WSJ Article on N800
 

Hey folks:

Article from Walter Mossberg. Nothing new we haven't heard before, but it's too bad that he casts his review with an overall negative tone.

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

Nokia's Marriage
To Small Computers
Still Has Its Problems
February 22, 2007; Page B1
If Apple can make a cellphone, can Nokia make a computer? Yes, sort of.

The convergence of the computer and consumer-electronics businesses, including the mobile-phone business, is accelerating. Apple dropped the word "computer" from its corporate name last month and announced its new iPhone big-screen cellphone, to ship in June. Hewlett-Packard quietly announced its first real mobile phone last week. Smart-phone makers Palm and Research In Motion are really hybrids of cellphone and computer companies.

Meanwhile, traditional mobile-phone makers like Motorola, Nokia and Samsung have all turned out smart phones, which are, in effect, little computers, with the ability to handle email, multimedia, Web browsing and more.

Nokia, long the leading mobile-phone company, has been pursuing an even more radical project -- a hand-held computer that isn't a cellphone at all. It has just brought out the latest version of this product, the $399 N800 Internet Tablet, and I've been testing it. The N800 is part of a long-term strategy by Nokia to evolve into a company that's more a maker of small multimedia devices with connectivity, rather than primarily a maker of phones.


Walt reviews Nokia's new N800 Internet Tablet, a wireless device that surfs the Web but isn't a cellphone.
The N800 is an overhauled version of the 770 I reviewed last year. That model, priced at $360, was so underpowered as to be almost useless. The new one is speedier, more powerful, thinner and lighter, albeit a bit longer. Like the 770, the N800 is designed to connect to the Internet via a Wi-Fi wireless network, though it can use a cellphone as a modem. Like the 770, it uses a touch screen and virtual keyboard.

The new model has some nice features the 770 lacked, like a pop-out video camera, and the ability to make voice calls over the Internet. It can take two standard memory cards, rather than the one oddball card the 770 accepted. Like the 770, it does a far better job of browsing the Web than any smart phone on the market today.

The screen, like the 770's, is huge -- 4.2 inches diagonally -- and with a stunning resolution of 800 x 480, significantly larger and sharper than the much-touted iPhone screen.

But, like the 770, the new N800 is a good example of how hard it is for a company that grew up in one business to migrate successfully to another. I can't imagine many people carrying around this device. For one thing, the N800 is a tweener -- smaller than a laptop, but too big for a pocket. It's 5.7 inches long, 2.95 inches wide and 0.5 inch thick. It weighs 7.27 ounces. The iPhone is smaller and lighter.

More importantly, the N800's software seems unpolished and unfinished. There's no calendar application, no method for synchronizing data from a PC, no software for using the camera to record videos or snap still pictures, though Nokia says that's coming. And there's no simple way to use the camera for video conferencing with a PC, unless you get somebody else to download a special Nokia program. The company hopes to solve this later with a Skype program for the device. You can make a video call to another N800.


The N800 Internet Tablet, $399, has a touch screen.
Nokia is hoping that open-source developers will help polish the N800's software and add functions. This is an idealistic goal, and has won the hearts of some techies. But mainstream consumers expect complete functions on the device, out of the box. Third-party software is a great thing, but it isn't a substitute for strong software from the manufacturer.

Still, the N800 does some things well. Web browsing is a pleasure, because pages render much like they do on a real PC, and you can see a much larger portion of each page than you can on a typical phone, even a Windows Mobile or Palm model. Handy buttons on the top of the Nokia make this even better, by zooming in or out on the Web page, or instantly hiding the navigation controls so the page can claim the whole screen.

Instant messaging also worked well, although the only prominent service bundled with the N800 is Google Talk. I also successfully made and received Internet voice calls via Google Talk. These were clear and easy, though they don't fully compensate for the lack of a built-in cellphone. An RSS feed reader, which sucked in headlines from various Web sites, was also good, as was the photo-viewing program.

The email program is fair, if pretty bare-bones and sometimes slow. BlackBerry addicts are unlikely to accept the onscreen keyboard in place of a real one. Some attachments, such as pictures or PDF files, open easily, but Word documents never even showed up in my tests.

We won't know until June whether Apple has been able to successfully invade Nokia's turf and make a decent cellphone. But so far, Nokia is struggling to go the other way.

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com. See video versions of my reviews at wsj.com/mossbergvideo.

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

I read that earlier. He has valid points, as have many complainants, but I agree: the overall negative tone isn't justified at all.

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

Feb 22
Hello fellow ITT Folks
here is an excerpt of an email I just sent to Mr. Mossberg
maybe some of you can email him your thoughts too?
mossberg@wsj.com

regards
stephen
drjazz1947@yahoo.com


to WALT -->You are right this is not a "out of the box" device for your typical MAC (non techie) user.However if you know a bit of Linux, the N800 can be a
very powerful handheld computer which blows away my Palm Tungsten E2 .

There are many existing free Linux applications which can
be ported over to the n800 and here are some excellent ported Linux
programs for N800 which cover some of the shortcomings you mentioned.
sylpheed - very good email client
abiword- very good word processor
GPE Suite- Calendar, ToDO, Contacts (imports vcf files of contacts from
Outlook)

www.internettablettalk.com is a very good forum for N800 users

BTW from my research the Iphone will NOT be an open platform and and I
doubt there will be an open source community developing Free apps for it,
it will be running a stripped down OSX. So I doubt if Iphone & N800 will
be competitors.

None of the small portable devices available today are ideal. "In the land
of the blind, the one eyed man is king!"

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

I intend to provide similar feedback. I believe his article should have come with informed caveats. As it is Mr. Mossberg appears ill-informed and kneejerks to conclusions IMO.

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

It unfortunate that reviews are typically written early, when something like the N800 only gets much better as time passes. Still, I can see how a reviewer unconsciously compares this to a Nokia phone or even to a calculator. I've never had to reflash my phone. I think the typical consumer probably shouldn't buy a N800 -- yet. Still, I love mine and frequently sleep with it.

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

I think he has some valid points. There is one point I think he is dead on; Is there enough "techies" out there buying N800s to keep it alive or will it become no more than a "testbed" for Nokia? I feel we well need mainstream consumers to give N800 a fighting chance. That means more out of the box functions, the kind one do not have to search for or go to a forum to learn how to install etc! Fun for us but DOA for the common man!

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

I do agree with that particular point, but again, I think he's leaning way too negative too soon. Reviews like his can in fact become a self-fulfilling prophecy; I'd prefer reviewers be more objective and less cynical.

I also don't think the N800 is quite ready for the mainstream and I'm betting Nokia brass is well aware of this too. The 770 was the "market prototype", the N800 the semipolished enthusiast device, and I have little doubt the Nxxx will come consumer-ready out of the box. And before anyone toss back protests, yes, I'm well aware of the valid points and counterarguments (and they've all been made here ad nauseum). ;)

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

OK, that makes sense.

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

I think his review is accurate. For his main audience, executives and non-technical managers, the device is unpolished ... more of a beta than a ready-to-use business tool. Mossberg points out the strengths - the browser and the great display, goes fairly easy on what most of us would agree is an inadequate mail app, and points out what's missing that his audience would expect.

In my own use, I agree with his conclusions. The N800 is a bold device from Nokia and, unlike closed-source devices, will get better as we improve it, but for most business users, it is not ready for general use outside of web browsing.

(posted from an N800)

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

It's Mac, not MAC (that what your ethernet card identifies itself with). I'd disagree with your assessment of Mac users as the non-techie sort (of course this is anecdotal) 90% of my friends use Apple machine, all of them are competent with computers, and many of them are quite technical. I'd say that there are far more incompetent (both as a percentage and in numbers) Windows users than there are Mac users.

Also: it might be worthwhile to not to use initialisms when writing an e-mail to rebuff a WSJ review. And it's the iPhone, not the Iphone, nor is it I-phone, iphone, i phone, or IPHONE :).

Re: WSJ Article on N800
 

Gotta agree with Antilles. I also think it's foolish to dismiss the enthusiast/techie market as too small or of little value, as some tend to do (very ironic when it happens in this forum... lol). I think this segment is misunderstood and underestimated.

This device is by no means perfect, nor does it even fulfill enough of its promise yet IMO, but I still maintain reviews such as Mossberg's are far too negative than the overall situation warrants. If he applies such cynicism to the next iteration, however, I will likely be in complete agreement.