A set of Bluetooth headphones would address this. I like the Nokia BH-214 since I can connect my own choice of earphones to it. Note that Bluetooth and streaming music over WiFi have contention problems and the music may pause a lot.

As a side note, you can hook the pod bit of the BH-214 up to your computer speakers or stereo. This gives you nicer sounding music while you still have the N900 in hand for other uses.

Here's my impression after using for good couple of weeks. I apologize in advance if i'm being a little bias on my phone. But again, I think i'm a lot less bias than the other techncial reviews out there online who does not use Linux based products in their day to day life.

Overall:
I LOVE my phone, really responsive, space is almost endless (wait until another phone with this kind of capacity...).

The good:
I don't want to put too much word to discribe this part. Afterall, I don't want to be a typical ***** kissing user of the device.
The maemo 5 OS: Being a everyday linux user, and you give me a phone with full linux support and environment to fuss around, i'm game.

Speed: LIGHTENING Fast! that's while i'm play EightyOne (Sudoku clone), playing music, and also doing texting like 5 people.

memory size: It feels like i can download the universe (in a mobile perspective) into this phone. With a 16GB ext card, this phone can store more data than a couple old computers i have at home already.

Hardware architecture: one word to describe will be AWESOME. the OpenGL ES make this phone that much stronger in the GUI display. And a couple games of Quake3 while waiting for people make this phone worth while already

Software Support: Although alot of people on the web is critizing how the app system does not compare to the fruity phone or the robot phone system. What I would say to those critics are A) You don't know where to get the good stuff and B)You are paying too much. Yes, I got to admit there's less apps.. but we are not talking about USEFUL apps. Who cares if my phone doesn't give me a fake lighter which I can play with?

Music format support: Having OSS support and FLAC support on my phone, I can listen to lossless music on my phone, and it's DRM Free as well.

Device space availbity: The phone's space is easily accessible as a massive storage drive. I don't need to download any I am so hippy Music player to sync stuff on my phone.



The bad:
Keyboard - I do not mind the keyboard keys itself, but as a hacker and a guy that lives in the terminal world, there's things that is lacking on the keyboard.
Here's some of the keys that is really useful that is missing on the keyboard: ~ | ` < >.
I can't even do proper debugging in the terminal because of this, the way to fix this is either use the bluetooth keyboard patch or ssh into the phone with a full environment, which is still a pain in the butt.

FM Transmitter - This is a well known issue, I think we can almost dismiss this feature altogether. I was really excited that I got it working like the UI developer demo on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n99S8iMYKRY) The catch here is that it only works the way the UI developer had shown, which is place on the speedometer, when car is idle. It doesn't even get the channel once I start my engine!

OpenSSH server - the ssh works fine when I am trying to ssh in as localhost (no duh!). When I try to ssh in from any full computers, it works but sometime the server is not responsive, it just stuck in some lala land for no reason. This delay may sometime be more than a 5 minutes or so! I don't think this is a phone specific thing but it's worth mentioning I guess.

No voice recognition phone book - Living in a suburban area around Toronto, driving is like a manditory thing. Also with the new cellphone laws in Ontario, it's a pain in the butt to call someone with this phone while driving. Not to mention if you put lock code on the phone, to call someone will take like a good minimum 10-15 seconds total. That's if you have the number memorized by heart. I hope some 3rd party addon will be available later on this.

Other "Undocumented features" worth mentioning:
Headset/Headphone system: It's a hit and miss with this one. If you have a physical headphone for music listening on, and also a bluetooth headset for phone, it's virtually impossible to distingish which is which for the media player. On the other hand, the sound quality of whoever call you is that much nicer because again, you are listening to it with a really nice headset which is meant for music...

Battery life: much less than the n810 for sure. But again, system is just like a millionth time more sophisticated, shorter life is expected. I got a spare battery and that just fixes this problem right away.

I was looking forward very much to getting an N900. So much so I bought one directly from Nokia rather than waiting for operators in the UK to include in their portfolios. Was the wait worth it? Disappointingly NO.

The device is well built, feels robust and has a great display. Unfortunately it is clear this device has been rushed out and the usual care and attention to detail we expect from Nokia seems to have been bypassed. Putting aside the bells and whistles that proclaim much the underlying device has some significant problems. At this point I can hear the developers going "idiot!", "nutter" and much more however for real market penetration, which a new device needs you can not afford to have a device purchased on the 1st, and dead on the 9th. After resets daily (4-8) the device shut off and would not recover. I am still waiting for a replacement! Seems Nokia are happy to take £500 of my money but in no rush to return it.

Enough of that however. What of the device:

It is not a good phone, it does not react and provide good basic user experience for POTS. Basics such as a search facility when entering contacts for a phone call are missing. I have over 2000 contacts. Can you imagine how long it takes to find the one I want!

Web experience is good, intuitive and simple to use.

Mail set up good however I am amazed the unit supports Exchange 2007 and not 2003. This is really a very curious omission for a device that is going to be attractive to the corporate market. Why!!!!!

Basic USB and sync capabilitiers are missing which make the use of the device a challenge. Whislt those of you who are developers, or techno types will probably accept this. The vaste majority of users will find it a bad user experience and taint the reputation of Nokia (with some justification).

For my part, there is much Synbian need to address as their platform becomes blooted and slow however my experience has always been of a reasonable degree of stability for new devices. Certainly more than for this device. Even the first R380s felt more like a phone. Keep in mind the phone is a very personal piece of technology. The users expectation is for far greater reliability and privacy. Any device that comes with a "bluescreen of death" reputation will not recover, which would be a shame in this case as I think the underlying platform and capability is their. It seems to be let down by premature release and inadequate testing and integration.

So, I have said my piece, let the hords come forth and call me all sorts of names for criticising their long awaited baby.

orange box is back with a new user name.
too many coincidences in the writing style

"purchased on the 1st, and dead on the 9th. After resets daily (4-8) the device shut off and would not recover. I am still waiting for a replacement!"

... if you only had one device and by your own admission you never got it to work properly, how on earth do you expect us to take your "review" seriously?

That's like someone buying a rotten apple and then saying that all apples are bad.

You say you have over 2000 contacts... Firstly - why? Secondly - can ANY phone handle that in a reasonable way?

VERY orangebox-esque...

You know you can start typing a name with the keyboard when you are in the contacs list, right?

Besides, this is not a device for the average user, and Nokia has never claimed that either. It's a device for people who like to tinker, play around, find solutions.

EDIT: 2003 server support was added today. (your valid complaints are decreasing in number)

You don't even need to do that. You can start typing on the desktop and it will automatically open the contacts list at that letter.

I've just done a video tutorial explaining it, will upload it now.

Just start typing (when the "Select contact" dialog appears). It filters as you type.

Why indeed... but 2003 support was added via an update today.

I wouldn't use Nokia's PC sync software even if it existed, but I do wish for better google calendar sync.

You're right that the N900 has some rough edges compared to 'other' smartphones, but many of these are being actively worked on and it has some amazing advantages.

I did my research, bought it, tried not to be disappointed by the limitations which I -knew- were present, and am still mostly blown away.