Will the nokia n900 be worth while without using the phone feature

No. With its small screen it would not be good to replace the tablet. But as an all in one device it would be awesome.

I totally agree with sachin007

The screen doesn't look all that much smaller to me. Same resolution and much faster browser means a much better experience to me anyways.

I'm on the fence. Last week, I was far, far away from the fence.

But with Harmattan in the pipe already... I might wait.

I think someone described how to tell the difference in screen size. Take an n800/n810. Look at the desktop of it. Now where the left sidebar icons are and the top status bar. Chop those off, that's around a 3.5 inch screen. So as long as Maemo5 doesn't have any horrible UI decisions then it should do fine on screen size (assuming you rarely fullscreened).

Except the screen is what 30% smaller? Which means all the text will be 30% smaller and less readable unless I zoom in. Once I zoom in, I have less info on the screen, and have to scroll more often.

Of course with the faster system, I guess those scrolls will be faster and smoother. That will kind of suck, all the extra scrolling though. Same goes for fbreader as well (or reading any document really). No more holding and paging forward and back easily with one hand using the zoom buttons, unless the volume buttons can be hacked for the same thing.

That really detracts from the experience for me.

I don't need and can't use a phone other than a company assigned one on a company wide network that is not supported by the N900.

I will be paying at least $700 for my next portable device so price isn't affecting my opinion... From what I have seen so far, traditional tablet usability may have been compromised in order to support costumer expectations of a cell phone. That certainly is the case with regard to visible things like screen size, d-pad, and function keys; I suspect it may also be the case with the firm/software its own dang self. I mean who wants a dialing pad for cell phone they can't use popping up because they moved the wrong way or an application developer is incorrectly calling an API?.

Other than a PIM, nothing seems revolutionary regarding application function over the existing N8** tablets. I also suspect that some versions of the new apps on the N900 will become available for N8** devices once developers familiar with both operating systems become more involved.

For a new internet tablet user, at almost $600 less, a used N8** is a bargain. For existing IT only users, as Sachin007 has posted earlier, an N900 really isn't a cost effective upgrade.

BTW, ^that is my opinion YMMV.

Anyone have any idea how we would be able to switch out of full screen when in a non-fremantlized app? Say fbreader. Without a hardware button, assuming fbreader is catching the screen taps (for paging, highlighting, etc), how do we get back out of full screen? Same goes for bringing up a menu without a menu key?

Using fbreader in anything less than full screen on this small of a screen would be completely unacceptable.

I think there is a short cut based on hardware buttons which let you go to the task switcher. Observe the meamo interface documentary closely you will see qgil's buddy pressing some hardware buttons to pull up the task switcher.