InformationWeek: we don’t get the Nokia N810… maybe tablets too.
To be fair, Mitch Wagner of InformationWeek only got five minutes of playtime with the Nokia N810 and he even says we should be skeptical of his first take, which is generally negative. Even before Mitch got into the guts of his first impressions, he had me scratching his head with this: "Even the name is misleading — a "tablet" should be a device the size of a notebook computer." Pardon me for asking this, but, uh… who says? The Nokia Internet Tablets are every bit a tablet, regardless of size. Let me put it a different way: if all tablets should be the size of a notebook computer, what’s the benefit of a tablet over a standard notebook computer? I’d say inking is one advantage to me, but for most folks it seems not to be. That leaves us with the portability and mobile nature of tablets, so requiring them to be the size of a notebook computer is just silly. Besides, should those tablets be 12 inches? 13 inches? An unwieldy 15.4 inches or larger?
Mitch does has some valid conceptual arguments against the N810 and other devices like it: they require you to rely on WiFi or for you to purchase and carry another device, say a phone, as your connection option. For some, that’s a reasonable and acceptable option; for others not, and that’s OK. If you only want to carry one device, the N810 isn’t likely to meet your needs and I’ll grant that, although the hard core among us could make it work. Give Mitch’s first thoughts a read (there were some valid criticisms and issues) and let me know what you think. I’m not saying the N810 is best device on the planet, but you have to keep a device’s purpose in mind when talking about it. According to the article, the N810 is "an expensive, limited-function device with no clear purpose". While I don’t think everyone should plunk down $479 for an N810, I do get the purpose. Do you? Does Mitch?
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I’m very tempted by the N810, the main thing stopping me buying it as soon as it comes out is its size. I would much prefer the exact same machine with a 7″ screen.
You have to factor the full function GPS into the $479 price. At present I would go with the $240 N800, but I can see a benefit for a GPS in the future when location based services increase.
I was going for the EeePC until I found out they are currently reducing the CPU MHz due to heat issues, so I think I wait for the N810 to come down in price, the 2nd generation EeePC with the menlow processor or the rumored 7″ Apple touch tablet.
I do get the purpose, it think. Atleast, it fits my purpose. I have a N800 and I wouldn’t trade it for a large smartphone (“Is that your gun or…?” “No, that’s my phone”). It is my ideal companion to my slick Sony Ericsson W880i. Having to browse on your mobile is to much compromise. To carry a notebook (or equaly sized tabled) for some browsing and email is just overkill. Don’t try to work on it, but have fun with it. Unless your work is having fun ;-)
>>>If you only want to carry one device, the N810 isn’t likely to meet your needs and I’ll grant that, although the hard core among us could make it work.
How is what you said any different from him saying:
“[T]he N810 looks to me like an expensive geek toy.”
Add a phone to it and what’s the difference between it and an HTC WinMob device with touchscreen?
Oh yeah: You’re likely to be able to get APPS for the WinMob one.
Die Nokia Die.
And, oh yeah:
Asus Eee = $400 for real computer
N810 = $480 for … uh, whut?!!?
800×480 screen resolution? Anyone?
I really hope that Nokia finally tossed in a decent email client, and I hope to God that I can get a good PIM into it, ideally synced to an Exchange server.
However, there’s one thing that the Nokia IT devices have sucked at: Inking. I would absolutely love if they fixed that, and for that matter, added a rear camera. It’s one of those things that makes stuff like OneNote so interesting, and the inability to rotate the camera (as you could with the N800) takes any workalike options away.
I’m very tempted by this also but I am concerned about the apps issue. There really are not that many compared to what is available for the X86 architecture. The Q1U/EL is available for $800 and although that is almost twice as much as the M810 it has a bigger screen and is much more customizeable in being able to install whatever apps you want. Which should I get?
I own an N800, and have been very happy with it. If the screen was any larger, I wouldn’t be able to slip the device into my inside coat pocket.
The included email client for the N800 is weak, but there’s an add-on client named Claws mail that works quite well. There’s also an email client named Modest, currently in development, that will replace the email client bundled with the N800 and N810.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the N800. It’s great for general Internet use; web-surfing, checking email, using Skype, and instant messenger.
One area where the N800 shines is instant-access — I tend to leave the tablet turned on and lock the screen and keys; in this mode, it lasts for several days without re-charging. I then unlock the screen and keys by pressing the power button and the center button on the thumbpad.
I did find that the battery would run down much more rapidly in this locked mode if I enabled applets which resulted in periodic network activity; in retrospect, this makes perfect sense as the tablet wouldn’t be able to “sleep” completely if applets are polling for weather conditions, new email, instant messenger contact status, etc. My battery life went back to 3 days in locked-mode after disabling these applets and quitting out of Skype before locking the device.
I pair the N800 with my AT&T Samsung Sync via Bluetooth when outside of WiFi coverage. The latency is much higher than WiFi, but overall speed is decent.
I’d give the N800 8/10. The built-in camera is a little grainy (it’s equivalent to a cheap webcam, or a cell-phone camera). The button placement for the zoom-out, full-screen, and zoom-in buttons is awkward (all three small buttons are next to each other, and difficult to distinguish by touch alone).
I’m really impressed by how many things they got right, though. The screen, while not huge, is REALLY crisp. The stylus / touchscreen control works really well. The fold out stand gives a nice grip to hold the deice with, and puts the screen at a nice angle on a desktop. The browser has Adobe Flash support and can handle almost any site, without degrading from the full experience. The firmware update that added a Mozilla Firefox based browser engine really added a lot of web site compatibility over the original Opera browser based engine.
For mobile Internet use, the N800′s raison d’etre, it’s terrific. As a PIM or mobile office document station, not so much; there’s no decent PIM apps, no MS Office document compatibility, etc. The GPE suite is available for Maemo (the framework that the N800 utilizes), but it’s fairly primitive compared to PIM suites on office-oriented devices.
GPE — http://gpe.linuxtogo.org/
i really like how the n810 has ssh and vnc clients on it. and since my college campus has wifi pretty much everywhere, i can access my computer, or server anytime i want, and i don’t have to carry around a laptop.
I cannot get gpe to work on the n810. Any ideas?