Archive for 2007

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet review

Well, with Matt being as busy as usual, he asked me if I could do a review of the new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. Officially released in January this year as an upgrade to the original n770 Internet tablet, this nifty little gadget is, in reality, a Linux workstation running an Opera browser. The Linux OS (Internet Tablet 2007) is based on Open Source software developed primarily by the Nokia sponsored Maemo project (see http://maemo.org/) It is important to note, that applications compiled for the previous tablet will not work on the N800 (Internet Tablet 2006 OS) but a quick search across the web shows many utilities and applications are being ported to this latest version.

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

Whilst keeping a similar form factor to the original n770m, Nokia have added a number of new features to this latest incarnation. A neat pop out web cam, additional processor power and more options for memory expansion have seem a greater interest in this latest tablet.

I opened the N800 box for the first time and was confused for a moment as I thought Matt had sent me a silver PSP to play with. On closer inspection, the N800 is quite a bit smaller than a PSP (2.9×5.7×0.5 inches; 7.2 ounces) and certainly built more solidly. I’m not sure Matt would have appreciated me trying the bounce test so a little bit of casual flexing of the case when no one was looking caused no ill effects apart from a slight creaking noise! (see Matt’s Unboxing Video here)

The N800 has a fantastic widescreen display hosting a full 65,000 colour display and a resolution of 800×480 as well as being a touchscreen to facilitate control and usage of the device.

To the left of the screen are the main controls of the unit – A four way pointer control with a centralised enter button and below this you will find an escape key, a menu button and key that allows you to swap between running applications. These buttons are a little on the small size and rather cramped and may require careful use.

Nokia N800 Navigation Buttons

Looking at the top of the unit you will find additional buttons for zooming in and out, power and full screen modes. These buttons are exceptionally small but do offer a very quick way to perform these functions. Watch out for the power button though!

Nokia N800 Top Buttons

The main connections to the unit are down the right hand edge of the n800. Here you will find the headphone jack (fortunately a standard 3.5mm and standard headphones do work fine), Dedicated power connector (The N800 does not have support for charging from USB) and lifting the stand displays the said USB 2.0 socket just for PC Connectivity.

Nokia N800 sockets

Expansion slots for two SD cards are supplied the device officially supports up to 2GB SD cards (many users have successfully utilised 4GB cards but larger than this requires a kernel modification), the first is located to the bottom of the case and the second under the back cover. The second card slot certainly appears to be an afterthought and retrieving cards is made slightly more difficult as they are not spring loaded.

Nokia N800 internal SDcard socket

Move to the right hand side of the unit and press in the small circle and out pops a surprisingly good web cam device.

Nokia N800 camera

Now, this unit is designed as a “go anywhere” web browsing device, but you will not find a slot to install a SIM card. The only way to access the Internet is to use the inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity or pair the device with a web enabled phone using the inbuilt Bluetooth technology. Remember… This is an intenet tablet, and unless using VoIP or googletalk connectivity, cannot be used as a phone! Having said that, the unit had no problem connecting to a variety of Wi-Fi access points and via a paired mobile data connection.

On powering up the unit, the Linux OS is loaded from inbuilt flash memory and Opera 8 is displayed as the main browser. Support is made available for Java and Flash plugins so many web sites showing video are instantly available. Google Search, Google Talk and Google News are all standard applications obviously demonstrating a full shift away from Microsoft and deeper into the realms of Open Source. For those addicted to their RSS feeds a full RSS Reader is also included.

The N800 may not suit your average business user though as the only mail application support as standard is for POP3 and IMAP mailboxes which tend to be used for personal e-mail. If you are planning to do lots of typing or instant messaging, the on screen touch keyboard performs well overall and is clearly laid out. Options are available for Bluetooth Wireless Keyboards but these are limited to a handful of tested units at this time.

A simplistic contact manager is available but no real synchronisation from a PC is included. Being an Open Source device does give access to a number of PIM Mangers though that could be installed.

Viewing PDF Documents is standard, but for those who may want to view office documents you will need to download Open Source viewers.

The inbuilt Media Player has good support for a variety of formats: AAC, MP3, WAV, AMR, RealAudio, AVI, 3GP, MPEG-4 etc. But again, with the Open Source vs Microsoft mentality there is no support for WMV or WMA files. With an expected battery life of only 3 Hours continuous use it’s not really a multimedia device for travellers but the sound quality and picture quality is still very good. Plug in a set of decent headphones and you are nearly on par with the iPod.

Nokia have really set this device out as a “go anywhere” internet browser and this is where the device excels. The large 800×480 screen resolution allows most web pages to be viewed with the least amount of scrolling and all but the smallest text is readable. The simple although small zoom controls on the top of the unit soon resolve this problem though.

The touchscreen works well and seems to remain accurate, even over a period of time. The supplied stylus of triangular plastic does leave a little to the imagination and lacks the quality and solidity of the main unit.

Nokia N800 stylus

Scrolling and navigation is fast and effective and pages certainly load quickly. I tried using SSL Certificates to our mail servers and these installed without any issue.
So – Overall a fast, responsive Internet Tablet that will provide a great deal of scope, especially for Open Source developers (I have read that someone has already turned the device into a IP PBX Phone System….)

From a personal perspective, my only concern in the real world is where and when I would use this. Having pushmail to my smartphone and laptop/datacard for browsing answers pretty much everything I need – If the Internet Tablet at least offered GPRS/EDGE or 3G connectivity as standard you would not need to find a hotspot and I think it would attract a greater army of fans. It is though a cracking little device and certainly shows the start of a new way of thinking away from the great conglomerates…

Nokia N800 Specification:

Review by: John

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Windows Mobile blog, Nokia N800, Internet Tablet, eXpansys,Tracy & Matt]