10 replies to this topic

[martvefun]

Hello,

I'm think more and more every day about buying a smartphone.
I stop everyone coming with the iPhone, it's definitely no ! I don't want to buy a phone you can only really use if you jailbreak it and from a company so closed (you've understood, I don't like apple but it's not the point).

Maybe the biggest thing that would make me think about buying a smartphone is the possibility to synchronise everything I need. I've currently 3 agenda : one on my computer (most developed information), one book (for everyday information, I'm carrying with all my stuff), one on my phone (when it's really important or when I don't have anything else). I want to be able to use my google calendar only for everything.
The emails, contact book,... are also something I want to be able to access at any time.
Some web-surf and GPS may also be useful but I don't really care about taking pictures (not at all), playing small games or useless fun apps.

If I buy a smartphone, I want something I can use the way I want. That's why I was thinking about a linux based phone (I'm already a linux user).

The problem is that there is plenty of different device and OS (found this list).
Android sounds good because big support, you can except a lot.
Meego sounds nice as you'll be able to really customize it (but not released yet)
and the others don't look bad as well

Maybe the best would be a phone on which I can try more than one OS

any idea ?

thank you

[Baniboy]

The Nokia N900 is good. You have your x-terminal as well. GPS works well with ovi maps and you can also get Maep or Navit navigation. Google maps works as well using a small hack in the browser. The only downside is that you don't have turn-by-turn navigation on the Ovi maps. Actually, you can hack it and install Android too. And nothing is limited. Google calendar works and it has a good e-mail and SMS client as well. MMS doesn't work, but I doubt you'll need it anyway since you can use email for that. Skype is also integrated so you can use skype over 3G instead of calling. 3Gand WLAN are both excellent on the device.
You're also limited to Nokia PC suite, the ovi suite which is widely used with other Nokia smartphones isn't available yet.
There are many cool things you can do tho, you can run a lightweight linux desktop environment as a program on top of the Maemo 5 Operating System. The software is called Easy Debian, and you can run all the normal programs like OpenOffice and GIMP, even without launching LXDE. This is an iKiller.
The touchscreen is resistive, but you don't have to use the stylus or really push hard for it to work like on many other resistive technology using phones. Besides, the only rational use I can figure for multitouch is zooming, and you have many more accurate ways to zoom in the browser in N900 in my opinion.

I don't like the idea of MeeGo, mainly because they're going to push that on multiple devices in different categories, so software for MeeGo on another device might not work with your device. And there's gonna be system requirements and everything. They're making owning a smartphone a more complex task than it has to be. Of course it's nice to have cross-device compatibility and stuff, tho. And the normal s/w will run with a little porting because of Qt 4.6. And maemo just sounds cooler.

Another cheaper option would be HTC Hero or Desire. But they may not have the multitasking capabilities of the N900.

And I agree on the iBrick tho, what's the use of all the apps when you can only run one at a time? Useless. In the N900, you can have a browser open, listen to music, listen to music IN the browser with Grooveshark, text and use the phone to call home to your mom to tell her to make some hot chocolate at the same time with windows, like in your normal PC, without the calling tho. And you can install adblock plus on that browser as well. It renders the sites just like firefox, no mobile modes. You can get opera mini tho, if you're using gprs.
It's a geek's phone if you want it to be and I'm sure you'll like it.

If you have any questions about how the device functions, post them here and I'll test if I can.

[martvefun]

Thank you for your answer.
I didn't know that phone. I read a couple of test and ... waw looks great

as you said, it looks like a geek phone and it's really what I'm looking for. x-terminal on it

biggest problem : the price 650€
my borther is in china right now, maybe he can get me that cheaper

also about the battery life. I read you have an autonomy of about one day, which is really small. You confirm that ?

[Baniboy]

Quote

Thank you for your answer.
I didn't know that phone. I read a couple of test and ... waw looks great

as you said, it looks like a geek phone and it's really what I'm looking for. x-terminal on it wub.gif

biggest problem : the price 650€
my borther is in china right now, maybe he can get me that cheaper

also about the battery life. I read you have an autonomy of about one day, which is really small. You confirm that ?

Yes, the price is quite high. But you can get one for 500 € or even lower if you search. I got it for 550 € and it was AFTER the heavy taxing of my country (+ the delivery fee, it was 10€ so the phone was about 540€).

The battery life is really a problem with the smartphones these days. The amount of time the battery lasts is relative to your activity. The N900's 600 MHz ARM Cortex processor and dedicated GPU drain a lot of power when active. The high WGA resolution screen also consumes a lot of power. So keeping that in mind, here are the battery times I found on maemo.org:

Quote

Always online: Up to 2-4 days (TCP/IP connected)
Talk time: Up to 5hrs WCDMA, 9hrs GSM
Active online usage: Up to 1+ day

Another thing you should keep in mind is that this is more of a computer than a phone. In fact, the phone is just an application that uses the internal antennas and such to receive and send signals. So, owning an internet tablet like this is like owning a mini-laptop. Of course there are things you can't do the same way, but you get the idea. So compared to that, its battery life is still pretty good. Besides, there are apps that let you save battery life. Like a wifi-switcher, a switcher between GSM and 3G. I connect the phone to my computer through WLAN and watch youtube videos, download stuff etc (and youtube videos run smoothly after a few lags at the beginning, btw). Lasts 6 hours. I play games at school on brakes, lasts the whole time for me to come home. I also have a step-meter application active which counts my steps using the accelerometers and listen to music at the same. I haven't used it much after the last full charge (2 h ago) and the battery is full. I've had wifi and 3G disabled all the time. You can also reduce the brightness of the screen, I have it on max tho.

It lasts one day with active usage and you can just charge it at night like I do. If you take long trips and you actively use your phone, get an extra battery as a back-up or don't play so many games!

But I found a great post at Maemo.org that pretty much sums up everything:

Quote

Let's face it, it's not a device to say you will use it lightly. You'll carry the expensive brick the n900 is because you use it's many functions.
Actually it's the only turnoff I see for now. Everything else is a hacker's dream. Fast, lot's of hardware features, decent camera, enough storage and more open than android.

P.S. the comparation with the iphone is wrong imho because the Iphone doesn't have to push 800x480 pixels around and because it's not multitasking. n900 will most probably used with many apps open through the day.

This is certainly a device that lures you into using it. So if you're going to use it a lot, get ready to charge it often.

[martvefun]

You are right about the price, on the nokia webiste if you search at different contries, you can drop to 550€, 500€ on other websites or even at 465$ (338€) in the US. But it's still a lot for me (maybe if I know somebody going to the US)
Offers are coming soon in belgium (where I live) where you can have discount if you take contract for 2 years (I don't know how to say that in english), maybe it'll be interesting...

maybe I'll go for the cheaper option (htc hero) if I don't find good offers for the nokia

somebody has other opinion, a phone review to share ? another phone with maemo ?

Edited by martvefun, 14 March 2010 - 02:54 PM.

[Baniboy]

Quote

another phone with maemo ?

The N900 is the only phone running maemo, all the other ones run previous versions of maemo and they're not phones, but internet tablets.

Whoohoo 650th post!!!!

Edited by Baniboy, 14 March 2010 - 03:42 PM.

[kleong]

Since iPhone is out, maybe you can give the latest HTC phone a try. If not, then I suggest blackberry.

[martvefun]

congratulation for your 650th post baniboy

I read this comparison about blackberry vs htc.

So N900 if I find a good offer and enough money, htc hero otherwise...

thank you everybody

[Baniboy]

Yes HTC hero is a good choice in my opinion too, because of it's screen. It resists your fingerprints.
BTW, the N900 has been mostly idle for almost 12 hours now and it has used up 1/6 of the battery. You might find a used N900, some crazy people are selling them away because they're too pissed off at Nokia for maybe not officially supporting MeeGo on it. Make sure it's good as new before buying tho.

Edited by Baniboy, 14 March 2010 - 07:35 PM.

[martvefun]

somebody ever heard about lightinthebox ? china website
they sell it for 85€ !
too cheap for me to trust them