However good things come to an end and now I’m back in the UK and using the internet over the phone I really need a full keyboard and a bigger screen.

Most of my friends fell for the iPhone and swear by it, but there are somethings that make it a no go for me:

1. No multitasking 3rd party apps (seriously, what the hell?)
2. Lame bluetooth support
3. Apple control over the apps you can use
4. No physical keyboard

Now the most obvious upgrade path for me was a Nokia N97 and until a month or so ago that was what I was going to buy. Then I started to read more and more about the Nokia N900.

Firstly the hardware looks great, ok it’s not the smallest phone in the world but I’m going to be using it as an internet device way more than I’ll be holding it to my ear. The software is the interesting part. Rather than using Symbian S60 like Nokia’s other smartphones it uses Maemo. Maemo is a linux distribution for mobile devices that’s been in development for a while but is now starting to mature. Videos of it in action on the N900 are really quite impressive and it seems to handle multitasking very well indeed.

The main problem is the apps. There is a fairly large library of apps from previous version of Maemo, some which were originally desktop linux apps that have been modified for the mobile device. The trouble is I’m quite attached to a number of the Symbian apps that I’ve been running on my N95 for the last two years. Some are written by Nokia so may get ported across, others like Shozu are less likely. It makes it a tough decision, but the fact that the Maemo OS is very open really is swinging it at the moment. Having a fully accessible linux device in the palm of my hand is very attractive to the geek in me.

I hope to get my hands on a N900 as soon as possible, even cheating my way into an N900 meetup in London soon. I just hope that it lives up to everything I’ve read and seen so far.