offtopic but i had to say

Its not at least its STILL supported by Nokia, which wont last long and resale value is low, look here or on craiglist people who bought it for 700-650 or 600$ can sell it for more than 350 , you call it a good value?

op.. if you're not in a hurry wait for MeeGo devices for the same price you will get much better device

I switched from an N95 to the N900. At first I was a bit disappointed. It was missing some features. But now. I love it. It is not hard at all. It's hard as much as you want it to be. Example if you want to change the startup animation or move certain files from root etc, you'd have to use the terminal, which you might find hard (at first).

But if you want to watch videos, play games, browse the internet and what not, it's quite easy. It has a lot of hidden features too. It's not very complicated believe. Quite the opposite actually.The GUI is very easy to use and very friendly. Here's a post that might help you (once you buy it): http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=687787&postcount=1

You can do much more though. So if you want more from your N900, search.

Hmm. It's quite unique. Very different from a n96.

Have you taken a look at the softwares here? Is everything you need there?

Do you have access to a shop that can give you a few minutes with it? to try it out?

I would say, presuming you don't install anything that will break its phone functionality (I doubt you will, unless you start getting extras-devel stuff), the N900 is perfectly fine. fMMS works fine once set up for MMS support, so calls, texting, picture messaging and internet will be just fine. I honestly got my N900 as a portable laptop for connectivity to the internet on the go, so I barely use it as a phone. But it makes a great netbook. That's not to say it's bad as a phone. The only currently existing gap is the lack of a full portrait-mode virtual keyboard for everything. There are a couple of text-messaging-in-portrait-mode apps for just texting. If you want browsing completely in portrait mode (IE absolutely wouldn't be able to live with entering urls and passwords and stuff with one hand) you may want to hold off a little. HOWEVER, people are currently working on a universal portrait keyboard. It was made by Nokia originally I think, then not included for some reason, and now it's in semi-usable form in extras-devel. It will probably be working eventually, but it may take a couple months. In the meantime, I find opera mobile is almost as good if you want not-always-full pages and no flash support in exchange for having a built in vertical virtual keyboard.

As for portrait mode itself, with the latest firmware, N900 does portrait mode on almost everything. And while some people complain about it being half assed and broken or whatever, I think it's fine for most things. It is broken for stuff like media player, but not for most things, and you can generally use the media player without turning on portrait mode even when you hold the N900 vertically. You still have to Cttrl+Shift+R to get it everytime you open the apps, as I think you know (except browser, where you can enable it automatically), but that's not hard or annoying in my experience. Really, unless you're completely obsessed about portrait mode, and can't live without it, I think the N900 won't cause problems, and you said you thought you could get used to it, so that's not likely to be a problem for you.

I think it's worth it, honestly. In the entire time I had this device, I was lightly annoyed by one aesthetic change in PR1.2, had a couple problems solved by rebooting (one involved accelerometer, and I am not sure if reboot and battery removal fixed it, or something else), and only one problem currently being discussed in another thread with GMail loading as mobile all of a sudden. If you want it as just a phone with full internet, go with it. It won't disappoint. If there's anything else you really need, that may or may not be possible, but it probably is.

As for navigating the UI, it's perfectly fine in my experience. I can barely do stuff in X-Term, and simply stared at it when I first launched it because I had no clue what to do, but everything was very intuitive outside that. You don't need to think to use the majority of the phone. Almost nothing you need to use requires knowing much or being tech savvy. Bringing the device to full potential does, general use doesn't. When you find some specific thing you want to do you'll probably be more than happy to learn that one thing. That's mostly how things have been going on my end. Using most programs, as well as getting them, is perfectly doable too. Unless the program requires some level of savvyness, from OpenSSH for basic savvyness to stuff out of my league, it shouldn't be too hard to find your way around. The app manager is perfectly intuitive too. The only non intuitive thing is adding/enabling repositories, but there's step-by-step explanation on this site's wiki.

- Edit -

Price-wise, I got mine barely used second hand for 450$ including shipping, not the best deal but not the worst. Dell sells new ones for 470-ish, sometimes they have sales for 430-ish. Either wait for one of those deals, if you want this device now, or save up for its successor. Unless you're fine with 470, or getting it second-hand.

N900 worths every penny I spent even though I bought it at higher price.

However, your YMMV. I want a tablet computer with mobile function, N900 is the best suit for me. If you just want a phone that look smart, you might need to take seriously the advices of above.

If you want a smartphone, no. Definitely not. The UX isn't there, the apps aren't there, the developers aren't there.

Want a cool, nerd-like palmtop? Yeah, it's pretty good, but the phone features, GPS, and battery life are about 5 years out of date.

Nokia has lost it -- The N900 went from iPhone killer hype level to silently ignored as Andriod totally swamped the attention. The N8 is apparently about to suffer the same fate.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...qjjIoz4&pos=11

"Nokia Loses Battle for Apps as IPhone, Android Snare Developers"

This device is...

great for those that are already familiar with *nix environment and frequently use it for their work or home environment. It'll fit very well and pretty much no other mobile device can offer the same level of functionerformance:size as the N900 in this regard, at this point in time.

good for those who like to tinker. for those who really value opensource, open standards and their digital freedom above other things.

below average for those who are looking for smartphones in the popular/conventional sense. for those people who would like to get functions out of their devices with minimal fuss.

I suggest you look at the problems people have had with the device, and the common solutions, as well as the list of things people can do with it. Those three together should answer 90% of your questions.

For me, I'm quite comfortable using my N900. I use is as my every-day phone (have since I got it in November), and have only turned my laptop on at home 3 or 4 times since then, mainly to get files off of it and onto the N900.

If you want an iPhone like thing, with no maintenance and limited functionality, go that route. If you want a small computer that can also make calls, but has the limitations of all computers (upkeep and flexibility), this is your phone.

as a newbie and someone that never has done anything with programming, all i can say to that statment is that it is utter bullsh**

its a great phone!!

Dont just listen to geeks here - check out what the man in the street has to say. Amazon.co.uk has N900 rates 5 stars iPhone 3 and a quarter.N900 only £397 iPhone 1 billion dollars

Ignore the naysayers, buy it man.