so i have been researching this phone for a while and want to shove my iphone up steve jobs a##. i almost ordered one from amazon but since i was going to nyc i thought i would test it out at the nokia store first.

this is where im hoping to get some clarification. i was at the store for a good hour and tried about 5 of the display models they had. on all of them i found the phones to be slow, choppy, touchscreen not responsive, youtube extremely laggy, switching desktops a pain and etc.

i read some other posts about people talking about demo models and pre production models. can someone please clarify? would the one i buy be upgraded and have bugs fixed?

i want this phone very badly but want to make sure that what i experienced at the nokia store will not be what i end up buying.

p.s please dont flame, im not a troll or trying to diss the phone, i want to make sure i buy a good product. essentially im looking for a phone that does what the iphone does but without the apple BS

Well, I have never used a demo phone from a Nokia store, but I can tell you that my N900 is running very smoothly, watching youtube videos on it is just awesome... And also I would purchase a new one from like amazon or some place and if you really don't like it you should be able to return in (30 days)... So you got a while to play with it.. idk.

well, you are not telling us what you want from a phone, is somewhat difficult to point you a north (even comming from iphone, i didnt why you dont like it).

for example, the N900 is NOT:
- amoled samsung screen, is a good quality but tft lcd
- professional camera, 5mp, but fuzzy in darkness and slow on movement.
- high processor; 600mhz is not the more powerfull device out there
- long battery: Some report 20h, 10h, for me its a 6-8 hour phone, but you can replace the battery
- dedicated gps: the official map solution is OVI Maps 1.0 and lacks from a lot of features. but what it does, it does well (IMO)
- polished platform: maemo is beautiful but... strange. nokia seems to have a big budget for marketing but a small one for features. low integration of default apps for a high end phone.

but it is the best phone i have so far!

because it fills all my needs

what are yours?

thanks for the reply but you did not really answer my questions or concerns either. i want a phone that will be stable, that has a full functioning browser so i can do my online banking, answer emails, use gtalk, and it must support SIP which nokias tend to do.

i would go with a blackberry but there is no sip support which is a shame as i am very impressed with the solid and stable interface that rim offers.

i tried the iphone for a while as it has so many apps, i found one to connect to my sip account but the phone itself is just too unstable. it crashes, it wont load my emails properly, apple delets my aps and etc.

i am looking at the n900 because it should support all the multimedia and full browsing that i liked on the iphone but is coming from a more serious company and is open source. i like how the sip is supported in the native environment and requires no mods.

having said all that and referring back to me original post i found the n900 to be slow and finicky at the nokia store in nyc. my friend tried it out as well and was surprised that it was so laggy and buggy.

i want to make sure that is not really the case with the phone before i start looking at something else.

Hi henny

to answer some of your concerns. I would say the screen is only unresponsive depending on what you are use to. You probably know that it's a resistive screen meaning you have to actually press down on the screen. its not as responsive as capacitive screens with a finger but it has its advantages when using a stylus or a gloved hand.

As for lag or choppyness I cannot help you with that since I don't know what firmware the demo units were using but I can say that the speed of the browser and flash playback were improved in an update. I would also say that the flash performance pretty much depends on what flash site you visit. Alot of videos are fine but hi resolution videos can become choppy. some flash games run perfectly well but others are choppy. For most flash sites I would say it works well.

My advice would be to find out what firmware the demos were running, or take the plunge, test the phone and if you don't like it you can always return it.

i know that i cant answer all your questions, please be patient

IMO, no interface is like the iphone. its just toot responsive to be true.

and the n900 lags a bit when in heavy use. nothing critical, but the multi process model is not very compatible with the single threaded omap processor. in fact, the phone application has a beauty transition that is very annoyng when the device is on load

in opposition, when i need gps i have three different applications running at the same time: ovi maps (for well, a map), an accelerometer from ovi store (with BIG numbers) and a compass or satellite data from extras-devel (GPSJinny, thanks!). no lag at all for each app and in transitions.

about SIP, its perfect to me. its integrated with the main phone-contact application so you can lost a phone call and call back by sip or skype with the same interface

about browser, its perfect too. it has all the render power of firefox so home banking its ok (while its not locked for ie), every webmail has worked for me (gmail with gtalk integrated, tahoo, hotmail and exchange owa), also has several messenger protocols integrated (gtalk officially, msn unofficially) so you dont need browser for those.

lets talk more about browser: the flash 9 application.
- what works: institutional flashes, buttons menus, youtube of similar low quality videos. so, browsing flash or video flash will not stop you. fullscreen for youtube works well too
- whats a problem: when flash is a crap. if needs power, you are done. big canvas flash needs processor that you dont have, vimeo or other non selectable HD video player drop frames, heavy flashes with smoke and transitions.
- dont work: all that makes adobe work: os integration, like web camera for flash is disabled. AIR and new flash 10 stuff are not available. very rare for navigation, but worth to know.

you must read other threads to know more specific things. every native app has its cons that you can tolerate or not. it also has no unified portait mode.

and the email app its for a casual use only (IE: it lacks for search option)

i dont like blackberry. it has a very polished platform, but its old (and not linux :P)

well... keep asking!

very informative thanks the email search function is a must for sure, and i did have a question. how can i watch high quality youtube? is there an app? like you said trying to do it with the browser is just asking for trouble.

yes, email seach is a must. i dont understand how it was released without that function.

there are community efforts to solve that, maybe in a couple of months this situation will be remembered only on a nostalgic chat with friends. (like copy paste function in iphone). until then...

about youtube hd, i dont know i think that youtube is filtering the hd function because the button is missing in things like "district 9 hd", but ill try it and update this post

about an app, yes. there are two (to start with, and unofficial) that let us watch and download youtube video. ill try that too.

I was given a demo N900 from the NYC flashship store as a replacement for my broken N900. (They were super nice!) And the firmware was 42.1.

Also, I'm not sure how much you'll get out of wanting HQ youtube, as 720p is a higher resolution than the phone itself.

@clasificado: I'm not sure if the iphone's interface is too good to be true. N900 is just as responsive unless background programs are taking up CPU time. Also, 600Mhz is not a negative and is not lower powered than other phones on the market. The Mhz race was dis proven for processors long ago. Sorry, just a couple of things I wanted to throw into the conversation.

i guess the phone seems to be the way i tested it then. did not realize there is so much left to be worked out, but hey its the first attempt so only time will tell.

i used blackberries for years and most recently had a 9700 which is so clean and flawless, i like blackberries because they do what they are designed to do and they do it with perfection. the only reason i sold it was because even though it was unlocked i was not able to use all functions for 3g with my carrier.

got the iphone just to try out and was addicted to the interface pretty quickly. it is very easy to use (too simple actually) and their touchscreen i gotta say is king, you cannot compare. but there is where the good things end. the phone is too locked up, apple is paranoid, apps freeze up, things like gtalk and gmail apps are blocked, jailbreaking broke my youtube, wifi did not work, gps did not work, dropped calls, dropped network, etc, etc.

the n900 on paper seemed like a much better phone and there is no doubt that the hardware for the most part is well above. however, nokia really needs to work on the interface and on the touchscreen (the resolution and screen itself is breathtaking though). flash support imo might as well not even be added because it "seemed" so glitchy in the store. i found myself trying to click exit and maximize and was stuck in full screen mode a few times until youtube ended up crashing the browser.

im not saying i need flash but its a big playing card for the n900 and if it doesnt work well then whats the point

im also very surprised at the lack of the search function

im sure its a great phone with a lot of potential but it looks like its not the right one for me after all.

i thank you guys a lot for the help and informative posts hopefully something better comes up soon.