Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
I was looking for something to allow me to browse the internet and read e-mails without lugging a laptop around. However, it also had to have PDF support and have at least some other installable software. After looking through various Windows Mobile and Palm models, I couldn't find anything that did all 3 of these tasks very well. In fact, most of them had quite a small screen and had a phone built in (which I did not need). After searching around for a while, I found the N800, which seemed to do all of these things and was very hackable (runs Debian Linux). However, it was not so cheap ($420 USD/CAD as of Nov 2007) on the Nokia site! Fortunately, a local store had it for quite cheap: $250 CAD/USD
Overview
The first thing I noticed when I unboxed the N800 is how big the screen is! 4.1 inches! I was looking for something like this for a long time, but could not find anything with the same screen size and functionality (Archos 604 may match in size, but nowhere near close in terms of functionality).
The box comes with the N800, headphones, 256MB SD Card (for internal use), battery, USB cable, charger, thick cloth protector, and an extra pen. There is also a free Skypeout 3 month trial as well.
The N800 has 256mb of flash memory and 128mb of RAM. It's primary storage (for programs) is the flash memory. However, for data, 2 SDHC slots available for putting in music, video, etc. As of today, you could get it up to 16GB with 2 8GB SD cards for relatively cheap; that's quite enough, as movies encoded for the N800 use only 400mb or so.
Connectivity wise, the device supports Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g. The 802.11 support includes most authentication methods (WEP/WPA/WPA2), but does not support some enterprise extension such as EAP-TTLS/PAP; which I actually need to use in some cases. I did contact support to ask for help, and was told to call in. Range is quite good, and it detects a number of networks that both my laptop and wireless PCI adapter do not. The Bluetooth radio built into the device supports accessories such as wireless keyboards, headphones, or whatever you can throw at it. The N800 also has a mini-USB 2.0 cable connector on the side, along with a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. The headphone jack supports headphones with built in microphones, and one is provided in the package. There is also an external microphone on the top of the device. A small web camera is included as well, and can be used on Google Talk/Jabber.
Software
As I mentioned earlier, the N800 runs Linux. The interface doesn't look like the classic Gnome interface (which it uses a stripped down version of); instead, it looks like a couple of previous N series phones. The main menu for the operating system is on the side of the screen, and is always visible as the 3 primary icons: Internet, E-Mail/Communication, and Applications. There is also a taskbar area right below the main icons.
There are quite a number of default applications, for which I will not go into detail.
In terms of multimedia, the device supports the following codecs out of the box:
Audio: AAC, AMR, MP2, MP3, RA, WAV, WMA
Image: BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, SVG
Video: 3GP, AVI, H.263, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RM
Internet radio playlists: M3U, PLS
However, since it runs Linux, you can easily install mplayer via the package manager and play quite a number of others as well. In some cases, it was able to decode a backup 700mb DivX in real time! Watching movies on the 7 inch screen is quite easy on the eyes, and I see it as being quite useful on long trips. As mentioned before, you can install almost anything that runs on Linux. Some examples are: Kismet, Evince, GAIM (MSN/IRC/AIM/etc), X Terminal, SSH server, RDesktop, VNC Viewer/Server. The list goes on...there are even some programs only made for this platform (like UKMP Media Player)
The base suit for Internet and E-mail is Opera (with Flash 9 support) and a custom E-Mail program. (Note: Internet OS 2008 provides a Mozilla based browser) The web browser looks like the Opera browser you would find on many devices such as this. It is not the best browser (not compatible with some sites), but loads very fast and renders everything quite nicely. A Mozilla based engine can also be downloaded called MicroB. Overall, the browser is quite full featured, and worked on any site I went to. I was surprised that with 128mb of RAM, it was able to load forum pages with over 100 pictures of various sizes (at least 640x480). Sites with intense Flash usage may not be quite usable however, as this device does not have a graphics accelerator. This results in a locked up browser until the animation finishes. Speaking of Flash, YouTube works fine in the browser, and is not too slow either.
The E-Mail client on the other hand is a bit disappointing, as it often crashes. It supports all the needed security extension and such, but IMAP support almost always causes it to freeze and crash. I found that the solution to some of the crashes was to force it to download the whole message, and not just the header. However, this has been fixed in Internet OS 2008, and the e-mail client has improved significantly in terms of performance (no freezing and quite fast).
Functionality wise, the N800 has some issues. One good thing is that when you use your fingers instead of the stylus, the N800 automatically makes menus very big. This allows you to easily navigate to any application you want without taking out the stylus (which fits into the side of the device by the way). However, the close button on all applications and the taskbar are not usable with your fingers, unless you use your fingernails to press (fixed in OS 2008). There is also a virtual keyboard which can be set to big and normal mode. In big mode, you can easily touch type on the screen (like the iPhone). In normal mode, it also had a number pad, but you need to use the stylus. There is also a D-Pad on the left side with a center button, along with 3 buttons for Home, Menu and Back.
Battery Life
The N800 has decent battery life, and lasts about 3-4 hours when heavily used (WiFi, browser, PDF, etc). However, if you don't use it, but keep it on, it can last up to 5-10 days.
Value
For $250 you get a device which meets the needs of most people on the go. It has web browsing, multimedia, and games; making it the perfect pocket companion on the bus, plane, or a boring presentation. If you need something to take on the road to do what this device does, it is significantly cheaper than a laptop and very portable. Although one could argue that a EEE PC could do the same for close to the same price.
Conclusion
Overall, the N800 is a fun and useful gadget, but it cannot replace a computer when one is needed. In terms of using the product for reading PDFs, rendering can sometimes be quite slow and unbearable if you need to search through documents, but for leisurely reading it is just fine (somewhat fixed in OS 2008). Performance may sometimes be lacking in web browsing and other programs, but you have to keep in mind it only has a 330 MHz ARM CPU. Nokia has released Internet OS 2008 for free to N800 users, and it significantly improves the speed and functionality of this device. Unfortunately, it was out after the review was complete.
Score
Performance: 6/10 (8/10 with OS 2008)