i've had a little dilemma recently, figuring out what phone to buy. this is a bit of a rant on my view of what's on the market right now.

View of the N900:

i view the n900 as a non-mainstream device. the geekier, hack-happy prosumers not afraid to get elbow grease on their keyboards would jump at the n900. mainstream consumers would probably not look to the n900 at all i predict, because of a lack of familiarity of the maemo os.
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OS Review :

on the topic of os, which is what i base my decision of phone selection on:

symbian:
i feel that nokia's current dated symbian os is extremely limiting, yet it has been featured in almost every price-range phone that most consumers are fairly used to a 'symbian OS' phone. even if it may not be that intuitive or pretty, the prevalence of nokia in its overwhelming market share in selling its hardware means that average consumers get 'used' to symbian.

blackberry:
don't have much to say about this device. having used a pearl and then the bold, it's OS has transitioned nicely. UI is prettier, and being a software + hardware manufacturer allows RIM to integrate their devices to a competent level of efficiency. that being said, BB has its own aura of cultishness, "crackberry" addicts and their obsession with BBM (blackberry IM) generates a decent fanbase i don't see subsiding in the near future. plus, black and pleather make it a sensible corporate choice, that and the fact that RIM got in first with push email. being pioneers really sealed the deal with most consumers who were clueless about push email, that perpetuated the notion that ONLY blackberry devices could push email. i believe that belief still holds true for alot of consumers.

apple os:
no question, the cult, or magic of the apple os is in its elegance, simplicity, albeit limited state. i used the first generation iphone and it simply blew every other OS on the market. in fact, for ease of use and elegance, it still does. 'Slide to Unlock' is one of those examples. when my elderly mum who refuses to use a mobile phone because she's afraid of fiddling with technology finds that the iphone is 'easy to use, just slide to unlock', that's where apple's magic and paranoid control issues work. for most people, the ease of the apple os really is magic.

windows mobile:
when i started using winmo, it was win CE 4.0. back in the day when microsoft started their great idea of shoehorning a desktop os into a PDA. in many respects winmo is still just that, a desktop os desperately squeezing into mobile hardware. winmo is possibly the only OS that needs to wait for hardware interations to catch up with its hefty requirements. that being said, i think microsoft as a software company utilises a different approach, a one OS to fit as many devices as possible. with the right hardware, windows mobile is probably the most powerful, full featured yet GUI accessible OS. everyone's familiar witn Windows. Windows Mobile is instantly usable for even non-geeks, BSOD, crashes, memory leaks and all. If Microsoft does get it right with winmo the way they did with Windows 7, i predict an evolution of winto to be an extremely competent ecosystem.

android:
the hot os in the past 6 months. what google does, it sets out to do it BIG. actually took a few years to get going and really pick up speed. but with the 2.0 iteration i believe the android has really come into its own to be a worthy competitor. the motorola droid and nexus one really brought the android OS to the masses and showed what a competent OS and good hardware can bring! i see the android as being a hybrid of winmo and the apple os. increased customisation and configurability from winmo coupled with nice UI touches learnt from the apple os. may not be the most open compared to maemo, but it sure has pretty much the most momentum going for it.

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Assessing my needs :

so, where does that leave the average, slightly nerdy consumer like me? after going through countless phones and many OS, i decided that a physical qwerty keyboard would be a boon for me. typing, smsing, IM would all be easier with a physical keyboard. also, i wanted a decent sized screen. iphone's 3.5" was lovely for me, anything less than 2.8" (after using a dopod 818) seemed too squinty. plus the geek in me just loves a big shiny screen.

also, i decided not to get a winmo, in my experience it has been fairly clunky with memory leaks. that's with my winmo 6.1 experience, i haven't tried 6.5 and above so i stand corrected.

lastly, i wanted a device i could get decent gps navigation with, for car driving. i like road trips where there is no uncertainty of getting lost (i have bad directions i know i know) and also, after reading ovimap's free walk + car navigation and watching the youtube advertisements it seems like an awesome idea to have navigation when you need it, even in places you're familiar with to search new POIs populated by the various community sites(think gowalla?) that are now popular.

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N900 FTW!

so, big screen, non winmo, physical keyboard, gps navigation. i thought the n900 was it! until i found out there was no ovimaps 3.0. i thought about the n97mini, but i'm not sure if i want a dated symbian OS if i'm paying a pretty penny. that leaves the droid, which i'm not that hot about (not that great a keyboard, d-pad i don't need) and....that's it.

i'm still torn, the nexus one is looking like a good alternative, although i would really much prefer a physical keyboard. the N900 is really gorgeous, but thinking that maemo 5 could become another dated symbian with no support by nokia (if nokia doesn't support it, it becomes even worse than the symbian, which although limited has a vibrant community and YEARS of maturity for great apps).

i guess in the end, the n900 is really a device i want to have, it blows my mind what i can do on it. yet this is probably one phone which the software limits the hardware. or rather, software development hinders the Operating System. i haven't seen anything else multitask like the N900, nor have i seen another UI quite as complex yet intuitive as it (although apple's ingenuity with it's first iphone 1.0 os is worth a mention).

if i go with my heart, the N900 and maemo ecosystem will be my next phone. now if only my head can go along with it.

I'm so far very impressed with the N900 capability. As I've stated in tens of post of the same subject there are some annoyances and a few bugs. These are being addressed by Nokia (albeit slowly - had the phone 2 months and theres only been 1 big update which lacked a lot of what I would like to see), and devs on here (superb effort so far chaps and chapesses).

I'm not a geek or a developer that likes to get his hands dirty. However I do like the open approach. I like the fact that I can select what I want to do with it and am not restricted by performance.

I would never go with Apple as to me its like wearing brightly coloured fashion clothes. Lasts a while then the novelty wears off. I had an iTouch and numourous docks and speakers specifically for that. Just sold the lot. Too much clutter. Too basic. Not possible to customise it.

I have had N95 8gb (one of the best so far imho) and the N96 - 6 of them (all dogs) and previously all the latest Nokias and others of their time. I finished with SE C905 as I got sick of the N96 so looked forward to the N900 with some apprehension. I've not been disappointed.

Have you considered the Palm Pre? I absolutely loved mine when I had one. Though that was in my days of switching phones weekly, looking back though it was the best out of the phones I up until now...oh so many phones: N900, Nexus One, MyTouch, BlackBerry Bold/Bold 9700/Tour/Storm 2, Palm Pre, HTC Touch Pro, Touch Pro 2, iPhone 3GS, and I'm sure quite a few more I'm forgetting. I loved that little phone. Damn, now you have me wanting to get another Pre.

bonerp you sound like just the sort of user i am! i could never understand the hype of the ipod and those docks, it's just an mp3 player and speakers.

you have me tipping the edge on the n900 purchase, now if only there was a halfway decent gps navigation for it!

the palm pre has a good os, but i've heard its little ram halts performance of multitasking. that plus the fact that i've read lousy reviews of the keyboard. the pre plus on the other hand, seems good. however, screen size is 3.2 inches, for the same price (well, they cost the same over here in my country. in fact the pre costs more) i would rather the 3.5 inches on the n900.

Well then definitely go with a N900, though I never had a problem running quite a few apps on my Pre(9-15) it did slow down quickly. I actually got into the 30's one night when I was bored on the N900. If you're not on the US and Not with Sprint you wouldn't get free Navi anyway on the Pre. Though I still wouldn't count on Symbian being too out of the game, it has the advantage of being used by more than just Nokia.

the ubiquity of the symbian os by nokia seems to signal to me that nokia would support symbian MORE than the maemo. that's a little disconcerting considering the n900 is just about the highest specced nokia around.

this turnaround to cater to the mass market is understandable to me, i just don't really agree with n900 users being shafted in the process. it is for this reason only, as seen from ovimaps 3.0 for symbian but not maemo, that i am *still* considering a n97 mini over the n900.

thelushlife you summed-up the state of the mobile platforms pretty damn well!

The only thing I can suggest really is wait a little bit longer before you make your decision.

Maemo: At this moment in time I am not impressed by Nokia's public support for this platform. It is highly unlikely OVI maps (with free navigation) will be avialable for the n900. Nokia are focusing on Maemo 6 - which will be launched with a new device. "New" OVI maps will be available on Maemo 6 only.
If my n900 becomes a "legacy" device after a few months after release then I will not be buying a Nokia phone again!


iPhone: Apple are the "king of apps" but unfortunately the iPhone OS is really limiting. As a consumer device it's almost perfect.
Apple's iron-fist control of the iphone really bothers me though.

Android: I think this is a great OS and with more powerful phones now using it.
My only problem is that Google know everything about you. Your privacy does not exist with Google-based software.

Winmo: Microsoft's current offering is truly awful and needs a replacement. It started well at the beginning but just seemed to degenerate with each release.
Microsoft have been eerily quiet recently. Something major is definitley on the cards.

If navigation is important to you then do not buy the n900. We still do not know if the free version of OVI maps will be supported.
A future maemo device will be. If Nokia will allow us to upgrade the n900 to Maemo 6 then the n900 (or next device) is highly recommended.

If I had to choose right now - I would go for Android. It's open-source like Maemo but much more publically supported by Google and it's partners. If you don't mind google using your personal data within it's organisation. A friend of mine bought the HTC Hero (Android v1.5) and the next version of Android (2.01) is available for it.

If you are willing to wait until Microsoft release the "next-generation" of the mobile OS - you might be pleasantly surprised. Yes it proprietary - but that did not stop people writing software for it.

thelushlife - The N900 is the best choice for you. Here's why. I read your post.. It was long (but nice). I would imagine on a iphone that would take a few days to type. On an N900 it would get over fast. :-)

Ovi is not very cool. But the rest is really nice. Worth every penny. Take the N900

thanks to everyone who replied.

i agree, the best option would be to take a wait and see approach and see what the next gen maemo 6 or winmo devices bring!

unfortunately, the tech itch in me wants a new device to get my hands on. the fact that there is just over a us$100 price difference between a top of the end symbian and the n900 screams 'bargain' to me. that plus the fact that i'll probably be the 0.01% of populace that use a n900 (as opposed to the me-too iphone or the increasingly common nexus one.)

i'm thinking i can get the n900, bask in all its geek wizardry, and sell it off to fund my next maemo 6 device when it eventually comes out.

the rational side of me still says nexus one, because it's newly released, and google will damn near support it for a good 2 years.