The other thing that has changed, and that people are probably overlooking, is that the US Dollar has weakened considerably since the first two tablets were released. Prices for lots of imported things are going up. (It is speculated that this is one of the reasons why the $199 price tag for the soon-to-be-released Asus eee PC has risen to $299 and $399.)

Certainly the slideout keyboard and GPS also add substantial cost to the manufacturing unit cost, but that probably only contributes partially to the price differential between original launch prices for 770, N800, and the new N810.

The benefit I'd think is that you'd see the complete screen. Your fingers/thumbs would not block your view. Second, I still miss the visible mousepointer that having the "mousepad" (and the virtual mousebuttons) would make possible.

The downside is that you would always need to open the slide to operate the device.

You know, I really love the idea of the N810 as a compliment to my Treo, almost like a Foleo replacement since that was canned. As such, the built-in GPS and slide-out keyboard really appeal to me.

However, I'm not entirely sure I can justify double the price just for GPS and a keyboard, so its a tough decision. Does anyone have any thoughts on what the actual street price might be? (Also, I really wish it used full-sized SDHC cards like the N800, because I've got a spare 8GB one lying around that I can't use in my Treo anymore because the newest one has mini-SD instead, so I'm really not sure which way I'll decide yet.)