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Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
Price: £279 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 10/11/2007
Featured in magazine:
Issue 155
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Nokia
Tel: 0845 045 5555
Web Address: www.nokia.co.uk

Watch our video review of Nokia's N800 Internet Tablet.

There have been countless attempts to bring the internet to your pocket via a device that lets you browse the web wherever you are. Some are more successful than others – RIM's Blackberry, for example, has proved itself the king of corporate email. But most devices stall because there's some element of the service that doesn't live up to expectations or their power is dissipated by the breadth of their functions, for example, it also needing to work as a serviceable mobile phone.

This Internet Tablet from Nokia is a bit different. It's basically a handheld computer in its own right, that can connect to the internet via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. You can use it to browse the web, send email, instant message or do practically any other internet activity that you would normally carry out sitting at your PC.

Features
The thing that stands out most about this device is what it doesn't have – its own connection to the net. Instead, it's designed to use your nearest wireless internet connection, whether that's Wi-Fi at home or in a hotspot, or a Bluetooth connection to your mobile phone. Without a network to connect to, you can still use the device for offline functions such as browsing photos, viewing movies, listening to music, playing games or writing notes.

Once connected to the net, however, the device really takes off. It comes with a superior Opera browser, which aims to replicate the kind of web experience you get on a desktop computer. The screen is a generous size and lovely to look at, but to get that desktop-style experience, web pages are shrunk and text is quite small by default. However, you can zoom in if you wish. There's also a built-in webcam that pops out of the side (so that you can conduct video messaging) and there's software for using email, reading RSS feeds and instant messaging through Google. Third-party applications, including Skype, are under negotiation.

Performance
The kind of performance you're going to get out of this is entirely dependent on your network: on a Wi-Fi connection there was nothing stopping us from blazing through websites. It stumbled over a few – Bloglines' admittedly old-fashioned use of frames got in the way, for example, and Google Docs failed to load. But on the whole it did an impressive job of rendering even some sites we expected to be tough. Perhaps the best news is that Nokia and Opera are planning to continue to work on the device and its browser, so support for new technologies should appear over time. Integration between web, email, messaging and RSS feeds is handled very well, and we found the user interface very easy to get to grips with.

Ease of use
There are some strokes of brilliance in the design of the interface. The main menu has three options – web, communications or anything else. Tap one of these with the stylus and you get a pop-out list of icons with more options, but use your finger to select it and the icons are bigger. The same thing happens when you need to type in text – depending on whether you initiate it with a finger or the stylus, you get an appropriately sized keyboard. Perhaps it's because the operating system (based on Linux, and as such wide open to third-party developers) has been created from the ground up with this specific device in mind. Whatever the reason, it's an absolute dream to use.

Value for money
And here comes the crunch. At £279 this isn't particularly cheap and its lack of other functions (like serious PDA or mobile phone) means you'll be shelling out extra for the other devices you need. It's unique though, and is by far and away the best pocketable web device we've played with to date. Whether that makes it worth the price probably depends on how much you want the web in your pocket.

More Internet Devices reviews:

• Orange LiveRadio
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• Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
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