Nokia’s Internet Tablet Need Not Be a Lobster

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Battery life is dreadful considering that the N800 Internet Tablet is a device you are supposed to carry around with you. Running music continuously from a flash memory card with the screen forced on got me five and a quarter hours of music. I wouldn’t want to carry the N800 around with me and rely on it as a Wi-Fi device for more than a couple of hours.

The N800 Internet Tablet costs £280. That’s a lot of money for a gadget that needs to be in Wi-Fi range to be at its best. And it runs a bit slow at times, most notably for me this occurred when rendering PDF documents for reading. I am not likely to be patient enough to wait a couple of seconds for each individual page to zoom in so I can read it properly.

There isn’t a lot of third party software available. As a Linux OS based machine you can’t slap on third party software a go-go as you can with, say, Symbian S60 based mobile phones, or, indeed, Java supporting devices.

On the other hand there is plenty to like. Linux will be a big draw to fans of well, Linux, for a start. And the device multi-tasks well. You can have lots of the applications opened and switch between them using hardware buttons or screen taps. It is very convenient, very easy.

Then there is the fact that as a mini web tablet the device is superb. Its 800 x 480 pixel screen is a whole lot more useful for web browsing than any PDA I’ve used. And the fact that the screen is touch sensitive adds another plus.

The general design is a lot better than that of the N770 too with less of the plasticy feel and more of the ‘serious piece of kit’ about it. A stand flips out when you want to prop the N800 up on a desk, which is a nice touch, and there are two slots for flash memory both of which are SD card sized so you can use many different card formats with an SD card adaptor.

Overall, the N800 Internet Tablet rates quite high on my 'comfortcomputingometer', though it can’t beat Fujitsu Siemens' LifeBook P1510, which is in poll position and which I’ve been using for a while now. It hits the spot like no other.

Even though the N800 is a fine web tablet, I think Nokia is missing a trick by having it at its current size, hampering its capabilities by failing to provide some applications and diminishing its potential by insisting it has to be used within Wi-Fi range to be at its best.

Come on, Nokia, make the next device in this range A5 in size, slap in an OS with plenty of third party software support, and give me access to a proper keyboard – as an add on if you like, but make it one I can touch-type on. Do that for the £300 mark and you just might beat Microsoft at the Ultra Mobile PC game and wrest me away from my Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook P1510.

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