It's a shame the cover isn't available to this end, but without it, my vote is to change the "hold down the power button for 2 seconds" behavior from "power down" to "lock the keys and screen", and they should fix that locking so that it doesn't require the timeout.

I'd also like to be able to awaken it from sleep by just holding down the power button for 2 seconds, since that's not likely to happen accidentally in my pocket. Nobody switches the device on and off regularly (or, at least, they shouldn't, if the damn sleep would work!), so that "shortcut" action should be devoted to switching the device to and from sleep.

Actually, my true preference would be to make the "tap the power button" behavior do the sleep/awaken, and the "hold the power button" bring up the power menu. I don't think I've ever actually used that power menu. But somehow I don't see this preference being implemented, since it might be deemed less intuitive.

My opinions would probably be more meaningful if I actually had an n800, though. Real n800 users may have different opinions. That cover on the n770 is so convenient once you get used to it!