I think the issue has a lot to do with unrealistic expectation for a mobile device. There's a fine balance between battery life, size, and performance. Better performance gets you crappier battery life and more size, better battery life gets you less performance and more size, and more size gets you better performance and better battery life.

As far as the NITs are concerned, they are about the best balance of size, battery life, and performance available. Pocketable, good battery life, with acceptable performance. Sure, an Eee or a PepperPad would get you better performance, but they certainly aren't pocketable and the PepperPad doesn't have nearly the battery life of the NITs.

With this in mind, you'll realize how impressive a device the N810 really is. But, if you can't handle the compromises, then you should probably wait for the N900 which is guaranteed to be much, much faster.