N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I will really have to wait and see how this thing shakes out. But I just purchased my N800 and its just as ugly in person. I loved my 770 and I can see this will take some time to grow on me.

HATE!!!!
I hate the fact that they covered up the USB port, if you want to use USB devices, I think that whole stand will need to come off. Hopefully someone will offer an aftermarket case soon (hopefully with a whole for USB after stand is removed)

Speaking of the stand, what a flimsy piece of garbage that is.

The fact that I will now have to wait for new software again, hopefully Nokia's garbage has not scared to many developers off. Gnuite's rant is looking quite upset, and that is the single best app that has been created for maemo to date. (if you disagree, I dont care its my opinion)

LOVE!!! (LIKE, LOVE WILL TAKE SOME TIME)
For starters web cam. Secondly the DS and MMC slots offer lots of compatability and storage space. CPU and Memory are upgraded. I played both a youtube video and a google video, seems a bit choppy to me, but it does play.


First impressions:
I would sacrifice the camera functionality in a heartbeat, for OS compatability and the 770 form factor.


N800 - The face only a mother could love!!!

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I love:

-the overall design. I think it's fine art. Significant improvement.
-the stand. It's actually very sturdy, well-designed, and does NOT have to come off to access the USB port (:p penguinbait).
-the new battery cover.
-the increased memory capacity and SD card format
-dual speakers.
-metal faceplate.

I hate:

-the buttons. Ack.
-volume doesn't quite get high enough without additional amplified speakers.
-no slide-out keyboard.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Just to be fair/clear ;) , the stand does not have to come off to use USB. It just has to be open, which means if its in your pocket and you want to have it wired to other USB devices, you will either have to have the stand open or remove it.

I really can't believe you think the stand is sturdy, dont get me wrong, its sturdy enough to hold up the n800 or 770, but anything that bends and bows with a little pressure applied is not sturdy.

Textrat:

Did you use your 770 without a cover? Maybe thats why some people like it and some, not so enthused. I used mine always with the cover and I liked the solid feeling it had.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I hate the crappy sunglass sleeve that it comes with. Should have had at least a pouch with a drawstring like the 770.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Good point about the USB port; I'm sure the current solution was a compromise.

The stand is extremely sturdy for what it needs to do, and as one who was a product designer for years, has had his hands on hundreds of these, and has used one for months, I feel I'm in a good position to attest to it. ;) The feel as it clicks into position is very reassuring... to me anyway. I don't sweat the flexibility along its length; when used as directed, that's a nonfactor IMO.

I use my 770 with and without the cover. I bought a little carry case for it that it lives in. I actually don't like the old slip cover and much prefer to find my own solutions for that issue. The $6 case I picked up at compusa.com for the N800 is perfect for me.

agreed.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I just picked mine up from the Nokia store here in Manhattan.

My first impression is very good.

The original was a good unit, this improves upon it.

Show the love, guys. That Nokia is this committed (so far) to this platform is good for our community.

Bill

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

The fact that it has the VKB laser keyboard driver (or at least the Bluetooth driver) already bundled in the base build is great. Works fine.

Bill

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I updated a few of the apps on the Maemo ad-hoc testing wiki:
http://maemo.org/maemowiki/OS2007_Tested_Applications

My experiences posted here as they develop:
http://wwward.typepad.com/blog/

New stuff loved:
Battery runtime estimate, click the battery status icon.. W00p!
Network connect shows signal strength when status icon clicked.

Stuff hated so far:
External SD card port does not offer "push-to-eject." Use care when inserting a mini-SD card in an adapter, else you'll have to work a bit to fish out the adapter tray after you pull the mini card from it.

Fullscreen and +/- buttons along the top could be a bit larger and further apart.

Bill

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I have written up a fairly lengthy list of my likes/dislikes here:

http://deliverator.silverfir.net/?p=406

The biggest dislike is of course the atrocious button design which everyone seems to be commenting upon.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Rocketman,

You mention Sylpheed (thanks!), does it run on the N800? I've not got one, so can't test.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Yes, it runs. I have been using it on my N800 for a few days now with no real troubles. You should try to get in on Nokia $100 developer program. They are selling 500 N800's to developers for the discount price of $100 to try to foster more development. It is a don't call us, we will call you type of thing, but it wouldn't hurt to call attention to the fact that you are working to fix one of the N770 (and now N800's) weakeast aspects, its godawful email program.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

yes - the overall metal design is slick, and the placing of the screen in the centre instead of slightly to the right makes for a more appealling overall look.

no - the back/battery cover has a little "play" in it, ie doesn't click tight shut and therefore feels a little "cheap"

yes - the whole experience is faster and more responsive. myspace plays, youtube nearly works, optimized view seems to have ben fixed to work like it did in the first place ;)

no - the BBC website still only plays lo-res versions of vid playback!!!

yes - stereo speakers, decent volume

no - not *quite* enough volume.

yes - screen quality does seem better

no - those little buttons at the top!!

yes - the extra card slot

no - external slot a little difficult to remove card

biggest NO - the dumping of the reversibile cover!!! it really does make the thing feel like an "indoor" unit rather than the 770 "chuck in pocket/bag/whatever" take with you anywhere and not worry about it experience. The supplied "sunglasses case" will probably go in the bin, looks more likely to scratch the screen that nothing at all - and I HATE the idea of buying a separate case for a mobile device - what, become one of those sad guys with a little case on their belts for their mobile phone? Make an ipod twice the size with some stupid box thing?

The 770 case was a brilliant idea, can't understand why it's dropped - obviously it's due to the new intergrated stand, but, as with 770, if you wanted you could have left it off around the house and just used it for "travelling".

That one thing is my big drawback having played with the 800 all morning. I'm just concerned it'll stay at home and the old warhorse will be on the plane with me next time...

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

The one thing i absolutely LOVE, and had actually been trying to get working under OS 2006 was that the home key now pops up the task switcher when simply pressed and immediately released, and you have to hold it to actually jump to the home screen and "minimize" the open apps. I thought this should have been the default behavior all along, as I need to switch between apps WAY more than I need to jump to the "desktop".

I actually like the topmost buttons, I think a lot of issues people are having are simply due to muscle memory, and being really used to using the 770. Most of us probably use it several hours daily, so you kind of get used to the way things feel. I find myself missing the letter I mean to type on the keyboard by one because that is about how much shorter the stylus is. Overall though, I am very satisfied with the new device.

ps- I can confirm that the Edison NJ store has them in stock, 6 left now. Although the slovenly worker who helped me first brought out an N80, then an 8801, and finally his manager helped him locate the N800. Twice he told me they didn't have it!! Probably pretty confusing naming convention when people only associate Nokia with Phone. Explaining what it is to the unitiated usually just ends in blank stares.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Does anyone here actually dislike the new battery cover? It looks really nice, but is not really secured - it can move about 1-2mm when in place. The first time I held the N800 in my left hand it's very noticeable.

The device looks much nicer IRL -- the pics don't do it justice. The webcam is nice, though I've not been able to register with the Internet call server yet.

Still going to use my Nokia 770 for now as Xournal does not work on N800 yet.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Yeah, I am also concerned about the lack of a hard cover. For now I have put a stiff piece of cardboard into the sleeve, and I will be looking for a stiff piece of plastic to serve the same function.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I was thinking, I have an extra battery from my 770 that went for repair and never returned. I would like to see that back battery cover replaced with an option for two batterys. You should be able to do it without being any thicker than the think part of the n800 (where the camera and stylus are) I could live with that.

I would also like to see someone produce some high quality replacment stand, with a hole for the usb. Maybe titanium or something, there has got to be a way.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

+ CPU, breezier
= Lack of Open Software, broken, possibly due to change in CPU/hardware design, hopefully will be be back shortly. But they did made up some in newer better apps.
+ Dual SD slot
--(double minus) The lid, it's design to be portable, lid=no case=two thumbs up, drop the stand
+ BT 2.0

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I think I'm with most everyone else. The CPU, extra memory and the two slots make this worth the upgrade. The browsing is snappier, I can run several apps at the same time and haven't had to enable swap yet. All in all just more robust.

But yes, I'm disappointed by some of the apps having the same problems still. The e-mail client is still dismal. IMAP support just isn't. I guess its fine if you just want pop mail, but for anyone who gets their mail from several devices as once there's really no other option than IMAP, imho. And the fact that the email client still sometimes doesn't even start, it just spins some and thats it.

And the fact that they offer this internet call, and its been broken so far for the past few days and won't register. And that there's no apps either. But that part is understandable. I was hoping, SO hoping for a working SIP client. But instead there's proprietary Project Gizmo. If I hear one more person call it VoIP I'm going to scream. Google talk might mean VoIP to media type's and PR, but unless there's a working SIP client on board, then its broken to the rest of us who are really working, installing and using VoIP (see asterisk)

Ok...thats my little rant to add to all of this.....

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Well, I bought one tonight on a bit of a whim, and while I've yet to install any software, my first impressions are:

Love

- Two SD slots - one for apps, one for media. Finally!
- The stand. I think it's cool and seems pretty handy
- Seems more responsive. Faster for sure, but I guess I expected more.
- Setting the time during the initial 'boot' process isn't a waste of time (ever notice how you set the time on the 770, then the 'home' city and have to adjust the time? Or was that just me?).

Most of all - the software upgrade the 770 needs so badly. I've had the 770 crash with every release (and I've loaded them all) within 30 minutes of using it (sometimes during the setup after boot!). And the N800 has been solid so far. Time will tell, but it seems much more stable. And I saw http://www.yahoo.com for the first time in a long time.

Hate

- Buttons on top as mentioned, not that bad but the 770 has a better feel
- I miss the case to suspend, even though I always took it off
- the external SD slot cover seems extra cheezy plastic - I'm afraid it'll break
- That I had to upgrade to the N800 to get the software mentioned above

Did anybody mention the 'hump-back'? (the backside of the case has a 'bump' at the top). I didn't expect that.

Summary

I'll have to admit I was upset that the 770 appears to have been dumped by Nokia. But... I'm going to sell my 770 for nearly $200, so the N800 upgrade will cost me about $200 out of pocket. More than I'd like to spend, but I paid almost that for Windows 2000 Pro when it came out. So I think it could be worse.

I'm happy now, but this is what I'd hoped the 770 would have been. Was I asking too much?

Brad.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I'm waiting for video calls to get fixed as wel. But Gizmo is actually a SIP client. I've tried using it to connect to Ekiga with no problem.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I Like everyhting except the Lose of the 770 Cover and I really hate the stylus.

Also jsut thoughts here: but if you made the stylus thinner(like 770's) and took out the camera this thing would be pretty thin.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

The left and right buttons click as with the N770 but the up and certainly the down gives a lot less feedback. The key sounds help but without them the down button gives barely any click under my finger. Is it only mine doing this?

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

But the thicker stylus helps a lot when doing note-taking (e.g. using Xournal). My handwriting is terrible when using Xournal on Nokia 770 -- granted, I can't use it on N800 yet because there are compatibilities issues.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

Well, its been a few more days since I wrote this initial thread, and I think its is really growing on me. I may "may" have been harsh in my first post, nah, I really do not like the way in looks, I just don't like the silver, I think I prefer black. That said, this thing feels real nice in your hand. I always used my case on my 770, so it felt weird at first. One reason that I really did not like the 770 without the case was the bottom where the USB/power/mic/stereo area did not feel right in my hand. I am really looking forward to some sort of aftermarket case, I dropped my 770 twice both times about 4 feet, both times it landed on the bottom corner, the case had lots of scratches on it. It does concern me, but hey I have to buy a new one next year right?

Its just a matter of time before the software projects catch back up, there is work to be done with many apps but many 2006 apps are working just fine.

The USB host mode does not appear to be included or possibly supported. Its possible that the support was left out of the kernel, I am hoping it was not left off the device. I purchased a battery powered USB hub, a female to female USB adapter and a USB cable with a extra USB power cable. It allowed me to run USB devices on my 770. I used it once and sent in my 770 for repair, I never saw it again, nokia paid me $240 for it and I bought a n800 for $399. I guess if it does not work, there should be some cheap 770's out there? 75$ for 770 ANYONE ANYONE?



Overall the experience on the n800 is more appealing, its faster, and feels cleaner, even when your browser crashes!!!

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

I am beginning to rationalise the almost quiet operation of the up/down buttons :rolleyes: and I am sharing with you some bedroom practices too ;)

I like channel hopping when listening to web radios and with the Internet Radio applet I can single click up/down to hop. With the 770's louder pops this used to annoy my wife trying to sleep next to me so the quiet buttons in fact are welcome :)

I'd still be interested if anybody else noticed the difference between the feel of the up/down and right/left buttons.

Re: N800 - What you love - What you hate!!
 

noticed a quick mention of it elsewhere but just fully discovered the joy of the automatically big/small icons when using finger/stylus - the last upgrade of the 770 os made finger and thumb use much much better, but this little trcik of recognising you're doing it and putting bigger icons up is really cool.

after the best part of a week with the 800, i find myself using it far more around the house than I did the 770, and now my only concern is the screen protection/lack of metal cover aspect of taking it out and about with me.