So I have lots and lots of problems unlocking the N900. The fact that despite the large buttons you still need nail action, slow reaction of the buttons, etc - I'm not sure how much of that is down to resistive limitations but nevertheless I almost never manage to unlock the N900 the first or second time around while one-handed, while I never *not* manage to unlock the iPhone on the first try for example.

However I'm sure it could be a bit better if the lock screen was portrait. Any chance of that happening?

There is a posibility with RotateDaemon in extras-devel. I cant remember if it worked on the lock screen as i uninstalled it as its rather buggy at the moment. However my suggestion is dont use the unlock screen use the little flicky switch on the side

Yeah... bugs and a lock screen... probably a bad idea. Especially the reason why I wanted it portrait, ya know?

As long as I have my contacts on there (and if I didn't it's useless as a phone), out of the question. If I lose it / get it stolen, the easiest way presented to anyone who finds it / steals it to have it operational again should be to erase it.

As far as I remember, when I tried RotateDaemon, when on the lock screen it caused an auto reboot every time I tried to rotate.

Urg. Thanks

yeap i can confirm this, just tested... mine doesn't reboot, it just stays as it is and is not responding anymore lol

How big are your hands? I have about average hands and I've never had problems unlocking the phone with one hand. Just hit the power button and slide the button down with the thumb, all skin, no nails. Maybe it's how you're holding your phone?

The reason the lock screen is laggy, is because after pressing the power button, the processor spikes as it quickly loads from the swap file the unlocking program and therfore it will take time before it is avalible to run.

This can be shown when after you have used the phone alot with out locking it:
Try locking it, then unlock it with the power button (it will be laggy).
Now lock it again and unlock it (this time no lag as everything is in memory)

Perhaps a solution would be to press the power button to display the lock screen after locking it. This will load the ulock program from the swap file making it quicker to unlock later.

Not big.

I'm not talking about the slide to unlock screen. I'm talking about the number code unlock screen.

@JonWW
Interesting, but I'm not entirely sure it's the sole cause. There are definitely situations where what you say seems to happen - for example, I use QTspot a lot and sometimes, when that's running in the background the lock screen takes about 20 seconds to be responsive. It's not a dev issue as much as a memory issue I know - as it also happens with other non-dev programs when I have a lot of memory-hungry programs running. The real problem is the speed of the operation even when nothing else of consequence is running, and it's mainly a physical problem.

On any other phone it's literally two seconds when I fish the phone out, activate the screen and type in the code one-handed. With the N900, what I have to do to get it to unlock first time, every time is to fish it out, turn it landscape, hold it in both hands and carefully locate my nails on each key. There is definitely an ergonomic problem to do this quickly. With the iPhone for example the activation button is on the fascia, while the capacitive screen accepts 'pad of finger' inputs just fine - so unlocking is a seamless action. With the N900, I have to precariously balance the phone while gaining access to the activation slider with my thumb, then change my hold to be able to prod the numbers with my nails because pad of finger input almost always fails to register properly when you're prodding in a hurry.

I'm thinking that if the lock screen was turned portrait with the number keys lower down the screen, they would be easier to press while holding it like a phone.

Most often, I e.g. have to make another call after taking one - and it is immensely frustrating when you're in a hurry to unlock the N900. Part of it is down to the response of the buttons - and I'm not convinced that's solely a memory issue. And part of it is the location of the buttons when being held portrait.