Or, as Tex suggested, maybe an intentional leak. To keep everyone from blowing their 2009 handheld-device budget on a Pre, Android, or next model iPhone.


As to my thoughts about the specs:

Size: Screen size change doesn't really bother me, since they kept the resolution -- I just wish they'd kept it 4" with the new pixel density for 960x540ish. Overall, no point shrinking it, and there's things they could have done with that extra space.
On the plus side, it seems they made it thicker instead of sacrificing features to shrink the face -- they "only" compromised the screen and input.

No D-pad at all?!?!?! I thought the N810 was a step down. Will someone have to write an X input driver to use the accelerometer as a D-pad, or is there some nuance not shown here? Maybe one of the mystery circles is a pointing/scrolling device...

T-mobile 3G, and T-mobile launch: While I'd have bet on this before, I didn't really believe it. Very good news

GSM voice: Main thing is that it does have the GSM bands for GPRS/EDGE, so it's not HSPA only. For voice proper, I don't really mind, but I won't likely use it much. I guess it does mean 911 calls, which is theoretically useful.

Rendering: 2 keys less than the N810 keyboard are shown. We've got left and right shift, but that still means one key is gone. If I had to remove one key, I'd vote Enter (you can use the d-pad select, right?), but since they changed other stuff I wouldn't have, I'm guessing it's a modifier or punctuation. (After all, the iPhone runs UNIX, and gets along fine with no Ctrl key, why can't we! )

This does mean no D-pad, menu key, home, or escape are visible. Also no power, lock, fullscreen, zoom in/out, but we wouldn't see those from this angle; here's hoping some of the others are similarly concealed around corners, or not bothered drawing...


Overall impression vs. N810: It actually came out pretty decent -- the storage, processing, and graphics advances seem to make up for the few, but major, steps backward (screen and buttons), and (for me) the networkiness should be a nice improvement. The camera will be pretty cool too, I guess. With all the "if you like 770->N800->N810 trajectory" comments, I guess it's about what I was expecting. I'm so addicted I'll probably buy it shortly after launch anyway, but I'll be real happy if there turns out to be another model about N800 size with a five-row slideout, even for 30% more.

(Honestly, it says a lot about the N800, released over two years ago, that even though this new device is definitely in the top tier of new hardware, we're still seeing it as being a step downward in many ways. I just wish they could come out with something that's as awesome today as the N800 was back then, instead of just staying in the top tier.)