Nokia N800

Cellphones have come a long way and so has Nokia. From being a paper factory to the biggest phone maker, Nokia is widening its products.

In one way Nokia is making a big mistake as people like convergence and Nokia is separating everything in this Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. By being a dedicated Internet Tablet it should be compatible with every type of Internet connectivity available, but it isn’t, it does not have GSM or UMTS. Unlike its rivals in the UMPC world like Flybook, Nokia has got experience in mobile connectivity but didn’t apply it. Other basic aspect of this Internet Tablet that I can point out in this beginning is that there are no business applications, such as our basic Word Processor or Spreadsheet.

But like its predecessor 770, this device for a beautiful screen size and resolution, and the hardware is improved.

The N800 is powered by a TI OMAP 2420 processor boasting 320 MHz of clockspeed, more than the 770 which has only 266 MHz. This device also carries a satisfying 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash memory, double of the 770.

A touchscreen is used to control the tablet, and two memory card slots, one MMC and one SD are used to provide extra storage. Besides that, it still got a camera that pops out, a built-in stand and a 3.5mm jack for headset and microphone.

The availability and the price aren’t very comfortable. I haven’t seen one in South Africa yet beside this one that Wom World sent me for a review, and the price is too much to ask for such a basic device.

First I saw this huge 4.1” touchscreen with keys on its left side and on top. It was very slim and light for its size. The dimensions are 75x144x13mm and it weighs 206g.

There is a joypad with 5-way navigation and a blue LED flashing only when the device is locked or when the battery is low. Below that there is a set of three keys: return, menu, and home keys. This keypad is not well built at all because it moves, it does not fit the housing properly.

If you look at the N800, you will see many speaker holes, which make you think that it is extremely loud. But you shouldn’t judge Nokias by their outwards appearance.

On the middle there is this huge widescreen boasting 800x480 resolution and strong colours, but there is too much glare and reflection, it can get hectic to watch a movie with your friends in a bus ride, as you will constantly need to tilt and turn the device.

On the right side there is a slot for the stylus, a 3.5mm jack with 3 channels, an N-Series charger pin, and if you lift up the stand, there is a miniUSB port. This isn’t convenient as I sometimes like to leave my phones lying down during data transfer, and this feature does not let me do that.

On the left side there is a camera that is hidden and you need to push inside so that the spring mechanism releases it and activates GTalk, it can rotate but it’s only for video calls so it’s a VGA.

On the top, from left to right, there is a zoom out, fullscreen, zoom in button sets, and then there is an ON/OFF button. On the middle there is a high-sensitive microphone for VoIP. Under the N800 there is SD/miniSD/microSD slot that has a sensor when you open the slot, it deactivates the card. If you put the provided miniSD, its fine, but with your own microSD with adaptor, it’s almost impossible to remove it, in fact, it kept mine inside and I cannot remove it.

The stand is a good addition to the tablet, there are two positions, on one you can watch a movie as it sits perpendicular to the surface, on the other you can put it on your desk and work with it as it’s at an angle.

The back cover doesn’t fit the housing and it moves like the keypad. Underneath the cover there is a BP-5L 1500mAH battery that does satisfy the needs of most people. Average standby time is 110 hours, and use time is around 6 hours, tested by me. There is also a MMC slot and a cover sensor, that tells the device if the back cover is open or not.

The Nokia N800 runs off Linux Maemo Internet Tablet OS 2007. Not a dynamic Operating System at all. First of all, a bad choice from Nokia, as they should stick to Symbian, they are good at it, and people like it. I do not blame Nokia, they wanted to change, but there only problem is that they did not do it properly. It’s not their first Internet Tablet, I never saw the 770, but if it was like this, they didn’t learn much out of it. Clearly this device is intended to people who want to try something new.

There is an awesome finger recognition system, the device detects if you tap with the stylus or with the finger. If you tap with the finger, larger icons appear and a fullscreen keyboard appears, where you can use both hands to tap letters, and it is really cool because instead of hearing the keys click, you hear the virtual sound. With the stylus, a small keyboard appears where you can use either keys or handwriting recognition. Strange thing, there is no security codes or PIN.

The UI is very neat but complicated for beginners. Imagine your Windows Desktop with absolutely nothing, only your Start button and System Tray. There is a set of icons in the left, a small taskbar on top, and the rest of desktop is customizable with plugins such as Google Search and Clock. The icons have whatsoever no labels, so you have to guess what they are for, and that’s irritating for beginners.

There is world icon which has a set of web options and bookmarks, the second icon is practically dedicated to Google Talk but also has email options. Finally the third icon has something like your Start > All programs menu.

In that Programs Icon, you find Media Player, RSS Feed Reader, Images, File Manager, and Skype. Beneath that, there are a set of Folders:

• Web – has Web itself and Bookmarks.
• Contact – Contacts, e-mail (POP3 and IMAP4), Internet Call (VoIP), and IM (Google Talk).
• Utilities – Calculator, Clock, Notes, PDF Reader, Sketch.
• Games – Chess, Blocks, Mahjong, Marbles.
• Tools – Application Manager, Backup/Restore, Control Panel, Connection Manager, Teach Handwriting.
• Extras – Maemo Pad, Camera, Media Streamer, Rdesktop.
• Connection – EarthLink.
• Search.
• Help.

The Media Player was disappointing on the audio side, it does support most formats: M3U and PLS playlists, partially on ASX, WAX, WVX and WPL. Supports AAC, AMR, AWB, M4A, MP2, MP3, RA, WAV, WMA. It streams AAC, AMR, AWB, M4A, MP3, MP2, RA, and WAV. On the video side it supports AVI, 3GP MP4, MPE, MPEG, MPG, EM, RMVB and RV. This all seems very good until you deal with it. There is no equalizer, there is no visualization. SRS is not present and the earphones have no bass feeling. The player interacts positively with MP3s but blanks out on AAC, it does not show time or seek bar, it just plays the track.

The video player is simply great, files in DivX are played in their full resolution and perfect colour, just make sure you do not play movies while the sun is out, the glare is terrible.

For beginners the video player will not make a difference as there is no tool to convert videos, there is no CD such as Nokia PC Suite. Most people do not have time to look for a suitable N800 converter, as most of them did not even work properly according to my tests.

You can minimize the music player while browsing the internet. Other basic features of the player are shuffle and repeat. Another bad thing is that while playing music, it goes to screensaver mode so we cannot pause or use other controls.

These entire Contacts feature is more like a Google Talk package.

I see Nokia joining Microsoft’s Windows Live for Symbian OS but here it joins Google? Perhaps Microsoft wanted them to use Windows OS on the N800…

You can see all contacts and sort them by initials or you can group them. The chat feature is slow to start and the video feature is totally useless because Google Talk does not support video chat. You can also block contacts and merge them. Importing and exporting is also possible and it supports Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Gmail, vCard, and Nokia phones. You can set presence to On, Away, Busy and define if you want GTalk to login when the N800 establishes a connection.

The email client is detailed, lets you create unlimited accounts and has a detailed wizard for that purpose, even though Gmail was difficult to setup and Google did not mention N800 on their help pages. As any basic email client, you can retrieve attachments, save sent emails, save drafts, and have an outbox. It is possible to save signatures, but no HTML or images on them. There is also an option to search messages.

The email client tries to sync email when you access the program even if there is no connection. To send emails is very fast and contains basic word editing features such as changing fonts.

Internet Calling is close to perfect in both GTalk and Skype, but mostly on Skype as Google Talk always has errors on it.

Skype is a good add-on to the device, it tells you the balance available and it even lets you buy credit. It’s loaded with features except video call. You can setup sounds like the computer version, leave Skype on the background, receive calls from non-internet numbers, establish voicemail and even call forwarding. It is fast logging in, can save your password or even create an account if you do not own one.

The PDF reader is complete with zoom options, fullscreen, and with document sending options, you can choose if you want to open images or not and even save the page as another name.

The Notes application is a simple word processor with font chooser, bullets and few other options, you can also search for words in the text. The file is not saved as a .doc.

If you are bored or feeling creative, you can always draw pictures or customize the ones you have with different brush thickness and custom colours. The program reminds you to save before quitting.

All games are built in 3D but there are no advanced games such as car racing, where the processor could help getting some quality across.

A very well built Chess game is present with tips and levels. There is a Blocks game that plays in portrait mode. Mahjong is also interactive and with clues. Lastly there is Marbles, where you can get to do a combination of marbles in a labyrinth which I find very complicated.

The Application Manager is not only about uninstalling applications, it lets you browse installable applications, there are 100s of them which can bring some usability on the device. As I am writing this, I notice video centres, and Ogg Vorbis codecs to install on the phone, but no simulation games, only puzzles.

The Control Panel has pretty much everything needed to manage the N800, it is possible to pair with a Bluetooth Keyboard, set the MMC to act as RAM, define connection method as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and even train handwriting recognition.

The Extras it was me who pretty much installed them, there is Camera, to take photos with the poor camera quality and resolution. Media Streamer does its job pretty well, and same about Internet Radio, although they are soft in volume, and there is Maemo Mapper that is brilliant but slow GPS guiding application, works with external GPS but does not come with preloaded maps, but lets you stream maps from various sources such as Google Earth.

If after all this you think the software can be dynamic, think again as no other OS is compatible with this, and it lacks on what any businessman would need in such a device, Office applications.

For this device to achieve its main goal it needs powerful communication skills, and it does. It has the best Wi-Fi antenna I have tried, it detects wireless networks that not even my notebook or my N95 can. It can be set to 100mW or 10mW and it supports all security protocols in 802.11b/g networks.

There is also a Bluetooth connection for the device to connect via a phone and use Data Cal or Packet Access. You can use the N800 to explore devices that support OBEX file transfer, but you cannot browse the N800 via OBEX, only use it for Object Push.

The only way for a computer to browse the two memory cards in the n800 is mass storage mode. There is no TV-out either, but the high-resolution screen is enough for everything, but a docking station would have been useful.

The sound is just terrible, there are stereo speakers but they are light-years away from loudness, in music or movies. Thankfully there is a 3.5mm jack and stereo earphones are supplied, or else it would be useless to have a media player. With two memory card ports you could have around 10GB of space, if you can afford it, perhaps and internal hard drive would have been useful. For basic sounds like browsing the internet, the speakers are enough but VoIP sounds too soft in the Tablet, a real waste of potential.

Now for the main part of the device, the Internet, or Web as Nokia calls it. Obviously multipage browsing is supported which makes browsing easier and faster. Fullscreen browsing is the best part with the lovely touchscreen. Media Streaming is fast and high quality so it depends on the server for the speed provided. Javascript is supported as well so no internet content is missed. On the security side, SSL2 is possible, but there is no parental lock. You can manage bookmarks like a proper browser or email webpages. There is even an option to set the current page as home. Zooming helps navigation, but what really makes it fun is thumb dragging like the iPhone.

The History is divided in dates, and plug-ins can be installed such as Shockwave Flash. I have no complaints about the browser, its simply wonderful.

There isnt much else to talk about, the N800 really made news in my community as they don’t sell them in South Africa, but now its time to give it back to Wom World. I believe that with time the OS will improve and new applications will come up. Im really looking for an upgrade with a keyboard in the box, a high-end game, and most importantly, other application. (I know much of this is coming…soon).

Please don’t hesitate in asking questions: only.meraj@merajnet.com

Advantages: Excellent web browser, powerful Wi-Fi antenna, 2 memory card slots, 3.5mm jack, high resolution, VoIP, DivX player.

Disadvantages: No keyboard, very soft speakers, no hard drive, low spec camera, non-dynamic OS, no video converter, no Office applications.

Rating: 7.4/10