Okay so I finally give up. I've spent the better part of today researching the N810 and similar devices and the N810 seems like the best one at its price point. However, there are some nagging questions that I can't seem to find solid answers for, even after reading/watching countless reviews and lurking on this message board. So please help me with some questions that will allow me to properly decide if the N810 is for me.

JKK's video review was the most thorough, but it was also the one that made me really question the capabilities of the device. I know it's no powerhouse, but its main function is to surf the internet and in his review browsing regular blogs like engadget.com was absolutely terribly slow. I'm really hoping that since his review was a bit dated, the OS or browser have been optimized to change this a little. Can you really not scroll at all until the page is completely loaded? I saw videos of people running NITdroid on the device as well, where browsing was equally slow. Same deal with Fennec. Would a possible workaround to this limitation be to load links in a new tab, so that you can continue reading the main page while the second link loads? Is this possible?

Regarding the webcam, are there any conferencing programs that allow for use of video while in a call? I mean, isn't that the whole point of a front facing camera? Various comments on other websites have mentioned that Skype does not allow this, though they might have been dated. What else would it be used for, snapping photos of your face?

Finally, is there an integrated microphone?

Thanks in advance for reading my post and answering any questions. I am going away for a few months and will be traveling very light, so my netbook is out of the picture. I guess I have to decide if an underpowered tablet is better than nothing at all.

I apologize if my questions sound annoyed. After reading about so many different devices, it's frustrating to see each device having a particularly fatal blow in different areas of function. If only 1 device could get it all right!

I can only answer one question easily: Yes, there is an integrated microphone.

To answer another question - there have been no Skype updates, so no video there (nor file transfer). Video conferencing is possible, though, through other software (like Gizmo).

As for engadget, it can be beaten into submission if you use flash/adblockers. Note that even *without* flash, it's a monster - the front page is well over 1 megabyte in size. After it loads, however, it's quite browseable with Tear (the zippy webkit alternative to the factory browser).

I had the same questions as you and when I first bought the N810 the first thing I did was to go to Engadget... it is slow, but its ok. I can scroll while loading but I always prefer to wait.
What I ended up doing is to use the RSS reeder. Engadget sends the full story (like it appears in the first page) as well as pictures. It makes for a much faster browsing.
For video conferencing I use a Gizmo account. It works quite well but you have to ask people to install other software then Skype. Its not a big deal for me, as I only want to use the image with a couple of people.
You can use your tablet as a "hands free" device. It has speakers and microphone.
I travel quite a lot and I can say that using the N810 is really nice. It won't load very fast, and more than 2-3 things at once is combursome due to the small screen/keyboard. But it is very usefull! I can chat without much problem with 2 persons, browse the net, check my email, while listening to music (web radio). The battery is also ok, but I found that I have to turn on the offline mode for the battery not to drain too fast.
I also carry my netbook with me for "real" work. But I use the N810 much more.
Hope this helps!

With websites, usually the Home Page very slow to load, but you can get around this by using the mobile version of the website. You can get to the mobile version by replacing the "www." domain prefix with "m." So for "www.engadget.com" I use "m.engadget" instead. This gives me an overview of all the Engadget.com rticle and when I click the article link, it takes my directly to the article bypasing the bulky Engadget Home Page.

Thanks for your replies. I think it has nudged me in the direction of purchasing. Would anyone be interested in posting a quick demo video of the device rendering some common websites using Tear?

Now to see if the N900 comes out anytime soon.. hehe.

I didn't make a video, but I timed loading engadget.com. I've never before been on the site on tear, so it wasn't cached. I could start scrolling after 9 seconds; it was fully loaded after 20.

NYTimes front page (not mobile, just nytimes.com) took 10 seconds before I could scroll, 30 seconds before it was 100% loaded. I clicked on a lead article, and it took 15 seconds until that page was loaded. All these pages had a number of photos. Google News was 3 seconds until I could scroll, 9 seconds until it was fully loaded. (For NYTimes and Google News I closed and reopened the browser, which I think clears the cache.)

Endgadget is no problem at all, I just tried it, normal site, not mobile.

The trick for fast browsing is: switch off flash and switch off javascript.

When I travel, I bring a small BT keyboard, another 200g or so, Then I have almost a perfect laptop experience!

engadget.com with flash and java off: 5 seconds until scrolling, 11 seconds until fully loaded. NYTimes, 8 seconds and 13 seconds.

If you're just going to be web browsing, I'd grab a SmartQ.