More thoughts on my new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Youtube videos play at a brutal 1 or 2 frames per second. Yuck. What’s interesting, though, is that you get only occasional hiccups in the audio tracks. That means that videoblogs published to youtube may still be audible, even though you won’t want to watch them.
UPDATE 2: You can now create a Swap File for Virtual Memory as large as 128 MB. I think the 770 limit was 64MB.
Another Update: The list of running tasks along the left hand side no longer seems to re-order itself to put the currently running app at the top. This is a welcome change. Further, when you have multiple instances of the same app running, they become sub menus of the task list. NICE!
Update++: The built in stand is without question the biggest improvement. It has two positions and has a very very satisfying stickiness at each of its resting positions.
I wonder if the blue glow around the dpad is controllable by software….
Update += 5: The opera.ini file on the n800 is mostly identical to the version on the 770. However, all the cache settings are much higher on the n800.
– Though the SD slots were originally thought to be Mini SD, they are both full size SD. I’m sure the reason people thought otherwise was because the 800 comes with a MniiSD card and an SD adapter. This is no doubt to help make the 800 more compatible with phones.
– The external SD slot and the miniUSB port are covered by the built in stand. To access either of these areas, you need to open the stand.
– Both the internal and external ports work fine with 2GB SD cards.
– At first, I hated the fact that the N800 shipped with a cloth case rather than the sturdy slide case that came with my Nokia 770. NOW, though, I’m starting to get comfortable with the idea. Since I sometimes carry a digital camera in the same pocket as my Internet Tablet, the soft case helps protect both devices.
– As far as I can tell, the only application that uses the built in webcam is the video-conferencing app. I see no way to record video or photographs with the webcam. My phone camera is much more powerful than this webcam, but it still seems like an odd omission.
– On the Nokia 770, the button to tell the current application to go full screen is on the far left of the top edge of the device. On the N800, they moved it between the + and – zoom buttons. It makes zooming and full-screening tasks that require more consideration. Maybe my muscle-memory will adjust, but for now it feels really wierd.
– The About screen says that the OS is Internet Tablet OS 2007 edition (version 1.2006.47-20). The most recent upgrade for the 770 was 2006 edition, so that makes sense. The application manager calls the current rev “bora”. “scirocco” is Internet Tablet OS 2006’s framework. The other available distros “sardine” and “herring” are supposedly more advanced than “bora”.
– The theme on the 800 is pretty cool. I don’t know if it would work on the 770, but it seems to me to have all the same areas, etc.
– Google Reader is still unusable on the 800.
– The loudest setting on the 800 is much louder than the 770.
19 responses to “More thoughts on my new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet”
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- - January 11, 2007
John Tokash 
Keep up the good work John, great that your are taking the trouble to document your thoughts and take snapshots on the N800 and in comparison to the Nokia 770. What apps do/did you use on the Nokia 770 and are looking forward to use on the N800 as they hopefully become available?
For Youtube and flash, try a long press with the stylus on the youtube flash video area. It gives the Flash context-sensitive menu, where you can set flash quality to low. That will improve the frame rate quite much. Not to anything great, but still substantially…
Can you tell us the battery life? that seems to be the only critical thing we don’t know.
To answer your question about blue light around the dpad: you cannot control the patterns (like how it blinks during the chargin, during the standby, etc), however you can turn it off from the control panel, in the Display applet.
About webcam: you arew right, currently only the video call application uses it. However, there is an API to access the camera (not sure if it is already published on maemo site, but I am pretty sure that it will be there one day), so one can code his own app to utilize the camera.
John, many thanks – one quick question – what does the video conf. client interface with in the PC world? Does it work with skype or anything like that?
thanks
Can you try playing an AAC+ audio stream on it? http://somafm.com/ or http://www.di.fm/ ? I never had good luck getting one to play when I tested them with a 770 in the store – would be a perfect internet radio for the car if it can… Thanks for all the details!
look at this: http://maemo.org/maemowiki/CodeNames – edited today and added info about N800 🙂
tonto, thanks for the tip. I tried it out during the video I posted last night and I think it went up to closer to 3 fps.
Chris, I’ll try the AAC streams soon.
Rufus, I assume the PC portion of the video conf is Google Chat, but I could be wrong.
Alexander, thanks for the info about the light and the webcam api – are you a Nokia employee?
Battery life seems to be the same as the 770, though I haven’t been scientific about testing.
Chris, on those two radio streams: “File format not supported.”
Aaaaaahhhhhgggg! I really appreciate it…. why is that so hard for Nokia to do? I have gone through a 7710 and a N80 trying to get that to work – the open source Internet Radio app for S60 on the N80 pulls them in but does not do it in stereo. I was hoping they nailed it in this revision of the tablet. Thanks for trying though 😉
Haven’t seen any specs on the unit’s dimensions, including weight. Anyone care to throw a link my way?
Thanks for sharing all this info.
I’ll be glad if you share some details if the N800 supports USB charging (that was what keep me from buying a N770 =] ). Thanks again.
I saw some guy advising way to record from the camera here:
http://aksi.mdamt.net/node/174
But I’m not sure as I don’t have the N800 yet.
http://somafm.com/ stations are working for the following way. Start listening station – media player opens – select from menu – tools – add media – radio station. Now station is stored to the Internet radio applet.
One early report I saw about this device is that it comes with a Skype client built in. Is this in fact the case? For me, this would move the product from the category of “fun toy to play around with” to the “actually useful” category.
Yes, I’m aware that Gizmo was an available option for the 770 (and presumably for this as well?), but I’m already kind of “invested” in Skype, with a username, and SkypeOut credit, and a SkypeIn phone number. Doing the same thing all over again with Gizmo is kind of a waste of $$, and redundant.
Sorry, doesn’t charge via USB, though that would have been nice.
can it be set so that the screen never dim out?
I read pdf slowly and it always dim out before I finished
Can you please comment as to what kind of video files, which you store on an sdio card, the N800 will play back decently ? e.g. divx, H263, MP4 ( ipod compatible) etc
many thanks