Hey there, my N900 arrived today, and knowing there's a strong Australian demand for this phone yet no planned release here, I thought I'd do my fellow Aussies a service by sharing my experience.

Purchasing the N900 can be done locally from ebay and certain online retailers, but I chose to import mine from the USA.

I used Price USA and can recommend them (I'm not getting any kickback for this, just mentioning them because it worked for me), though there are other services offering importation of US goods. The process involves informing the service of the product you want, they invoice you the cost in AUD, you pay them that amount and they then buy the item in the US then post it internationally. Due to the exchange rate this is a very economical way to go, the total cost to me was around $700 AUD, which is several hundred cheaper than anything on ebay at the time of writing.

As the N900 was out of stock when I placed my order (good to know sales are going well!) it took a while to arrive, but once the phone was ordered it took just over 4 weeks to arrive (this is over the christmas/new years season too, so delays are expected).

The phone itself works perfectly with a 3 sim card in metropolitan Melbourne. It should work fine with all Australian carriers except Telstra. Telstra NextG runs on the 850mhz frequency, which the N900's cellular radio doesn't use, so only 2G service will be available with Telstra. Also note that because 3 now offers 3G roaming on Telstra's NextG network, the N900 with a 3 simcard will be 2G only in those zones as well.

The only setting I needed to plug in to the phone was the access point name (3services in my case) - even the message center number was automatically detected. Nice one.

You'll notice that no Australian timezones are available when initially setting up the phone, just select anything and change it from within the phone's settings later - all time zones are available there.

Aside from that, it's smooth sailing. I'm enjoying this phone immensely, and while it's an amazing package already you can certainly sense its potential. Any Aussies who are considering buying this phone but are put off by the logistics and Nokia's lack of a planned official local release, should be aware that it's actually quite easy to bring it over and very worthwhile.

Thanks guys, that's all, I hope this helped someone!

Im an Australian N900 user, and I have to agree, this "phone" is unreal.

I pre-ordered it months ago and was hating every time they pushed back the release date, but I eventually got it.

Ive had lots of fun with it though!! at first the mic didnt work, which happens a bit apparently. i fixed this by plugging in the headset!!
i use a vodafone sim...

Ive got the full versions of duke nukem 3d atomic edition and quake 3,
plus openarena, doom (shareware) and they all work flawlessly.


so far ive hacked my N900 quite a bit:

-modified LED colours and vibrations
-removed boot video (can also use custom video, but i prefer none)
-added custom profiles with tweakr
-made camera button and proximity sensor shortcuts to task manager/phone
-customized operator name
-added 'reboot' function to power button
-only flashed it once (formatted) which is very easy


The other day while idly using my N900 it did the portrait bug, so I had to film it.. Works nicely, could easily be be implemented!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kngnQntH68o

Another satisfied PriceUSA customer. Vodafone SIM. Essentially trouble-free operation so far, including Exchange server (2007). Battery burn when away from WLAN is my main gripe. A cheap spare battery from HK is my workaround.

try setting internet settings to:

connect auto: wifi
connect int.: 60 mins
tick switch to wifi when avail.

Hey DanielMartin and f2thak, thanks for sharing your experiences. I've had mine for I guess close to a month now and am really enjoying it. Like the rest on here I'm curious to see what the firmware updates will bring but I've gotten used to the N900's limitations and love it's talents.

I'm on Vodafone too but can't get V Live on mine, any suggestions? And I miss Vodafone Compass which I used a lot on my previous Nokia.

Thanks DanielMartin for starting this thread. Does it work with 3 sim? I've bought one from ebay from US as well but due to the holidays I haven't received it yet and I doubt the seller has shipped it at all However, it did cost me a bit above 750 but still cheaper than HKs and the local ones.

Sure does, I'm writing this very post on an N900 with a 3 sim. :-)

is it possible to get info about theese? a walk through or a topic link?
thanks

Hey

I got mine from amazon, left on the 17th dec, delivered to a shipito address who forwarded it onto me and it arrived on the 21st! I was stoked! Cost about $640 all up.
Am very happy with the n900, the hardware is great and the community here seems to be really good too!

The best power saving thing I have done is turn the touch screen vibration off, I have wifi/ 3g, gps, and bluetooth on all the time and with a fair bit of use today I'm up to 8 hours and still have 1/4 battery left! Huge improvement!

is this the Whirlpool reunion thread?

Can also recommend PriceUSA