Nokia's Maemo 5-equipped N900 on sale in America for $649
By Darren Murph 
posted November 18th 2009 10:02AM
posted November 18th 2009 10:02AM
posted November 18th 2009 10:02AM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Why buy an iPhone if you're locked in to crappy service on ATT anyway? So what if they have more coverage, the service sucks. That's like building a huge 5-lane highway that has nothing but bumper-to-bumper traffic. So what?
Mark, 9.4. 10.1 should be released early next year (the N900 was the first device demoed using Flash 10.1 in that announcement).
I like my E71. It much cheaper.
Oh yeah, have fun with EDGE on the N900. T-Mo has virtually no 3G coverage, and it doesn't work on AT&T's 3G. So have fun. My E71 works great on EDGE (AT&T), but with a screen like that, yeah, just have fun.
I bought one as soon as I could. Bought the N810 a while ago on sale and have wanted a Maemo phone since then, it's an amazing platform and some very cool developers and hackers exist out there because of it's open-ness.
I'm not a Nokia fanboy. I'm an open source fanboy. I'm a Linux fanboy. And if the iPhone was as open as Maemo, I'd like it too. But we all know that won't happen. So. Nokia it is.
You must also be rich.
Maybe he's just smart with his money and saves it.
@Apoc Any early impressions?
No, no, no !!!! I just got back from Nokia Store in NYC. They said they don't have N900 ready to sale yet. And you know what? The only one in their store (for demo) was broken by somebody. Disappointed !!!!
Nice features, but this looks the Touch Pro 2 look anorexic.
It's nearly two Pixi's.
Forking out 7 bills...? Selling my iPhone 3gs will do...!
Story from last weekend: We saw a hot announcement for a show in a club - wanted to check out the club pages. I had the iPhone w/3G data plan. Didn't work, because the site used flash. My friend had a Nokia with a flash player, but no Internet data. And a third member had a Nokia with flash, but he drained his 64 euros on his prepaid in 2 minutes trying to download the main page. I just wished my phone could've done flash. How hard can that be?
Another point: 3G reception. And this is probably why I will ditch my iPhone (as lovely as it is). Almost all the Nokias, LGs, Sony Ericssons etc I've seen have 3G in these remote areas and my frigging 3G iPhone has no clue of it and trudges on with crappy GPRS. Unacceptable...
I've played with the N900 pre production version and the touch screen didn't feel any worse than my iPhone. Really responsive. Just today I used some LG phone and that one was really crappy to use compared to the iPhone or N900.
Where can I find the list of local stores to check this thing out?
Costco will have soon. They currently carry all other touchscreen Nokias.
I think by thanksgiving or Christmas, costco will have N900.
Still confuses me as to why they don't put these on contract. I'm not gonna spend upwards of $300, let alone $500 or even $650 on a phone. It's just not gonna happen. But subsidize the price with a $350 termination fee, a locked in 2 year contract, and a $30 a month data plan (which I'd all be paying for anyway), and I'd easily fork over $200 for some of these Linux phones Nokia brings out on Symbian (and now Maemo).
Side note: I'm on Verizon, so it's not like I could get any of these unlocked GSM phones anyway.
Why, why cant you pay the device when you buy it. That's what I don't get. Why not pay the hole device so it is your own, not a phone company's device for 2 year.
I don't get it so please tell me. Cant you just save up a little bit money for something. I just wonder, what happens if you lose your job, and don't have enough money to pay the bills. That's what I don't get, why take so big risks in everything.
It is different cultures I get but it is an idiotic way of living to always take risk. 70$ or 90$ per month maybe don't sound as a lot but it is a lot if you got many of them.
Just some thoughts, nothing more.
It's not offered through a carrier YET.
Just a few years ago, people in the US would say that same thing you did about a $200 phone. Then the RAZR came along.
Then fruitDevice came along.
Things change.
And if it's just a matter of paying now or later, so be it. However, you often have situations where a carrier requires not only the purchase of a data plan for a subsidized device, but a voice plan of a certain rate (or higher priced, device-specific data plans). If a carrier requires you to get a $59 plan to get the "reduced" price for a phone instead of a $39 plan on a two year contract, that's $480 more than what you needed (if the $39 was enough). $480 is often enough to cover the cost of an unlocked smartphone.
If you have no problem paying almost $500 extra dollars over the course of the contract, go for it. If you were going to get the higher plan anyway, go for it.
Personally, I believe the US has been conditioned to payments to it detriment.
(thus, why the US will be making payments to China for some time now)
Well if you switch to Tmobile, and buy this unlocked phone along with their new unlimited no contract plans, then at the end of the 2 yrs, you will save more than with contract, plus you will get unlimited minutes/data and also no ETF. Just compare the rates and do maths.
@Iceen
If I bought the Droid from Verizon, the upfront cost is $200. I'm then paying $90 a month (that's 900 minutes, unlimited messaging, and unlimited data, which is what I currently have now), plus taxes and be locked into a contract for 2 years. If I decided to drop the plan, *which I wont*, then it's gonna cost me between $350 and $120 to do so.
If I bought this phone, which isn't even as good as the Droid, and put it on AT&T, I'd be spending a whopping $650. Regardless, I'm still gonna be paying that $90 a month (since their prices are the same), though I'm doing it without a contract. This however, is irrelevant since I wont be dropping Verizon before my contract would be up, so there's no benefit to that. At the end of the day, I'm spending an extra $450 for no reason.
Please, do correct me if I'm stating something wrong here. Unless the plans are cheaper or something with unlocked phones, though I've never heard that to be the case, there is absolutely no benefit to spending three times as much on an unlocked phone.
As an aside, the $350 to $120 I'd be spending on an ETF is *still* significantly less then the price difference between comparable locked and unlocked cell phones. The HTC Hero on Sprint is $180, while an unlocked GSM HTC Hero is $560. Even if I lost my job or something, it'd still be cheaper then buying an unlocked phone.
why would you need a facebook app if there is a full web browser support?
btw theres facebook app on http://maemo.nokia.com/maemo-select/applications/facebook-for-nokia/
Admit it guys.
You can praise Nokia, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing that you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things!
-- John Appleseed
Mine's been on preorder from Amazon since September 19th. The way I remedied the $$$ issue was to sell some of my unused gadgets... N810, got soem gift certs, and now I even got the $50.00 Nokia rebate to look into so my final cost will be $70.00.
Go gadgets..
Has anyone had one of these ship yet? These press releases are confusing the heck out of me. Usually when you announce a release, the phone becomes available THEN, not days/weeks later. Anyways.....
if its out why dont any of the stores have it? not even the flagship stores. lame
Can't wait for mine to arrive! Early X-mas gift to myself.
I wish there were versions of the N900 with a bit less storage because honestly, I don't see myself needing the 32 gigs on this thing since I'll only be using my Cowon S9 for music and videos. An 8GB version would probably bring down the price by at least $200, which would make me get this sexy device in a heartbeat.
Where is the $510 Amazon deal? I found the $559 one with the mail in rebate.
If this worked with AT&T 3g bands I would buy one of these ASAP!
This is Nokia's greatest effort after a long time... great phone... solid OS... always love Nokia!!!
Hard to believe that there is still a final step(release) for the Maemo. Can't wait for that!
All you fanboys... this is just the beginning!!! Nokia is in TOWN!
I just spent $500 for my HTC Touch Pro last December, so I don't think I'll splurge that much money on another phone any time soon.
A capacitive touchscreen, a decent media player (not sure about the second one, waiting for a review) and I am all over it.
@Webber Just read other articles and comments, maybe a resistive screen is a better choice... I mean, we don't have to deal with a virtual keyboard, it's sensitive, the interface is well designed, and you get to use a stylus when you need it! Now, all I need to hear is "good media player" and this is my next phone.
@Dogcowsaysmoof Just read other articles and comments, maybe a resistive screen is a better choice... I mean, we don't have to deal with a virtual keyboard, it's sensitive, the interface is well designed, and you get to use a stylus when you need it! Now, all I need to hear is "good media player" and this is my next phone.
@Webber Damn the Engadget comment system...