[Edit - Jan 24, 2010 Update:
Two firmware updates a couple weeks ago so after testing, time for an update: If you NEED bluetooth like I do and don't plan to carry two phones/devices to have bluetooth available, read on.
So little progress has been made and I have seen far too many bugs/enhancements closed as WONTFIX that I am dropping this to 1-star based on current state, 2 updates and price to value in comparison with other devices that have launched/will launch in the next month or so. I'll change the rating depending on next update - length of wait will be factored in. I see a lot of bashing for people who give low reviews so I expect I'll hear about this.
I'll start by quoting Nokia from bug 6766 regarding bluetooth problems on the phone. This came after the major PR1.1 update:
"As far as making all issues go away, I don't think that's physically possible since Bluetooth and WLAN share the same antenna in the N900. Some WLAN operations, such as searching for access points, take over the antenna almost completely."
All the bluetooth bugs still exist, some are made worse by PR1.1.
Note: regardless of what people say, there is NO way, zero, none, nada, to turn off the wifi radio via graphical interface. You can probably do so via CLI if you are very advanced with Linux and not worried about re-flashing, but that's not practical. You can take several steps to make it "less active", but it is still running - easiest to see is choose "Internet Connections" from the status area and it will show all wifi APs even though you think it is disabled. Nokia closed an enhancement request to allow customers to fully disable the wifi radio as WONTFIX.
The major update of the two, known as PR1.1, was eagerly awaited and expected to fix a lot of problems including the well known, very active, bluetooth bugs. Nothing I listed has been addressed and the firmware addressed a few minor things overall-nothing major. Important to note that the manifest list posted for PR1.1 lists A LOT of bugs as fixed that were actually fixed before the phone was released. I have noticed a lot of people's tones have changed since the disappointing update.
PR1.1:
Bluetooth: The PR1.1 update did help some who had a lot of issues with 'stuttering' on bluetooth (music and calls). For most of us, it didn't. One person who initially seemed happy and said he'd live with it came back a day or two later and said it's not fixed. Long story short, read bug 6766 on maemo's bug site. For me and others, PR1.1 has increased disconnections to a point that I don't bother trying to use BT now. It essentially disconnects immediately. When I was testing PR1.1, a couple times the connection lasted several minutes, but the majority is instant disconnect. If you need bluetooth, I would hold off.
Portrait mode: They are working towards it, that's good. The browser has a partial implementation now (it's nice for one handed reading, good formatting, but not complete). Tip: you have to hit a combination of shift+ctrl+O to activate it; it works with keyboard slider in only. To disable, shift+ctrl+O again. However, I have 'remnants' of the future with my desktop sticking in portrait randomly requiring a restart. Not a huge deal unless you are in a hurry to make a call.
USSD codes: The *#nnn#nnnnnn# to do many controls on your phone like say, enable full forwarding since it is not available in the interface or check prepaid balance, etc. etc. They fixed a couple codes: show your IMEI and show the software version (both available in settings | 'about phone' right next to each other). They closed this bug as fixed - a lot of very unhappy people on this one. I think Nokia (well, probably Maemo since they don't know phones yet) really underestimated how important this is - it is clear from the huge bug thread that a lot of the codes people need are surprising to them.
Maps: It starts up a little quicker. A few minor tweaks that aren't worth mentioning. I was hoping I could at least do routing to an address. You can, but open your browser and go to google maps.
Anything else I don't mention, there is nothing to mention. It was an underwhelming update that decreased battery life further, addressed several small issues. Some had ZERO votes and only 1 person involved with the ticket and it was very small - e.g. RDS name in the FM transmitter???. Clearly poor prioritization.
Other stuff: The battery charges much faster now, but it also drains much faster. There are some great apps starting to show in the pipeline. A lot of hard work from the community going on and new things are showing up daily in devels and testing repositories. They just aren't hitting extras (production) fast enough.
BTW - my review is not meant to be 'negative' - I am simply stating known issues that a potential buyer may not know. I just haven't repeated the positive or taken the speculative position of hoping to see the potential realized. My intent is very simple: provide a different view that isn't one of infatuation that simply repeats the specs on the Nokia site. Provide information that would have had me think twice before purchasing. I know what you might be thinking: would I repurchase it now? No. Not then and not now.
End update]
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I've had the N900 over a month so I'm familiar enough with the N900 now to write comfortably.
I had high expectations and loved the N900 for the first 2-days. Every day since I've grown more disappointed. I should have sent it back for a refund w/in the first couple weeks (pre-ordered from Nokia). But, I was optimistic on the potential, which has withered as I've watched Nokia/Maemo do not-so-amazing things on [...]. The N900 is not complete - not even close. They've left out a lot of what we have grown to love and expect with other current smartphones (this really doesn't qualify as a tablet). Time on[...] has me very discouraged. They are very focused on Maemo 6 and it's obvious they consider Maemo 5 primarily in maintenance mode.
I am still amazed that they released the N900 as is. Bugs, I expect, but I didn't expect it to be missing some very basic features that are now standard. I also didn't expect them to turn actual bugs into low priority enhancements or completely dismiss them as "WONTFIX".
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Some quotes from Maemo/Nokia on [...]:
If the reporter expects the feature to be officially supported then it is a WONTFIX [common comment]
I think I can resolve this as WONTFIX entirely, since the feature can be perfectly covered by the community. [This is to create a function to disable/enable wifi]
Isn't "Settings -> About" a more user-friendly way to look up the same? [This is about the lack of support of using USSD codes - simply weird]
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One review mentioned it's built with steel, aluminum, rubber and plastic. Wish I could find more than plastic. It is very 'plasticky', feels fat, heavy and it looks cheap - nothing like the picture. It looks & feels like a digital camera you might have purchased 5-years ago. How did DROID get essentially the same internals into such a thin form factor and Nokia managed to make it look 10-years old?
There are many positives about the N900 (and it does have strong *potential*). Many were written about. I won't re-write them. However, I will note many 'gotchas' that you would not expect from a 'flagship' phone from any manufacturer. The aggregate of the gotchas add up to borderline unusable (in my opinion). I'm not going to list everything, but will put down what would have me think twice about buying. I should have waited for an update or two. I can't say it looks promising though.
Below are known issues. One is not confirmed by Maemo/Nokia, but the majority are WONTFIX or being left to the "community" (i.e. not Maemo/Nokia) - with a couple pushed for *consideration* for Maemo 6 (Harmattan). Bluetooth they "think" may be fixed in a future update. USSD codes they seem to be looking at (but haven't seen a confirmation of fix).
I have noticed Nokia leaves it for the community to implement many basic features. Why would they bother with basic features for one of the most expensive phones out there? Even if you want an open platform and are familiar with Maemo, you wouldn't (least I don't) expect them to push so much to be done by the community. Android doesn't take things that far - sure, it's 'mostly' open, but they package the basics with the Android builds.
- OS: It appears Fremantle (Maemo 5 that comes on the N900) is essentially in maintenance mode already. I've spent weeks on[...] and watched as they apply "WONTFIX" to many basic features that were reported as missing, marked true bugs as enhancements and low priority (e.g. doesn't allow you to use USSD codes - *#...#), sent enhancement requests to their "brainstorming" site, and many requests they accept are assigned to *possible* Harmattan (Maemo 6) inclusion.
What does this mean? It's possibly outdated already.
- LINUX: Better know Linux. Due to the lack of settings and missing granularity in those that exist, you'll need to know Linux to make many changes/check certain settings. If you do, it's just a pain to make changes via the terminal rather than using a GUI.
- SETTINGS: There are very few settings. The settings that exist have very little granularity. No easy wifi on/off, only two profiles (general and silent) with very little available to configure. Click 3-4 times just to change the display brightness. No way to set a 'home' desktop that you and I are used to -nor is there a way to get to a particular desktop easily besides using both hands and swiping. Plenty more.
- BLUETOOTH: Nearly unusable. There are two major, known issues: 1) it uses the same antennae as WiFi so if you have wifi on (takes 7-steps to disable it fully), bluetooth headsets are unusable: too much static heard on both ends, A2DP music has static and pauses, file transfers run around 20kbps and disconnect often. 2) Constantly disconnects. Live in a state/country where you must use hands-free while driving? Don't like holding the phone to your ear for long calls? Want to type while on the phone? Want mobility while you talk? You can't. It disconnects anywhere from instantly to several minutes. Upon disconnection, the sound doesn't transfer to the handset. It normally takes a power cycle to get things reoriented.
- WIFI: Looking for an easy way to disable wifi when not using it? Sorry, we're not talking 1-2 steps for Android or 3 for iPhone, it takes 7-steps to disable (you have to assume it's disabled - no way to tell if the radio is off and maemo/Nokia haven't said for sure) and re-enable. Reported as a bug on [...] - they consider it an enhancement, pushed it off to Harmanttle as possible inclusion and said they'll let the community write something for Maemo 5 (nothing in the pipeline as of this writing). Hope you don't need to disable/enable wifi often.
- BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD: Sorry. Several other smartphones support, but the N900 doesn't. I have an N810 and many of us expected the N900 to take its place as a tablet, but with a phone. Nokia/Maemo's official response? Not supported it and it won't be. They've marked several submitted bugs on this as WONTFIX. There is a way to get a BT keyboard to pair (if you know Linux), but don't bother, it doesn't support typical PC-105 layout and only some letters will work.
- LANDSCAPE: I didn't think landscape would be that bad. It supports portrait in phone (if you can get it to move to portrait), but that's it. It is a BIG pain, especially if you want to use the device with one hand. Just entering a 5-digit PIN to unlock with one hand is very difficult. It might be livable, but the implementation is very poor.
- MAIL FOR EXCHANGE (MfE): Far too many bugs to mention here. Barely usable - supports HTML now, but a few steps backward everywhere else. I'll hit a few: Doesn't properly map fields (both contacts and calendar), doesn't synchronize updates properly, doesn't seem to properly support the EAS protocol in general, won't properly synch with Google's EAS implementation (they said this isn't supported), etc.
- MAPS: Can't use maps without a network connection. If you download map files - still no go. Also, Ovi Maps 1.0 takes ~10-minutes (sometimes longer) to locate your position. GPS is on, but Maps shows it's not active much of the time. I've found no way to route to an address; only two options: point to it on a map or type in a city/state/country in a search dialog - can't search for an address. Very slow. Pretty much useless unless you want to know you are sitting on the right couch. No clue what Nokia was thinking with this.
- GPS/CAMERA: If you want proper geo-tagging, you'll need to buy another device. GPS on, but photo is not tagged. It will tag sometimes if you have network positioning on.
- BASICS: Are you looking for standard/basic functionality that your other phones you've had over the last few years have? The N900 is missing a lot. Far too many to list, but in addition to what's already been mentioned a few are: word suggestion is poor with no auto-correct (even a standalone "i" is not capitalized and it doesn't work in some areas), can't use USSD codes, no unconditional call forwarding, can't select different ring tone for contacts, can't mark contacts to automatically go to VM, can't change amount of ring time before going to VM, etc.
- EMAIL CLIENT: Tinymail-based (not bad). Very poor implementation and the email client is very limited. Can't highlight text and copy, doesn't synch any folder but inbox and sent (you can view other IMAP folders, but if you delete an item - it's gone for good - no synch and no trash on N900, drafts stay on phone, etc.). Maemo/Nokia are on record saying this will never happen because "it's too complex" (common saying[...]), but look for it in Harmattan - maybe. Doesn't auto-fill/suggest as you type a name in TO/CC/BCC. No choice to return to inbox after deleting a message - you can only view the next message.
- EMAIL CLIENT: Have to confirm each and every delete. There is no option to remove confirmation. If you deal with a high volume of email, it's a big irritant. It's been submitted as an enhancement request with Nokia's current response as "It would be interesting to how popular such request is" :-/ Weird that such basic functionality in every email client (mobile or not) that I can think of isn't on the N900 or its roadmap.
Very poor email client - worst I've seen on a mobile device in years.
This doesn't include all issues, but the review is long enough. Hopefully it helps with a bit of a different perspective by someone who has gotten over the infatuation and spent a lot of time working with Nokia/Maemo.Get more detail about Nokia N900 Unlocked Phone/Mobile Computer with 3.5-Inch Touchscreen, QWERTY, 5 MP Camera, Maemo Browser, 32 GB--U.S. Version with Full Warranty.
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