Okay having had my brain continually exploded by the endless "you should have done your research" comments and "I don't have that problem so the problem does not exist" I have decided to put together a list of known issues with the device.

This is so potential buyers can see in one place all the main (negative) issues with the device and can weigh it against its plus points.

Note that some of the issues listed have fixes/work arounds such as using free third party apps. The linked thread here contains the fixes or work arounds to these issues. Some other issues are expected to be fixed in the next firmware update.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=657204

Please do not attack me pointlessly as so many of you love to do. This is meant to be constructive. Let me know what issues you think I have missed out so the list can be as comprehensive as possible.

Please do not say I don't have that issue so it does not exist. Everything I will list other than from what others have contributed will be from my own experience and I am not making anything up.

Maybe eventually this can be changed to a wiki or something. Hopefully this will prevent others buying a device which is not suitable for them.

There will of course be some comparisons with iphone despite the fact many will hate that. However, that is the phone most potential buyers of the N900 would also be considering.

On schettj's suggestion I have broken this down into Issues and Annoyances. Issues will cover more significant issues and possible annoyances will try to cover things that some may consider to be nothing but are important for others. An example would be the lack of custom ringtone which many don't care about but is a big deal for me. Both categories though will still try to list all the things people would take into account when buying a phone but will not necessarily be able to find out from reviews. For example I have read three lenghty HTC Desire reviews and don't know the answer to many of the things I consider important. All I can tell is it is smooth and can be customized alot but I can't tell how much.

Something like the media player widget not working may not be a big deal at all but I have put it in issues because well it shows a general lack of care and attention to detail from Nokia towards their product. You may or may not agree with me but can't think of any other big phone company creating a widget that does not work.

(A) ISSUES


Hardware

(1)The screen scratches more easily than capacitive screens. I have two very large scratches on my screen despite making sure I put absolutely nothing in the same pocket as the N900. Be sure you use a screen protector because no matter how careful you are the screen may get scratched.

(2) There is a serious manufacturing defect with the micro-usb socket of some of the N900s. For some it has fallen out completely. For me the device no longer charges from a charger. It has to be charged from PC via USB cable. Nokia have been made aware of the problem and it is believed they have fixed it in the latest builds but there is no guarantee you will not end up with an older batch so be aware of this risk.

Battery

(3) If you do not have IM accounts turned on then the battery should easily last you through the day. However, with some IM accounts (not sure which are the culprits but yahoo and msn seem to be amongst) you should generally expect around 6 hours use on average. With facebook and gtalk chats only being on you can expect to get up to 10 hours. This is not really an issue specific to the N900 though - Engagdet's review of the HTC Desire says they had 6 hours with similar use. Just seems to be a case of modern smart phones having become as smart as laptops and I can barely get an hour out of either of my laptops. Note that some have quite solid battery life even with IM accounts on they can get through the day without needing a recharge.

Interface/Operating System

(4) Some devices randomly restart. This was fixed in a previous firmware but still occurs for a few.

(5) If you have a lot of media going to a folder with many sub-folders or files will cause the device to slow down to the point of the file manager being unusable.

(6) The device can sometimes be slow and unresponsive. If you are a Linux expert or are lucky you will never have any slow down or apps freezing up. However, it is generally not as snappy as an iphone for the general user where you tap an icon and it opens up immediately.

(7) It takes relatively long to switch from portrait mode to landscape and vice versa.

(8) There is no full portrait mode on the device so makes one handed operation rather difficult or virtually impossible. There is only portrait mode on phone app, web browser and some third party apps.

(9) No SIM toolkit support which makes it difficult to use internet banking on the device in certain territories such as Finland.

Maps/Navigation

(10) The Ovi Maps version on the N900 is outdated and misses voice turn by turn navigation. Note that most symbian devices have a full navigation software with turn by turn and voice whether walking or by car and this is free on these devices. On the N900 you have a choice of third party programmes to get this (one free one paid).


Media Player

(11) Videos stutter a lot for the first few seconds of play back.

(12) The N900 has a serious problem with displaying proper tags for music files. For some it works fine for some it doesn't. For me it shows album artist and never song artist and album artist is almost pointless for me as many of my songs are from compilations and so just shows Various Artist rather than e.g. R. Kelly. Free third party apps such as Media Box do not have this problem but may have their own issues.

(13) Some album art do not show even though embedded.

(14) Tracker which updates media file info is very often defective. You can add media files and they not show up in the media player for a week. You can reset tracker or kill it, etc using terminal but be warned it is very often not like what you are used to where you transfer files via usb and your files show up immediately.

(15) No proper functioning software to sync with your PC the way itunes syncs perfectly with iphone. You can use drag and drop but that is only helpful for the first sync of all your music and when you add new songs to your PC and are sure exactly what the news songs are and can just drag and drop them. There is Ovi Music but it does not work with the N900. Third party PC software programmes can sync but many of them just sync to the main documents folder or the main music folder rather than in an organised manner (via artist, album artist, etc) and so create a huge mess and will kill your use of file manager. You may get something to work properly but will be quite an effort compared to using itunes and iphone.

(16) The play button on the media player widget does not work for some. It seems this may have something to do with the other widgets you have installed.

(17) No way to stretch to full screen in the default media player (though mplayer a free third party app will do so).

Email

(18) There is no easy way to search your emails.

(19) Nokia Messaging sometimes has delay in pushing emails to the device. Delay can be 15 minutes, can be a couple of hours. If you have a job where you need to be contacted immediately by email better to use a blackberry.

Phone

(20) For some it randomly goes to speaker mode whilst you are on the phone. It does not appear to be a widely known issue so may be talking of small fractions of a percentage here in terms of affected devices. However, it has recently started happening to me on around 25% of calls.

(21) For some the call volume drops on and off.

(22) No way to set the phone to divert all calls to voicemail. You need to download a free third party app to achieve this.

(23) Cannot dial numbers starting with * or # without the use of a free third party widget so without the third party widget you are unable to top up your credit or check your balance in certain countries. This is expected to be fixed in the next firmware update.

(24) No MMS unless you get a free third party app.

Connectivity with External Devices

(25) Connectivity with external devices via can sometimes be a bit hit and miss. Some bluetooth headphones which are listed as compatible may fail to connect with the device.

(B) POSSIBLE ANNOYANCES

Hardware

(1) Only three row keyboard layout so you need to use alternate for the numbers keys.

Interface/Operating System

(2) The transition between the four desktops is not very smooth for some users. This may depend on what you have on your desktop or what you have running. It may also simply be a case of some can notice it and some can't.

(3) You cannot jump to the particular desktop you want like you can with HTC's Sense interface. You can scroll forward or backwards so can go from 1 to 2 or 1 to 4. But you cannot go straight from 1 to 3. You must scroll through 2 to get to 3.

(4) Scrolling through a long list can be quite jerky. For example if you are scrolling through the thumbnails of your photos.

(5) The screen does not refresh automatically. If the screen goes off (battery saver) when you wake it up it will very briefly show exactly what it was showing before it went to sleep. So if the time was 14.50 then and is now 16.30 it will initially show 14.50. Or if you are listening to music it will show the song details of the song that was playing before the screen went off.

Ovi Store

(6) This does not work properly with the N900. I may be wrong but at present it is not even working at all. Also if you are using your PC you cannot easily load apps from Ovi Store to your N900 the way you can with itunes and iphone. If you choose to install an app on your PC all that happens is you get a link sent to your phone by sms and then you have to follow the link which takes you to the Ovi Store. You can of course browse directly to the store from the device but would be nice to have the option to also search for apps on a bigger screen and have them download automatically to the device like you can with iphone.

Media Player

(7) Creating playlists is not as intuitive as it should be. You need to add songs to now playing list then create playlist from the now playing list.

(8) Currently no equaliser. However, a free third party app is in the works to deal with this.

Phone

(9) The phone cannot say the name of the caller out of the box. There is a free third party app to get round this.

(10) You cannot have custom ringtones for each caller.

(11) You cannot have caller groups.

(12) The call log is pretty poor compared to symbian. It just lists all types of calls (incoming, outgoing, missed) in one long list with no option to filter by missed calls, received calls, etc.

(13) Only general and silent profiles (although there is an app that seeks to get around that).

(14) No call timers.

Address Book

(15) On symbian devices prior to the N97 you could edit the name of an address book contact. Very useful if you have someone with more than one number. For example call one number T-Mobile and another Orange. That way you easily know which of their phones you are calling. Or you could call one blackberry so you know it is their blackberry you are calling or texting. This feature is no longer available not just on the N900 but as I mentioned the N97 and probably all Nokia devices since. I believe this was a deliberate decision by Nokia rather than any oversight and the reason for this is that this edited info cannot be transferred/backed up from one device to another.

Special Issues

This section contains issues which may not be very wide spread but I have put them down because they are present on my device. Some can suggest other issues they have which no one else seems to have.

(i) If playing video I cannot receive calls.

(ii) Sometimes the phone rings with a blank screen for a few seconds so no way to answer the phone. I know a few others have had this issue but not sure how wide spread it is.

You could also add the ridiculous Ovi Maps application and even more ridiculous Ovi Store, both of which make me wanna cry. One could also come up with a long list of issues/omissions in the Calendar app.

i cant disagree with you. those all seem to be legit hiccups and most of which i have experienced my self. hope no one buys this phone who cant afford to deal with these inconveniences

Good thread;

Let's keep it clean, courteous and on topic guys. No need to use charged words and sentences here.

no MMS out of the box

Never seen or heard of the two specific issue. I have recieved many calls while watching a divx movie. Regarding the other points you are more or less right. I want to note that the "The N900 has a serious problem with displaying proper tags for music files." its not correct statement. The correct one is that N900 reads the Tags as they should be i.e. if the tag is not properly set its not N900 fault.

When I copy mp3 or video from pc in USB storage and i "safely remove n900" the video/mp3 shows insta. Its more personal issue I believe.

Hey etuoyo,

Are you getting paid for this?

I mean, I understand that you don't like the N900 and stuff. You probably work for a competing company and your job is to disband the Maemo community. (Or you're just a plain fanboy?)

I experience NONE of the issues you listed, so I don't believe you.
You lie!

Seriously, why couldn't you post your rant to an already existing thread?

I love my phone to death, but I really wish I had customizable ringtones for separate contacts. so there's something you can add to this list.

No customizable ringtones for contacts

While I'm glad to see this sort of approach, parts of the starter post looks more like personal experience/opinion than an objective description. One example is the claim of screen scratching. I'm not debating this from a "never happened to me so can't happen" standpoint (that's a logical fallacy) but on the other hand it hasn't happened to me despite the fact that (and I admit this with some embarrassment) I have not taken proper care of my screen and yet still not a single scratch. In fact my device has been dropped to concrete a couple of times.

However, I did get some scratches on an N800 and here's what I discovered: dirt and dust can contain traces of extremely hard minerals, including diamond. One tiny speck getting stuck to a stylus point can do significant damage.

So I would certainly caution people as you have, and screen protectors can be a very good idea. Same for wiping the screen and stylus tip before using them. I just think including additional context in a complaint is helpful too. In this case, the issue is not one of hardware but contamination and poor handling. The N900 screen is actually very resilient.

That said, you're providing a great service here etuoyo, thanks.

Very well presented list. I can agree with alot of the points, but some users may experience some bugs while othes dont. Even with all of the annoyances, there is no other phone for me but the N900.