Not knowing much about hand held devices, I have been following reviews on the Nokia N900 and feel that this is the phone for me. I am a Linux user, currently openSUSE, Ubuntu, and CentOS. What's putting me off a bit is that these reviews state that the battery life is below par, and that the device itself is way to bulky.

A question to those who are 'upto date' on what's happening with the N900 and future production ... how long would it take for Nokia to release a successor to the N900 (which will presumably have a better battery life and be less bulky), or, are they going to have a successor at all? My Google searches don't seem to give me any satisfactory and definite result.

Regards.

Hi -cyrus-

The problem with nearly all the reviews of the N900, they think of it as a high end smartphone.

It is not! It is a portable computer with very high specs for a pocketable size.

It is a computer that also does telephony, not a smartphone that offers apps, which throws most reviewers off.

As a Linux user you will understand that you are not in any way locked into using it as offered by Nokia. It is completely unlocked and you have root access.

You can even boot other OS, maybe not with much usability, but it can be done.

Maemo, now MeeGo, is developing very quickly thanks to Nokia and Intel teaming up.

Here's a very good, early review by Linux Journal. http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/...900-first-look

Here's a very short, but info packed blog by someone using it. http://himashtehanblogs.blogspot.com...nux-phone.html

I would say if you want a pocketable linux computer in the next year or so, from a name brand vendor, this is it.

Thanks for your interesting response and the links that you provided. Interesting reading.

That is definitely what I'm looking for, and the only things holding me back so far are:

1. Not the right frequency band for my 3G network.
2. Apparently poor battery life.

I did read somewhere that Nokia were asking their N900 users to vote for what else they would like to see with this product, and some suggestions given asked for the above two points.

So waiting to see if there is a successor .. but nevertheless, this is the type of gadget that I am looking forward to owning someday .. hopefully soon.

Nokia N900 is looks excellent. I like 4-Row keyboard. 8 mp camera is good, image quality seems to be excellent. Battery life is also very satisfying. I'm glad to see that the N900 is an efficient voice device. Its 64GB build-in is really a lot. To replace resistive with capacitive is also a smart move. Hopefully they will still keep the hardware keyboard in place and even improve it for make more ergonomic.

I do not own one of these, but I have since met someone who has one.
He let me play with it for a while.
Let me tell you that this device has all the solid build quality that Nokia is known for.

Nice display
Good keyboard

Best of all, Linux as the OS without some UI on top of it which completely hides that fact. Terminal and all. Apps are now available.

Now if it were available in the US on contract, I could get it with a carrier subsidy and not pay retail. After all, they give no monthly discount for using an unsubsidized device. Unfortunately, they would lock it and screw it up if I did get it subsidized.

Someday....

I have got a n900. It sucks as a phone, really. I don't always carry it with me. I carry my S40 phone with weeks (literally) of battery life, tiny size and rock solid case.
Having said that, the n900 rocks. It's by far (very far) the best mobile computer of that size. It is a full blown computer. It's not worth waiting for the N9. If you do so, you loose several months using the device and that is definitely not worth it. From day 1 you will regret having waited for that long to get it. There will always be a new device coming soon so my advice is to buy it now.

I've got a Nokia N900 and completely love it. Agreed, the battery isn't amazing (It normally lasts 2-3 days) but I bought an external battery charger and a spare battery (well under £20 total), so I charge one battery while I use the other, then just swap them over and if I'm going out I'll sometimes take the spare battery with me just in case.

Though if it doesn't work with your 3G frequency then I'm not sure there's an awful lot you can do about it... Having said that, the internet said it wouldn't work with my 3 sim but I got one anyway and it worked fine

used n80 nlng