Up until January this year, I'd always had a Communicator and had not even looked at other phones. I was desolate when it was stolen, but took the opportunity to see what else was out there. After two weeks looking, I was ready to buy another E90, but came across an article about the N900, bought one second-hand for £150 to try it.
It was like coming home. Everything I wanted in a phone was just 20% of what it can do, plus the other 80% I'm still exploring. It has no ego like iPhone etc, but unassumingly just gets on with the job better than any other phone could.
I'm still amazed I can sit in meetings with a remote desktop connection to my PC.
Why was I wasting my time with the Communicator for the last two years! N900 is the gift that just keeps on giving!

I dropped my n900 in a cup of coffee....the speaker stopped working and the camera got all fogged up.

Got out my trusty computer tool set and googled 'n900 disassembly' in which I found a youtube video of someone taking apart the n900.

I took it apart, cleaned out all the water...err coffee lol, let it dry and put it all back together.

It still works like it did the day I bought it

Ive noticed things on this phone can be problematic, but I always find a way to fix them or search this forum for advice on workarounds. I like this phone a lot, wish the OS was better, oh well still a good device.

I concur. Nothing else matches it. It's a shame the N9 will likely be capacitive. So much for desktop apps.

I'll likely be sticking with my n900 until it dies or until T-Mobile gets obliterated by AT&T's Death Star.

Not really. Android can do the same thing the iPhone does: Suspend background tasks when you launch new ones, and allow background tasks limited time slices to handle real-time events, like hardware requests, dbus messages, pushs, etc. It's not true multi-tasking. As far as I've seen the N900 is the only one that does that. Admittedly, that's part of why the battery life is longer on those devices, and why they sometimes "feel" less "sluggish" than the N900 can at times.

As for this thread...
I had an N6230 for 5 years because it did all the things I needed it to do, and had a very usable J2ME VM. Before that I had a semi-smart Motorola device for 3 years, similar reasons. The devices were very open for the time (full obex support, well documented Java APIs, etc), and did what I needed them to. I'm willing to bet the N900 will be with me for a few year, at least until there's something I absolutely "need" that the N900 can't adapt to do (probably hardware wise).

As of right now, it's stable and does everything I need and want to do on it (with a rare occasional glitch, but everything does that.) It's a decent phone, a great netbook, and a top-notch organizer/communicator. I've got tons of bells and whistles added, and it just does everything I need. My biggest fear right now is that it breaks (usb, drops/screen cracks, etc), and I won't be able to get my hands on another one.

I still look at new phones that come out, and there are a couple that could probably do most or all of what I want (when rooted). But the N900 is still in my pocket for three simple reasons:

• The hardware is top notch (Nokia's just good at that)
• The software is mature, stable, and relatively open/malleable.
• The community is active, responsive, and knowledge rich.

If I find another device with stable hardware, mature/open software that meets my usage patterns, and an active stable development community, it may be a decent replacement for the N900. But I've yet to see that in another device, and I've been looking. Once I find such a competitor, I'll have to then consider if it's worth the time and money to move to the newer shiny thing.

funny you write such a story, as i have a similar one.

i bought an unlocked htc desire z nam which is att 3g compatible and i was excited to receive it and use.

once i received it, i really liked the handset. after twenty four hours of use, i could not stand the dismal battery life. after an all night charge, two hrs later, the battery would be at forty percent remaining. also the android ui is not intutitive at all. the apps which seem to be in large numbers are just like web shortcuts like the pnc mobile banking app, i can access the same style via m.pnc.com on my n900.

i sold the htc desire z at a heavy discount on ebay just days after receiving it. i have gone back to my beloved n900, which i have had three purchases of.