Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I emailed my friend the url for this post. Lots of info to mull over - mind you he doesn't pick up he email very often, but when he does I'll report back his thoughts. Maybe he'll join ITT since the group is so helpful and go with a n800 - we'll see.

Just looking at the suggestions it seems the N8X0 and a cell makes sense though - we'll see!

Cheers

C