time will tell. It's only really the lack of FM transmitter and the only "OK" keyboard and camera that are real issues.

So it's not a drop-in replacement, but I think there is enough there to distract me from the flaws and keep me happy. If I find myself putting it in its box and going back to full-time N900 use, then it didn't cost me anything I wouldn't have paid anyway.... I will almost certainly continue to use the N900 as a portable media device, presuming it comes back repaired. I have a man bag so two "phones" is not a big issue, and I can share the data connection.

My preference would clearly be to stick with the N900 and for Maemo to be a growing, supported platform, but as that's not the case I think I'll be able to accept life with Android and the Z.

sydb,
How are you finding the battery life of the Desire Z compared to the N900 ?

i though going down the android road was the right choice,
i was wrong.
i got the incredible s for free on a new contract.
went back to the n900 after a week.
for some reason, the n900 held my interest, from day 1, 1 year ago.
i bet noone cares though, i just needed to vent.

You're wrong, I care. Had my nexus s for a month and missed my n900 so the nexus just went on ebay. Just hope the nokia outlives my new contract.

Why exactly do you think you were wrong about going to Android ?
Theres more App support.

Mine has been very good, probably around 30-40 percent better on power than my N900. Seems to use less power even when just used as a phone.

I still have my N900 and miss having a real Linux box in my pocket but I have to admit the HTC hardware is nice and for my ordinary daily needs Android 2.2 is getting the job done.

That said, if Meego ever reaches a reasonable level of maturity and availabily on good, suitable hardware, I'd drop Android again in a heartbeat.

While you're waiting, you can install Debian inside of Android.