Thanks for the replies.

The N800 is completely and utterly dead. I've already scoured the forum and tried every solution and every permutation of battery removal, button pressing duration and frequency that I could find. Nothing lights up even when I plug in the charger.

I wasn't asking for any help getting it to start up, as I'm convinced from reading other posts that it is some kind of hardware failure.

I'm interested in the general experience with rates of failure. I can find plenty of people who have bricked tablets, but in most forums, people rarely post about how well things are working.