Ask HN: Geek phone / Phone to work
I have an HTC Magic, and my two options are Nokia N900 and HTC Desire.
The Desire is like the Magic, but with a faster (Snapdragon 1000Ghz) CPU and a newer version of the Android OS (2.1 and upgradeable to 2.2 Froyo) while I upgraded the Magic to 1.6 cyanogenmod, and it seems it will not be upgradeaable to 2.2.
As long as I've read
N900 pros: Hardware keyboard 700+ Mb swap Great browser with flash support (although Android 2.2 features flash support as well) Maemo flavoured linux with out of the box linux shell Great 5Mpx Carl Zeiss Camera Great multi-tasking capabilities 32Gb internal space + microSD Audio/Video codecs
N900 cons: Bug 6063 (https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6063) Resistive screen Far Fewer apps than in Android Market No portrait mode without exploiting a bug Bigger 600 Mhz CPU Battery Life (Many people reports that it doesn't even last a full day)
When I first read about the Nokia N900 i got excited: a linux computer in my pocket!! But bug 6063, battery life and resistive screen and quite a deal breaker for me...
On the other hand, I have already used an Android phone for almost a year now, and yet it sometimes freezes and I have to reboot, and is sometimes slow and unresponsive the overall experience is quite satisfying, and I think that with a better hardware (like the Snapdragon CPU) and newer version of Android (like 2.2 Froyo vs 1.6 Donut which I am currently using) would addrees these problems.
Maybe the rumored Nokia 920 solves the aforementioned issues, but it is not even officially anounced yet, so we will have to wait. Moreover, Nokia N900 uses Maemo 5, and the next step in Nokia phones will be MeeGo (Nokia Maemo + Intel Moblin).
What do you think? Is the N900 worth a try?