Hi everyone. I've been looking at buying an N900 for about a year now, so I've done quite a bit of research. Initially, I was waiting for something better to be released, but I don't think there is anything. There are phones with better specs, of course, but nothing with better functionality and that's what's important to me. I'm still using a cheapo 2g phone but I think I may need to finally make an upgrade for work. I've done the research, but I'm hoping you guys can help me by verifying one point before I buy:

How is the call recording functionality? I found at least one app that does it, but has anyone here used it recently and can comment on how well it works? This is the main reason for my upgrade, so I want to make sure this works well as I need to record conversations for work. I was going to buy an android phone but all the call recording apps seem to be crappy (the phone has to be on speakerphone, for example) and then I looked at getting an iphone but all the call recording apps got taken down off the app store (typical) and I don't like the idea of being locked inside their walled garden.

If it does work well, where should I buy an n900? I can't find a physical store that still carries it. Are those ones on ebay real or should I be spending $400 or so from some online store? How much is reasonable for a new one?

Thanks.

I cannot comment on cost for your part of the world, although getting EXTREMELY rare there are some new n900s around.

For call recording there is a program called recaller that you can set to autorecord. It will then just record your phonecalls and dump them to the memory card/phone storage. It also doubles up as a useful record anything tool, you press the button and it will record whatever.

I'm in California. There seem to be a bunch of them on ebay but it says they get shipped out of Hong Kong. Does that mean they're fake?

Yes, this is the application that I found. I just wanted to make sure that it worked well before I went on a goose chase for an n900.

Found a new one in Nokia store in Warsaw at around 500$, so 400 seems reasonable. Recaller works quite well (though incoming voice is bit quieter than your own, most likely uses mic as telephony part is closed source)

well it works for me, but like any software it can and will one day fail/crash/barf and you may miss the recording of a call.

I have not ordered one from hong kong however I get the impression they are poorly 'refurbished' and missing most of their acessories. Some of the guys here may be able to comment (having bought from the dodgy HK). There are not really any fakes of the n900 that I know of.

I just read through the ebay reviews and answered my own question. It sounds like this is some Chinese version, which I'm not interested in. I don't know where, if anywhere, I can buy a new one. I may have to give up on the n900 and resume my search for a decent phone.

edit: Thanks for the info, guys.

It maybe easier to find a good quality used device.
IMO well worth looking.
There getting very sort after new.

I use it in auto-mode on my device and can tell you it works well, with a few cavets:

• It usually takes a second or two to start, so you may miss the first second or so. Inbound, this sucks. Outbound you miss a ring or so, so no biggy.
• Sometimes it fails to stop recording on a hang up, requiring you hit the manual desktop widget button.
• The quality is semi-dodgy, especially if using speakerphone or when in a crappy/echoy environment.

$400-ish would be pretty reasonable for a refurb. I'd lean more $500 new or lightly used. There are fakes out there, so be careful! Make sure you find one running Maemo5, not some off-looking crap. One way to spot most fakes is to look for wifi/3G/BT/IR specs, as the knock-offs don't have all four. Most of the fakes also retail for under $200, so that's also a good way to spot them.

i will be quite direct: don't buy an new n900 now.
it does not worth. not ewen in 2011 does not worth buiing.
buy a newer phone, with better support.
as much as i praise the work of the guis aound here, i can't lie to u.
u can feel the lack of nokia support, the software is preety old, and we are fighting to keep it on date.
i don't know what are your exact needs, but i think u would like a phone with more than a month active support.
for me, recaller did not worked wery well, some random recordings, some all time recordings, etc

in any case, good luck with your research

Thanks, ioncelmare. I'm starting to get that impression. It's a shame Nokia pulled support on the whole Maemo Meego thing. The problem for me is that I really need that call recording functionality but after quite a bit of research, I've found the only phones that can perform this natively are some of the palm phones, which are also showing their age. It's a standard feature in many Asian countries, so many of those phones have it too, but may not work in the U.S. or other countries. The most promising lead so far is rooting a smartphone and installing a ROM that allows for voice recording. HTC Thunderbolt allows this with das BAMF rom, but I really hate relying on third party support for a feature I REALLY REALLY need.

The thread on the google code forums is hilarious. People have been screaming at Google since 2009 to implement call recording in Android and they still haven't. To anyone interested: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2117