Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

(Review) - Nokia’s latest device, the N800 Internet Tablet, is unique, to say the least. It’s not a smartphone, yet it can send and receive e-mail messages; it’s not a phone, yet it can make phone calls; it’s not a portable multimedia player; yet it can playback audio/video files; and it’s not a notebook, yet it can browser the web. Are you confused yet? Alright, let’s see if we can define the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. The N800 does a lot of things, but it can’t be placed in any one of the multitude of portable categories. Nope, it’s in a category all by itself.

As the name suggests, the N800 is an Internet Tablet with a primary function to browser the web. Everything else is value-adds. With that said, it’s a spiffy little device that’s going to make you go wow at the future of portability and technology.

The N800 Internet Tablet sports a gorgeous and highly professional color scheme of silver (front) and matte black (back). The device is minimal in appearance with a 4-way navigational key with an OK button followed by Escape, Menu and Swap keys on the front. Although the navigational keys were fine, the three buttons were somewhat cumbersome, since they are embedded into the device, i.e., there’s a lack of tactile feedback on the buttons. However, we suspect you will get used to them after a while. The top edge of the N800 has the zoom in, out, full display mode and power buttons. Again, they, too, are tiny, but you should also get used to them as well. While we usually take off points for tactile-less buttons in our mobile reviews, we are letting Nokia slide. The reason for that is simple: cell phones have a lot of buttons, and the layout isn’t as easy to memorize. With the N800, however, there are very few buttons on the exterior, and it’s very easy to get the hang of them.

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On the left spine, the N800 has an embedded webcam for video conferencing. It’s an impressive design. The webcam can be inserted back into the device with a simple push to its edge. Not to mention, it can rotate 180-degrees for covering a lot of angles. The quality of the webcam was less than spectacular, and it’s just enough to get you connected into an important meeting on the fly. We wouldn’t use it as a replacement to a dedicated webcam with image enhancement technology and a 1.3-megapixel lens. The right spine has the stylus insert, a 3.5mm headset jack and a charger connector.

We should also mention the amazing looking display with support for 65,536 colors and an 800x480 resolution. The stylus we mentioned above can be used to navigate through the device and key-in URLs and other text. There’s also a full screen keyboard for touch tying incase you want to use your fingers for text input. Personally, if you are going to use the N800 for long hours, we would highly recommend getting a wireless Bluetooth keyboard. It’s going to make things so much simpler. Handwriting recognition is available as well, but we would recommend you stay away from it. It requires you to adapt a new style and is unreliable in a lot of situations. That’s the "fault" of the technology, not necessarily in Nokia’s implementation.

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