Hmmm..
Some minuses:
- no Linux
- no GSM/UMTS radio,
- no GPS,
- pretty big to be carried in your pocket,
- Windows XP,
- questionable battery
do I continue?

Windows 7 or Linux Ubuntu 9.10 if you're into that. 5-6 hour battery with both wifi and bluetooth enabled.
The others, I can't help you with. But remember, technology has only come so far. You can't get everything you want, and at a good price.

Not entirely true. With a sim card, skype, and a bluetooth headset, the umid m2 could be a phone. If you have a big problem with that, that's your preface. Personally, I don't.
Also, 3 row keyboards don't win in my book. Neither do 3.5 inch screens. I originally said this was for people who want an upgraded n810, big screen, big keyboard, no phone.

EDIT: Sorry about all the edits, making sure I say what I need to say.

Honestly, I'd stick to my N810 if I were to choose.

I like the M2, even the M1 was appealing. However, it's hard to use it as a phone for incoming calls. Afaik the device has to be turned on, so you can't really put it in your pocket and expect calls to com through, or am I wrong?

johnkzin, I respect your right to have your preferences and so I would not try to impose my opinion about which OS is better, as different as it may be from yours. Suffice to say, my ranking is different, and with good reasons.

For the sake of argument, however, I am going to cite a few parameters by which the Umid M2 is closer to your ideal tablet than the N900:

1. 1024x600 screen resolution
2. USB host/otg port (at least one, possibly expandable via hub)
3. Higher external display resolutions
4. Option for 1GB RAM

...not my words, as you will recognize.

Surely you have more reasons to like the N900 better, and you're free to share them. However, I think you should agree that putting down an unreleased device solely for the OS it originally ships with was impulsive rather than rational.

My three categories would be:

1) Phone/PDA - three to four inch touch screen, light weight, long battery life. This is the device that is always with me. I want to get and make calls; keep a schedule and have it beep at me to get me to meetings; let me jot handwritten notes (recognition is a bonus); let me do light browsing; and have enough simple games to keep me entertained for minutes at a time. This is the device I keep with me when I go to the bathroom. This is where the N900 or Droid would fit.

2) Portable Computer - about a 5 inch touch screen (ideally capacitive plus an active digitizer); under 1 pound; physical keyboard and mouse (the latter ideally via trackstick or trackball); 1.5-2.0 GHz CPU, 1-2 GB RAM, 16-64 GB SSD; support for standard USB peripherals (keyboards, flash drives, etc.). This is a device that I might not have in the bathroom but I would take to lunch and to meetings. This is my OQO and might be the UMID M2.

3) Desktop Computer - whatever $2k buys when I buy it. Currently I have an Dell Studio XPS built around Intel's i7 Bloomfield and geared towards general processing (versus graphics processing).

The UMID doesn't compete with the N900, it competes with the netbook and laptop market.

I have a problem with Skype, but not with VOIP. I also have a problem with bluetooth headsets (but not with headsets in general). I can respect your sentiment with Google Voice and a wired headset (with built-in mic, not just speakers). But, it also depends somewhat on how friendly the carriers are to you using VOIP. I seem to recall that most of the US carriers frown on using your wireless data plan for VOIP calls. So, whether it's skype, or google voice, either way, it may not be a true long-term answer to the question of "is it a phone?"

I'm not happy about the 3 row keyboard, but for my preferences "3 row keyboard + phone" is better than "5 row keyboard and no phone".

On the otherhand, I can completely respect that it may be a good answer for those looking for the non-phone successor to the N810.

I've got to agree. Not calling you a fanboy, but...

You have one flaw in your logic, I don't care what american phone companies frown on. I do what I want. And they legally can't kick me off for using VOIP.

You got those from my mid-range/tablet list, not my pocketable/phone list.

Both the UMID and the N900 would fail my mid-range/tablet criteria. They don't have a 9" or 10" screen. That's a loss right there.

In the pocketable/phone category ... it _has_ to be a phone. In order for me to consider it to be a "phone", it has to:

• be able to make voice calls to any number (including emergency services)
• be able to send SMS messages to any phone number (not just other VOIP subscribers)
• be able to receive voice calls from any number, and if necessary wake the device up from "stand-bye" mode in order to alert me of the incoming call
• be able to receive, via your public facing phone number, SMS messages from any phone number

As far as I know, Google Voice can only do SOME of those, and Skype can't do any of them (can't call emergency services, like 911, can't wake your device up from stand-bye mode, can't send or receive true SMS messages, nor will it gateway its internal IM service to/from standard SMS messages, nor allow you to use your "skype-in" phone number for receiving SMS messages). Those are all things that I use on my phone, and that I, in varying capacities, depend upon.

Of the above 4 things you mention, only ONE of those is a criteria that matches my _ideal_ pocketable/phone list (USB Host/OTG). Certainly, the N900 is less than ideal. But the UMID, without those two voice call capabilities, is not only "less than ideal", it doesn't enter the race.

(if you translate those other 3 items into the comparable items on the pocketable/phone list, it's 800x480 resolution, external display of some sort, and more than .5GB of RAM ... the N900 does meet all 3 of those requirements. And, while I don't consider it a show-stopper, I don't think I'd want 1024x600 on a 5" or smaller screen -- at that point, I expect the pixels would be TOO small)

No, I have a very rational basis for rejecting a device based upon the OS it ships with. I don't want to lose my device because of a bad upgrade. My gf currently has a door-stop of a laptop because of a bad-upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 9.10. Bricked it. And she doesn't even have her 7.10 install media anymore. I'm an IT guy, but I don't have time to fix it.

Luckily, it's not her primary device, so she's not "dead in the water". But I can't afford to be dead in the water, either. As I pointed out in an earlier comment in this thread: if it's not a Vendor Supported OS, I am not going to use it on my primary devices (my pocketable/phone, the mid-range device that I carry with me to work, nor my main workstations at home nor work). I will only go down that path if it is a "purely tinkering device".

And, it's entirely rational, not impulsive. I don't have the luxury of being "unable to do my real work" just because of a bad upgrade. Nor do I want to lose my non-computer hobby/recreation, girlfriend, nor dog time to fixing such a situation. If my only recreation was "making computers do things they weren't intended to" (like when I was younger), then that would be different. But, at the very least, my girlfriend and dog deserve to be a higher priority than that.

I see people are splitting hairs here... or is a consensus slowly forming:

1. The better smartphone: N900
2. The better portable computer: M2
3. The better car: ...