Mind you. I've used the 770, I still use the N810 on my trips or in my house almost daily. And have been following the jump to Maemo 5 with bated breath.

And yes, before it goes any further... I'm one of those "dreaded" Apple iPhone users. With that said, I'm one of those iPhone owners that would rather not be one, but at the time (and currently) it did what I needed in terms of social apps, location aware apps and instant messaging (for the most part).

I'm an Adobe Flash developer, so that's a strike against it already. I'm not tied to iTunes like I once was - in fact I tend to use my 120gb Zune now mostly for music - there's all of 4 songs on my iPhone. I do enjoy a quick/easy game, in fact I've been tapped on the shoulder to evaluate and get better versed with Unity3D. Which... I totally enjoy. But that's not on the N900 at all.

I will not evangelize the iPhone. I've lived through each and every growing pain that it could toss out at an user: random reboots, faulty updates, dropped phone calls, programs causing problems once installed, bad battery life in under a year, weird camera issues, multiple replacements (I'm up to 7 replaced iPhones in two years... no joke) and one faulty headphone jack that came out with just casual use.

Therefore I know that gadgets like the iPhone/N900 are not perfect. That's what warranties are for. And I'm not particularly rough with my gadgets either.

But with the talk of random reboots, faulty connectors, lack of applications (at the moment) and other issues that have been brought up here at TMO quite a bit, I'm starting to feel like I would be going backwards to the early days of the Apple iPhone and then re-suffering through to the days that I'd actually enjoy it. I actually have grown to "like" (read: I don't want to dropkick the damn thing on a daily basis) the iPhone, but I know there are better. I need true multi-tasking.

I need a phone that supports: Skype, VoIP, GTalk, Yahoo, MSN, AIM... and does so while I'm doing something else. Sure, I can actually be on the phone, send an MMS, then switch back to Fring without an issue and still be talking on the phone. I do that regularly - it's rather limited, but it is indeed some form of multi-tasking albeit not true multi-tasking. I want the real thing.

I do like an occasional game - I used to work for Sega. So games are still a part of my life. And I'm not too big on emulators, but I can appreciate them.

I know the N900 is the start... better yet, I know it's the 4th out of 5th step. But as it stands, I'm on the cusp of my contract with AT&T. And I'm seriously looking to replace the iPhone with something that I won't regret. Or better yet, with something that if I had to wait for it to grow up a bit, it won't be as painful as the iPhone.

Do any of you have any compelling arguments? I hate to be a bother, I'm honestly requesting the kind of comments that I see Texrat and Zerojay come out with. Those guys, despite we (them and I) being on different sides of the fence, I can still respect what they say and how they think.

Thanks in advance. This is a rather selfish thread, but I think that it would help others that need to hear true commentary on how this phone is - pros and cons. I don't expect perfection. I just am in the unique position to really not want to be in the same position I was during the pre-OS 2.x days. 3.x hasn't been all that bad to me.

MMS, location-aware apps that help me locate the cheapest gas (I use Where), some games (The Deep Pinball is my "crack" as is Konami's Pro Baseball) and the ability to connect to Facebook, Fring/Skype, the weather in a few locations, and I would call that a solid start.

Just buy one. If you don't like it, sell it.


-dmg

Oh, forgot to say. I don't have the cash to waste. Thus I'd rather make a more informed decision than just buying it and potentially exposing myself to buyer's regret.

Gerbick, I would just say this: if you (with your experience of the N810) have to ask, then the N900 is not for you.

Sure, it's step 4 out of 5, but some of the regressions from the N810 are just ridiculous. And the next model may be step 5 out of 5, but loads of things are being rewritten using Qt and will probably bring a whole new set of problems.

The N900 has great multitasking; it has a great browser; and it's fabulous that it has an officially-sanctioned X Terminal with root access available.

Other things are quite disappointing: the camera's hazy flash shots, the inability of the GPS to acquire a lock when being used as many of us wish to use it, the poor battery life, media library scanning problems in the stock media player, the stripe over part of the front cam images, inability to dial numbers containing star or hash, etc etc.

Apple hugely restricts their products, but what you get works pretty well. The N900 has limitless potential, but for now falls way short.

Regards,
Roger

Just some personal views:

I really like the N900 and do not regret my purchase at all.

However, the device has some quirks that might or might not be a deal breaker for you:
- Mail for exchange implementation is not ready for prime time
- Syncing Google calendar is difficult, so far I was not able to sync satisfactory ( I need more than one calendar).
- Ovi maps 1.0 is unusable as a navigation tool for me.

Having said that, there are many things that just work without fooling around, like
- Browsing the web
- Skype integration
- Making basic phone calls
- etc, etc.

By the way, I do not have any problems with hardware or reboots at all, HW seems to be very solid..

If I were you I would look at the commitment that Nokia demonstrates to the N900 / platform. Many quirks could be easily rectified with proper software. Nokia is said to bring a firmware update until end of 2009. If they do a good job and improve the device into the right direction for you, then I would purchase. If they come out with something half baked not addressing many problems (or do not come out with an update at all) then I would pass and wait for something more mature.

I would say wait. I like the N900 but I still find myself using the N800 at home since it has the bigger screen but more importantly the apps. Most of the good ones you want are either in testing or devel. Or they have not been created since the device is so new.

I've been an N800 user for about 2.5 years and have had my N900 for about 2.5 weeks. I've not had any issues with mine so far, (no reboots, no need to reflash, no extras-testing/devel brickage) and I'm still well within the honeymoon period, which I expect will last at least a year

That said, you will have read about the problems other's are having, so at the moment it seems a bit like a QA lottery (although I wouldn't like to guess as to what the probabilities are in terms of getting a good or bad device). There are bugs, for sure, but I assume you're accustomed to those.

My major concern prior to getting the N900 was that the screen would be too small. I handled one twice in Nokia shops, and then had reservations about the size, feel (heft, materials, etc.) and the usability of the keyboard.

However, all that changed after mine turned up. Not once in the last two weeks has the thought crossed my mind that the screen is too small, and my fingers have got used to working with the keyboard.

I can't really comment on your specific use cases, but thought you might appreciate the perspective of another long time user who's switched to the N900.

Hey Gerbick, I do know your viewpoint and its more balanced on both side - which is good.

Having said that - about the hardware faults of the N900 like reboothing etc ...
I bought an initial unit from Nokia USA store - no issues -
1) Mic worked fine
2) No Reboots
3) Calibration all correct
4) Battery life on par (as mentioned before)
5) Camera is good - not the best (as my N95)
and so on and so forth.
6) No dead pixels

All in all no issues found - of course I wont mention that it misses things which have been mentioned before in software (like MMS, portrait support etc).

Next I got an unit from Amazon (preorered) and I was worried about it - but even this unit functions same as the Nokia US store unit. No hardware issues.

I think on the first batch might have had some issues but subsequent batches are fine.
If that is your concern I think you can rest easy.
Of course you have been on these forums a long time to know the pros and cons of Maemo 5.

Edit : the keyboard (layout wise) takes some time getting used to - but once you overcome that hurdle - it is fast and nice to use.
And I am coming to the N900 from the N810 - and so far I have not gone back to the N810 inspite of the smaller screen which you don't feel much about after some time.

Only time I use the N810 is to listen to music from the external speakers as the speakers on the N800 / N810 is definitely better than the N900.

I've only had mine 4 days, but the additional CPU speed that the new processor has rendering pages in the web browser is very handy. I notice it most when tapping a column of text to zoom in on it. Unfortunately, the "fit width to screen" function seems to have disappeared, which largely balances out the speed.

I am doing a lot more offline web page reading lately, on all my devices, so network latency is less of an issue and you notice speed more.

If you fancy learning a variant of the Vulcan Death Grip, Ctrl+Shift+i will cause a reflow of the text which seems to do the job for me.