Nokia N800 Internet Tablet review

We saw Nokia's first Internet Tablet, the N770, a little under a year ago, and the simple yet effective premise remains the same. The N800 runs a Linux-based OS, controlled primarily through the 4.1in 800 x 480 touchscreen. It ships with a media player, internet browser and RSS reader. You also get a POP3 email client, plus a VoIP client compatible with Google Talk and Jabber. There's an integrated webcam - push it in to release and it pops out of the left-hand side. The N800 connects to the internet via 802.11b/g or to your mobile phone via Bluetooth, but can't connect directly to a cellular or 3G-based network.

There are some beautiful touches in the GUI: select a textbox with the stylus and you get a tiny onscreen keyboard; poke the same textbox with a finger and you get a full-screen keyboard fit to enter text into with your digits. The buttons for activating a program menu or closing an application are stylus-sized, though, so to close a browser window you have to either fish the stylus out from the back of the N800 or employ a fingernail.

You can stream media to the N800 from any UPnP server but, despite the 330MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM, we found that playing back music restricted the responsiveness of our browser windows. We also found it next to impossible to play back video files. If the idea of watching streamed video from the comfort of the sofa appeals, you face the multihour spectre of re-encoding all your files. Internal storage is also minimal - 256MB of flash memory is enough for about four CDs' worth of music; on the plus side, you can upgrade by adding cheap SD cards to either the internal or external slots.

The N800 is unique, particularly given the open-source nature of its OS. But the times that we found it practical were few and far between - most websites just aren't made to be navigated around using a stylus, much less a finger. Plus, the inability to get online away from 802.11b/g coverage is a real drawback. As proof-of-concept, the N800 is an interesting gadget, but at over £300 including VAT it's too expensive to recommend.

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Author: Dave Stevenson