Hi, I'm trying to decide if a n900 could be a good device for me to buy in the next weeks.

At the moment I have a nokia x6 16gb by vodafone, gave me from my job. I have not a data plan, so I connect only by wireless (in my city I have it at home, at job, and on public buses).

I use it mostly for:
1) phone calls
2) phone sms
3) text-book reader
3) music player
4) image viewer
5) web browsing (opera mostly)
6) rss reader (greader by google)
7) twitter / some chat with nimbuzz
8) view videos (rarely, but sometimes...)
9) very short note taking on way
10) maps and gps with ovimpas (I don't have a car, so I used it very few times, mostly to locate some address)
11) contacts, task and calendar. I syncronize that with iSync on mac osx at job.

Things I'd like to improve:

1) note/texts: I used to write short stories, article and so on on my sonyth55, but since I have the x6 it's almost impossible to write long texts, 'cause I find very annoying to see so few lines of text when the virtual keyboard is on screen. I Write almost exclusively on subway and on bus, while I go or come back from job.

2) image viewing: I have a lot of folders and a lot of images, some Gb maybe. The x6 has the bad habit to scan all the memory before to open the gallery. This process last several second (around minutes...) before I can have access to them. More, the device OS use own folders and not the folder in the memory. I have to load on the device a folder of images, then go to gallery, create a folder with the same name and move all the images from root gallery to the new folder. Very very annoying. I am happy with the screen and the visualizing application, but the exploring and organization is a real pain.

3) ram and processor. I am not an expert, but I think that I really need more power and surely more ram. I usually can have one or two program using at the same time (more telephone obviously). But not if the software are some heavy. For example, if I use Opera, I cannot have nothing more. I'd like a little more of multitasking permitted from the hardware.

4) More versatility with the home screen. I would like to have task, calendar meetings, and so on more some widgets, but x6 doesn't have widgets like n97 or n8/7. So if I put task, I cannot have contacts bar and so on. I could do it with some applications but they make the device really slow for other normal tasks)

5) Connection with my mac. I like I can use it like a mass memory with just the usb cable, but I'd like a simple native way to browse my macintosh with wifi. (I can do it with bluetooth with a third part application)

6) I really would like to have USB host (OTG?) and it would be perfect also to have the possibility to connect a lan cable (sometimes useful travelling)

7) I'd like also to can view videos and movies without need to convert them before.

Surely I am forgetting more things, but probably these things are the most important. I think I could buy a n900 around 200/250 euros here. Is this device the right for me and my needs?

I am a little worry for the future of the device (especially now with Nokia and Microsoft last events). I read the forum the last weeks but I'd like some opinions and advices.

I didn't try even android so maybe I should /could go with some other device like Desire-z or Motorola Milestone, or something so (I am thinking especially about the physical keyboard).
I have not a big budget (I have a 5 months old daughter) so maybe also a symbian device like nokia c6 or (not now) a nokia e7 could be the answer. I really don't know.

What to do?

Thank you in advance for the help.

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Anjin

From my experience of s60v5 on the N97, I would say that the N900 is definitely superior in all ways to the X6.

You will find the N900 to be a superior writing device for note taking. I use it to take the minutes of meetings at work. I usually have the minutes e-mailed before the bulk of the people attending the meeting have left the room.

Browsing is excellent. Far superior to any other device I've used. With the addition of the Flash ID faking application Flash works unless the site calls a function that is exclusively Flash 10.x. Flash 9.4 ships on the device.

The map program has many detractors because it lacks the voice navigation most Nokia smartphone users have learned to take for granted. For locating an address it works fine.

You can bump the processor speed up if you feel you need more speed. I run mine at 1100 MHz (1.1 GHz) maximum speed and have no issues with random reboots. Some devices are reported to not support that much over-clocking. Mine, for example, will not tolerate 1.15 GHz as a maximum.

Image viewing, movie watching are all acceptable on the N900.

I can not speak to the Mac issues. Someone else who has experience there will be able to help.

In the last month I purchased a second N900 to ensure I had one in reserve. I feel it is that valuable for the things I do with it.

It depends how much you will be spending on it. You might be happier with a lower cost Android phone like the new 3.8" Huawei.

Thank you for the answer. Is it a short answer for saying that everything I am looking for is in the n900? Fast image browsing, best web browsing, multitasking, etc etc? Or is just an observation on the superior OS? What didn't you like on the n97?

I really would like to know someone here in Madrid with a n900 for testing it...

Nice, I used to wrote down meetings note with the th55, but I found impossible doing the same with the x6.

I'm pretty happy with the opera on the x6 (just I'd like to have more ram...) so I suppose web browsing would be better on n900.

Good to know it, I really used the gps twice for testing, surely I am not a gps big user..

The possibility to overclock is good to have, so the device is not so behind the last new devices.

Image viewing is pretty important for me. I really use it a lot. Do you use it with a lot of images. Is the n900 viewer affected from the same x6 bad habit? I mean to have all the images mixed when you load it on the device. Does the n900 search all the memory for looking for new images and show all images in the gallery? I'd like to browse the folder and when in one, click on one images and THEN could pass to the previous or the next, zoom it, etc etc.

Does the n900 connected with usb to a computer be view like a external memory?

Thank you for the answer!

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Anjin

@anjin ... it seems the keyboard is very important for you. While @tzsm98 says you may like the keyboard a lot, my experience is not the same. I wished the keys on the n900 were a lil bigger and sensitive to touch, I have to push and press the keys more then I want to. My friends say the same about the n900's keyboard, long chats can be a lil unpleasant. So I'm not sure you will like it or not and I will really advise you to try your best to spend sometime writing on n900 before you buy it.

Btw about the home screen customization, I think n900 has the best home screen that no other handset, even these days, can match.

there is a thread around here that says something like "post your n900 screenshots" and people post all kinds of desktops/home-screens, search for it and you will love it.

Yes. Some of these guys above have given better answers than me....but I know the limitations of the s60v5 operating system very well, from bitter experience.

Image Browsing is great because unlike the s60v5, you can view just one folder of pictures and have them in thumbnai view. Or you can view every image on the phone in thumbnail order. You can't do this on s60v5.

Web Browsing is fantastic. It is just better in everyway on Maemo than it is on s60v5. The differences are too numerous to mention but everything on Maemo is just.....BETTER.

Trust me, I had an N97 (which is essentially the same as the X6) for 18 months. I bought it just after launch and I hated it the whole time I had it.

Opera is available for N900.

Yes, the N900 is recognised as external memory on a PC when connected in Mass Storage Mode.