Nokia N800 does what iPhone doesn't
With all that attention being given to iPhone, it is easy to overlook the fact that Nokia was one of the first to introduce an Internet tablet device, as a companion to its cell phones. They have just released a new version of their operating system, Tablet OS 2007, that has some cool new features:
* Support for Skype. (My post about how important Skype is for Nokia N800.)
* Adobe Flash browser plug-in, for watching videos on the go.
* Supports up-to 8GB memory cards.
Well those are three things Apple’s iPhone can’t do for now… amongst many other things. You can download it from here (link) and learn how to install on your PC, Linux, and Mac. Let us know how your experience goes. This is my weekend project.
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The problem is the Nokia has no cache, no intrigue, no excitement. They didn’t do any real marketing for the device to create public interest…plus there is not a Nokia clan like there is an Apple clan. The best device doesn’t always win…sometimes its the best packaged device that wins.
Amen to that. I would assume that with their experience they could do so much more with this device. anyway i think we are pretty close to the dawn of the mini-tablet age.
i think apple has changed the game, and nokia can actually leverage it to make a better business case for it.
I’m quite sure that the Nokia N800 is not powerfull enough to play videos from sites like Youtube smoothly, even with the new firmware update. The only product that supports Youtube/GoogleVideo/Dailymotion flash video in full screen is the Archos 605 WiFi which is going to be released next week.
What Nokia should really do is add HSDPA in the N800, that would make it a great always-online VOIP solution for a start, then Nokia should learn a thing or two from Archos in my opinion concerning multimedia support and build the N900 based on DSP+ARM core instead of ARM-only.
Charbax
i think you got a point there. it could be an interesting twist to the whole situation. i think more carriers might be looking for another option to compete with iPhone.
Om, once you have had a chance to play with the new firmware, please let us know, when you get a chance, how much improvement there is in playback of videos on YouTube.
Thanks in advance.
I’m wondering if the reason Nokia is not pushing the N800 more if due to conflicts of interest with the cell carriers.
What would you think if you discovered that the #1 phone maker in the world was producing an alternative to the cell phone and pushing it.
Would you still distribute their cellular products?
The thing Malik and others who write about iPhone alternatives don’t do is actually give a point for point comparison of devices. So he doesn’t mention how Flash works on the device of this size, say how much the device will cost after buying the extra features (extended memory), what the Skype experience is like, etc. I’m constantly disconcerted by this type of tech journalism – one that merely focuses on the feature list of a given device, rather than the overall package and implementation.
I guess as long as this “feature fiend-ism” continues we won’t be having any real discussions about actual product usefulness or overall user experience. But this is very important, and is why I think Apple went through the trouble of building it’s own stores. There you can get your hands on the product and “experience” what it would be like to own it. Jobs said as much himself (with regards to why they rolled out the Stores – ‘it was all leading up to iPhone’.
Lastly, as a person of Malik caliber should know, it’s not always what you put in that makes a product a winner. It’s how it works. It what separates good cooks from great chefs. In England there are countless devices with feature the length of your arm, but when you go to your carrier, guess what you get, a “Talk and Text” package – and a phone half-crippled by the network to “protect its various revenue streams”. These are things that “feature fiends” don’t take into account.
Good point, Om. I too have been looking at the Nokia N800 as an alternative to the iPhone.
The N800 is much cheaper ($400 vs. ~$2000 over two years) and does not require a two year contract for service.
Of course, the N800 only works over WiFi for data and voice, so I’d need to think that I would use the iPhone mostly for data instead of traditional voice cell phone calls and that I wouldn’t want the option of the broader coverage of the Edge cellular network (which, from reviews, appears to be too slow to be usable anyway).
I haven’t pulled the trigger yet on buying a N800. I’d be curious what you think, Om, after you have had a chance to play with it more.
Oh, one other thing. If anyone else is considering the N800, Engadget has a great round-up of reviews:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/25/nokia-n800-internet-tablet-review-roundup/
And, Ars Technica talks about games on the N800 (which is something I am interested in doing with it):
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2007/05/24/n800-gaming-overview
Looks like the game situation currently is limited to chess, go, nethack, and a few others, but that’s not too bad for starters.