Exactly. If you want a 'more powerful iphone' then you have probably bought the wrong thing. Decide exactly what you want - and then ask yourself that question.

YMMV means?

I think this is quite good view. Iphone is made to be easy to use, which also usually means that it isn't that versatile. Take the "home pages" for example: for iPhone, you have several pages of applications. It's easy to lauch what you want but you only have the applications there. With N900, it takes some time to tweak it to be what you want, but you can get pretty much what you want. Some people prefer the easyness, some people want the versatility.

With N900, you might actually need to read the manual (or from somewhere else) to learn how to use it. But at least when I have tried it (still waiting for mine..) the user experience was good.

I would recommend reading reviews about the N900 to understant what it is exactly, what it can do and what it can't. Generally people tend to say that if you want primarly a phone, go for N97 and symbian (or something else), and if you want primarly an internet device (browsing, messaging, VoIP etc), then go for the N900.

Your Mileage May Vary.

Mate you can always sell it to me Holla from your neighbour (NZ)

In summary

N900 mainly for the geeks, it wasn't meant for mass market
iPhone mainly for mass market noobs who can't use a phone and want limited features

I feel offended by that bud ..........Hhahhah joking, Nah I love your comment, nothing wrong with being a Geek

For me, the most important thing about the N900 is that it's pretty much like a regular gnu/linux computer, even more so than the Pre or Android devices (that also have the linux kernel).

If you're not interested in the Free/Open source aspects, then maybe there is a better phone for you out there.

But... even if you don't care about computing Freedom from a political/philosophical perspective, Open Source can still be the pragmatic choice.

It is more likely that a feature can be implemented on an open platform as opposed to a closed one. Feature development is not going to be at the mercy of company policy, as is the case with the iPhone.

For me the choice is easy, since I regard the Freedom so highly that I wouldn't want a closed phone- or computer OS even if it had better features (I'm not so adamant about it that I'd choose to get a Neo Freerunner phone, though).

I'm going to look at a N97 tomorrow.

Hehe - i've been thinking for the last few days what would i get instead of the N900......
Only 2 come close and thats the HD2 and Milestone/Droid... but even looking at those 2 is not enough to tear me away from a working N900 (Sorry had to put that!)

I hope to get mine next friday and what i'm looking for is...

Something new and fresh to learn and use. I'm pretty techy but at the same time, the phone part has to be simple (Might have to wait on that!) - but with regards to the power of the N900 - and what you can do if yo uput your mind to it... not others come close yet i feel...


I want to be able to watch movies on the train, to listen to music, to eventually connect to my work email, to vpn, to vnc and to have a lovely gadget that surprises me each day - preferably with a working mic

I would love to be able to open and edit documents, but i'll decide on that when isee how easy it is

Eventually i'd maybe like to design an application for the device - no better way to learn

what i don't want is something that other people will admire, and i'll hate (Like the iphone!)

ANyway, my 2cents.... Don't think you can decide until you get it