Review – Nokia N810 Internet Tablet

Here is another summary of the salient information from the cnet review of the Internet tablet fron Nokia, the N810. Ok, this is strictly speaking not a smartphone, but then, worth mentioning if you are looking at a companion internet device to accompany your smartphone!

Interest? Read on..

Introduction

Though not necessarily worth the price for an upgrade, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet brings some nice additions to the mobile Web browsing device, including a full Qwerty keyboard and integrated GPS.

The latest Internet Tablet, the Nokia N810, features some nice improvements, including a full Qwerty keyboard and integrated GPS.

There’s also a more robust Web browser and improved interface, courtesy of the latest Nokia Internet Tablet 2008 operating system.

Reviewer’s Thoughts

It carries a smaller footprint than the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet at 128 by 14 by 72mm but weighs the same at 226g, which is admittedly on the heavier side. Still, it’s compact enough to slip into your bag or purse, and the sleekness combined with brushed metal finish makes it one sexy device.

It was a pleasurable experience checking out Web sites and viewing images, thanks to the sharp definition and vibrant colours.It’s readable in various lighting conditions, and there’s an ambient light sensor that will adjust the screen’s brightness depending on your environment.

You can also customise the home screen with various themes and background images, and you can conveniently drag items around the page to create a layout that suits you. To the left of the display, you’ll find the webcam, a Home screen shortcut, a back button and a status LED.

You can use the included stylus to maneuver through the menus and select items.

The touchscreen is responsive, though there was some lag but this was more of a performance issue rather than a problem with the touchscreen.

One of the biggest and most noteworthy additions to the Nokia N810 is the new slide-out Qwerty keyboard. While we love having the keyboard since it makes emailing, instant messaging and entering Web addresses easier, we did have a couple of complaints.

The individual buttons are fairly large, but there’s very little spacing between the keys, which makes it cramped. In addition, the top row is lined closely with the bottom of the front cover, so our thumbs endured a few hits. The keys are also soft to press and didn’t give us the best tactile feedback. To the left of the keyboard, there is the aforementioned navigation toggle and a menu button.The former is cramped, and if you want to press upward, you’re going to run into the same problem of hitting the bottom of the screen with your thumb.

The top of the unit has a key for minimising/maximising the screen, a zoom in and out/volume rocker, a power button, a lock switch and the stylus.

Along the right spine, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack and power connector, and there are speakers on both sides of the device.On the bottom, there’s the miniSD card expansion slot and the battery cover release.

There’s a kickstand so you can prop up the N810 on a flat surface, but we found that when we went to put it back, the kickstand would sometimes catch the edge of the expansion slot cover and pull it open.

The N810 relies on Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) technology for connectivity, or you can pair the device with your Bluetooth-enabled phone and use your mobile network. The included Nokia browser is now based on Mozilla technology with Adobe Flash 9 plug-in and Ajax support, for access to all your favorite Web 2.0 sites like Google Docs, Flickr, Facebook and so forth, plus RSS feeds.

The N810 ships with Nokia’s latest Internet Tablet 2008 operating system, based on Linux platform Maemo 4.0, and brings some of the interface improvements mentioned in the Design section. Built-in applications and utilities include a file manager, a PDF reader, a notepad, a clock, a calculator and an X Terminal client. That said, there are plenty of third-party applications out there, thanks to N810′s open platform.

There are also advanced settings so that the device automatically retrieves your messages on a regular basis, plays a sound when new messages arrive, removes messages older than a specified number of days and so on. There are instant messaging applications preloaded on the handheld, though they’re limited at this point to just Google Talk and Jabber.

Voice communication will have to come by way of VoIP calls since there’s no mobile technology built into the handheld.

Once again, Google Talk and Jabber are onboard but now you also have access to Skype and Gizmo. We made a couple of calls using our Skype account, and had no problems making or receiving calls and chats.

A completely new feature to the Nokia N810 is integrated GPS. The tablet comes with Nokia Maps for coloured maps and points of interest. However, to get any sort of driving directions, you’ll have to purchase the Wayfinder Navigator application. You get a 7-day trial of the service, but in all, it would have been nice to get this functionality as part of the package given the already expensive price tag.

The N810 now ships with Rhapsody support, so you can access the service’s music catalogue. It supports a number of music and video formats, including AAC, MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR, RealAudio, WMV, AVI, 3GP, MPEG-4 and others. If you’re looking for some fresh tunes, check out the Internet radio.

Finally, the Nokia N810 comes with an image viewer (supporting JPEG, TIFF, BMP and other formats) and four preloaded games (Chess, Blocks, Mahjong and Marbles), and you can always download more.

All in all, there’s 128MB DDR RAM and 256MB flash memory, and the miniSD slot can accept up to 8GB cards.

Web browsing on the N810 was excellent.

The original cnet review can be found at

http://www.cnet.com.au/nokia-n810-internet-tablet-339283120.htm