So I am very interested in purchasing the N9 for use in the states, but I have a couple of questions


1. If i'm purchasing from an online retailer like amazon, or ebay, does it need to be unlocked? This confuses me a little bit. I am going to be using it on the AT&T network.

2. I am using the iPhone right now and I have it connected to my Google account to download contacts/email, is it possible to have my Google account set up and download/sync my contacts like it's possible on the iPhone and Android?

3. I've read that it isn't possible to use the front facing camera to take pictures, is this still true?

4. Will Ovi Maps navigation work in the states?

5. Is it possible to sync music if I'm using OS X?

Sorry for all the questions! But I've read a lot of great reviews about this phone, so I am very excited. I had the N900 and was dissapointed, but I'm looking to give the N9 a shot because I've read and watched a lot of great things. Thanks for anyone that can take the time to answer these questions!

1: Nope. All N9's for sale online are unlocked since no carrier so far has started offering them locked on contract.

2: Yes, just add your Google account to the the phone's "Accounts" settings and set it to sync the services you want. Separately you can add your google username/password to the Mail application and you can set those sync settings separately. You can alternately use CalDav to sync google calendar and Mail for Exchange to sync Gmail, Google Calendar, and Contacts. You have many options.

3: There is a mirror app in the Ovi Store that uses the front camera. Combine that with a screen shot app and there ya go, but I won't pretend that this is an elegant solution...

4: Ovi maps navigation works great! I even have excellent 3d buildings rendered in my home town near Baltimore! You can download additional nav voices to get turn by turn without a European accent.

5: Hmmmm...... I don't think so. But I installed Media Monkey when I first got my N900 and imported my iTunes collection into it since that had a sync settings specifically for the N900. Since then I've just copied my Music folder from the N900 to the N9 so I haven't tried re-syncing with Media Monkey with the N9, but I can't imagine that it would not work with the N900 settings.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Thank you so much for the feedback, I was watching a few more videos again and have a few more questions before purchasing the N9 this weekend.. Hopefully..

1. Again with purchasing, I see some retailers online have them listed as an International Version, I know it will probably work with AT&T's USA 3G network, but the "Internation model" threw me off, just need verification that it WILL work with AT&T 3G in the states.

2. I was watching some videos online and noticed when opening applications it seemed to take a few seconds. Is this normal? I know an update was just released, has opening applications sped up?

3. Regarding the notification area, I don't like the idea of having my entire Facebook/Twitter feeds appear on there. Is it possible to just have it show whenever I get a new message, or when someone posts on my wall? Or whenever I get a new mention on Twitter?

4. Can you uninstall some of the applications that come on the phone? One of my biggest peeves on Android was that some of the installed apps couldn't be removed unless you rooted the device.

5. and finally, where can I find some awesome cases for the device and where can I get a good deal on a 64GB version?

6. Oh! and how is the keyboard? I haven't seen too many videos that use the keyboard.


Thanks so much! Hoping some of these answers will persuade me to purchase this device this weekend.

1. As long as it runs on GSM, it's all good.
2. Idk, i'm also contemplating this device. :-)
3. Idk....
4. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Since it comes unlocked from carriers, there shouldn't be any bloatware.
5. It comes with a standard silicone case, if that's not for you, try ebay or amazon....

I'm also looking to buy this.. i know it's a bit out of date in some ways, but I am in love with the simplicity of the UI. Hopefully, more apps will come around soon... or maybe they're there and I'm too dumb to figure out how to get them.

Just wanted to clarify a couple of points

1) The phone is pentaband, so it will work on ATT and even T-Mobile, which is a relief, since T-Mobile seems to use a different band than most. Pentaband (literally, 5 - band) means it is able to use all 5 bands. It has a lower theoretical high speed limit than some other phones, but .. 14mbps down is still faster than most home connections.

4) I dunno if anything needs to be uninstalled, but you should know that at launch there was no system for placing apps in folders. You can rearrange, of course, but you can't just sweep them under the rug if you want to hide them forever.

-> 1. Again with purchasing, I see some retailers online have them listed as an International Version, I know it will probably work with AT&T's USA 3G network, but the "Internation model" threw me off, just need verification that it WILL work with AT&T 3G in the states.

Yeah, it's pentaband so it'll do voice and 3G on both AT&T and T-Mobile in the USA. Some sites claim that it'll support both network faux-4G HSPA+ band but I haven't seen these speeds yet on my N9.



-> 2. I was watching some videos online and noticed when opening applications it seemed to take a few seconds. Is this normal? I know an update was just released, has opening applications sped up?

My model is still on PR 1.0 and I can tell you that most applications open up immediately. I've noticed some studder and slowdown if the N9 is doing some major work in the background like when doing application installations, notification updates of a large size, or refreshing a dozen or so podcast feeds in padcatcher.



-> 3. Regarding the notification area, I don't like the idea of having my entire Facebook/Twitter feeds appear on there. Is it possible to just have it show whenever I get a new message, or when someone posts on my wall? Or whenever I get a new mention on Twitter?

Nope. You either enabled all facebook updates or enable none on the notification screen.


-> 4. Can you uninstall some of the applications that come on the phone? One of my biggest peeves on Android was that some of the installed apps couldn't be removed unless you rooted the device.


Some you can, like the video games, and some you can't, like the track and protect package or user guide. But I didn't see anything that I would call bloatware.




-> 5. and finally, where can I find some awesome cases for the device and where can I get a good deal on a 64GB version?

If you find some, let me know. :P



-> 6. Oh! and how is the keyboard? I haven't seen too many videos that use the keyboard.

I like it. It's my first phone ever without a HW QWERTY and I thought it would be death, especially with the X-terminal. But I'm becoming quite fond of it.

Ah ha! You forget that at any time, as root, you can use the x-terminal to hide the icons for applications you don't want to see.

Just cd to /usr/share/applications

Then mv the .desktop file for the icon you want to hide to someplace in /home/user/MyDocs.

Then BANG!! Good as invisible!

also IIRC, folders was confirmed for 1.2 by kontorri.

Thanks for the clarifications ! I"m a bit disappointed to hear that it may not get the hspa+ stuff working.. I had long ago decided that a theoretical 42mbps is unnecessary for myself (that may change in a few years -_-) but not having hspa+ at all seems a bit much when I look at the price of the device =( If I may ask, what is the maximum speed you are getting, now ?

Is it a case similar to what supposedly happened with the samsung galaxy s2 on t-mobile? ie, they switched processors because there was a problem with their network. WHat I never got final confirmation on was whether the original chip wouldn't let you get FULL speeds or that it wouldn't work at all. Like i've said before, i can live without the full speed as long as it's a decent speed above 3g.

On T-Mobile USA in the Baltimore Area (when ever I'm not dropping to EDGE) I've been able to get up to 4.2 Mbps down so far...