The Nokia N800 internet tablet is a bit of a beast measuring 75 x 144 x 13 and weighing 206 grams but that is smaller than other attempts at the same tablet design, so I guess we should be grateful. Build quality is top notch holing the N800 for the first time you feel as is some Finnish engineer has just craved it from a quarry near the Nokianvirta river and hollowed it out to fit in a screen and WiFi. Fire up the Nokia N800 and you'll soon see the Nokia Internet tablet edition 2007 operating system (Linux) and integrated Opera 8 web browser, the two main weapons of choice for users.

To drive your N800 you will need to slide out the stylus located in the lower right-hand edge of the unit, there are some buttons on the upper edge but these are mainly used with the camera function plus powering the unit up and down. There is a nifty and sturdy kick stand which is very well designed, this enables you to put down the girth of the tablet on a desk at just the right angle to be operated.

The home screen is another triumph of Nokia design with a simple task navigator and status indicators all in one 480x800 wide screen and they manage to fit in  quick access to most commonly used features including Google search. Opening the applications is a slick and speedy affair with most screens popping open within seconds and this does not seem to be slowed by having a few applications already open and running, looks like the 330 MHz TI processor is doing its job. We played with the WiFi browsing via the opera browser, this version 8 browser is the latest in a line of mobile device savvy applications which make surfing easier you have a limited screen size. What's cool here is that the wide screen 16:9 4.13" screen makes so much sense when viewing WebPages and there is often no need to scroll standard resolution sites like the BBC News pages.

Interaction with the N800 is a joy, using the stylus is easy and we were soon surfing around the web to all our favourites sites and even had the media player running in the background (more on that later). We were impressed with some cleaver function whereby the Nokia seemed to know when we were using a finger as opposed a stylus and adjusted the size of buttons and menu options accordingly making it much easier to use with your mitts. Of course there is always the ability to use the Nav pad with 4 directional controls and central selection button but we doubt you'll use it much apart from scrolling the screen.

Memory for the rest of the applications is provided by 256mb of flash memory and a 128mb SD card (supplied as standard) however the N800 has 2 memory card slots, one buried away under the rear flap and a second which hides behind a side door. Both will take up to 2gb SD/MMC cards meaning it is possible to equip the Nokia with up to 4gb of memory. This comes in handy when you decide to investigate the media player which looks familiar to anyone who has an N series mobile.

Audio formats are well catered for with support for AAC, AMR, MP2, MP3, RA (RealAudio), WAV and WMA, plus the speakers on this tablet are possibly the best we have ever heard on a mobile phone or tablet from any manufacturer. They are both loud and punchy and we were quite happy to use the tablet with them as providers of our audio entertainment, especially when we found you could easily stream internet radio!.

The media player also handle video 3GP, AVI, H.263, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RV (Real Video) plus a range of image formats making it suitable for watching online TV or downloadable clips but the maximum 4gb memory limits any ideas you may have of watching full length movies. Connectivity is mostly via the 802.11 b/g WiFi which proved to be both easy to use and robust in holding a signal, plus there is Bluetooth 2.0 and a mini USB 2.0 jack for cabled connections.

While working with some of the PIM applications we did find inputting data a bit fiddly. Text input is always a bit of a let down with almost every form of handwriting recognition system and you'll be unsurprised to learn that the N800 is poor in this respect, we much preferred the touch screen keypad although this isn't the quickest method in the world even with T9 dictionary style suggestions.

You also get a few useable extras like an RSS reader which does a really good job of downloading your favourite feeds like our own Lordpercy.com feed! and aggregating them onto the homepage. The there is a nifty VGA camera on a pop out stalk which can be used as a webcam for IM conversations, we tested this with both Google talk and MSN both worked well and for Instant messaging the N800 is quite neat.

Over a few days of use it is strange to find how you grow to like the N800 despite its bulky size and lack of mobile phone type features and GPRS / GSM connectivity, this did mean we only used it in the office and at home but it's great to use when you just want a quick update on the news or email as opposed to booting up the laptop. Priced at around £300 it isn't a simple investment and lives in a very small niche for those who are after an extra gadget and for whom being online all the time is more of a religion than a necessity.

Battery life is very variable, on standby it is supposed to last for 12 days, quite why standby is much use is a mute point as to be of any real use you need it powered up and connected to a WiFi network, in which case you'll be lucky to get 3 hours from it. We were concerned after LP dropped it that Nokia have not provided any kind of hard carry case to protect the large screen which does look like it could be easily damaged

Nokia have done a great job of the N800 internet tablet it is built like nothing else and works flawlessly, however we just have to question who needs one? After all we are the UK's biggest gadget fans and even we are questioning just when we'd use it, at home there is the PC or laptop and Skype phones, at work you are connected and between the two there is mobile phone coverage and even models like Nokias own N80 with WiFi. What Nokia have done once again is produce a perfectly pointless piece of kit.

Published - 04/03/2007

More PDA Reviews-

[ Up ] [ Sony Clie TH55 ] [ iMate Pocket PC and Phone ] [ HP 2210 Ipaq ] [ PalmOne Zire 72 PDA ] [ Palm Zire 31 ] [ Tungsten T5 Review ] [ Acer N30 PDA ] [ Tungsten E2 Review ] [ Dell Axim X50 ] [ Fossil Abacus Review ] [ PalmOne TX Review ] [ Nokia N800 Review ] [ Dell Axim X30 ] [ Sony Clie TJ35 ] [ Dell Axim X3i PDA ] [ Lifedrive Review ] [ HP 4150 PDA ] [ Palm Tungsten E ]