Nokia N810 Internet Tablet Review-More Improvised

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet Review

Introduction

The N810 is the latest addition to Nokia's Internet Tablet lineup. The Linux-based mobile device offers an assortment of new features and drops some of the familiar functionality found in the previous model, the N800. The N810 also ships with Internet Tablet OS 2008 the new version of Nokia's Internet Tablet operating system which is built on Maemo 4.0. Although the N810 is the N800's chronological successor, it is not a replacement. The feature trade-offs and considerable price difference imbues each product with independent value to different segments of the mobile computing market. Nokia's new software isn't a differentiating factor, since it is now officially supported on the N800 as well as the N810. I was impressed with the device overall, but I felt that the new features don't quite justify the higher price tag.

Changes

The most significant additions to the Nokia N810 are a thumb keyboard that slides down from the device and a built-in GPS receiver. Despite the added features, the N810 is noticeably smaller than the N800 and fits better in a pocket. The bezel around the screen is slimmer on the N810 and most of the buttons have been moved off of the face of the device. The whole thing looks sleeker and more attractive. The directional pad is smaller and is placed to the left of the keyboard on the sliding panel. The menu button is right below the directional pad. The escape and home buttons are still on the front of the device, but they are on a single slim rocker button that runs along the left side. On the top of the N810, the zoom buttons are on a rocker by themselves and the full-screen button which was placed between the zoom buttons on the N800 is a slight distance to the left of the zoom rocker. The power button which is now round is at the very center, and a new sliding lock button has been added to the right of the power button.

The headphone and power adapter jacks are still on the right side of the device beneath the stylus. Like the N800, the N810 still has a stand, which blocks the USB port and memory card slot when closed. The two devices both use the same size power adapter jack, and the chargers are interchangeable. The USB port on the N810 is slightly smaller than the one on the N800. The speaker grills, which are now much smaller, have been moved from the front to the sides. The N810's external memory card slot is designed for Mini SD cards rather than standard SD cards. Additionally, it appears as though the secondary internal memory storage card cannot be replaced in the N810 as it could in the N800. It is 2GB total, and approximately 1.5GB is already consumed by maps for the GPS software. The N800 webcam extended from the side of the device and could be rotated, whereas the N810 webcam is embedded in the face. Right above the webcam on the N810 is an ambient light sensor, which the software uses to automatically adjust screen brightness and keyboard backlighting. The top left corner of the N810 has a big notification light that will flash in various colors to indicate certain kinds of events, like when new e-mail is received.

On the inside, the N810 has pretty much the same hardware as the N800. It uses the same TI OMAP 2420 processor. The N800 was clocked to 330 MHz by default, but OS2008 brings up the clock speed to 400 MHz. The increase in clock speed is controlled by the software, so N800 users who upgrade to OS2008 will get the same boost. Like the N800, the N810 still comes with 128MB of DDR RAM and 256MB of flash memory. The N810 display is slightly smaller than the display on the N800, but the difference is barely noticeable. The N800 display is 4.2", whereas the N810 display is 4.13". Both run at 800x480, which is impressive for a handheld.

Keyboard

The N810 gets a much-needed hardware keyboard, a feature that many Nokia Internet Tablet owners have clamored for since the first iteration of the device. The N810 keyboard provides 42 keys, including control, shift, and function keys and slides down from the bottom of the device. The flat, square keys are placed in a grid configuration with no space between them. The keys are completely flush with the surface of the keyboard panel. The layout is standard QWERTY, but without a number row. Most of the letter keys have an additional number or symbol that they can emit when pressed in conjunction with the keyboard's function key. The keyboard also has a control key that can be used for keyboard shortcuts. Some symbols like the pipe, square brackets, and curly braces aren't directly accessible through any of the keys. To input those characters, the user can hit the special Chr key on the keyboard, which will open a symbol selection box on the N810 touch screen.

The keys don't go down very far when they are pressed, so you don't really get the same kind of tactile feedback you would get with taller buttons. Additionally, the keys don't seem to resist pressure uniformly, which makes typing a bit awkward. Some keys will press down more easily than others and that kind of throws off the typing rhythm a little bit. Those are really all minor issues. It took me a few days of use to become comfortable with those trivial idiosyncrasies. The absence of spacing between the keys makes it very easy to fat finger your typing. I encounter this most often with keys in the middle row of letters, particularly on the left side. When I am typing quickly and I attempt to hit the "a" key, for instance, I frequently hit the "z" key by accident too. Other common accidental pairings are "sx" and "ew.' I also hit the comma by accident sometimes when I'm trying to hit the spacebar. The frequency with which I make those accidental double-letter mistakes appears to be decreasing, so it seems like the close key placement is also something that users can get used to over time.

I think that the hardware keyboard on the N810 is definitely an improvement over the onscreen thumb keyboard, but the degree of improvement is somewhat debatable. In my opinion, the most significant advantage of the hardware keyboard over the onscreen thumb keyboard is that it can be used without obscuring the screen. That particular advantage is most noticeable to me when I'm chatting in IRC or when I'm using the command line. After using the hardware keyboard on the N810 for several days, I switched back to the N800 for a few days for comparison purposes. That experiment illustrated the extent to which I have become dependent on the N810's hardware keyboard, especially when using the command line. Trying to use the command line on the N800 without the hardware keyboard seems painful. For basic web browsing text input tasks, like typing a URL or a Google search query, the hardware keyboard doesn't really provide as much of an advantage over the onscreen thumb keyboard.

The keyboard is definitely of significant value to Linux enthusiasts who frequently use ssh on the N810 to connect to a server or a desktop computer at home. The hardware keyboard will probably also be appreciated by N810 users who compose e-mail or chat on the device.

In the Box You’ll Find

The Nokia N810 comes with an extra stylus, a mini USB data cable, a Getting Started guide, the power adapter, a plastic car mount (think GPS), a set of ear buds, and a cloth for cleaning the screen. The small pouch that comes with the N810 appears to be a bit sturdier than the pouch that comes with the N800, but it still doesn't provide much protection. For my N800, I picked up a really nice leather case from Proporta that Jon Stokes recommended. Unfortunately, Proporta doesn't have a case available for the N810 quite yet.

Software

The Nokia N810 ships with OS2008, which is built on Maemo 4.0 (codenamed Chinook), a Debian-based mobile Linux distribution. Maemo 4.0 uses the Hildon 2.0 widget toolkit, which is derived from GTK. Many prominent desktop Linux applications use GTK and can be ported to the N810 with a minimum of effort.

User interface

OS2008 brings new refinement and usability to the N810 user interface. I never really liked the black and blue gradient theme that shipped as the default in OS2007. The default theme in OS2008, however, offers elegant simplicity that pleases eyes. The dark panels that run along the top and left edges are translucent, allowing the home screen background image to show through. The top-level menu icons in the left panel use bright, vibrant colors that are attractive, but not too distracting. The status icons in the notification area are now a lot more minimalistic and are mostly white. As with previous versions of the operating system, there are icons for battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, volume, brightness, and instant messaging status. The N810 also adds a new icon that indicates the status of the GPS receiver.

Nokia changed several aspects of the user interface in order to improve support for finger control. The panel menus, for instance, display all menu items in a large size that is highly conducive to finger interaction. The panel menu for applications now supports a two-column layout that improves usability. Scroll bars in certain applications, like the mail program and the media player, are now much wider to accommodate thumb scrolling.

The OS2008 home screen also functions a bit differently. In OS2007, the home screen applets were locked into position and could only be moved when the user invoked the home screen editing mode. OS2007 also didn't really allow any overlap in applet positioning. In OS2008, the screen applets can be dragged freely at any time, and can overlap. I personally found this change to be somewhat problematic. I often move desktop applets by accident when I'm trying to click them and I often click them by accident when I'm trying to move them. Applets can be toggled with the Select Applets menu item on the home screen menu. By default, OS2008 displays the clock, the Google search bar, and the Tableteer info button. Additional applets are available for Internet radio, instant messenger contacts, and RSS. The RSS display applet now automatically scrolls to display more headlines.

Software

The N810 comes with a lot of software that will already be familiar to N800 users, including a file manager, calculator, simple text editor, PDF reader, sketch pad, RSS reader, image viewer, e-mail program, and media player (which supports audio, video, and Internet radio playback). One particularly nice addition to the default collection of applications shipped on the N810 is the X Terminal, which provides a command line interface. Before OS2008, the terminal was available as a separate download but not included by default. The N810 comes with several commercial applications, including Gizmo, Skype, and Rhapsody.

OS2008 includes a new version of Nokia's web browser which now uses the open-source Engine Abstraction Layer framework and the Mozilla "MicroB" rendering engine instead of Opera 8. The new rendering engine is built with Gecko 1.9, which is the same HTML renderer used in Firefox 3. Gecko brings much better AJAX support to the N810 and is compatible with more elaborate web services like Meebo, Google Maps, and Netvibes. The new browser also has better built-in support for RSS integration. The new browser takes slightly longer to start up and isn't quite as fast in some cases, but the superior quality of the HTML rendering with the new engine more than makes up for the very minor loss in performance. The new browser also has full support for Flash 9, whereas the previous version only had support for Flash 7. I tested several kinds of Flash content and was relatively impressed with the performance. YouTube movies are watchable but still occasionally a little bit jerky.

Messaging and presence

 N810 shipped with version 1.2007.42-18 of the OS2008 firmware. That version does not support Skype. The latest version of the firmware, 1.2007.42-19, was released a few days ago. In order to install Skype, I had to upgrade my N810 to the latest version of the firmware. Unlike the latest Skype 2.0 beta for Linux, the version of Skype available for the N810 still doesn't support video chat. The messaging and presence infrastructure in OS2008 is built on Collabora's Telepathy framework. Video chat on the N810 is facilitated by Telepathy's far sight component, which is an open source implementation of the Jingle XMPP protocol. Since Far sight is still probably the only existing Jingle XMPP implementation, the N810's native video chat functionality really isn't particularly useful yet for anything other than chatting with other Nokia Internet Tablet device owners.

OS2008 still only natively supports Jabber for instant messaging. The Telepathy-based chat system integrates with OS2008's contact management and status handling systems as well as Nokia's messaging account management framework, which is called Mission Control. The level of integration is very high, and the chat software is very well implemented, but lack of support for other protocols detracts from its value. Users who require support for other protocols can install Pidgin. Although Pidgin is an excellent instant messaging program, it doesn't provide optimal integration with OS2008. Telepathy-Haze provides a bridge to Pidgin's libpurple protocol implementations, which will eventually make it possible to use other protocols with OS2008's native chat software. Collabora developer Will Thompson tells us that he plans to port Telepathy-Haze to the N810 himself as soon as he gets a device.

The e-mail program shipped with OS2008 still has performance issues with IMAP. It chokes on my inbox and hangs or crashes when it has over approximately 150 messages. At the present time, the only robust third-party alternative is Claws, which doesn't really provide a particularly tablet-friendly interface. In the future, e-mail on Nokia Internet Tablets could get a big boost from Modest, an open-source e-mail client that uses the Tiny mail framework created by Philip van Hoof. Modest is still in beta and under heavy development, but some users might be interested in testing it on the N810.

Third-party apps

Nokia's Internet Tablet products have always had a rich ecosystem of useful third-party software. Since the N810's underlying Maemo software platform makes extensive use of GNOME technologies, porting desktop Linux applications to the N810 is relatively easy. The OS2008 section of the Maemo software downloads site already has a small handful of popular applications, including the Pidgin instant messaging client, the FBReader e-book program, and the Kagu media player. The vast majority of third-party software applications available for OS2007 haven't been ported to OS2008 yet, but users can expect to see a lot more third-party software become available next month when developers begin to get the devices.

Like the N800, the N810 doesn't come with any calendaring or task management software. The absence of strong PIM support will likely deter many enterprise users. Third-party PIM software is currently under development by Opened Hand, the company behind Poky Linux and Sato. Opened Hand’s Pimlico suite, which is currently compatible with both Maemo and OpenMoko, appears to be evolving rapidly and will eventually bring robust calendar and to-do list applications to the N810. I tested Opened Hand’s calendar program called Dates on my N800 and found it to be relatively decent.

GPS

The inclusion of a built-in GPS receiver in the N810 was somewhat surprising. For previous models, Nokia sold a navigation kit, which included software developed by Navicore and an external GPS unit. Navicore has since been acquired by Wayfarer. The N810 ships with a free version of the Wayfarer software that will only display the user's current position and surrounding points of interest, but will not provide route directions or any other navigation features. In order to get the fully functional Wayfarer software, users will have to pay for the $130 software upgrade which will supposedly be available later this month. N800 users who have purchased the navigation kit will supposedly be able to use their current Navicore software license and will not have to pay to get the upgrade. Since the full version of the Wayfarer software isn't available yet, this review reflects my experience with the free version.

The GPS receiver in the N810 seems to work relatively well. It took a long time to acquire satellite connections the first time that I used it, but since then, it can generally get a full signal in about 40 or 50 seconds. It performs better in a car or outside than it does indoors. Additionally, placing your finger or any other obstruction over the top-left corner of the device will impede GPS connectivity. When you first open the mapping software, a GPS icon that looks like a satellite will appear in the notification area. When it is attempting to acquire a GPS connection, the satellite icon will have a dotted yellow line beneath it. When it manages to get a working connection, the icon will display a series of green lines instead of the dotted yellow line.

Mapping

The maps are included in the N810's storage space and use three-quarters of the available 2GB. The program includes support for displaying points of interest, which include restaurants, Wi-Fi hotspots, hotels, and other items of relevance. It is possible to configure which of these things is shown on the map at any given time. The program is also capable of providing a list of points of interest within any given category that are near the current location. This feature is somewhat useful if you want to, for instance, find out about nearby restaurants.

Final Words

Like the N800, the N810 delivers one of the best experiences in mobile web browsing on the market. The new browser that ships with OS2008 is truly outstanding, and most of the rest of OS2008 is pretty darn impressive too. For Linux enthusiasts as well as regular users, Nokia's Maemo-based software platform offers power, flexibility, and ease of use. Unfortunately, the lack of PIM software is still a deal-breaker for enterprise-minded users. Although the N810 succeeds quite robustly as a Linux UMPC, it fails abysmally as a PDA, and it seems as though Nokia has little interest in resolving that deficiency. Nokia's primary focus with the N810 seems to be on the web browsing experience. Fortunately, the open nature of the software platform and the quality of the underlying development toolkit components makes it possible for third-party developers to fill in the gaps. Opened Hand, Collabora, and the tiny mail developers are equipped to bring a lot of extra value to the platform and round out the software selection with some compelling extras. I'd really like to see Opened Hand’s Pimlico suite make the N810 into a PDA powerhouse.

Although I'm relatively pleased with the software, I'm still not entirely sold on some of the hardware choices behind the N810. The value of built-in GPS support seems particularly questionable, especially when you add in the cost of the Wayfarer software upgrade, which is required to actually use the GPS. One could probably buy an N800 and an external GPS unit with more features for less than the total cost of the N810 and the Wayfarer software. The vast majority of users who want GPS functionality will only use it in a vehicle anyway, so is there really a compelling reason to integrate it into a handheld computer? I'm not particularly happy with the move from SD to mini SD. Standard high-capacity SD cards are relatively cheap, and I already use them in many of my other mobile devices. My digital camera, Dell laptop, and Asus Eee PC, for instance, all support SD cards. Being able to store all of my relevant data on a single 8GB SD card and move it between my various devices was very convenient, so I'm disappointed that the N810 won't support it. Additionally, not being able to replace the secondary internal storage card in the N810 with one of a higher capacity (like you can with the N800) is a bit frustrating.

 I think keyboard is decent, but still not great. I'm not sure if it's even possible for a thumb keyboard to be great. I like the N810's hardware keyboard better than the onscreen keyboard of the N800 or the iPhone, but there is still room for improvement. The sliding mechanism for the keyboard panel feels a bit loose sometimes, but in general, I think it's fairly well designed. This may not even be possible given the size constraints, but ideally, I'd like to see Nokia stick with the same basic layout and design for the keyboard but with round buttons that have a bit of space between them. I think that the N810 finally achieves the ideal form factor for Nokia's Internet Tablet lineup. The size and shape are pretty much exactly what anyone wants from a mobile computing device. The N800 was too cumbersome and bulky to fit in my pocket, but the N810 fits their comfortably.

There are many options now for consumers who are looking for mobile Internet devices. The most visible competitor for Nokia's Internet tablet devices is probably Apple's iPod Touch. Apple and Nokia both offer a great Internet experience with different strengths and weaknesses, but Apple's walled garden limits the potential for outside innovation on its platform; we'll see what happens once the SDK for the iPod touch and iPhone are released and official third-party apps begin arriving. The N810 offers a truly open stack software stack that benefits from collaborative development and a large number of community contributors. The scaling and page zoom features in the N810's Gecko-based browser aren't as well implemented as the equivalent features in Safari on the iPod Touch, but the N810's browser offers advantages like full support for Flash and better support for AJAX-heavy web sites. In some respects, the N810 will also compete with the N800. As I stated at the start of the review, the price difference and different feature sets differentiate the two devices and imbue them each with independent value. Consumers who are primarily interested in mobile web browsing or multimedia will probably be perfectly satisfied with the N800. Consumers who are interested in text chat or e-mail in addition to web and media will probably prefer the N810.

What I Like

1) Support for mainstream commercial software like Skype and Rhapsody

2) Interface improvements bring increased usability to the operating system

3) The open software platform facilitates a rich third-party software ecosystem

4) A terminal application and access to a real command line

5) Robust support for Python scripting, which enables programming on the device itself

6) The excellent screen has respectable resolution for a handheld device

7) Adequate audio and video playback capabilities

8) A smaller form factor that makes the device pocket-friendly

9) The hardware thumb keyboard beats the old onscreen keyboard

10) Outstanding web browsing experience with good support for AJAX and Flash 9

What I Don’t Like

1) Doesn't ship with a complete PIM suite or any calendaring software

2) Built-in instant messaging client only supports Jabber

3) The mail program that ships with the device still has performance problems

4) Secondary internal memory is not upgradeable like it was on the N800

5) External memory card uses Mini SD rather than standard SD

6) The thumb keyboard is a bit mushy and leads to lots of typing errors

7) Skype still doesn't support video chat on the N810

8) The browser's zoom feature is somewhat weak

The Bad

Having to pay $130 to get basic navigation support for the built-in GPS

Specifications

General	2G Network	N/A
	Announced	2007, October
	Status	Available. Released 2008, Q1

Body	Dimensions	128 x 72 x 14 mm
	Weight	225 g
	Keyboard	QWERTY

Display	Type	TFT resistive touchscreen, 56K colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 4.13 inches (226 ppi pixel density)

Sound	Alert types	MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes, with stereo speakers
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	miniSD, up to 8GB
	Internal	128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, 2 GB storage

Data	GPRS	No
	EDGE	No
	Speed	No
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0, EDR
	USB	Yes, v2.0, USB On-the-go support

Camera	Primary	VGA, 640x480 pixels
	Features	Video-calling
	Video	Yes, 352x288
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Internet Tablet OS 2008 edition
	Chipset	TI OMAP 2420
	CPU	400 MHz
	Messaging	Email, IM, RSS
	Browser	HTML, Adobe Flash
	Radio	No
	GPS	Yes
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
	Colors	Silver, Black
		- MP3/AAC/WAV/WMA player - MP4/H.264/H.263 player - Organizer - Document viewer

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh (BP-4L)
	Standby-	Up to 336 h
	Talk time	Up to 4 h

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