This thread is almost 5 years old and most of the users from it arent active anymore.

Thanks mate! hopefully let wait and see I'm sure I might get reply.

practical lifetime of MY N900: got it long time ago, still using it as my main phone (with original battery too). so i would say 'unless phone networks stop supporting 2G/3G' or if there will be cheap and worthy replacement

2038? Could be a reasonable response to such an open question.
This is if no components fail in the mean time and spares are available to replace wearables like batteries.

Oh, I need to disagree here (a bit).

For me the lilfetime of my N900s was around two to three years. After that the modem failed and they are not dead but cannot be used as phone anymore.
And I do care about my devices.

Other tech (7110, 2110 Siemens S4 ...) are now getting already from teenager to twens. And they all do work (S4 with original battery: standby time longer 1 week )

Poor you. My first N900, obtained in June 2012, is still going strong. With the original battery. Lasts about a day if I use it, about a week when offline. I bought it second hand, so it is much older than that.

Of all five N900s that passed through my hands, four had no problems. One had a loose display due to the previous owner not treating it very well. None had any problems with the modem or the USB port, but I strengthened the ports anyway just in case.

It is true though that some of my other devices are older than that and still going just as strong. None of them are Nokia, BTW

Well, I bought my N900 in Feb 2010, still using it as my main and only phone, 3 or 4 batteries died on it. The only HW problems I have are weared lock-switch and brightness of kbd leds.

That doesn't seem right... shouldn't you at least have a spare for emergencies or additional dev phone?
Feel free to pm me your details and I will send you a fully operational N900.

Oh, you got me wrong - I have another n900, new, which I use for development from time to time and it will become my primary when the one I am using now dies. The point was that my first n900 is still alive and well and used in "production"

My N900 is still my daily use phone and its still going great even after accidents (falling out of my bag onto the floor for example) that would have rendered lesser phones *cough*iPhone*cough*Galaxy*cough* dead.

I do have a bunch of cosmetic issues but the only the only thing that has actually failed was the USB port but I was able to get that sorted.
Oh and I think I am on my third battery after the original Nokia and the first replacement both stopped holding a charge.

No I dont have a backup phone for dev purposes, I run all my dev stuff on my daily-use phone (including things like my MCE clone)