Really? Because the games I've played on my G1 are all quite snappy.

One of them is a top-scrolling shooter, which plays with all of the speed I'd expect on a console. Fast, lots of sprites moving around the screen, etc. It's only quirk isn't based on CPU, but based upon controls -- it doesn't have a trigger/shoot button, so it constantly fires for you.

Not one slow down. It gets faster and faster with each phase. Fun, entertaining, arcade-ish fast paced game.

As for the person who said Doom runs clunky on it ... why would I want to run Doom (or Quake) on my phone (Maemo or Android)? Though, that's tangential ... yes, it may not be fast enough to run a 3d first person shooter. No one said, at any point, that it's as fast as native code, and that does mean there will be a narrow niche of apps that you wont want to run on it.

That narrow niche is not "games" (it is not a "complete fail for games"), but "certain games". That niche might be 3D rendered games (as opposed to pseudo-3D games). It's still fast enough for general applications, and general games. I'm not worried at all, nor do I accept claims that it's a 'complete fail for games', based on the fact that it can't run Doom or Quake smoothly.

No. Android is a series of shallow canals and rivers. Useful and quite well suited for their purpose, but you wont be seeing jetboats, submarines, nor container ships in its waters. And its canal system is expanding rapidly -- they might be narrow passages, but its total square miles of area already exceeds that of Loch Maemo.

Maemo is a deep loch. But one that (right now) has almost no current, no tributaries, the waters are murky, and not a lot of square miles of surface area. It is far from being a deep blue sea. But it is impressively deep. A big, deep, almost stagnant*, pond, really. It'll hold an aircraft carrier or submarine ... but it wont be able to go anywhere, and you'll have some difficulty getting it in there.


(* 3 years to get 4 devices??? 2 years since the last device release? and the 5th device is only vaguely on the radar? And in those 3 years, how many 3rd party apps (esp. commercial ones) have been developed specifically for it? These waters are moving quite slowly compared to the Android canals ... which include phones, MIDs/pocketable-tablets, netbooks, non-pocketable-tablets, etc. with ports and specific apps being developed by a wide range of commercial and non-commercial developers. Those waters are moving quite quickly.)

To drive the analogy into the depths, you should mention that the Loch Maemo is off in the distance and the boat is still out of the water being fitted out while the Android canals have boats sailing on them and more are lining up at the first lock.

Looks like the Droid is not as feature relative to the N900 as expected.

1. CPU is 550mhz (still 3430 and just underclocked?)
2. 16gb card installed in the micro sd slot. Probably class 2. N900 has 32"ish" more gigs of built in fast memory.


Oh yeah,

Android is for girls

Yes, very lame-especially if you are a girl.

The N900 just isn't for everyone nor should it be. IMO Android can offer a good solution to some folk that are average (non-power users) people looking for a good and simple smartphone. As for Motorola's offering I'm really wondering about the quality, something Moto has sporadically struggled with over the years. Plus IMO it's ugly. I'm also curious what long term Nseries and Eseries users think of Android for both usability and hardware quality [of various devices].

In the end if someone wanted my opinion of this device I'd have to tell them to take a pass because this is not the 'droid they're looking for.

I agree. I have been using Android since last September and it is solid for the general consumer. I will still use my G1 as a back-up device. It is functional:

1. Scan barcodes and get price links to compare
2. Voice search Google
3. ID songs with the mic and tag the song
4. Very good map intergration for trips
5. Good game emulators (when clocked to 528mhz)
6. Google Reader mobile page works GREAT!

I am still on Android 1.5 rooted, and always clock to 528mhz. With my 2300mah battery, the phone lasts two days (no 3G yet where I live so radio off).

I am messing around more than anything else. If Android adds more video codec support, more audio options and a little more efficiency with the byte code layer, I would consider an N900 with Android.

The nice thing about Android is it is COMPETITION- Good for consumers

Doesn't look so bad really... a little bit "boxy" perhaps. Screen is higher resolution than N900s at 854x480. Full specs here. Droid due in November.

(starting to get a bit off topic)

Since you're going as far as rooting, have you tried Cyanogen's ROMs? Supposedly they make some nice additions, and they really improve the efficiency of Android itself (one of my coworkers uses Cyanogen's ROM on his MyTouch3G, and says it really gave a boost in both speed and lifetime ... I only use the non-rooted vanilla Android on my G1 though).

90% of what I do is ... MP3 playing on my (public transportation) commute, Gmail, Google Reader, and then a little bit of light web browsing. I also get the weather channel updates (both widget form, and the status bar). And then a ton of TXT'ing to my gf.

Oh, and, which battery did you get? I'm still using the stock one, after a year :-} (I'm just careful about always charging it when I get home or two the office, and I keep wifi and bluteooth turned off when I don't need them)

I wouldn't want an N900 with Android.

I would want Maemo ... and Dalvik. Then you get the best of both (real Linux computer in your pocket, Maemo's UI work and integration, and Android applications). And on a bigger device (a 4.1" phone with comfortable 5 row keyboard and dpad for one ... and on a 10" convertible tablet netbook for my other mobile device).

A second choice would be Android, but with a Linux user-land (terminal app, gnu bin-utils, apt-get/apt-cache, perl, etc.) added on. So that I get the "real linux in my pocket" effect that Maemo has. But I don't know how I would best add X to this (a small virtual X layer running on top of the existing Android graphics enviroment? not sure). I'm not a huge fan of X, as I think it's rather inefficient and under-featured as a window drawing mechanism ... and I'm agnostic about GNOME vs Android's "window manager". So I could probably even live without X support at all. But, again, that would be my second choice, and I probably wouldn't run it on an N900.

Third choice... not sure if it'd be Pure Maemo5 or Pure Android. I wont know the answer to that until I have my N900. :-) Though, there are a few things I miss about Maemo (from my days of using my N810). But not enough to keep using the two device model (a phone + N810). When it's Android on my G1 vs phone+N810, Android is good enough (and the two device model is inconvenient enough) that I'm more than happy sticking to Android. But, the N900 changes some of that equation (single device, better resolution than the G1, etc.). So I have to wait and see.

But if it was Pure Android, I doubt I'd run it on an N900. I'm hoping for a new Android device that has a 5 row keyboard (like the G1), but hopefully one with a dpad and a bigger screen than the G1. I was willing to consider the Motorola Sholes/Tao/Droid when it had a 4 row keyboard that had a dedicated number row ... but they changed the keyboard layout. Between that and having to switch to Verizon, not so interested anymore. The Motorola Cliq might be interesting ... but still, 4 row keyboard without a dedicated number row. But at least I don't have to switch carriers in order to get it.

wait i thought droid was 1ghz?