N900 Issues: For Potential Buyers - Page 5 - maemo.org

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geneven	2010-05-13 , 18:25
Posts: 5,795 \| Thanked: 3,151 times \| Joined on Feb 2007 @ Agoura Hills Calif	#41

Originally Posted by geneven

The consensus among early users of the N900 (before screen protection became nearly universal IMHO) was that the N900 screen was lots easier to scratch than the earlier tablets.

And an irrelevant aside. My N800 has scratches and my N810 doesn't. Neither had screen protectors. They both got the shoddy treatment I generally give my tablets.

Quoting myself because quoting Texrat would have left out enough context to tell what we were talking about.

I would love to see a poll of how many N900 users use screen protectors. If the majority do, I would be curious why a majority of users would adopt them if the consensus was that they didn't need them.

This video is fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tgNdRm-iJs

Last edited by geneven; 2010-05-13 at 18:31.

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	Parody	2010-05-13 , 18:25
	Posts: 175 \| Thanked: 99 times \| Joined on May 2010	#42

Originally Posted by Texrat

Good advice in general but be advised: IF static is the issue (and it's my first guess here based on experience), this solution could actually be part of the problem if no screen protector is used. If dust is on the screen or the inside pouch surface, inserting/removing the device can cause scratching.

That's a theory I haven't considered before, the casing is leather and cloth though. Do you think that the casing material will have any effect on this issue?

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9000	2010-05-13 , 18:37
Posts: 1,425 \| Thanked: 983 times \| Joined on May 2010 @ Hong Kong	#43

I'm a just a new N900 user so my experience might not represent the majority. Still, it could be useful to potential buyers.

Originally Posted by etuoyo

Hardware

(i)The screen scratches more easily than capacitive screens.

I found one advantage of resistive touchscreen is that you can use stylus. Stylus may come in handy in some situation where you need high precision screen-touching. There is special design, battery-powered stylus for capacitive touchscreens, though.

I switch from phone with capacitive touchscreens, and in my personal opinion N900's touchscreen is as responsive as the capacitive ones.

(ii) There is a serious manufacturing defect with the micro-usb socket of many of the N900s. For some it has fallen out completely. For me the device no longer charges from a charger. It has to be charged from PC via USB cable. Nokia have been made aware of the problem and hopefully have fixed it in the latest builds but there is no guarantee this is so and there is no guarantee that even if they have you will not end up with an older batch so be aware of this risk.

I can charge it with USB cable now. Of course charging with AC charger is faster.

(iii) Only three row keyboard layout so you need to use alternate for the numbers keys.

Well I think it's an advantage?

Battery

If you do not have IM accounts turned on then the battery should easily last you through the day. However, with some IM accounts (not sure which are the culprits but yahoo and msn seem to be amongst) you should generally expect around 6 hours use on average. Not really an issue specific to the N900 though - Engagdet's review of the HTC Desire says they had 6 hours with similar use.

The conclusion is that IM drains electricity. This is a fact that is not phone-specific.

Interface/Operating System

(i) Some devices randomly restart.

I don't experience random restarting, it restarts abruptly when I've done something pushy which is anticipated.

(ii) The transition between the four desktops is far from smooth.

May be someone is comparing move screens on a device with resolution 480x320. N900 gets a 800x480 screen, but still, I personally think the screen transition is quite smooth.

(iii) You cannot jump to the particular desktop you want like you can with HTC's Sense interface. You can scroll forward or backwards so can go from 1 to 2 or 1 to 4. But you cannot go straight from 1 to 3. You must scroll through 2 to get to 3.

You can just install another desktop. I understand some people do not like the freedom of choice.

(iv) Scrolling through a long list is terribly jerky. For example if you are scrolling through the thumbnails of your photos.

On the contrary, I find it scrolls faster than any other devices when processing a large list of images. The multitasking capability of N900 helps, as the scrolling action doesn't need to wait too long for thumbnails creations like other devices do.

Of course, it's my personal experience again, but you can try it out yourself.

(v) If you have a lot of media going to a folder with many sub-folders or files will cause the device to slow down to the point of the file manager being unusable.

This one repeated (iv).

(vi) The device can sometimes be slow and unresponsive. If you are a Linux expert or are lucky you will never have any slow down or apps freezing up. However, it is generally not as snappy as an iphone for the general user where you tap an icon and it opens up immediately.

I know someone would hate multitasking capability that N900 has.

(vii) The screen does not refresh automatically for some reason. If the screen goes off (battery saver) when you wake it up it will show for a couple of seconds exactly what it was showing before it went to sleep. So if the time was 14.50 then and is now 16.30 it will initially show 14.50.

May be my eyes are not as reflexive as others, I personally found it refreshed instantly. My bad.

(viii) It takes longer than it should to switch from portrait mode to landscape and vice versa.

Longer than.....?

(ix) There is no full portrait mode on the device so makes one handed operation rather difficult or virtually impossible. There is only portrait mode on phone app, web browser and some third party apps.

I personally (again, personally) dislike the switching of orientation due unintentional movement. Still you can change this behavior, which the tester doesn't know.

Maps/Navigation

The Ovi Maps version on the N900 is outdated and misses voice turn by turn navigation.

This is complaining Nokia not giving better software for free. Yeah, I've a bigger list of free-lunch complain on hand.... XD

Ovi Store

This does not work properly with the N900.

Thank God.

Media Player

(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
(ix)

I summarize this long list of complains into this:

"I don't know how to install a real media player like mplayer and its companion, and I don't understand why people would make player doesn't work with iTune."

In this case I don't have the answer.

Email
(i) There is no easy way to search your emails.

Like....a large search button?

(ii) Nokia Messaging sometimes has delay in pushing emails to the device. Delay can be 15 minutes, can be a couple of hours. If you have a job where you need to be contacted immediately by email better to use a blackberry.

Do you realize you can define the interval of mail pushing?

Phone

(i) The phone cannot say the name of the caller.

Your firmware is pretty old it seems.

(ii) You cannot have custom ringtones for each caller.

Yes you can.

(iii) You cannot have caller groups.
(iv) The call log is pretty poor. It just lists all types of calls (incoming, outgoing, missed) in one long list.

I second these two points.

(v) For some it randomly goes to speaker mode whilst you are on the phone.

You need to shave.

(vi) For some the call volume drops on and off.

Try not to grab your phone too hard, the volume buttons are sensitive to pressure.

(vii) Only general and silent profiles (although there is an app that seeks to get around that).

Thank you for answering to your question. ^^

(viii) No way to set the phone to divert all calls to voicemail. You need to download a third party app to achieve this.

Potential N900 buyers would love to hear that. XD

(ix) Cannot dial numbers starting with * or # without the use of a third party widget so without the third party widget you are unable to top up your credit or check your balance in certain countries.

Yes, you can. You need a new firmware.

(x) No MMS unless you get a third party app.

So the answer is "it can".

Special Issues

(i) If playing video I cannot receive calls.

Why I can?

(ii) Sometimes the phone rings with a blank screen for a few seconds so no way to answer the phone. I know a few others have had this issue but not sure how wide spread it is.

I've this experience. Try tapping the screen.

I'm trying to be constructive in all my response, but I just still couldn't help amused by some of your comments. My apology if that sounds offensive to you.

Last edited by 9000; 2010-05-13 at 18:44.

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	Texrat	2010-05-13 , 18:40
	Posts: 11,700 \| Thanked: 10,045 times \| Joined on Jun 2006 @ North Texas, USA	#44

Originally Posted by Parody

That's a theory I haven't considered before, the casing is leather and cloth though. Do you think that the casing material will have any effect on this issue?

Hard to say. But it's easy to find out: rub it against typical surfaces and see if it can attract things like tissue. Just be aware if the case IS static-prone it will likely pick up dust during testing.

I would *hope* they had used a static-resistant material, but then, sometimes that isn't considered...

__________________
Nokia Developer Champion
Different <> Wrong | Listen - Judgment = Progress | People + Trust = Success
My personal site: http://texrat.net

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nosa101	2010-05-13 , 18:40
Posts: 1,667 \| Thanked: 561 times \| Joined on Feb 2010	#45

If you have a mac, you can sync your itunes playlists with your n900 using Nokia Multimedia transfer

You could try GoGadget for syncing too.

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Laughingstok	2010-05-13 , 18:42
Posts: 472 \| Thanked: 442 times \| Joined on Sep 2007	#46

Your N900 won't help you pick up women. Another negative.

__________________
If you don't know how to check your N900's uptime, you probably shouldn't own it.

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	Texrat	2010-05-13 , 18:44
	Posts: 11,700 \| Thanked: 10,045 times \| Joined on Jun 2006 @ North Texas, USA	#47

Originally Posted by geneven

I would love to see a poll of how many N900 users use screen protectors. If the majority do, I would be curious why a majority of users would adopt them if the consensus was that they didn't need them.

Based on past conversations here, I'm betting many simply use them as a precaution based on default advice.

__________________
Nokia Developer Champion
Different <> Wrong | Listen - Judgment = Progress | People + Trust = Success
My personal site: http://texrat.net

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geneven	2010-05-13 , 18:45
Posts: 5,795 \| Thanked: 3,151 times \| Joined on Feb 2007 @ Agoura Hills Calif	#48

Originally Posted by Laughingstok

Your N900 won't help you pick up women. Another negative.

I am not sure about that. Sometimes flashing lights and glitz can work wonders. I would use the Live Wallpaper Matrix background and tell people it's the beta iPod...